In a triumphant moment for Pakistan’s climbing community, Saad Munawar has scaled the mighty Mount Everest, standing tall at 8,848 metres.
Early Saturday morning, he reached the peak and planted the national flag at the top of the world — marking yet another daring conquest under the guidance of legendary mountaineer Dawa Gyalje Sherpa.
Munawar had previously summited Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America, steadily building his high-altitude legacy.
His accomplishment comes just days after fellow mountaineer Sirbaz Khan made mountaineering history. The climber from Hunza became the first and only Pakistani to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks without the use of supplemental oxygen — a feat achieved by fewer than 25 climbers globally.
Sirbaz completed this grueling no-oxygen mission last Sunday by scaling Kangchenjunga (8,586m) at 11:50am local time. While he had already summited all 14 peaks by 2023, two of those climbs involved bottled oxygen. Refusing to let that detail undermine his ultimate goal, he returned this year — summiting Annapurna in April and Kangchenjunga in May without any artificial oxygen support.
“When I first announced this project after summiting Nanga Parbat in 2017, my aim was simple — 14×8000m peaks without O2,” said Sirbaz. “Even though I had climbed them all, something still felt missing.”
Now, both climbers stand tall — not just atop mountains, but in Pakistan’s mountaineering legacy. As Saad Munawar celebrates his Everest triumph, and Sirbaz Khan redefines endurance in the perilous “death zone,” Pakistanis have two new reasons to look up — literally and figuratively.