ISLAMABAD: Two men, Sirbaz Khan and Muhammad Abdul Joshi, became the first Pakistani climbers to summit the 8,091-metre high Annapurna peak in Nepal .
According to media reports they began the first push to the summit on April 13 but didn’t succeed as the ropes were not fixed to the top. The second push began the next day, which again was unsuccessful as the duo ran out of ropes.
Following this, a helicopter was called to bring them down to Camp IV of the peak at 6,900m.
According to the team’s social media updates, Friday evening, amid “thunderstorms” and “tons of snow”, Khan and Joshi left from the base camp again. At 1:17pm today, they became the first Pakistanis to stand on top of Annapurna. The climbers hail from Hunza.
The summit was dedicated to mountaineer and porter, Muhammad Ali Sadpara, who lost his life in the winter expedition to K2 in late March.
Joshi, Khan, expedition manager Saad Munawar and photographer Kamran on Bike left for Nepal earlier this month.
In a social media post, Munawar said, “This is not the success of the climbers only but (of) the mountaineering community of Pakistan. Time has come for our Unsung Heroes to get the respect, recognition, and appreciation that they deserve.”
This summit is dedicated to our big brother and the best mountaineer Pakistan ever produced: Muhammad Ali Sadpara, he added.
