According to organizers of the Pakistani and Nepalese expedition, Pakistani mountaineer Sirbaz Khan on Tuesday accomplished another historic feat by ascending Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, without the need for additional oxygen.
Khan was born and raised in the mountainous Ali Abad village in Pakistan’s Hunza district. He has already climbed 13 of the world’s 14 8,000-meter peaks, including K2.
According to the Imagining Nepal tour company as well as the Alpine Club of Pakistan, he was a member of the “Imagine Nepal 2024 Everest Expedition” team that, along with 14 other international climbers or 18 sherpas, reached the 8,849-meter-high top on Tuesday morning.
“Congratulations to Sirbaz Khan on properly climbing 8,848.86 meters (29,031.69 feet) on Mount Everest without using supplemental oxygen,” the Alpine Club of Pakistan’s secretary-general, Karrar Haidri, said in a statement.
The Nepal tour company posted on Facebook that the group of 18 sherpas and 14 foreign climbers had reached the summit of Everest in “various hours among NPT 5:15 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. on the morning of May 21, 2024.”
Shahbaz Khan, Khan’s younger brother, claims that Khan’s family in Pakistan celebrated the accomplishment.
“We are overjoyed that Sirbaz reached the summit of Everest today without the need for additional oxygen.” We are enjoying this occasion, and our mother, in particular, is thrilled. Our home has a festive atmosphere, Shahbaz said over the phone to Arab News.
“We say extra prayers for Sirbaz whenever he begins his ascent.” You see, we can’t put our trust in the mountains. But we rejoice when he reaches the summit. We are now extending our prayers for a safe descent for him.
According to his brother, Khan had to postpone his expedition to summit the 8,027-meter Shishapangma peak, the final of the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters, because China would not allow foreign climbers to access the mountain.
He is the first Pakistani to have successfully climbed 11 of the 14 “eight-thousanders” without the use of oxygen in 2021, and he also climbed Everest. With oxygen support, Khan had only reached the summits of Kangchenjunga and Annapurna.
“Well done, @sirbazkhan_mission14, on your ascent of Everest without the need for extra oxygen or a personal sherpa. In an Instagram post, Pakistani woman climber Naila Kiani wrote, “He is now the only Pakistani to climb 11 peaks without Oxygen.”
“After our younger brother @sajidalisadpara, who climbed it last year, Sirbaz is the second [Pakistani after] Sajid Ali Sadpara to climb Everest without oxygen. The only other Pakistani to have climbed Everest twice is Sirbaz. An actual test of human tenacity is scaling Mount Everest without oxygen. Best wishes, Ustad.
