Daily Times

Serena Hotels hosted a high-profile reception to honor Pakistani mountaineer Sirbaz Khan, who has become the first Pakistani in history to summit nine of the world’s highest 14 peaks measuring over 8000 meters.

The mountaineering supernova has been on a prolific climbing streak this year, having summited four peaks namely Mt. Daulagiri (8196 m), Mt. Everest (8,848 m), Gasherbrum II (8,035 m) and Mt. Annapurna (8,091 m) in quick succession. He has also scaled Mt Lhotse, Manaslu, Nanga Parbat, K-2 and Broad Peak in the past. Sirbaz is on a Mission14 – a quest to become the first Pakistani mountaineer to summit all the 14 highest peaks of the world. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry was chief guest at the reception.

“It is a source of pride for the whole country that Sirbaz has raised the Pakistani flag on some of the highest peaks of the world. We wish him all the success on his Mission14 – he is an inspiration for the whole country,” said Fawad.

“Making an international name in mountaineering will help uplift and bring development to the remote parts of the Northern Areas. I dedicate my success to the support of the whole team including the high and low altitude porters, cooks, helpers and everyone from mountaineering community,” said Sirbaz. Serena Hotels has been supporting Sirbaz’s expeditions under its Adventure Diplomacy initiative that aims to foster adventure sports in the country and provide a supportive environment for the nation’s talented sportspeople to flourish.

“Pakistan has tremendous talent, and Serena Hotels believes in giving this talented people a platform for recognition and support so they may unlock the potential,” said Aziz Boolani in his remarks on the occasion.

Mr. Boolani drew attention to the fact that the Northern Areas of Pakistan were blessed with some of the highest mountains of the world as well as beautiful Alpine terrain drawing hundreds of mountaineers around the world.

“Professional Sherpas and Mountain guides have to be flown in from neighbouring Nepal which triples the cost for the mountaineers while bringing no benefit to our locals,” he said. He said Pakistan needed to set up a mountain careers training institutes affiliated with international bodies. “Serena Hotels would like to explore the possibility of creating an Adventure Diplomacy Group, with Sirbaz at the forefront, to help Pakistan train internationally certified Mountaineering Guides with the support of stakeholders,” he said.