From the K2 base camp in the Pakistani Himalayas, Sajid Ali Sadpara sees the second highest peak in the world which he strives to clean of its waste, in homage to his father, whose final resting place it is.
To climb “the wild mountain”, perched at 8,611 meters above sea level, Sajid dons a warm jumpsuit adorned with a green flag of Pakistan. Thus equipped, he frees from the grip of the ice used oxygen cylinders, canvas tents and ropes abandoned over the decades by mountaineers.
In one week, some 200 kilos of rubbish are picked up by five people on the sides of this rocky outcrop. Then it all descended perilously into one of the most hostile environments on the planet.
It is his way of paying homage to his father, the mountaineering legend Ali Sadpara, who died in 2021 during an expedition with his son Sajid on this mountain whose very difficult ascent, especially in winter, is the culmination of a lifetime for some Himalayans. His body now rests there.
“I do it with my heart,” Sajid told AFP at the K2 base camp, located 5,150 meters above sea level, where it is already difficult to breathe.
“It’s our mountain,” says the 25-year-old, while assessing the magnitude of the task ahead. “We are its guardians.”
This summit on the northern borders of Pakistan owes its name to a surveyor from British India, whose second mountain in the Karakoram range was measured.
Located in a glacial cul-de-sac on the Chinese border, days’ walk from any locality, its ascent is reputedly more complicated and technically more demanding than that of Everest, which is 238 meters higher.
First conquered by Italians in 1954, in winter wind gusts can reach 200 km/h and temperatures drop to -60°C.
After two days of hiking on valley-bottom paths and four days across the Baltoro Glacier – a 40-mile frozen mass constantly storm-swept and littered with crevasses – the first sight of K2 sends shivers down the spine. mountaineers.
Yet “we love it more than life itself because there is no place of such beauty on earth,” said Muhammad Ishaq, director of Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP).
Ali Sadpara was one of the best mountaineers in the world, a discipline that was largely dominated by Westerners. He is a national hero who has conquered eight of the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters on the planet.
“He carried the name of Pakistan high,” said Abbas Sadpara, 48, a seasoned mountaineer unrelated to his famous compatriot, who guided the AFP team to K2.
Two years ago, Sajid was attempting a perilous winter climb of K2 with his father and two strangers when, ill, he was forced to turn back.
The three men continued the ascent before being found dead under the “bottleneck”, a narrow corridor overhung by menacing seracs on the final stretch before the summit.
Sajid retrieved his father’s body and performed Islamic rites at a makeshift grave near Camp 4, the last stop before the ascent. He located this place with GPS coordinates.
He evokes this immense loss in a soft voice, which does not allow itself to be overwhelmed by emotion, in one of the noisy restaurants of Islamabad or in the tourist town of Skardu, where a mural depicts his father father watching expeditions depart. .
But in the nearby village of Choghoghrong, he recounts how his father made him appreciate nature as they worked the land in the shade of the peaks.
“This simple and natural life, we spent it here”, explains Sajid, of modest origin. “It is in this village that I am most connected with nature”.
But the K2 continues to attract because if it is a place where the risk is extreme, the most intrepid climbers are more and more likely to want to climb it.
“We want to be on the mountains just to (feel) mental peace.”
“If we see waste, the feeling is totally different”, analyzes the Pakistani mountaineer.
“K2 is no longer as beautiful as it once was. We have destroyed its beauty with our own hands”, regrets Abbas Sadpara.
Sajid has climbed half of the 8,000m peaks without oxygen and holds no resentment against those who throw their gear down the slopes.
“Cleansing is something you feel personally, from the bottom of your heart.”
Mass tourism also has consequences on the highest peaks in the world, strewn with rubbish, like Everest.
Last season, some 150 climbers summited K2, a record number.
“Waste is a problem on two mountains: K2 and Everest,” says Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila, 37, who successfully climbed the Pakistani summit in July, setting a record, climbing the fastest mountains. 14 summits over 8,000 m on the planet.
“Commercial companies take more material away,” says Yasir Abbas of CKNP, who oversaw a campaign in 2022 that picked up 1.6 tonnes of trash from K2.
“What goes up must come down,” he says.
Abandoned ropes can mislead climbers, abandoned tents force other campers to settle in more exposed places, at the mercy of the elements.
“It’s not my trash or your trash, it’s our trash,” the Norwegian mountaineer told AFP in Islamabad.
Looking at K2, Sajid Ali Sadpara prefers to consider that “from afar, we do not see the waste”. “For me, K2 is more than a mountain”.
10/08/2023 12:57:14 – K2 Basecamp (Pakistan) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
