His teammate, Naila Kiani, became the first Pakistani woman climber to summit four peaks above 8,000 meters
Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Sindh, Pakistan
A Pakistani climber on Monday became the world’s youngest mountaineer to summit 11 peaks above 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) after he climbed Mount Annapurna in Nepal, the 10th-tallest mountain on earth, a mountaineering association said.
Accompanying an eight-member team, Shehroze Kashif, 21, made the ascent of the 8,091-meter peak in Nepal between 6.30 a.m to 7.30 a.m. local time (0045-0145GMT), the Alpine Club of Pakistan, the country’s official mountaineering organization, said in a statement.
Congratulations to Naila Kiani, the FIRST Pakistani woman on the summit of Annapurna I (8091 m). Kiani achieved this feat earlier this morning 17.04.2023 NPT, according to the expedition organizer Seven Summit Treks. Photo showing Naila Kiani on the summit of Mt K2 (8611 m),… pic.twitter.com/2zUtU9rMnM
— Everest Today (@EverestToday) April 17, 2023
His teammate, Naila Kiani, became the first Pakistani woman climber to summit four peaks above 8,000 meters, the statement added.
Kashif, 21, made history when he summited K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain, in July 2021 to become the youngest climber in the world.
He also became the youngest Pakistani to summit Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, in May 2021.
Broad boy
Hailing from the northeastern Pakistani city of Lahore, Kashif is only the sixth Pakistani to scale Mount Everest. Among them, Samina Baig is the only woman climber to achieve the feat in 2013.
Kashif, the son of a local businessman, started climbing at the age of 11, gradually scaling peaks ranging from 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) to 8,000 meters before ascending Mount Everest and K2.
In 2013, Kashif scaled the 3,885-meter (12,746-feet) Makra Peak situated in Pakistan’s northwestern Mansehra district, while he was just 11 years old.
His 2019 expedition to the 8,047-meter (26,401-feet) Broad Peak in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region earned him the title “The Broad Boy.”
He is also the youngest mountaineer in the world to climb Broad Peak.
Last year, Kashif and his teammate Fazal Ali went missing after successfully summiting Nanga Parbat Peak in Gilgit-Baltistan. The duo was found shortly after.
‘Mom climber’
Kiani, a Dubai-based Pakistani banker and a mother of two, gained prominence after images of her wedding shoot at the K2 base camp in 2018 went viral on social media.
Kiani, an amateur boxer, also summited Gasherbrum-II, 8,035 meters (26,361 feet) above the sea level, in 2021, and ascended 8,068-meter (26,470 feet) Gasherbrum-I and K2 in July 2022.
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Aamir Latif is a Karachi-based senior journalist. He represents Anadolu, a Turkish news agency.
Courtesy: Anadolu Agency (Posted on 17.04.2023)
