LAHORE: Mountaineer Sirbaz Khan became the first Pakistani on Friday to climb nine of the world’s highest 14 peaks — each of which has a height of more than 8,000 metres — after he scaled the 8,167-metre-high Dhaulagiri mountain in Nepal, said Alpine Club of Pakistan Secretary Karrar Haidri. Sirbaz was part of the 19-member ‘SST-Dhaulagiri I Expd. 2021 Autumn’ expedition organised by trekking company Seven Summits Trek. According to Seven Summit Trek officials, the climbers summited the world’s seventh highest peak on Friday morning, with Sirbaz raising Pakistan’s national flag upon reaching the mountain’s top. Dhaulagiri, which forms part of the Himalayas mountain range, is widely known as one of the hardest peaks to climb due to its steep sides and bitterly cold climate. As Sirbaz achieved the feat, congratulations poured in for him. Sirbaz, 32, hails from the Aliabad area of Hunza in Gilgit-Baltistan and began his climbing career in 2016. In 2019, he became the first Pakistani to summit Mount Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest mountain at 8,516m in Nepal, without the use of supplementary oxygen.