Pakistan’s Saad Munawar scales Mount Everest

Pakistani climber Saad Munawar has summited Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak at 8,848 metres, it emerged on Saturday.

Munawar hoisted Pakistan’s flag at the top of the world’s tallest mountain earlier this morning. He achieved the remarkable feat under the supervision of Dawa Gyalje Sherpa.

Earlier, he had summited Mount Aconcagua.

Last week, mountaineer Sirbaz Khan made history by becoming the first and only Pakistani to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks without the use of supplemental oxygen, completing the monumental achievement on Sunday with his successful ascent of Kangchenjunga.

Sirbaz, a resident of Hunza valley, summited the 8,586m peak at 11:50am local time, marking the culmination of a years-long quest. While he had previously climbed all 14 of the "eight-thousanders," he had used bottled oxygen on two of those earlier ascents near the summit.

To achieve the no-oxygen distinction, he returned this season to climb Annapurna in April and Kangchenjunga in May, both without artificial oxygen support.

"Even though I had summited all 14×8000m peaks in the world, there was still something missing," Sirbaz had said when he arrived at Annapurna earlier. "When I first announced my project after summiting Nanga Parbat in 2017, my aim was simple: 14×8000m summits without using O2, and that's why I returned."

He is among an elite group of around 70 climbers worldwide who have summited all 14 peaks above 8,000m. Less than 25 have done so entirely without supplemental oxygen, a feat that demands extreme endurance in the oxygen-deprived "death zone" above 8,000m.

His achievement comes in less than a year after he initially completed all 14 peaks, a milestone that had already cemented his place as one of Pakistan’s greatest high-altitude climbers. However, he sought to push further by re-climbing the two peaks where he had previously relied on oxygen.