KARACHI: Two female climbers from Norway and Taiwan successfully reached the summit of Nanga Parbat, the world’s 9th highest mountain peak (8126m), on Friday morning. The feat also marks the first major summit in Pakistan of the season.
Karrar Haidri, the secretary of Alpine Club of Pakistan, confirmed to The News that the climbers Kristin Harila of Norway and Grace Tseng of Taiwan reached the peak in the morning at around 11:00am PST.
Both the climbers were joined by Nepali team-members who were also part of the excursion as climbers, thus, making a tally of climbers who reached the summit of Nanga Parbat to seven.
Kristin was accompanied by Pasdawa Sherpa, Dawa Ongju Sherpa and Chhiring Namgel Sherpa while Grace Tseng was joined by Nima Gyalzen Sherpa and Ningma Tamang Dorje. 36-year-old Kristin Harila from Norway set a world record by becoming the fastest woman climber of Mount Everest and Lhotse in less than twelve hours in May this year. She is aiming to become the first woman in the history and the second person ever to climb all 14 peaks above 8,000m in just six months.
Only 44 people have reached the summit of all 14 peaks; if Kristin manages to scale, she would be the first person to do so from a Scandinavian country. She hopes to match or surpass the record of Nepali adventurer Nirmal Purja, who did it in 2019 in only six months and as many days.
“I am feeling great. Nice weather, 11.5 hours since camp four. I am glad to have completed the first peak in Pakistan," Kristin said in a message from the summit of Nanga Parbat before descending to the base camp.
29-year-old Grace Tseng is the first Taiwanese to scale Nanga Parbat. She is the first female in the world to climb Kanchenjunga in autumn season and also the youngest female to climb Annapurna without supplementary oxygen at the age of 29.
Pakistan’s young mountaineer Shehroze Kashif is also aiming to climb Nanga Parbat in the next few days. He completed camp one rotation on Friday and will now aim for camp two. Meanwhile, Andorra’s female mountaineer Stefi Troguet is ascending Broad Peak. She reached at 6,100m camp two on Friday on the 8,051m high Broad Peak. Stefi is aiming to climb Broad Peak and K2 without supplementary oxygen.