Islamabad: 36-year old Norwegian climber Kristin Harila has summited the 8,125-metre high Nanga Parbat, the first of the five above 8,000-metre high peaks in Pakistan she has targeted to climb in two months.
Secretary Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) Karrar Haidri announced on Friday that the Scandinavian mountaineer had successfully reached the Nanga Parbat peak a day earlier. She is now on her way to scale K2 and three other 8,000-metre peaks, he said while talking to Gulf News.
King of mountains
Nanga Parbat is also called Diamer in the local language that means “King of the Mountains” and is the world’s 9th highest mountain. The peak is part of her campaign to beat the time record of ascending all the 14 above 8,000-metre peaks across the world in six months.
She has so far summited seven out of fourteen 8,000 metres high peaks this season.
Five 8,000-metre high peaks
Five of the fourteen above 8,000-metre peaks in the world are located in Pakistan: K2 (8,611-metre), Nanga Parbat (8,125-metre), Gasherbrum-I (8,080-metre), Broad Peak (8,051-metre) and Gasherbrum-II (8,035-metre) and she wants to conquer them in two months time.
Kristin is accompanied by Pasdawa Sherpa, Dawa Ongju Sherpa and Chhiring Namgyal Sherpa and they are perfectly fit and in high spirits after the first ascent, said Haidri.
Another team of mountaineers is also on the way to Nanga Parbat comprising the Taiwanese mountaineer Tseng Ko-Erh(Grace Tseng), he said.
Harila arrived in Pakistan last month and started her summit journey on June 19.
She has already climbed six mountains over 8,000 metres high, including Mount Everest, in the last two months.
Set to break world record
Kristin hopes to match or surpass Nepali adventurer Nirmal Purja and his ground-breaking 2019 record of six months and six days — an achievement that smashed the previous record and was profiled in a popular Netflix documentary — to change how the mountaineering world views women athletes.
“In history and until now, it has been the strong macho men going out climbing mountains,” Harila told the media prior to her expedition.
“When I talk to people that are not in this sport, they believe that men are more capable than women... If we are going to change, we need to get attention and show that women are just as capable,” she had said.
