LAHORE: The country’s youngest mountaineer to summit the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, is now on his way to the second highest peak, K2.

On Saturday, Shehroze Kashif, 19, set off from Skardu for Askole from where he is scheduled to reach the K2 base camp site after around a five-day trek.

“This is a 30-day expedition to one of the most difficult mountains in the world that I’m undertaking now. I’m the only Pakistani in this group of around five people going on this journey with Summit Karakoram and a Nepalese organiser. God willing, on being successful I’ll become the youngest climber in the world to summit K2,” shared a pumped Shehroze with Dawn over the phone from Skardu.

Upon reaching Everest exactly two months ago, on May 11, Shehroze had become the fourth youngest mountaineer in the world to have summited the world’s highest mountain. Before reaching the 8,848.86-metre peak, the teen also had the honour of being the youngest Pakistani to have climbed the 8,047-metre Broad Peak at the age of 17, which earned him the title of ‘Broad Boy’.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2021