Samina and her brother completed their trek up Mount Everest. PHOTO: theyouthrepublic.com
Mountaineer Samina Baig has become the first Pakistani woman to scale Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain with a peak at 8,848 metres.
Baig completed the climb to the summit at around 7:30am local time with her brother Mirza Ali, who becomes the third and youngest Pakistani male to scale the mountain.
Nepal Mountaineering Department official Tilak Padney said that 35 foreigners accompanied by 29 Nepalese Sherpa guides reached the peak after climbing all night from the highest camp on South Col -- the pass between Everest and a neighboring mountain.
Ali (29) and Baig (21) are natives of Shimshal village in Hunza valley, Pakistan. Ali has been climbing since age 15, and he was Baig's mentor, guide and support.
On his personal blog, Ali stated that this climb was the "First Pakistani Gender Equality Mt Everest Expedition".
Samina Baig and her brother climbing Everest. PHOTO: Pakyouthoutreach
Description of climb
From Mirza Ali's blog
"Once at base camp, we will begin our acclimatization trips. This involves climbing to Camp 1, staying the night, then returning to base camp to rest, then climbing to Camp 1 and staying the night and climbing on to Camp 2 and staying the night, before returning to base camp and so on up to Camp 3.
Once our acclimatisation trips have finished, and assuming we are in good health and super fit physically and mentally, we'll be ready to try for the summit, which should be mid May. We will wait for a good weather forecast or 'window' for the possible summit attempt."
Pakistan, India flags fly together
Indian twin sisters Tashi and Nugshi were also at the top of the Everest with Baig and Ali. By hoisting Pakistani and Indian flags side by side, the four South-Asians hoped to spread the message of Pak-India peace and friendship.
Samina Baig with Tashi and Nugshi during Acclimatization phase
COMMENTS (56)
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great gojali are climb the largest mount of snow ,we proud .& congratulations........
I am PROUD of YOU my dear!
v proud the doughter of Hunza/
Congratulations; Ms. Samina Khayal
May Allah be with you, Ameen.
cool yr may *allah bless you
Samina Baig has nothing to do with Masti baig. masti baig belonged to central Hunza while Samina Khayal Baig belongs to Shimshal, Gojal tehsil in upper Hunza. Shimshal is known for the world class mountaineers, like Rajab Shah, Meherban Shah, Samina Baig's uncle Yousaf Khan, Muahmmadullah, Shaheen Baig, Qudrat Ali, Qurban Muhammad, and many more.
congratulation samina u r the glittering diamond of GB
Congratulations Baigs! You both have made this nation proud especially all Ismaili Muslims and provided us with an opportunity to cheer and rejoice amid all the turmoils facing this nation. May Allah be with you, Ameen.
“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” Which for sure you have achieved, this certainly brought laurels to you both, family and above all to our beloved country Pakistan. Congrats Bravo we are proud of YOU Samina & Ali. May Almighty fulfill your desires. Ameen! Are you by any means related to Masti Baig ? If so my regards to him & the family.
Congs Ali and Samina . We are proud of you. Aslam
Our women are second to none if given a chance and facilities. Hopefully more women would inspire for excellence in their fields. We are proud of our women sisters.
You make the Ismaili community proud
@kaalchakra: Did Islam inspire you too go to Mount Everest? It just shows given freedom a Muslim woman can do any thing like her non-Muslim sisters. She was lucky her brother was a climber, otherwise she would not have been allowed to go. What she did had nothing to do with Islam. Most people who had climbed Mount Everest are not Muslims. You can claim what talibans do has everything to do with Islam.
Hope, it is not against Islam. And please do not take the opinion of the idiot mullahs in this regard. Slowly kick them out of your day to day activities. Do the things which you really enjoy, "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara".
Congratulation to the young achievers.
Congratulations to both Ms. Samina Khayal and Mr. Mirza Ali on successful scalling of Mount Everest, the World's tallest mountain. Oh yes, it is easy to say a few encouraging words to praise your achievement and courage. But it is more important to realize your contributions to Gender equality, untiring efforts, and strong determination to take the nation's flag so high that today not only the inhabitants of Shamshal, Gojal but every citizen of this nation has felt pride because of your achievements. We love you both our brother and sister....May Almighty Allah Bless you with more such succeses in the time to come....
Proud of you Dear Samina and Ali, Congrats to all Gilgit Baltistan .. Especially to hunzai's
You made us proud Samina and Mirza. Congratulaitons!!!
No officials,no coaches,no sponsorship, it is pure talent, a talent from Gilgit Baltistan(GB). It is time to wake up call for the government to give least 10% attention to youth of GB as compared to rest of the country.The youth of Gilgit Baltistan Extremely loyal to Pakistan will portray the image of Pakistan to the world in a constructive form (as against an image of terrorism and extremism of Pakistan prevail in the world) as already did it by our daughter of GB.
Congrats, Samina and Mirza!! Great achievement.
Congratulations on this great achievement. You are a symbol of empowerment of women in this country. This nation is proud of you, may Allah bless you.
