A second group of climbers summited Kangchenjunga today, eight days after the first group.
The new summiters include Sirbaz Khan, who has thus become the first Pakistani to climb all 14 8,000m peaks without supplemental oxygen.
Khan, 35, was born in the Hunza region of Gilgit-Baltistan, close to the Karakoram peaks. He began his climbing career in 2016.
He had already summited Kangchenjunga in 2022 but used oxygen part of the way down.
“With this new summit, achieved with no-O2, he has finished the quest,” Eberhard Jurgalski of 8000ers.com confirmed.
Other summits
Khan was part of an Imagine Nepal team. Other successful teams include:
- Emma Oestergaard of Denmark and Pasang Tenje Sherpa with Seven Summit Treks
- Ecuadorian guide Oswaldo Freire with three Mexican clients and three Nepali support guides with 14 Peaks Expedition
- Sunil Kumar of India with Nima Tashi Sherpa, Keval Hiran Kakka of India with Chhatemba Sherpa, and Eichul Chung of South Korea with Chetan Tashi Sherpa and Jambling Sherpa, all with Pioneer Adventures
These 17 climbers exceeded the 10 climbers who summited 8,586m Kangchenjunga, the third-highest peak on Earth, on May 10. Meanwhile, another group is now between Camp 3 and Camp 4 and should reach the top in the next two days.
