Shehroze Kashif, a Pakistani mountaineer, moved closer to his goal of becoming the youngest person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders in the world after successfully summiting Nepal’s Dhaulagiri-I, the world’s seventh-highest mountain.
Kashif began his final summit attempt Tuesday night and summited Dhaulagiri-I early Wednesday morning, bringing his total of eight-thousanders to 12.
The 21-year-old is now the youngest person in the world to have climbed 12 peaks higher than 8,000 meters. There are 14 such peaks in total, and Shehroze must climb two more, Cho-Oyu (Nepal-China) and Shishapangma (China), to reach his goal.
If Kashif succeeds, he will break the record held by Nepal’s Mingma David Sherpa, who is now the youngest person to climb all 14 summits above 8,000 meters. The Nepalese climber accomplished the feat at the age of 30.
Kashif has become the youngest Pakistani to reach the peak of Dhaulagiri-I. Sirbaz Ali Khan, a prominent climber from Hunza Valley, had previously become the first person from the country to stand atop the 8,167m mountain.
Kashif is also the second youngest person in the world to climb Dhaulagiri-I, following Britain’s Adriana Brownlee. Brownlee was 20 years and 10 months old when she reached the summit of the seventh-highest peak in 2021.
Kashif, nicknamed “Broad Boy” for climbing the 8051m high Broad Peak at the age of 17, holds the record for being the youngest climber to summit numerous summits over 8,000m, including K2 and Kangchenjunga.
After summiting Broad Peak in July 2019, the 19-year-old climber will attempt Mount Everest in 2021. In the same year, he reached the summits of K2 and Manaslu. Kashif summited Kangchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum-I and Gasherbrum-II in 2022.
The teenage mountaineer scaled Annapurna earlier this year.
The climber and Pakistani climber Niala Kiani summited Annapurna in April of this year.
However, both Pakistani climbers were rescued from the peak which stands at 8,091 meters, after their descent was disrupted due to bad weather.
