GILGIT: Pakistani mountaineer Abdul Joshi from Gilgit-Baltistan started final summit push from camp-4 on world’s highest peak Everest (8,849m) in Nepal on Sunday 9pm, targeting to scale the peak by early Monday morning (today) and Pakistani climber Sheroze Kashif has also started to scale the world’s fourth highest peak Lhotse (8,516m) in Nepal.

The expedition organisers are hopeful that Abdul Joshi will summit Everest till 7am on Monday (today) and Sheroze Kashif will summit Lhotse in next two days.

Abdul Joshi from Shimshal valley of Hunza in Gilgit-Baltistan is part of a 13-member Everest expedition team led by Nepalese mountaineer Mingma Gyalje Sherpa (Mingma G) of Imagine Nepal.

Dawa Futi Sherpa, the manager of Imagine Nepal, told Dawn that the team members are Abdul Joshi from Pakis­tan, Liu Wenwei, Hai Qiannan, Feng Jianfei and Zhan Xiongchang from China, Anna Surysheva from Russia, Nathan Peter Longman from Australia, Marina Cortes from Poland, Gabriel Tarso from Brasil, Montana from Thailand, Raju Lama, Ramkumar Shrestha and Suraj Paudyal from Nepal.

Joshi hopes to raise Pakistani flag on world’s top by early morning; Sheroze starts scaling fourth highest peak

The team members departed to summit from camp-4 above 8,000 metres at 9pm on Sunday. The team is expected to reach at top tonight or by 7am on Monday (today).

Ms Dawa said, “I really wish and hope for the successful summit and safe return of the team. The team had started their adventure on April 22.”

According to team leader Mingma G, the team had started their summit from the base camp on Friday. According to their plan, the team reached camp-3 on May 14 and camp-4 on May 15 before starting the final push from camp-4 on Sunday.

After summit, the team will return to camp-4 on Monday (today) and descend to camp-2 on Tuesday and return to base camp on May 18.

“Fingers crossed for the green flag to be raised once again on the Highest Mountain in the World,” stated Abdul Joshi in a post shared on his official Facebook page on Sunday.

In another post, he said: “Let’s pray our path finder crosses this last leg of his very challenging climb in perfect time and safety. Praying for Success... Pakistan Zindabad.”

According to Saad Munawar, Abdul Joshi is one of the strongest and most skilled mountaineers in Pakistan.

Not only Abdul Joshi climbed a number of peaks, he also explored and discovered places that are still unknown and unreachable for others. Known in the community as “Path Finder” for his extraordinary talent of finding new routes, Mr Joshi was the first person in the world to cross F.N/Joshi Pass and Verjerav Pass.

He is also the first Pakistani to summit Annapurna, the tenth highest mountain in the world at 8,091m, in 2021. He also led a 12-member Pakis­tani team to the first-ever summit of Passu cones.

Besides, Shehroze Kashif, a 26-year-old climber who hails from Lahore, started summit push on Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in Nepal, on Sunday.

According to expedition officials, Mr Kashif’s team is expected to summit Lhotse in next two days.

Sheroze Kashif is part of the ‘Seven Summit Treks’ expedition team.

According to his official Facebook page, he reached camp-3 and took some rest on Sunday. He is feeling fit and energetic and is already on his way to Lhotse summit.

Earlier on May 5, he conquered the world’s third highest peak and became the world’s youngest mountaineer to summit the world’s three highest peaks — The Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2022