GILGIT: Pakistani mou­ntaineers Sajid Ali Sad­para and Naila Kiani started their journey towards the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, on Saturday evening, aiming to reach the top by Sunday.

If everything goes well, the two climbers who are ascending the mountain separately will be at the top of the mountain this morning.

Sajid Sadpara, the son of the legendary mountaineer late Muhammad Ali Sadpara, reached Camp 4 on Saturday and started his summit push in the evening. Karar Haidri, general secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told Dawn that Mr Sadpara will be the first Pakistani to summit the world’s tallest mountain without additional oxygen and sherpa support.

Mr Sadpara has already summited several high peaks, including K2 (8,611m), Gasherbrum-I (8,080m), and Gasher­br­um-II (8,035m) in Pakis­tan, as well as Manaslu (8,163m) in Nepal, without supplemental oxygen. His ultimate goal is to climb all 14 eight-thousanders without the aid of supplemental oxygen.

Naila Kiani, who is a member of Imagine Nepal team, also started her summit push of Everest with Nepalese sherpas in the evening.

In her last message before the push, the climber said she was leaving for Camp 4 shortly from where she would move towards the summit.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, who is considered to be the fastest climber, is the head of Imagine Nepal. He told Dawn that the team had started the summit push on Saturday.

He said if everything goes under the plan, the team will successfully summit the peak on Sunday.

Alpine Club official Karar Haidri said Naila Kiani is the first Pakistani woman to summit four peaks of over 8,000m.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2023