Pakistan man cleans world's second tallest peak to pay tribute to his father

Sajid Ali Sadpara is still grieving for his father but has found a way to pay his tributes to his old man. Sadpara, wearing his stitched-down coverall with Pakistan's green flag, routinely climbs the 8,611-metre K2 mountain peak to clean litter. The mountain is his father's final resting place. 

Spent oxygen canisters, mangled tents and snarled ropes discarded over decades by climbers questing for the summit is the kind of litter Sadpara often encounters when setting up from the K2 Basecamp. Over a week, Sadpara's five-member team is able to collect some 200 kilogrammes of litter from the world's second tallest mountain peak. 

"I'm doing it from my heart. This is our mountain. We are the custodians," the 25-year-old was quoted as saying by AFP.

It was two years ago during a perilous winter season that Sadpara embarked upon K2 ascent with his father and two foreigners when illness forced him back.

"The three men who carried on were later discovered dead below the 'bottleneck' -- an overhang that looks like a frozen tidal wave on the final stretch before the summit," read the AFP report. 

After recovering his father's body, Sadpara performed Islamic rites at a camp and marked the spot with GPS coordinates. 

When quizzed about his devotion to the mountain, Sadpara says, "We want to be on mountains just for mental peace". 

However, he believes that K2 is no longer as beautiful as it once used to be. 

"We have destroyed its beauty with our own hands."

Despite the litter, Sadpara is committed to the task, after all, the mountain remains the shrine of his fallen father. 

"Cleanliness is half of faith. Climbing to the top is a different thing," he explains. "Cleaning is something that you feel personally from the heart."

K2 was formed after India collided with Asia over 50 million years ago. The collision resulted in the sprouting of the Karakoram range of mountains that span across modern-day Pakistan's northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region.

Despite being 238 metres shorter than Mount Everest, located in Nepal, K2 has the reputation of being far more challenging. It requires more technical skills than those needed to conquer the tallest peak in the world. 

The mountain was first conquered by Italians in 1954 and despite wind speeds in excess of 200 kilometres per hour and temperatures dipping below minus 60 degree Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit) during adverse conditions, the peak remains a dream ascent for mountaineering enthusiasts.