Record-breaking mountaineer Hari Budha Magar has revealed new details of the near-fatal descent that followed his historic 2023 ascent of Mount Everest, including the moment his supplemental oxygen ran out at around 8,600 metres and a Sherpa gave him his own supply to keep him alive.
Budha Magar, a former British Gurkha soldier who lost both legs above the knee in Afghanistan, became the first double above-knee amputee to summit Mount Everest when he reached the 8,848.86-metre peak on 19 May 2023.
Speaking at an event in New Jersey in August 2026, he described how the celebration of reaching the summit quickly turned into a survival crisis during the descent.
For the prosthetics and orthotics community, his story is not simply one of extraordinary physical endurance. It also demonstrates how far rehabilitation, adaptive equipment and long-term prosthetic management can take a person once the objective extends beyond basic mobility.
Oxygen runs out in Everest’s death zone
After reaching the summit, Budha Magar began descending through the area above 8,000 metres known as Everest’s death zone, where the human body cannot remain for long without supplemental oxygen.
His oxygen ran out somewhere between the Balcony at around 8,400 metres and the South Summit at 8,749 metres.
With several guides who had been carrying additional cylinders already lower on the mountain, Budha Magar suddenly found himself struggling to breathe.
He later recalled believing that he might not survive the descent.
The situation changed when Mingma Sherpa gave Budha Magar his own oxygen supply, despite the obvious danger this created for himself.
Budha Magar described the act as an extraordinary example of humanity and later asked Mingma why he had been willing to take such a risk.
The Sherpa’s answer, as recounted by Budha Magar, was that after six years of preparation and a climb driven by a wider purpose, it was more important that Hari survive.
A 25-hour summit journey
Budha Magar’s ascent was dramatically slower than that of a typical Everest climber.
He left Camp 4 at the South Col at 9:50 p.m. and reached the summit at 3:10 p.m. the following day, taking 17 hours and 20 minutes for the ascent.
The descent back to the South Col required a further seven hours and 50 minutes, bringing the full summit push to 25 hours and 10 minutes.
His expedition had anticipated the additional demands of the climb and used 106 oxygen cylinders, reportedly worth around $50,000, throughout the journey.
The sheer duration of the summit attempt illustrates an important aspect of adaptive performance.
Two climbers may face the same mountain, but they do not necessarily face the same physiological, biomechanical or equipment demands.
For a bilateral above-knee amputee, almost every step requires a level of planning, energy expenditure and technical adaptation that differs substantially from conventional climbing.
Losing both legs in Afghanistan
Budha Magar’s journey began with a very different fight for survival.
While serving with the British Army in Afghanistan, he stepped on an improvised explosive device on 17 April 2010.
He lost both legs above the knees and also sustained injuries to his right hand and other parts of his body.
His rehabilitation was prolonged.
Budha Magar says it took approximately three and a half years to learn to walk with prosthetic legs, while he spent almost four years in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities overall.
That timeline is particularly important for CPOs.
High-profile achievements such as Everest can make the final outcome appear almost sudden, but advanced mobility is usually built on years of prosthetic fitting, physiotherapy, conditioning, adjustment and repeated adaptation.
His story is therefore as much about long-term rehabilitation as mountaineering.
Sport becomes part of rehabilitation
Following his injuries, Budha Magar began taking part in a wide range of activities including skiing, kayaking, cycling, golf, swimming and archery.
He has described sport as playing an important role in rebuilding his confidence and eventually reviving his childhood ambition of climbing Everest.
This is increasingly relevant to the P&O profession.
Rehabilitation cannot always be defined simply by whether someone can walk safely inside a clinic.
Patients may want to return to sport, travel, employment or extreme environments that place entirely different demands on a prosthetic system.
For CPOs, these ambitions create a requirement to think beyond basic socket fit and everyday alignment.
Extreme environments create different prosthetic demands
Mountaineering with bilateral transfemoral prostheses places exceptional demands on the user and on the technology.
A prosthetic system must function in extreme cold, steep terrain, snow and ice while dealing with prolonged loading and major changes in activity.
Socket comfort becomes critical because even relatively minor irritation can become a major problem when the user is several thousand metres above sea level and far from clinical support.
Suspension must remain reliable.
Components must tolerate repeated impact.
Residual-limb volume may change with exertion, temperature and altitude.
The climber must also manage the additional energy expenditure associated with bilateral above-knee prosthetic walking.
This makes achievements such as Budha Magar’s a powerful demonstration of what can be accomplished when clinical rehabilitation, equipment adaptation and individual conditioning come together.
Challenging assumptions about disability
Budha Magar’s Everest journey also involved a fight away from the mountain.
In 2017, Nepal introduced regulations that prevented people who had lost both legs from receiving permits to climb Everest. Budha Magar challenged the restriction alongside disability organisations and other campaigners, arguing that it was discriminatory.
Nepal’s Supreme Court later overturned the restriction, allowing him to continue preparing for the ascent.
He eventually reached the summit in 2023, directly challenging the assumptions behind the original ban.
For the rehabilitation profession, the episode raises a wider question.
Clinical teams are often involved in determining what patients can and cannot safely attempt.
That responsibility is important, but the history of adaptive sport repeatedly shows that assumptions about disability can become outdated as technology, training and individual capability evolve.
Seven Summits completed in 2026
Everest was not the end of Budha Magar’s campaign.
On 6 January 2026, he summited Mount Vinson in Antarctica and became the first double amputee to climb the highest mountain on every continent — the Seven Summits.
His achievements now include records on Everest, Denali, Carstensz Pyramid and Mount Vinson, and in 2026 Guinness World Records recognised him as a Guinness World Records Icon.
He has said that climbing a single mountain would not have been enough to change perceptions about disability, and that the wider Seven Summits campaign was intended to show what people with disabilities can achieve.
The prosthesis is only part of the story
Stories like Budha Magar’s are sometimes presented primarily as demonstrations of advanced prosthetic technology.
That is only part of the picture.
A prosthesis can enable movement, but it does not climb Everest by itself.
Behind the device sit years of rehabilitation, clinical input, physical conditioning, problem solving and support from guides, family and teammates.
In this case, there was also the decisive intervention of a Sherpa willing to share his oxygen in one of the most dangerous environments on Earth.
For CPOs across IMEA, Budha Magar’s journey is therefore valuable not because every patient should aspire to climb Everest.
It is valuable because it demonstrates how wide the potential spectrum of rehabilitation can become.
The objective after bilateral above-knee amputation does not necessarily end at standing or walking.
For the right person, with the right support, it can extend to sport, adventure and goals that would challenge even people without limb loss.
And in Budha Magar’s case, it extended all the way to the highest point on Earth.
- NepYork – Oxygen Ran Out in Everest’s Death Zone; Nepali Sherpa Saved Hari Budha Magar
- Hari Budha Magar – Official Website
- Guinness World Records
- Blesma
- The Gurkha Welfare Trust
- International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics
- IMEA CPO