Samina Baig and Naila Kiani have become the first Pakistani women to scale the world’s second highest mountain K2.
Born in Gilgit-Baltistan, 31-year-old Samina Baig, along with her Pakistani team made the successful summit to the savage peak of K2 at 7:42am on Friday. Samina is also the first Pakistani woman mountaineer who had summited the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, in 2013.
Naila Kiani followed Samina Baig and became the second Pakistani woman to summit K2. She and Samina Baig were among a group of mountaineers summiting the world’s second highest peak.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has felicitated Samina Baig for climbing K2. In a tweet on Friday, the premier said that Samina Baig emerged as a symbol of determination, courage and bravery for Pakistani women.
According to media reports, the progress of mountaineers en-route to summit K2 was halted because of extreme weather conditions. Several mountaineers including Abdul Joshi of Hunza had to abort their summit plans, while others for the weather clear to make the summit.
Samina Baig, Naila Kiani, Wajid Nagri, Steffi Trouget, Sirbaz Ali and Kristin Harlia had waited for rope-fixing along with better weather conditions.
The K2 summit is 8611 meters high and only 200 meters short of the world’s tallest summit to Mount Everest.
Social media has applauded the effort of Samina Baig with many users praising the courageous feat.
