Samina Baig, a Pakistani climber, was the first woman in Pakistan to summit K2, and more than 20 other women had already accomplished the feat when she raised the green and white flag of her nation atop the peak last month.
The 8,611-meter-tall K2 summit, which is the second-highest mountain on Earth and is situated on the boundary between Pakistan and China, is also known as the Savage Mountain due to its severe weather and steep terrain, making it one of the hardest mountains in the world to climb.
Fewer than 20 women have climbed K2 before last year. Baig said, “I still can’t believe I was the first Pakistani woman to reach the top of Mount K2.”
According to the Alpine Club of Pakistan, which aids in organizing the climbs and provides emergency response, Baig was one of a record-breaking 87 climbers from Asia, the Middle East, and Western nations who summited K2 on July 22.
But according to Baig, the government has to upgrade the infrastructure if it wants to attract even more climbers to Pakistan.
We have a lot of tourist potential. All we need to do is concentrate on the infrastructure, she remarked. “We have various kinds of tourism in the nation, whether it’s winter sports or adventure tourism.”
This was Baig’s third attempt to reach the top of K2, which is one of the Seven Summits, the seven highest mountains on each continent.
She discussed the difficulties of climbing K2 and paid tribute to three climbers, including renowned Pakistani climber Muhammad Ali Sadpara, who perished on the mountain last year after going missing and for whom the government had launched an extraordinary, weeks-long rescue operation involving the military and mountaineers from other countries.
It’s a very, very difficult peak, according to Baig, who received the Pride of Performance Award for climbing Everest successfully in 2013. The weather comes in first, followed by the mountain’s hazardous terrain and the threat of rockfall and avalanches.
Additionally, Baig was delighted to see more women becoming interested in mountaineering.
Increasingly than 20 women summited K2 this year, which is incredible and demonstrates that women are becoming more interested in adventure sports, which were previously thought to be dominated by males, according to Baig. “I am really delighted to see all these amazing ladies climbing enormous mountains from diverse nations.”
These 20 climbers included Grace Tseng, 29, of Taiwan, the youngest female mountaineer in history, and Lebanese climber Nelly Attar, the first Arab woman to reach the top of K2.
In a message to women, Baig added, “You have to work hard and you have to believe in yourself.” “In this world, nothing is impossible.”
