Record-setting Nepali double above-the-knee amputee climber gets warm welcome

May 24, 2023

Kathmandu (Nepal), May 24 (ANI): Hari Budha Magar, the first double above-the-knee amputee to ascend Mount Everest received a heroic welcome as he arrived back at Kathmandu on Tuesday. Rising out of a van, relatives and family members welcomed the 43-year-old record-holding retired Gurkha at Tribhuwan International Airport of Kathmandu. Last week, Magar created the history as first double above-the-knee amputee to scale the 8848.86 meters tall Mount Everest- the Highest peak in the world. The former British Gurkha who lost his legs to the Taliban-implanted bomb during deployment in Afghanistan had submitted the Everest on artificial legs on May 19, 2023. The British Army veteran who had lost his legs in 2010 during a mission in Afghanistan had fought a legal battle against the Government of Nepal in the last decade against the decision to keep amputees off Mount Everest. The Supreme Court scrapped the government's decision, allowing him to climb the highest peak just before the pandemic. Magar was prepared by then but had to wait for another three years to reach the top of the world's highest peak. Preparing himself for the summit, the record-holding climber in the year 2022 had skydived from a helicopter in the Khumbu region as well as trekked up to the Everest Base Camp on his prosthetic legs laying up the foundation for his dream to be the first above-the-knee double amputee to climb the highest mountain on earth. The record-holding climber and the Gurkha veteran is set to return to the UK this week.