Explainer: Who is Muhammad Ali Sadpara?

Mountaineer has hoisted Pakistani flag on eight high-altitude peaks

As the second-day of Pakistan Army's rescue operation to find Pakistani mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara, who was attempting a winter summit of K2, ended without any headway being made, The Express Tribune takes a closer look into his life.

Sadpara, has the distinction of proudly hoisting the Pakistan flag on eight high-altitude peaks.

He was born in Sadpara, a village at the periphery of Skardu city on February 2, 1976. The mountaineer began his career as porter and worked his way up to climbing high peaks with expeditions.

Sadpara was part of the team which successfully achieved the first ever winter summit on Nanga Parbat in 2016. Both his teammates, Alex Txicon and Simone Moro, have gone on record stating that they could not have done it without Sadpara's brilliance.

In 2015, the same team had attempted to scale the Nanga Parbat in winter but to no avail. He has now climbed Nanga Parbat on four occasions.

In January 2018, he teamed up with Alex Txikon, a Spanish mountaineer, and tried unsuccessfully, to summit Mount Everest in winter without any supplemental oxygen. While in June 2018 he has been enlisted by Marc Batard to undertake a five-year program known as “Beyond Mount Everest”. They plan to summit Nanga Parbat, K2 and Mount Everest in 2019, 2021 and 2022 respectively.