By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan's Sirbaz Khan on Monday ascended Cho Oyu peak in Tibet, China, the world’s sixth highest peak, becoming the first Pakistani to climb 13 mountains above 8,000 meters (26,247 feet).
Khan and his teammate Naila Kiani climbed the 8,188 meters (26,863 feet) Cho Oyu peak in over 28 hours using a marathon alpine-style climb, and without supplementary oxygen, said Alpine Club of Pakistan, the country's official mountaineering organization, in a statement.
Kiani became the first Pakistani woman climber to summit 10 peaks above 8,000 meters, the statement added.
After his latest feat, Khan has only left Shishapangma mountain to accomplish his dream of becoming the first Pakistani to climb all 14 peaks above 8,000-meter in the world, Alpine Club Secretary General Karrar Haidri told Anadolu.
Shishaspangma is the 14th-highest mountain in the world, at 8,027 meters (26,335 feet) above sea level.
He is followed by Shehroze Kashif and Kiani, who have ascended 12 and 10 summits above 8,000-meter, respectively.
Khan, 32, is from the scenic Hunza valley in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, which borders China. He only started climbing in 2016.
In 2019, he became the first Pakistani to summit Mount Lhotse, the world's fourth-highest mountain at 8,516 meters (27,940 feet), in Nepal, without the use of supplemental oxygen.
Moreover, he summited the 8,125 meters (26,657 feet) Nanga Parbat in 2017, the 8,611 meters (28,251 feet) K2 in 2018, and in 2019, Broad Peak at 8,163 meters (26,782 feet).
Last year, he scaled the 8,091 meters (26,545 feet) Mount Anapurna, the 8,035 meters (26,362 feet) Gasherbrum II, and the 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) Mount Everest – the world’s tallest peak.
Kiani, a Dubai-based Pakistani banker and a mother of two, gained prominence after images of her wedding shoot at the K2 base camp in 2018 went viral on social media.