Islamabad: Dubai-based Pakistani mountaineer Naila Kiani scaled Gasherbrum-1 (G-I) Friday morning to achieve the rare honour of climbing three peaks above 8,000 metres in Pakistan. G-I is the world’s 11th highest mountain at 8,068 metres. It is also called Hidden Peak and K5.
Karrar Haidri, secretary of Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP), announced on Friday that Kiani had reached the G-I peak at 7:35 a.m. “Now she is the first-ever Pakistani woman to climb three peaks above 8,000 metres inside Pakistan,” he said in a Twitter post.
Her attempt wasn’t easy. A few days earlier, Naila, a mother of two, who was on the way to G-I, had said that extreme wind conditions were making the climb more challenging than K2.
On July 22, Naila summited the world’s second highest and the most challenging peak, 8,611-metre K2, which made her the second Pakistani woman mountaineer to scale it and the first Pakistani woman to do it on her first attempt. Three hours earlier, another Pakistani woman Samina Baig had become the first Pakistani woman to scale K2.
Naila also summited G-II (8,035-metre peak) in 2021 and was presented with an award by the President of Pakistan. She is also the first Pakistani woman mountaineer to complete a 20-day double-header by summiting K2 and Gasherbrum-I.
Besides Naila Kiani, two Pakistani male mountaineers, Sirbaz Khan and Shehroze Kashif also scaled G-I on Friday. Shehroze became the youngest mountaineer to summit 10 above 8,000-metre peaks, Haidri said in his tweet. “Sirbaz has now summited all 12 above 8,000-metre peaks in Nepal and Pakistan,” Haidri added.
Pakistan is home to 5 of 14 world’s above-8,000 metres peaks. Five of the 14 above 8,000-metre peaks in the world are located in Pakistan: K2 (8,611-metre high), Nanga Parbat (8,125-metre), Gasherbrum-I (8,068-metre), Broad Peak (8,051-metre) and Gasherbrum-II (8,035-metre).
Karrar Haidri said these feats were a gift from these mountaineers to Pakistan as the country will celebrate the 75th Independence Anniversary on August 14. “They have dedicated their achievements to Pakistan, and this is a moment to celebrate their success,” he said.
