Teen becomes youngest Pakistani to scale Everest

ISLAMABAD: A teenager has become the youngest Pakistani to climb Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain.

Shehroze Kashif, 19, reached the summit of Mount Everest — 8,848.86 metres (29,031.69 feet) — this morning, Nepalese mountaineer Chhang Dawa Sherpa announced on his Facebook page.

“ALHAMDULILLAH ALHAMDULILLAH. Received the text confirmation from Shehroze Kashif. History has been made !!!!!!!!! Ma Sha Allah Shehroze has summited Everest,” the update of Kashif’s page announced.

Nepal closed the mountain in March last year due to Covid-19, but reopened for this year’s climbing season starting in April, issuing a record of 408 permits granting access to the peak.

Foreigners climbed Mount Everest for the first time on Tuesday since Kathmandu reopened the mountain after it was shut last year due to the pandemic, despite recent coronavirus cases at its base camp.

38 climbers — including 10 Bahraini and two British mountaineers — climbed the world’s highest mountain on Tuesday, according to hiking companies.

It comes as a few climbers were evacuated from the Everest base camp in April after they fell sick with Covid-19 symptoms as Nepal battles a devastating second wave of coronavirus infections.

“12 foreign climbers scaled Sagarmatha today,” Tourism Department official Mira Acharya told Reuters from the base camp, referring to the Nepali name of the peak.

China will set up “a line of separation” at the summit of Mount Everest to prevent the mingling of climbers from Covid-hit Nepal and those ascending from the Tibetan side as a precautionary measure, Chinese state media reported on Sunday.