Nanga Parbat was his eighth summit of an 8-thousander
Pakistani mountaineer Shehroze Kashif has set another record by becoming the youngest climber in the world to summit the Nanga Parbat – the 9th highest peak in the world which scales up to 8,126 meters.
The 20-year-old mountaineer, who is also the youngest in Pakistan’s climbers’ community, has already scaled seven of the world’s 14 highest mountains and Nanga Parbat was his eighth summit of an 8-thousander.
President met Kashif in June
Earlier in June this year, President Dr. Arif Alvi met Kashif and praised him and his fellow climber, Abdul Joshi, for their commendable performance in mountaineering, which the president referred to as a difficult sport. Alvi also directed the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination and the Pakistan Sports Board to play their special role in promoting mountaineering in Pakistan and help out Kashif and Joshi in terms of career development.
Lack of government support
However, Kashif did not seem to be happy with the government support and revealed that he never got the prize money announced by the government.
“After I summitted Mount Everest, nobody even received my phone call,” the young climber told a media channel last month. “I was supposed to receive Rs5 million as a reward for climbing Everest, however, I have not even received Rs1 million so far.”
Lack of funds could hamper the mission
The passionate climber intends to claim the title of the world’s youngest mountaineer to summit the 14 eight-thousanders. Kashif aims to summit five more eight-thousanders by the end of this year, but his mission could be jeopardized due to a lack of sponsorship and government support.
“I’m forced to take loans in order to pursue mountaineering and make records for Pakistan,” he added. “My father sold his house and a plot to support me in the past but now even he is unable to fund me.”
Kashif’s recognitions
In 2021, Kashif was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world’s youngest climber to summit the world’s two tallest mountains in the same year. He was recognized for climbing the 8,849-metre-high Mount Everest in Nepal and the 8,611-metre-high K2 in Pakistan.
Recently, he also became the youngest mountaineer ever to scale the world’s top five highest mountain peaks. He achieved the feat after climbing the Makalu peak in Nepal – 8463m-high –the fifth highest mountain in the world last month.
Kashif’s summit bag
Kashif, also known as the ‘The Broad Boy’, is vying to become the world’s youngest mountaineer to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. So far, he has summitted:
- Mount Everest
- K2
- Kangchenjunga
- Lhotse
- Makalu
- Manaslu, and
- Broad Peak
- Nanga Parbat