Pakistani mountaineering trio takes on eighth highest peak Manaslu

ISLAMABAD: A trio of accomplished Pakistani mountaineers climbers Shehroze Kashif, Sirbaz Ali Khan and Naila Kiani is embarking on a challenging expedition to conquer Nepal’s Mount Manaslu, the world’s eighth highest peak.

According to Geo, while Shehroze and Sirbaz are no strangers to this imposing summit, Naila Kiani is setting her sights on a historic accomplishment – her ninth ascent of an eight-thousander.

An intriguing twist surrounds the previous achievements on Mount Manaslu. It was recently revealed that past summits by Shehroze and others did not reach the actual peak point. Shehroze Kashif first conquered Manaslu in September 2021 at the age of 19. However, within two days, it was discovered that the summit point they had reached was not the true summit, which lay a mere 10 metres ahead.

Despite the validation of these summits by Nepalese mountaineering authorities, Shehroze Kashif made a resolute decision. He opted not to include his previous Manaslu conquest in his ambitious “14 mountains project” and resolved to ascend the world’s eighth highest peak once more.

Currently in Nepal, Shehroze has completed his rotations on Manaslu and is scheduled to embark on his summit push on Monday, with hopes of conquering the actual summit by the 20th.

He shared his motivation, stating: “As I promised to climb Manaslu again, now this is the time to fulfill my promise. Even though I didn’t include my previous summit of Manaslu in my ’14 project,’ I feel it is my duty as a climber to go back and raise my country’s flag on top of the real summit of Manaslu.”

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Alongside Shehroze, Sirbaz Ali Khan, who successfully scaled Manaslu in 2019, is also at the mountain’s basecamp, determined to reach the genuine summit of the peak. Remarkably, both Shehroze and Sirbaz have already conquered 12 of the 14 peaks exceeding 8,000 metres in the world, including their earlier Manaslu climbs.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s celebrated female climber Naila Kiani is aspiring to become the first Pakistani woman to conquer Mount Manaslu. After completing her acclimatization rotation, Kiani joined Sirbaz and Shehroze at the Manaslu base camp.

She holds the distinction of being the first and only Pakistani woman to have scaled eight peaks exceeding 8,000 metres, and if successful, Manaslu will mark her ninth conquest. Her ultimate goal is to achieve the remarkable feat of becoming the first Pakistani woman to ascend all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres.

Adding to the excitement, a Lahore-based husband-wife duo is also embarking on the challenging ascent of Manaslu. If they achieve their goal, they will become the first Pakistani couple to conquer any 8,000-metre peak together, further enhancing Pakistan’s remarkable presence in the world of high-altitude mountaineering.