ISLAMABAD: Two Pakistani high-altitude climbers, Naila Kiani and Shehroze Kashif, were rescued from the 10th tallest mountain in the world on Tuesday after they set new records by summiting its peak a day before.
At the height of 8,091 meters above sea level, Mount Annapurna in Nepal is widely considered to be one of the toughest climbs and has claimed the lives of over 60 mountaineers who were striving to make an ascent.
Kiani, a Dubai-based Pakistani mountaineer who became the first female climber from her country to summit its peak on Monday, got stranded above 7,000 meters with Kashif, whose latest ascent made him the youngest climber at the age of 21 to have summited 11 out of 14 “eight-thousanders,” as they were on their way back to the base camp.
“Great news,” said Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, in a brief statement. “The efforts to rescue the two mountaineers who were stranded on Annapurna at 7000m have been successful. A helicopter was dispatched from Katmandu to the higher camps of Annapurna, and the climbers have been safely picked up and taken to Annapurna Base Camp. Thank you to all the friends for their support and assistance in this matter.”
Earlier, Haidri mentioned both climbers by their names while asking people to pray for their safe return.
Last week, Pakistani mountaineer Sajid Ali Sadpara successfully summited Mount Annapurna without supplemental oxygen.
Sadpara, the son of Pakistan’s late iconic high-altitude mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara, has already summited K2 (8,611 meters) twice as well as Nepal’s Manaslu (8,163 meters) along with Gasherbrum-I (8,080 meters) and Gasherbrum-II (8,035 meters).
