Mission 14: Sirbaz Khan summits world’s 6th highest peak

Pakistan's ace mountaineer Sirbaz Khan Monday achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first Pakistani to summit 13 peaks exceeding 8,000 meters.

The talented climber accomplished the feat by scaling Cho Oyu, a towering peak standing at 8,188 meters, ranking as the world's sixth highest.

This feat brings Sirbaz Khan within touching distance of his ambitious "mission 14." The announcement of his triumph was made by Imagine Nepal, the expedition organisers, this afternoon, adding that Khan and his team, including another Pakistani climber Naila Kiani, reached the summit at 12:30pm Nepal Time.

Sirbaz’s team, too, confirmed the expedition.

"We had been waiting for this day for so long. Finally, the green flag is raised for the first time on an 8,000m peak in Tibet. Sirbaz Khan summits Cho Oyu and leads the Pakistani mountaineering community to another milestone,” said Saad Munawar, Sirbaz's manager.

Speaking about Sirbaz's summit, Munawar said he began his summit push from c1 last night and reached it today in the afternoon without using supplementary oxygen.

"He has now become the first and only Pakistani to summit 13 8,000m peaks and the first and only Pakistani to summit 10 8,000m peaks without using supplementary oxygen," he added.

Sirbaz will now move to Shishapangma — which stands at 8,027m and is the world's 14th highest peak — to complete his mission of scaling all 14 peaks of over 8,000m.

Last month, Khan successfully summitted Gasherbrum-1, the 11th tallest mountain in the world.

The 8,080m high mountain took his total 8-thousander tally to 12. He had then aimed to climb Cho-Oyu and Shishapingma to complete his list of 14 eight-thousanders.

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.