Joy and sadness on K2

Published July 29, 2021

TEENAGE mountaineer Shehroze Kashif continues to scale new heights. On Tuesday, the 19-year-old became the youngest person to summit K2, Pakistan’s highest and the world’s second highest peak, with supplemental oxygen. The feat followed his ascent of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, in May. His achievement needs to be celebrated but the joy has been tinged with sadness — and some relief.

Shehroze reached the summit only a day after the remains of Pakistan’s legendary mountaineer Mohammad Ali Sadpara, along with two climbers, were finally spotted in K2’s ‘bottleneck’ — a narrow gully just hundreds of metres from the summit. Sadpara along with Ireland’s John Snorri and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr had been missing since February when they were attempting a summit in winter. The rescue had to be called off due to bad weather conditions. But Sadpara’s son Sajid — who in 2019 became the youngest person to climb K2 at the age of 20 — became part of another expedition to find his father’s body. Pakistan’s Samina Baig was also attempting to scale K2 this week but had to cut short her expedition due to dangerous conditions.

Mountaineering: ‘A heart as big as K2’

Since the relaxation of Covid-19 rules this year, many foreign climbers have arrived in Pakistan which is blessed with some of the world’s highest peaks. The mountain wilderness here has attracted tourists for long and Pakistan was once an essential stop on the ‘Hippie Trail’ before militancy in neighbouring countries saw a decline in the overland journey from Europe to South Asia. The 2013 massacre of 10 climbers at the Nanga Parbat base camp was another blow but foreign climbers have started coming back in the last few years.

Pakistan’s mountains have a commercial value that remains untapped and Shehroze’s ascent is a sign that the country’s youth is also picking up interest in mountaineering. To keep that interest alive, it’s imperative that the government take steps by incentivising the sport, and empowering the Alpine Club of Pakistan by providing funds as well as helping set up a professional mountaineering school.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2021

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...