Last week our WhatsApp climbing group was packed with messages as I woke up. I checked the group to learn that Abdul, whom we had climbed Denali in Alaska, had just died on Everest.

Reading from the news, Abdul summited Mount Everest, raised the flag that he was carrying and died on the way down. Abdul accomplished what seemed to be his life’s dream to show his faith and represent his country on the top of the highest mountains of each continent, the ‘7 summits’. I am deeply saddened by this news, sad for his family, his wife and his kids.

Xavier, Patrick and I met Abdul in 2017 in Talkeetna, Alaska. We were part of the same AMS Denali expedition. Abdul was a quiet and humble guy but had a determination to summit Denali that was really impressive. You could feel that he had a calling to complete the 7 summits. Almost 3 weeks after we started the expedition, we reached camp 4 of Denali, the final camp before the summit attempt. Its was -40, windy and after a cold night, the final call to abort our summit attempt was made by our guides. Temperature was around -70 at the summit and windy so an absolute no-go if we wanted to be back with all our toes and fingers (we heard that one of the leaders of a French expedition who summited that day lost his nose to the cold). Abdul was utterly disappointed and understandably so. Preparing for an expedition, training, gathering the budget, the equipment and the motivation and courage is a huge task and he had to do it all again if he was to complete the 7 summits.

We all go back to our lives and in 2019, Xavier and I return to Denali. Almost 3 weeks through and another attempt to summit curtailed by bad weather conditions, we are forced to abandon and go down. Denali is not an easy summit: the extreme cold, latitude north, altitude and extreme weight carried make it a great challenge. After a very long day down the mountain, we are now close to base camp, it is 10-1030pm, bright and beautiful, the sun is starting to set behind the mountains. I am leading the rope, Xavier is following and Kai, our guide closing the rope. We see 2 climbers in the distance making their way to camp one, and as we approach, I recognise one of them, it is Abdul! He decided to come back in 2019 to attempt Denali again. We hug, take a few pictures, catch up briefly, but they need to cover some ground so we say our goodbyes. This is the last time I will see Abdul. He carried on with his life in Switzerland, Xavier met him once over lunch his Zurich to catch up on his successful Denali summit bid.

Abdul, we will miss you down here!