SKARDU: Three young Pakistani girls made a world record by climbing the 6,0­80-metre Manglesser pea­k in the Shimshal valley in the Karakoram mountain range.

The conquerors of Manglesser peak — 13-year-old Amina Hanif, 14-year-old Maryam Bashir and 15-year-old Siddiqa Batool, all residents of the Hushey valley in Gilgit-Baltistan — are granddaughters of famous local climber Little Karim.

Take a look: Scaling new heights

The young climbers accompanied by their grandfather Little Karim, Mohammad Hanif and nine other climbers, including four foreigners, succeeded in putting their feet on the summit of the Manglesser peak on July 24.

Amina, Maryam and Siddiqa are granddaughters of known mountaineer Little Karim

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday after their arrival from the successful expedition, Amina, Maryam and Siddiqa expressed gratitude to their grandfather. They said: “If our grandfather did not motivate and encourage us we could not have made history and become young female climbers in the mountaineering world.”

“This is the start of our career and in future we wish to scale the world’s loftiest peak Mount Everest and K2, the second,” Amina resolved optimistically.

Mohammad Hanif, father of Amina and Maryam, said that they started their expedition on July 16 and after a great deal of effort his daughters succeeded in reaching the top of Manglesser peak on July 24. He thanked Marya Marco of Spain for her support and guidance which made the expedition successful.

Little Karim, who is also a record-holding climber, has expressed satisfaction and pleasure on the success of his granddaughters. He said he had launched this expedition to encourage women of Gilgit-Baltistan in the field of mountaineering. “It will no doubt create mountaineering and climbing trend among women in Baltistan as they are brave and hardworking,” Karim hoped.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2018