Pakistan's legendary high-altitude porter "Little Karim" (first from left, summer 2004)
The "little man" Karim, who is only 1.58 meters, is one of the greatest climbers. Legendary Pakistani mountaineer Mohammad Karim died on April 4 at a military hospital in rawalpindi at the age of 71, according to Pakistani media. Because of his height, everyone called him "Little Karim". Karim suffers from liver cancer, and the Gilgit-Baltistan regional government recently announced that it would bear the cost of treatment for "Little Karim". As a result, he was transferred from his home in the village of Hushe to the military hospital in Rawalpindi.
Anaerobic climbing of Gasschurum II Peak
The "Little Karim" developed into Pakistan's most popular high-altitude porter in the 1980s and 1990s. He has twice summited Bloatt at 8,051 metres and Gasshubram II at 8,034 metres above sea level once without oxygen. He tried the 8611m K2 nine times, but without success. The closest to the K2 summit was only 25 meters away, and in the summer of 2004 he told foreign clients in broken and concise English that "this mountain is too difficult." In addition, he has rescued climbers in trouble several times while climbing the 8,000-meter peak in Pakistan.
The Baltistan Times announced: Karim Jr. passed away on 4 April 2022 at CMH in Rawalpindi.
He had anaerobically summited The Gatshubrom II and also summited Maxherbrum without an oxygen-free extreme weight of 25 kilograms.
"I look like a ten-year-old"
When Little Karim was a child, he herded cattle with his parents on the hill in the village of Hushe. In the mid-1970s, he traveled to Skardu, the regional capital, where he signed up as a porter for an expedition to the Karakoram Mountains. A few years ago, in an interview with the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, "I still look like a 10-year-old when I was a teenager." No one accepted me, everyone said I was a 'little boy'. They didn't believe I could afford the 25 kilograms of gear required for the expedition. ”
Finally, Karim Jr. got his first job in 1976. When a Swiss team went on an expedition to a 7,000-meter-high peak in the Bartoló Glacier, there were too few porters to hire him. During this expedition, he acted decisively to rescue a Swiss lady who had fallen into a mountain stream.
The Karakoram Club announces that Mohammed Karim, Jr. Karim, passed away this morning. This seasoned mountaineer from The Village of Hushe is known for his decades of adventure, mountaineering skills and a great mountaineering career. He had anaerobically summited The Ghashbrum II. May he rest in peace!
Shoulder to shoulder Bernington
In 1978, Chris Burnington, the leader of the prestigious British expedition, also discovered that Karim was too young to hire him as K2's porter. But Karim refused to accept that fact. Without saying a word, he burrowed between the tall Englishman's legs, carried him on his shoulders, and spun in a large circle. Bernington was impressed by this and hired him. Later other legendary mountaineers, such as "Emperor of the Mountaineer" Reinhold Messner and Jean-Marc Boivin of France, were impressed by him and hired him. He carried a paraglider for Jean-Marc Boivin to climb The Jashubrum II.
In his own words, the nickname "Little Karim" was called during a French K2 expedition in 1979, when all three porters were called Karim. "Every time we called 'Karim,' three people reacted," Mohammed said in an interview with The Dawn, "and to solve this problem, the leader of the expedition gave us the names 'big,' 'medium,' and 'small,' respectively. "Over the years, only 'Little Karim' has stood the test of time and won worldwide recognition in the mountaineering community.
Every high-altitude expedition is inseparable from these unknown porters and mountain guides, who have no capital publicity, no aura of professional explorers, but their mountaineering stories are equally worthy of our respect and memory. May the dead rest in peace!