Climbing every mountain

It might not mean much to a cricket-obsessed nation but Pakistani mountaineers have slowly but steadily carved a name for themselves amongst mountain-climbing enthusiasts. Of those who have done exceedingly well in this field, the sibling duo of Samina Baig and Mirza Ali command a great deal of respect. At the age of 22 Samina became the first Pakistani woman to climb the summit of Mt. Everest. She also holds the honour of being the youngest ever woman to have achieved this feat.

Recently, the brother and sister scaled another peak, Mt. McKinley – the highest mountain of North America – on 28th June 2014. They are now on the way to their final destination in Russia to complete the Seven Continental Peak schedule. If they do so they will become the only siblings in the world with this achievement to their name. According to Wikipedia, “The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Summiting all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first postulated as such and achieved on April 30, 1985 by Richard Bass.” In Asia the highest mountain is of course, Mt. Everest, Aconcagua in South America (Argentina), Mt. McKinley in North America (Alaska), Kilimanjaro in Africa (Tanzania), Elbrus in Europe (Russia), Mt. Vinson in Antractica and Puncak Jaya in the Australian continent (though it technically lies in Indonesia).

Mirza Ali wrote the following Facebook message after climbing McKinley:

“Dear Family & Friends, I am extremely happy to share with you all that me & my little angel and super brave sister, with our dear Ankur bhai from India, made it to the top of Mt.McKinley, the highest mountain of North America on 28th June 2014 at 7.20 pm local time. It took us 15 and a half hours for the return climb. After facing extremely harsh weather for nearly five days at Camp IV 17200 ft above ground, we just had a one day weather window and the mountain and nature was very kind to accept us to the top of the mountain. Otherwise the weather situation is extremely harsh and unpredictable. We are very blessed to be the first & siblings from Pakistan to reach the top of Mt. Denali. We are also very blessed to have completed the 6th continent/Mountain of our Adventure Diplomacy!”

This year on 19th March, the sibling had reached the top of “Puncak Jaya”.

The Alpine Federation International said regarding their achievements:

“In December 2013, they climbed Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest peak in South America. The Alpine Club of Pakistan reported that the duo arrived at the top of Aconcagua – which is 6,961 meter (or 22,838 feet) high. In January 2013, they conquered the highest peak, Mount Vinson, in Antarctica. Baig and Ali successfully scaled the 4,892-metre Mount Vinson in the planet’s southernmost continent around 1 am PST as part of a five-member team”, declared the Alpine Federation.

Samina Baig, age 23 years, was born in Shimshal-Gojal in 1990, the border valley between the Pakistan-Chinese borders at northern Pakistan’s newly born Province Gilgit-Baltistan. The young Samina started climbing in her native Shimshal valley with her friends and brother for a decade.

The Shimshal-Gojal is situated in Upper Hunza in the Karakorum Range, which is famous for mountaineering. To a question she responded “I am an Arts student and have loved mountaineering since my childhood”.

She called her Mount Everest climb an achievement for all the women of Pakistan and called it “the best way to spread the message of gender equality”.

In 2010 Samina became the first person to scale the 6,000-metre Chashkin Sar peak in northern Pakistan and the mountain is now named “Samina Peak” in her honour. Samina said, “The environment at Shimshal empowered us to keep ourselves in mountaineering and all Shimshalis love it. It was my dream to become the first Pakistani woman to climb Mt. Everest after I met my ideal Nazir Sabir who was the first Pakistani to reach the summit of Mount Everest.