The Qatari mountaineer achieving heights that are unreachable to many

euronews (in English)

Fahad Badar is the first Arab to summit Mount Everest and Lhotse in a single expedition.

Transcript

00:00Qatari mountaineer Fahad Bada has reached heights many believed were impossible.

00:08He's the first Arab to summit both Mount Everest and Lhotse, the first and fourth highest peaks

00:15in the world in a single attempt.

00:18And just 10 months after losing four of his fingers and almost his life, Fahad defied

00:24the odds by climbing to the top of K2.

00:29They said I will never climb again, and I will never be able to climb any mountain.

00:35I challenged them and I said I'll climb K2, and here I am, on top of K2.

00:43A shining example of the power of resilience, Fahad's achievements serve as a beacon of

00:49hope to anyone battling mental or physical obstacles.

00:59Fahad, I've brought you here to a traditional majlis, the origins of which run deep in

01:08Qatari culture.

01:09It's a place for people to come together, to chat, perhaps share a meal.

01:15Can you describe to me how your culture, your heritage fuels your passion?

01:21I have been passionate about mountains for a very long time, and living in Qatar, which

01:26is a flat country with deserts, gave me interest of how can I do something more, how can I

01:32be going higher.

01:34And I think a trip to Nepal in 2003 was the first time I got introduced to mountaineering.

01:40You hear about climbing legends, you hear about climbing trips.

01:43I remember doing a circuit and hiking there in the mountains and looking at the high mountains,

01:47and at that time I did not know what shoes to wear, what, like, clothes to wear.

01:52At first I was suffering, but then I started enjoying that suffering, enjoying the altitude,

01:58enjoying the weather, enjoying the basic life that I lived there, living in a city all of

02:03my life since my childhood.

02:05You don't consider yourself a professional mountaineer, and yet you did become the first

02:11Arab ever to conquer both Everest and Lhotse in a single attempt.

02:17Back in 2021, your life changed when you were descending Broad Peak, a mountain in the Karakoram

02:24range.

02:25You suffered frostbite and lost four of your fingers.

02:30Can you take us back to that event?

02:32I consider myself a tourist mountaineer, as I depend on guides, I depend on expedition

02:37companies to support me.

02:38So in 2021, I decided to climb K2, the Savage Mountain, the second highest mountain in the

02:44world.

02:45To do that, I wanted to climb Broad Peak first, which is just next to it.

02:49I had prepared very well, I had all of my risk calculation, I had everything planned.

02:54I reached the summit late, and coming back, I was stuck at a certain area near the summit

02:59because of another climber who descended in a rope and she got stuck, I ran out of oxygen.

03:05I spent the night at an area near the summit where I was not aware where I was.

03:10I was hallucinating.

03:11I was alone.

03:12I was not sure where to go.

03:14I remember hearing my daughter, Maryam, telling me, Baba, don't die, Baba, come back.

03:19And I think the voice of my daughter in my head, and seeing her, visualizing her at that

03:24time while I'm hallucinating, kept me awake, kept me saying, I don't want to go in the

03:29coma.

03:30It was not until the morning where the sun came out and I started finding the way.

03:34I saw one of the Pakistani guides and I started walking with him to Camp 3.

03:37This is the time where I discovered that I'm alive, I was lost in the mountains alone,

03:41and this is where I noticed my hand and the darkness in my hand.

03:45And after that, my life changed forever.

03:48An amazing story, inspirational and challenging.

03:53And what now, how did you start to adapt to this new way of being?

03:58When I realized that I would be losing my finger, of course, like any normal human being,

04:03I got into the five stages of denial, five stages of disbelief.

04:08So eventually I got into a depression where I was thinking, how can I continue my life?

04:13So I have a decision to make to myself, either live in denial or live in sadness and think

04:20that this will change my life, or just accept it.

04:24And this is where I decided this will not stop me.

04:27Going back to the mountains, I had to learn how to hold ropes again, how to wear the crampons

04:32using one and a half hands.

04:34So the adaption was in the way that I climb.

04:37Like I had prosthetics, but the problem is prosthetics, you cannot use them in altitude

04:40with all the heavy gloves you are wearing and everything.

04:43But I know that I needed to use my legs, how I can use the notches and rocks to climb using

04:49my legs more, and using my right hand strength to compensate for my left hand, and even sometimes

04:56using my elbows and other areas to climb.

04:59But disability is not a barrier to achievements.

05:03And this is what I believed in.

05:07Change of scenery here at Aspatar Hospital, and you've just come off this amazing machine

05:22that tests low oxygen levels and the effects that has on athletes.

05:28How important is physical performance when it comes to preparing for climbing a huge

05:34mountain?

05:35You need to be as fit as possible.

05:38There is lots of suffering and lots of pain.

05:40If you find joy in that pain, you will do extremely well.

05:44One thing I learned about mountaineering is you need to replicate what you will be facing

05:47in the mountain.

05:48If you are like hiking to base camp, you need to learn how to hike for long hours before

05:52going there.

05:53But in the same time, you are in a place where you are not having the proper sleep that you

05:58are having usually because of lack of oxygen.

06:00You are sleeping on a tent, not in perfect situation.

06:03You don't have the same food you have at home.

06:05And it's day after day after day, so you need to be very physically fit and you need

06:09to be mentally and emotionally prepared for that.

06:13It is the key part, the key differentiator there.

06:16Because different to other sports, in mountaineering, you expect the unexpected.

06:23Being with you, it's very obvious that you have this never give up attitude.

06:27Is it important to you to continue to promote that when you work with others?

06:31Getting my injury and losing my fingers, I see it from a positive side because it helped

06:36me to inspire lots of people.

06:37Lots of people, not only with physical disabilities, but people also having challenges in their

06:42life.

06:43How can I inspire them to say that never give up, never say never?

06:47I've done lots of public speaking, lots of group sessions, but also lots of one to one,

06:52giving advice to people and giving them inspiration on how to continue their life.

06:58You've climbed some of the biggest mountains on the planet.

07:02What's next then on the horizon?

07:04One thing very important is I want to do more of the other work that I'm doing, promoting

07:09awareness, awareness about disability.

07:12Not everyone who is disabled have a physical disability.

07:14There is lots of different disabilities that are not visible to the people and I think

07:19it's very important for inclusion, for diversity, that we understand that people with disabilities

07:25are all kind and shape and some of them and lots of them actually are hidden disabilities.

07:30I think promoting that, promoting mental health is very important.

07:34It's something that I had challenges with, with my injury.

07:37So I think this is something that I'm dedicating lots of my time in and also educating youth

07:42and youngsters, having role models for them and how to overcome challenges in life as

07:46they grow up.

07:47Noble work that I'm sure will make a difference to many millions all around the world.

07:52Farhad, thank you so much for joining us on The Dialogue.

07:55Thank you so much.

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