Pakistani mountaineer one step closer to summit all 14 8-thousanders
Successful summit of 8,080m Gasherbrum-1 taks Sirbaz Khan's total tally of 8-thousander to 12
August 12, 2022
Pakistan’s acclaimed mountaineer, Sirbaz Ali Khan, on Friday, got one step closer to his target of becoming the first Pakistani to summit all 14 8-thousanders in the world when he successfully summitted Gasherbrum-1, the 11th tallest mountain in the world.
The 8,080m high mountain took the total 8-thousander tally for Sirbaz to 12. The mountaineer now needs to climb Shishapingma and Cho-Oyu to complete his list of 14 eight-thousanders.
"We continue the mission of raising the green flag on top of all 14 highest peaks in the world. Alhamdulilah, earlier this year, I became the first Pakistani ever to summit 11 8,000-meter peaks. Now, it's time for the 12th one: Gasherbrum 1," he had said ahead of his expedition on G-1.
His summit manager, Saad Munawar confirmed on his social media account that Sirbaz had reached the top at around 7:30am PKT and he summitted the mountain without supplementary oxygen.
"Alhamdulilah, another historic achievement as Sirbaz Khan raises the green flag on a record 12th 8,000-meter summit as he summits Gasherbrum-1, today at 7.30am (local time). Sirbaz summited the mountain without using supplementary oxygen. With this summit, Sirbaz has now summited all 8000-metre peaks in Pakistan and Nepal," he said.
"Sirbaz also led a three-member Pakistani team that helped Sohail Sakhi reach his first 8,000-meter peak without extra oxygen," Saad said.
Earlier this year, Sirbaz had scaled Makalu (8,463m) and Kanchenjunga (8,586m).
"I am a native of Hunza and I take pride in where I come from, but the love and respect I received all across the country made me feel like a native of each and every province of our beautiful country. All your support has made me more aware of my responsibilities as well," he had said earlier.
"Mission Summit 14 might have started as a personal goal, but now there is so much more attached to it and I am fully committed to winning honour and pride for my country, my people, and especially the underprivileged mountaineering community of Pakistan," he had said earlier this year.
Sirbaz kicked off his mission 14 summit by scaling Nanga Parbat in the autumn of 2017 and then moved to climb K2 in the summer of 2018. In 2019, he scaled Lhotse, Broad Peak, and Manaslu.
The COVID-19 pandemic did not allow Sirbaz to complete any summit in 2020, but he returned to the mountains in 2021 and reached the top of Mt Annapurna. In the same season, he summited Everest before returning to Pakistan to summit Gasherbrum-2 in the summer of 2021.
Meanwhile, Sajid Sadpara and Imtiaz Sadpara also summited Gasherbrum-1 on Friday. Both Sajid and Imtiaz achieved the feat without the use of supplementary oxygen.
