Having had both his legs amputated while serving in Afghanistan in 2010, the 43-year-old Nepalese plans to climb Everest next month.
A Nepalese, a former Gurkha soldier with both legs amputated in Afghanistan, wants to realize his “childhood dream” by reaching the summit of Everest: “no legs, no limits” is his motto.
Hari Budha Magar, 43, was amputated above the knees after jumping on an improvised explosive device while serving in Afghanistan in 2010 with the Gurkha Brigade, a unit of Nepalese soldiers in the British army.
After years of rehabilitation and training, he plans to climb Everest next month, a project he presents on his website with the slogan “no legs, no limits”.
Experiments
Once the shock of the handicap passed, “my objective was to see what I could do physically”, he explains to AFP before leaving for the base camp of Everest.
He experimented with skydiving, kayaking and skiing. “It opened my mind and I tried everything,” he says. Soon, he could become the first above-the-knee amputee to climb “the roof of the world” at 8,849 meters.
Hari Budha Magar grew up in the foothills of the Himalayas: climbing Everest is “a childhood dream”.
“It was possible”
“When I was skiing, the view of the mountains reminded me of Everest. I always wondered if I could climb one day, so I gave it a try and realized it was possible,” he says. .
The crippled mountaineer wears a suit specially designed for him, lined with silicone at the thighs to protect them from frostbite. Studs were attached to his shortened prostheses.
He has already reached the summit of Mera Peak at 6476 m altitude in Nepal and that of Mont Blanc (4808 m), the highest peak in France.
Only two leg amputees, below the knees, have ever summited Everest: New Zealander Mark Inglis in 2006 and China’s Xia Boyu in 2018.
He himself was also preparing for the expedition in 2018 but had to postpone his project to campaign against a law, adopted by Nepal in December 2017 and revoked since, prohibiting the ascent of Everest to people who have had a double amputation or the blind for safety reasons.
“There were a lot of obstacles but finally everything is falling into place to (achieve) my dream, I’m happy,” he said.
The timing of his ascent coincided, by the greatest of luck, with the coronation of Charles III, like the first ascent of Everest by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzing Norgay who had unfolded during the coronation of Elizabeth II, 70 years ago.
“I fought for this crown. I lost my legs for this crown,” he recalls.
The veteran wears shorts, whatever the temperature, and today proudly shows off his prostheses, which he would not have assumed shortly after his accident.
“I thought my life was over”
“I thought my life was over, I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair,” he says, confident that he had had suicidal thoughts for two years and started drinking. He pulled himself together out of love for his three children.
“My main objective is to inform about disability. If I had been aware, I would not have lost two years of my life, I would have made good use of it,” he admits.
The disabled are not condemned to inertia, there is “just a different way of doing things”.
“As long as you can adapt your life to the time and the situation, everything is possible, there is no limit, the sky is the limit”, he believes.
His guide Krishna Thapa views their expedition with optimism. “He is a great mountaineer (…) he has been preparing for six years and has broken several records”, underlines Mr. Thapa with admiration, “no other climber has achieved this”.