Congratulation. It's a big victory. Now a Pakistani women has shown the world that she is useful. Those who claimed Pakistani society to be a disfunctionel society should die with shame. Example said British journalist during interview with the ex-primi ministe Yoursuf Raza Ghilani that we are. So die with shame. Insha'allah we will raise our voices against injustices and against the evil people. Our voices would be hearing rrom all over the world PTI forever. Long life Khan!
Many congrats to Samina and her bro, its so sad that Pakistani media is too busy in showing elections and meaningless programs and they do not have any time to telecast her wonderful achievement. Our media is desperately trying to convert a great nation into one who constantly criticizes its own people. Hiding achievements of ppl like Samina and glorifying terror,self pity is not helping this wounded nation.
Amazing and inspirational. It shows how Islam inspires women to achieve great goals and achieve impossible things. Congratulations and keep it up.
@ Ahmed, its true that these expeditions are expensive but its not true that only rich people attempt to climb mountains and those who cannot afford stay behind. Most of the climbers who have conqured mountains are not wealthy people. Determination, passion and courage are first and foremost requirements to climb a mountain. Money is as important as its important for other things.
Great achievement..Congratulations to both Samina and Mirza.. We are proud of you both....!
Of course it's more than just an achievement .. To stand tall on the highest point on the planet Earth, undoubtedly, is not KHAALA JI KA BAARA irrespective of the fact "THE MORE YOU PAY, THE HIGHER YOU GO". I would second the concern of Mr. Ahmed above that due to rapidly-escalated human race in order to climb the mount, Everest's Base Camp (Nepalese side) is the 2nd nastiest Base Camp in the world (after Mt. Blanc) and Khumbu Ice Fall is one of the most increasingly-depleted glacier in the world. In addition to the record of Samina Khyal Baig being 1st Pakistani female climber, Mirza Ali also gets his name registered in the list of those climbers who scaled Everest without supplemental oxygen. Mirza Ali is also the youngest Pakistani male climber of Everest (though the list is a shorter one).
Awesome achievement!! Congrats, Samina and Mirza. Very inspirational.
Ambitious or not, all Pakistani women should learn an important lesson from Samia Baig's achievement, that is, even when you are scaling a Mountain have a male escort from the family.
Well done. Proud of You.
Its a proud moment for Pakistan ! Our heartiest congratulations to Samina and Mirza . We are proud of you . May you bring many more such moments for Pakistan . Pakistan Zindabad paindabad!
@Ch. Allah Daad: Freedom to choose for people only with money is causing overcrowding at everest, which is a greater risk in itself since most of the people climbing have no experience to begin with and are left to the mercy of mountain.
@Bilal Khan: I don't disagree with you, it's a very difficult job indeed. it's just climbing Everest has become more of hobby, for rich people. Why do people with no climbing experience look into climbing Everest ? Hundreds of people climb every year, most of them are adventure junkies, who climb because they can afford to climb.
Traffic on Everest is also a major problem, specially when you have a very small climbing window for summit and hundreds of people waiting, it course creates a greater risk.
go through these articles:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/nepal/9290288/Survivor-of-Mount-Everest-disaster-blames-overcrowding.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/30/everest-mountaineer-crowding-hobby-tragedy
@Ahmed: Yes, there are expeditions every year but they're till base camps. Not sure about Everest but anyone can go to K2 base camp. But ahead from there, you need to be a trained person to climb such mountainns. Please correct your facts before posting on public forums!
Bravo!!
what a great success! congrats to Samina, Ali, their family members, friends and all community members, the regionGB and the country.
**its not an easy job......we are proud of u.....samina
Salute to brave wards of Gilgit Baltistan and specially the HUNZUKUZ for flattering the Pak flag at Mt Everest. Mirza Ali deserves loads of appreciation for making such a daunting task possible. All praise and appreciation to Samina for her determination and courage for undertaking such a challenging adventure. She is now a role model for all female in Pakistan and honestly she has made history in such a young age. Well done and keep it up.
Congratulations Samina Baig & Mirza Ali on this achievement. Samina you have made us; women of Pakistan, really proud today :-)
well done to both of you!
@Ahmed: Sir I humbly disagree with you. You seem to be completely ignorant by hiking or mountain climbing at this altitude. Scores of people have died trying to accomplish this monumental task and some have never been able to do this despite repeated attempts. You make it sound like a trip to the grocery store. At least give the person the credit they deserve!!
Wow )))
great... well done!!!
Congratulation Samina.
This is an extra ordinary job had ever done by any Pakistani women.
This proves that Pakistani girls and women can perform any job assigned to them.
There are examples of Pakistani women who are serving in armed forces and in different other fields in the country.
God Bless You, Samina. AMEEN.
Samina is a big Fan of Imran Khan and PTI; she spoke to a local journalist before departure to Nepal. Visit www.pamirtimes.net
MA, power to the women!
Awesome! So proud! We need more like her!
You don't have to be a mountaineer to climb Mt Everest, there are expeditions taking off annually every year, if you can afford it.
You made us all very Proud. Best wishes!
way to go samina. Pakistan is proud of you