Islamabad: Banker, boxer, and mother of two Naila Kiani on Sunday summitted Mount Everest, becoming the second Pakistani woman to raise her country’s flag at the world’s highest peak, media reports said.
Scaling up to 8,849 metres, she reached the summit at 8.02 a.m. on Sunday, along with Pasang Temba Sherpa. She has also become the first non-Nepalese climber to reach Everest’s summit this mountaineering season, Geo News reported.
Samina Baig was the first woman mountaineer from Pakistan to scale the Everest in 2013.
Kiani is the only Pakistani woman to scale five eight-thousanders – which now includes Mount Everest – all within a span of two years. Before this, she climbed Annapurna I in Nepal, K2, Gasherbrum I and II.
She is now aiming to scale 8,516m high Lhotse, the fourth tallest mountain in her current visit to Nepal.
Kiani was among the two Pakistani mountaineers who had been rescued on their way down to Mount Annapurna last month. She was accompanied by the world’s youngest mountaineer Shehroze Kashif on their ascent to 8,091 metre high peak in Nepal.
A day after reaching the mountain top, the two climbers were rescued as their descent was disrupted due to bad weather.
With Annapurna ascent, Kiani became the first woman from South Asia to achieve the feat, as per Geo News.
–IANS