SIRBAZ Khan has achieved what no other Pakistani has before him. The scale of his accomplishment also makes him one of the few in the world in this category of mountaineering. It has been an eight-year journey during which he has entered the ‘death zone’ on 14 occasions to become the first Pakistani mountaineer to have summited all 8,000m peaks in the world — and without bottled oxygen. His successful ascent of Nepal’s Kangchenjunga on Sunday completed his set. The 38-year-old Hunza native had also scaled the mountain in 2022 but with oxygen support; Sirbaz’s unwavering will to do it on his own lung capacity took him back to Nepal. Last month, he also went back to summit the Annapurna because his previous ascent was achieved with supplementary oxygen. After Kangchenjunga, his name will be in the history books.

Some 20 years ago, when he was in ninth standard, Sirbaz went to the K2 base camp as an assistant cook. Eventually, he became a high-altitude porter, a job that involves carrying the load for climbers and comes with little recognition or pay. But Sirbaz’s life took a turn in 2016 when he got a sponsor for an expedition to K2. It was ultimately unsuccessful but Sirbaz then summited Nanga Parbat in the autumn of 2017 before returning to finish his ascent of K2 a year later. Since then, there has been no stopping him and in pursuing his goal, he has also fulfilled the dream of his mentor — the late Ali Sadpara, who died in an attempt to scale K2 in the winter of 2021. Sirbaz has made Pakistan proud by raising its flag on the world’s highest peaks. It is time for the country to give him his due. His feat should be celebrated, and he must get the recognition he deserves — in addition to the support and facilities that are needed to train Pakistan’s next generation of mountaineers.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2025