KARACHI: On Sunday, Pakistani mountaineer Sirbaz Khan reached the summit of Kangchenjunga, making him the first and only person from his nation to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter summits without the use of oxygen.
After years of searching, Khan, a Hunza Valley inhabitant, finally reached the 8,586-meter peak at 11:50 a.m. local time. Despite having already climbed all 14 of the “eight-thousanders,” he had made two previous ascents close to the summit using bottled oxygen.
He returned this season to climb Annapurna in April and Kangchenjunga in May without the use of artificial oxygen support in order to earn the no-oxygen distinction.
“Even though I had summited all 14×8000m peaks in the world, there was still something missing,”
