Magar, 43, climbed the 8,848m Everest on artificial legs on Friday and is now taking rest at the base camp, said Pravat Adhikari of the Himalayan Ski Trek company, which provided logistics for him.
“Gurkha veteran, Hari Budha Magar creates history as the first-ever double-above-knee amputee to scale Mt Everest,” the Gurkha Brigade said in a twitter post.
Bigyan Koirala, an official with Nepal’s tourism department, confirmed that Magar had climbed the mountain with five sherpa guides and that his ascent is “a world record”.
Two below-knee amputees have reached the peak in the past – New Zealander Mark Inglis in 2006, and China’s Xia Boyu in 2018.
Magar was fitted with prosthetic legs and, aside from kayaking around the Isle of Wight, climbed several peaks including Morocco’s Mount Toubkal, as well as Ben Nevis in Scotland and Mont Blanc in Europe.
But the former corporal was prevented for several years from climbing the world’s highest mountain by a Nepalese law banning double amputees, and also blind people, from mountaineering.
Nepal’s top court quashed the law – which was not in place when Inglis climbed the peak – in 2018 under pressure from Magar and others.
Magar, who joined the British army in 1999, lost both his legs after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) during a patrol duty in Afghanistan in 2010.
He said he had “suffered a lot” because of his disability and did not want other people to face the same pains.
“I hope my climb will help change the perception of persons with disabilities,” Magar told Reuters from the base camp by phone.
“I would like to encourage all people to take to climbing any mountain of their choice.”
Magar went via the Southeast Ridge route, pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, which remains the most popular among climbers.
“As long as you can adapt your life according to the time and the situation, we can do anything we want. There is no limit, the sky is the limit,” Magar told AFP last month before heading to the Everest base camp.
On his website, his mission was promoted under the slogan “no legs, no limits”.
Mount Everest has been climbed by more than 11,000 people, including those with disabilities like blindness and below-knee amputees.
Nepal has issued 478 permits to climb Everest during the current season that ends this month. Nine people have died on Everest this year.
Mountain climbing is a key source of income for cash-strapped Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains in the world.