Young Pakistani climber scales world's 8th tallest mountain

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan's youngest mountain climber on Saturday added another feather to his cap, summiting the 8,163-meter (26,78 feet) Manaslu peak in Nepal.

"This morning, Shehroze Kashif summited Manaslu, 8163m above sea level, in Nepal at 5:40 a.m. Pakistan time (0040GMT)," the Alpine Club of Pakistan, the country's official mountaineering organization, said in a statement.

Kashif, who has already scaled the world's two tallest mountains, has now become the youngest Pakistani to scale four peaks higher than 8,000 meters after climbing Manaslu -- the eighth tallest mountain peak in the world.

This May, Kashif scaled Mount Everest, making him the youngest climber to summit the top of the world.

Two months later in July, he scaled K2, again making him the youngest-ever Pakistani to climb the world's second-tallest peak.

- Broad boy

Hailing from the northeastern city of Lahore, Kashif is only the sixth Pakistani to scale Mount Everest. Among them, Samina Baig is the only woman climber to achieve the feat in 2013.

The son of a local businessman, Kashif started climbing at age of 11, gradually scaling peaks ranging from 3,000 meters to 8,000 meters before ascending Mount Everest and K2.

In 2013, he scaled the 3,885-meter (12,746-foot) Makra Peak, situated in Pakistan's northwestern Mansehra district, while just 11 years old.

His 2019 expedition to the 8,047-meter (26,401-foot) Broad Peak, located in Pakistan's northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, earned him the title "The Broad Boy."