Naila Kiani, a Dubai-based mountaineer, scaled the 8,485 meters of Mount Makalu, the fifth-highest peak of the world on Sunday, becoming the first woman in the country’s history to scale 11 peaks above 8,000 metres.
Mount Makalu is situated in the Mahalangur range of the Nepal Himalayas, southeast of Mount Everest. The magnificent peak is 8,485 meters (27,838 feet) high. Kiani's new accomplishment makes her the first and only Pakistani woman to summit eleven peaks above 8,000 meters.
She has already summited Broad Peak (8,047 meters), Annapurna (8,091 meters), K2 (8,611 meters), Lhotse (8,516 meters), Gasherbrum 1 (8,068 meters), Gasherbrum II (8,035 meters), Nanga Parbat (8,125 meters), Mount Everest (8,849 meters), Manaslu (8,156 meters), and Cho Oyu (8,201 meters).
Kiani is a banker by profession who lives in Dubai and has two children. Her wedding pictures taken at K2 Basecamp went viral on social media in 2018, propelling her to prominence. In March of this year, the Pakistani climber got Pakistan's third-highest civilian honor, the Sitara-e-Imtiaz, for scaling Mount Everest.