Samina Khayal Baig, a renowned mountaineer, has achieved a remarkable feat by becoming the first Pakistani woman to reach the summit of K2, the world’s second highest mountain. Accompanied by a local team of seven members, the 31-year-old successfully reached the top of the 8,611-meter (28,251-foot) peak on Friday.
Following her, Naila Kiani, a Pakistan woman based in Dubai, also reached the summit a few hours later. Additionally, several climbers from different countries, including female climbers from Oman, Lebanon, Iran, and Taiwan, accomplished the same feat on Friday morning.
Pakistan is home to five of the world’s 14 mountains that exceed 8,000 meters in height, and conquering all of them is considered a remarkable achievement for any mountaineer. K2, also known as the “savage mountain,” is the second highest peak in the world and is notoriously challenging to climb due to its technical difficulty and unpredictable weather.
Since 1954, only around 425 people, including approximately 20 women, have successfully scaled K2. In contrast, Mount Everest has been climbed by more than 6,000 people since its first ascent in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
