ISLAMABAD, July 1: A Spanish couple and five climbers from Northern Areas, including a woman, have scaled the 6,050-meter high Minglig Sar Peak at Shimshal in the Karakoram ranges.

It was the first ever joint expedition of Pakistan and a foreign team in which a woman climber from Northern Areas participated, said Murtaza Baig, representative of a Lahore-based tour operator, Karavan Leaders Pakistan, that had organised the expedition.

Spanish climbers, Mr Valentin and Ms Easter along with Pakistani climbers — Murtaza Baig, Mehrban Shah, his daughter-in-law Dur Begum, Yahya Baig and Hidayat Karim all from Shimshal valley — reached the summit of Minglig Sar at 6am on June 11.

Dur Begum, a widow became the second woman from Pakistan to scale Mingling Sar. Her husband, the late Ghulam Ali Shah died in 2004 when hit by an avalanche at Chafchingol pass in Shimshal, known as the ‘valley of mountaineers’.

Farzana Jabeen from the same village was the first to scale Minglig Sar along with her two brothers last year.

Valentin has scaled Golden Peak (7,025m). Ms Easter has scaled Nanga Parbat (8,125m) in 2005.

“I am pleased to be a part of ‘visit Pakistan year’. I love people of Northern Areas for their friendly behaviour,” Mr Valentin said. Pakistan has many things for tourists in adventure, religious and cultural tourism, he said.

Ms Easter who has visited Pakistan six times before said: “Pakistan is not new for me. I am happy that women are taking interest in adventure tourism”, citing the success of Dur Begum whom she declared a brave woman.

Dur Begum thanked Allah for giving her the strength to accomplish this mission. On her interest in adventure tourism, she said: “I got an inspiration from my father-in-law and late husband.

After my husband’s death it was my aim to continue his mission to become a famous mountaineer. I will hopefully try to climb more peaks in future”, she vowed.

The expedition was organised by Lahore-based tour operator Karavan Leaders. Murtaza Baig represented KL in the expedition.