ISLAMABAD, May 12: Hassan Sadpara, a climber from Baltistan, scaled Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, on Thursday, becoming only the second Pakistani to do so.

“I am determined to hoist Pakistan’s flag atop Mount Everest any time in May and quite confident of doing it,” Sadpara told Dawn before leaving for the mission in March.

According to a statement issued by the Alpine Club of Pakistan, Sadpara did not have an oxygen kit with him when he made it to Everest peak.

Nazir Sabir was the first Pakistani who climbed Everest in the year 2000.

By climbing Everest Sadpara has become the first Pakistani to have climbed six peaks rising above 8,000 metres. He has to his credit K-2 (8,611m), Nanga Parbat (8,125m), Gasherbrum-I (8,068m) Broad Peak (8,048m) and Gasherbrum-II (8,035m).

“Hassan Sadpara hoisted Pakistan’s and Alpine Club’s flags on the world’s highest summit 8,848 metres high Mt Everest at 0730hrs PST and we received his last message in the morning,” club president Colonel Manzoor said.

Talking to Dawn, he said that Sadpara’s satellite phone batteries were not working properly but the last message he got from base camp was “Hassan is all fine and doing good…… completing his mission and as per the latest information he is descending to camp-IV”.

Col Manzoor said that taking full advantage of good weather and his better acclimatisation skills Sadpara literally ‘raced’ from Everest’s base camp – 5,300 metres – to camp-IV, reaching there by 5pm on May 11.

“Later, he started from camp-IV for the summit at 9:30pm the same day and after climbing throughout the night he reached the Everest summit in the morning at around 7:30PST,” Col Manzoor added.

Pakistan Everest Expedition 2011 left Islamabad on March 30 to climb Everest from its south side in Nepal. Sadpara, the expedition’s lead climber, was able to establish Camp-I (5,900m) by mid-April and reached Camp-III (7,200m) on May 3.

Col Manzoor said a three-member assistance team – comprising Mohammad Ali Changezi, Mohammad Sadiq and Ghulam Mohammad Faisal – was stationed at the base camp.

In 2009, Sadpara approached President Asif Ali Zardari through the Alpine Club of Pakistan and got a grant of Rs6.5 million for the daring mission.

Although the grant could not be released for almost for 18 months due to red-tapism at the federal sports ministry and Pakistan Sports Board, Sadpara got it finally released in the club’s name in November 2010. The colonel said the team would return to Pakistan in 12 to 15 days.

Pakistan and Nepal are home to some of the world’s highest mountains.

Around 3,000 people have made it to the top of Everest since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first conquered the peak in 1953.