GILGIT: Pakistani climber Shehroze Kashif, 26, on Thursday made history by becoming the youngest person in the world and first in his country to reach the summit of Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak (8586m) in Nepal.

The Lahore resident was accompanied by Namja Bhote, Purnima Shrestha and Ming Temba Sherpa of Nepal, Rudi Bollaert of Belgium and Ariunzul Chuluunbaatar of Mongolia in the expedition organised by Seven Summit Treks.

Mr Kashif already has the distinction of being the first youngest person in the world to scale two highest peaks, including Everest (8849m) and K2 (8611m).

Alpine Club of Pakistan secretary Karrar Haidri said the Kanchenjunga summit by Mr Kashif was reported at 3:05pm PST on Thursday.

The organisers said from logistics to base camp management to gear arrangements to information sharing, Shehroze had done everything single-handedly on expeditions unlike other mountaineers, who got the services of a manager.

They said Mr Kashif had reached the base camp of Kanchenjunga on April 15.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan and Pakistani mountaineers congratulated Mr Kashif for his accomplishment.

Meanwhile, Sirbaz Khan of Gilgit-Baltistan began his Kanchenjunga summit push on Thursday for the second time this week. He had established the base camp at 5,500 metres on April 5.

Expedition organiser Saad Munawar told Dawn that Mr Sirbaz Khan and other members of his team had begun the climbing journey on April 27.

He said the team had to return to the base camp due to deep snow and bad weather and for getting late.

Mr Munawar said the team had planned to scale the peak today (Friday).

Published in Dawn,May 6th, 2022