Sirbaz Khan becomes first Pakistani to climb 9 of the 14 highest mountains in the world

Mountaineer Sirbaz Khan on Friday became the first Pakistani to climb nine of the world's 14 highest peaks, each more than 8,000 metres high, after he scaled the 8,167-metre-high Dhaulagiri mountain in Nepal, said the Alpine Club of Pakistan Secretary Karrar Haidri.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan took to it’s Twitter handle to announce Khan’s achievements and congratulate him.

In a Facebook post, Haidri stated that the 32-year-old Sirbaz hails from Aliabad, Hunza and began his professional climbing career in 2016.

“Sirbaz became the first Pakistani to summit Mount Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest mountain at 8,516m in Nepal without the use of supplementary oxygen,” he wrote.

His other 8,000m summits include K2, Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak, Manaslu, Anapurna, Everest Gasherbrum II, and now Dhaulagiri.

According to Haidiri, Khan had accompanied Muhammad Ali Sadpara on 4 of his 8,000-metre summits and their last expedition together was from Nepal to Manaslu.

Sajjad Ali Sadpara, son of the legendary climber Muhammad Ali Sadpara, also took to Twitter to congratulate Sirbaz.

“Lots of congratulations to @Sirbazkhan to climb Daulaghiri. After summitting Daulaghiri he is first Pakistani to summit nine 8,000 mountains,” he wrote.

Last month, Sirbaz had announced his departure for Nepal to attempt Mount Dhaulagiri – the world’s seventh-highest peak.

Sirbaz was confident of his chances, being on a prolific climbing streak already having summited Mount Everest (highest peak of the world) and Mount Annapurna (tenth highest peak) in quick succession earlier this year.

The mountaineer said he was looking forward to his expedition and reaching closer to the dream of his mentor Ali Sadpara, who had a similar dream of scaling the 14 highest peaks but tragically lost his life earlier this year during a winter expedition to K-2.