Even though he’s still sad about his father’s passing, Sajid Ali Sadpara found a special way to honor him. He wears a suit with Pakistan’s flag on it and goes up the 8,611-meter K2 mountain to clean up trash. This mountain is where his father is resting.
At the K2 Basecamp, Sadpara and his team find lots of stuff like used oxygen canisters, broken tents, and twisted ropes left behind by climbers who wanted to reach the top. In one week, his team collects about 200 kilograms of trash from the second tallest mountain in the world.He said he does it because he cares. He loves the mountain and feels like it’s his duty to take care of it.
Two years ago, he tried to climb K2 with his dad and two other climbers. He had to come back down because he got sick, but the others kept going. Sadly, those three climbers died on the way to the top. They were found below a frozen part of the mountain.
When they found his dad’s body, Sadpara did the right Islamic things and marked the spot with GPS coordinates.
When people asked him why he’s so connected to the mountain, he said being in the mountains makes him feel calm. But he’s sad that the mountain’s beauty has been hurt by people’s actions. He said, “We messed up its beauty with our own behavior.”
