The mountain is a terrain particularly conducive to extreme situations that bring out the best and the worst in the human condition. The experience of the Pakistani Murtaza Ghulam Sadpara this summer cannot illustrate it better. On July 15, the two clients he was accompanying as a height guide abandoned him at 8,000 meters of altitude, on Broad Peak, with frozen hands and physically exhausted. As he thought of certain death, a group of mountaineers deviated from their goal of summiting and assisted him to base camp. His life was saved, although his hands, with mummified tips and necrosis on six fingers, were mangled.
Murtaza was more fortunate than Mohammad Hassan, the Pakistani porter abandoned on K2 in July. A video showed how dozens of mountaineers passed by the young man without stopping to help him. It is the dark side of mountaineering. The most human part is embodied by the Austrian Lukàs Wörle, who took Murtaza down to camp 3, the people who assisted him there until he was stabilized, or the high mountain guide who climbed up to 7,000 meters to bring it down to base camp. Also those who have now activated a second rescue plan to save, as far as possible, his hands and ensure a future job for this carrier (who in Nepal is known as a sherpa, because of the ethnic group to which they belong in that country).
Alex Txikon directs this second rescue. The Basque mountaineer completed the historic winter ascent of Nanga Parbat with the late Ali Sapdara, Murtaza's uncle, and knew the Sadpara. In the summer, he received a call for help from this family, who were very concerned about the condition of the 24-year-old's hands.
They knew Txikon's character, committed and determined, always ready to help. And they weren't wrong: Murtaza arrived a few days ago in Lemoa (Bizkaia) to be treated.
The young man, father of two children aged 5 and 3, is worried about his injuries and a little overcome by the situation, although above all he has words of gratitude: "I am very grateful. I was unlucky, but then I'm getting a lot of help."
Txikon has involved his family and friends in this rescue plan. During the last few days they have taken care of accompanying him to hospital visits. The Pakistani Akhond Ishaq welcomes him into his home and acts as a translator. This cook arrived in Lemoa more than a decade ago, also thanks to Txikon, who was very grateful for the treatment and service he had given him during one of the expeditions.
"He told me he would help me and I told him that when he got to Europe he would forget about me. The opposite happened: he took care of all the paperwork and welcomed us. Alex has been to Pakistan more than 20 times and is always there to help. That's why they called him", explains Isahq, manager of a restaurant in the center of Bilbao. He is aware of Murtaza's reality and knows that his future depends on saving his hands in Spain.
“We are from Skardu, and Murtaza, specifically, is from the small town of Sadpara. It is the gateway to the Karakorum, where there are five of the fourteen eight thousand. It is difficult for him to go back to being a porter and we want to help him open a shop to support his family", says Isahq. Txikon's friends have organized a micro-patronage campaign to pay the costs of the operation and help him start his business.
The first intervention, carried out in Madrid, has given promising results. Murtaza has been reborn after the abandonment of Broad Peak and, as he recovers in the hospital, he is already thinking about a second life.
