Hari Budha Magar, the winner of the Prince of Wales, is nothing short of extraordinary. Born in a cowshed, he lost his legs to a bomb in Afghanistan… then was the first double below the knee amputee to climb the tallest peak in the world. And soon he’ll start facing his next challenge…
Growing up in a remote village in Nepal, Hari Budha Magar heard stories about Mount Everest and as a boy had wild dreams of climbing the famous peak. So when he successfully summited the world’s highest mountain in 2023, he could scarcely believe it himself. The feat was made even more incredible due to the fact that Hari is a double above knee amputee, so climbed all 8849m on prosthetic legs.
“The Nepalese people are proud of three things: Everest, Nepal being the birthplace of Lord Buddha, and being the home of the Gurkhas”, says Hari, 46, a mountaineer and disability campaigner who lives in Canterbury, Kent with his wife Urmila, a stay at home mum. He has sons Brian and Ublan as well as daughter Samjhana and three children. Hari’s family, who was raised in a cowshed with views of the Himalayan mountains Dhaulagiri and Sisne, was a poor farmer. He didn’t have flip flops so had to walk 45 mins to and from school every day barefoot. When Hari’s parents realized the couple was incompatible, he married at age 11 (his parents would later divorce him when he was 22), and he became a father to Samjhana at age 17 (he later became a father).
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Aged 19, as civil war descended on Nepal and ravaged his country, Hari joined the Gurkhas. “It was a horrific time. Brothers turned on brothers, neighbours turned into each other, 17,000 people in Nepal were killed, including 21 from my village as I left,” he says. He applied to join the British Army and was selected in 230 out of 12,000 applicants, and for the next 15 years served the United Kingdom in five continents, in Brunei, Kosovo, the Falklands and more.
He moved to the UK from Brunei in 2009 with Urmila. The couple have two children together, Brian and Ublan. Then, in 2010, two weeks into a tour in Afghanistan, during a foot patrol an IED exploded underneath Hari and he lost both his legs. He says: “I looked down and saw one of my legs was gone. The other was hanging by the skin and bone.”
A helicopter was thankfully waiting for Hari as other soldiers battled to save her. “First, I didn’t feel any pain. But when they tightened the tourniquets, it was excruciating”, he remembers. After spending 22 days in the hospital, Hari was allowed to return home. However, Hari struggled to deal with what had happened to him and was diagnosed with PTSD there.
“I tried to take my own life. My wife left me, I anticipated. Why would she continue to be with me? I was broken. I anticipated the children’s embarrassment. What purpose did I serve anyone? I began to drink a lot every day and became an alcoholic. I would be upset but believe it was okay because it would pass away soon and be over. Hari battled his demons for two years before spending his final years in the wilderness.
However, everything changed when a chance day out in 2012 occurred. I jumped at the chance to skydive. I thought, half of me is already gone, what does it matter about the other half”, says Hari. However, I experienced fear as I was about to jump. I realized that I didn’t want to die, and that I was actually very afraid of the thought. It sparked something in me I hadn’t felt for years – hope”.
Hari delved into research with the aim of improving. I tried all the Paralympic sports, and I looked into all the things that people with disabilities could actually do. And as I tried them. My mind is becoming stronger and my body is becoming more and more fit. I realized that I could do almost anything with a little adaptation.
” And in the back of my mind I had a thought… what if I could climb Everest. Hari’s fascination as a child returned. I never told anyone, not even my wife, about my dream at first. I thought people would think I was mad. ? me ? He replies, “No way.” But when he began to open up and share his idea, sponsors, his communities and charities listened.
However, there was a catch. At the time, Nepalese law forbid double amputees from climb any mountain over 6, 500m which includes Everest. According to Hari, “disabled people are always being told what they can’t do.” Something might happen because it’s too dangerous. Well Everest is perilous with or without a disability, and I know what I’m capable of”.
He campaigned and helps to fight a case in the Supreme Court in Nepal – and they won. It was game on. And in the meantime, armed with specially designed prosthetics that could walk on ice and snow, Hari practiced climbing some of the tallest peaks in the world. He became the first double above the knee amputee to summit a peak higher than 6000m (Mera Peak in Nepal at 6476m). Then came successful climbs of Mt Blanc in France and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Then, in 2023, it was time to tackle Everest. “It was really tough. We had to wait a month at base camp because weather conditions were too bad and so we could acclimatise to altitude,” says Hari. “It was a hard season that saw 17 people die climbing Everest, the most ever in one season,” says Hari. “Three guys died in an ice fall before we even arrived at base camp, four people died on the day we summited.
” The mountain takes no prisoners, it’s brutal even for the fittest person. The fastest person travels from camp four to summit in about eight hours, but I did it in 25. I consume three times more energy than an able-bodied person, and it takes three times longer. I was absolutely exhausted. But I was unable to give up; if I did, I would perish. On your way up and down, you pass dead people. There’s only so much oxygen that you can carry, and if runs out – that’s it. People are so difficult to save. You would reject a million pounds for your oxygen if someone promised it.
Standing at the summit in May 2023, Hari broke down”. It was cold and windy. We did it, I cried! But then I knew we had to go back down, I had half way to go again to be safe. It was getting late and we were out of oxygen. We left camp four at 9:30 p.m. the evening and arrived back at camp four at 11 p.m. the following night.
Hari now dedicates his life to proving just how much people living with a disability can do. There are 1.3 billion people who are disabled worldwide, he claims. I don’t want people to struggle their entire lives, like I did. And I want governments around the world to know that banning us from the things that we love to do – like climbing Everest as a double amputee – isn’t the answer. The right way to support us is. We have the same opportunities as everyone else. That’s what drives me forward. “
In 2024, Hari was awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for his services to disability awareness. Later that year, the Mirror met him for the first time when he won a Pride of Britain Award and he and his family were invited to Downing Street to meet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as a result.
Being in a room full of those incredible winners at the Pride of Britain Awards has been a truly humble experience, says Hari. The wicked have no place to rest as he approaches his most recent challenge, climbing Mount. Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica, to complete the 7 Summits challenge, the climb of each highest peak of each continent of the world. He intends to raise Mount. Gurkha Welfare Trust, BLESMA, Pilgrim Bandits, On Course Foundation, and Team Forces are the five amazing charities that receive Everest plus two 2000s [£884, 900].
” When practicing for the Everest climb, I realised that I’d already climbed three of them, “says Hari. In June 2024, Alaska’s Denali was followed by Aconcagua in Argentina in February this year, and Puncak Jaya in New Guinea was followed by Puncak Jaya in October. This week, Vinson’s final expedition of the challenge launches.
Hari will leave the UK on Dec 24th, begins the trek on Jan 1 and hopes to summit on January 6 or 7. We wish Hero Hari the best of luck on his trip by planting a Mirror flag on the mountain’s peak. After he’s finished, we’ll exclusively share the full story with you.
” I want to show that anything is possible, “says Hari. I still have limbs missing, but I’m still a human being. Who is flawless? I wasn’t perfect when I had legs. Even though I may be weak, that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything.
Hari will work on his incredible story in his debut book, which will be released by Mirror Books, next year. And one day he hopes there may even be a film. He makes up jokes, “I’m waiting for the call.” Hari is grateful for everything that he has accomplished.
“I do it too for the soldiers who saved me. They risked their lives to save mine on the battlefield, which is incredibly dangerous. So I now have to show them that their life was worth it when I accomplish something with my life.
*Donate HERE to support Hari’s incredible appeal.
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Source: Mirror
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