Hari Budha Magar | Conquers Everest
After a superhuman effort, we’re delighted to announce that Centre member Hari Budha Magar has summited mount Everest as the first ever double above knee amputee to stand atop the world’s tallest mountain.
Through his climb, Hari aimed to change perceptions on disability and inspire people to climb their own ‘mountains’ no matter the adversity that stands in their way.
Having grown up in the Nepalese mountains before serving 15 years as a Corporal with the Ghurkha Regiment of the British Army, scaling Everest was a boyhood dream for Hari.
Hari summitted at around 15:00 on Friday 19th May 2023.
At the top of Everest, Hari shouted “We did it!”, a reference to, and in recognition of, the team effort that made it possible.
Over a satellite phone call to his team, he added; “That was tough. Harder than I could have ever imagined. We just had to carry on and push for the top, no matter how much it hurt or how long it took. “If I can climb to the top of the world then anyone, regardless of their disability, can achieve their dream.
“When things got really tough it was the thought of my amazing family and everyone who’s helped me get onto the mountain that pushed me to the top. Without the support of so many this expedition simply wouldn’t have been possible.”
Hari said “It took 25 hours climbing from camp 4 to the summit and then back to camp 4. We started 21:50 and arrived back 23:00 next day. The journey wasn’t easy, we had to make some tough decisions along the way, but we made it. The climb didn’t go entirely to plan because of weather conditions. We were supposed to put Camp 5 at Balcony, but we didn’t because the weather made it too dangerous. The first summit push climb from Camp 4 was horrible. It was so bad that when we returned from the Balcony, one team member suggested that we finish, and go down”.
As they went back up to the summit, they had to go so slow and hunker down at times to wait for weather to improve. This meant the oxygen supplies ran low and some of them had to turn back for their and teams’ overall safety. Hari explained how he also wanted to give up at least 3 times when half of team had gone. The Sherpas, which included his brother, reassured him that they could make it and the oxygen would last but even they could not predict how long conditions would delay and supplies would run low.
As a team they pushed hard and five of them made it to the summit, his brother Nanda Bahadur Budha Magar, Mingma Sharpa, Pasang Sherpa, Jit Bahadur Tamang and Hari did it! But then they had to get back down with little oxygen, very late in the day for an Everest summit with an ice storm coming in. Two Sherpa’s had nearly finished their oxygen at Hillary Step on way down, so they left Hari and the other team members to rightly preserve their lives. Hari’s oxygen was about to finish on South Summit, Hari said “I was never scared my life like that before even when I was injured and crashed my car”.
Once Hari’s oxygen had finished, one Sherpa gave me his oxygen and went back down. Now, Hari and his brother were left with very little oxygen, only enough for 30-45 minutes but they still had a long way down to go. Hari said “I felt like here is some oxygen take it and die when it finishes. We looked for some of the oxygen bottles that was left on mountain, but they were all empty”.
“I told my brother who was with me to go, I went down on my bum all the way to wall of Camp 4. We had no radios, but we had satphone, so were able to call base camp and relay messages to camp 4. Finally, a sherpa from camp 4 came up with oxygen and hot water, they met us below the balcony and saved us! Later two other Sherpas come for assistance and took us to Camp 4″.
Hari arrived back into Kathmandu from Everest, to a hero’s welcome with crowds of well-wishers (including his father, Purai Budha Magar) a message from the President of Nepal, before having a personal audience with Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
Hari explained “This experience has really hit home for me that if we are passionate, disciplined, work hard and believe in ourselves, nothing can stop us from achieving our dream. We proved that – nothing is Impossible.”
