A veteran mountaineer on Thursday became only the second Pakistani to scale Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, local officials said. Hassan Sadpara, born in 1963, reached the summit at around 7:30 am (0230 GMT), Manzoor Hussain, President of the Alpine Club of Pakistan told AFP. “He climbed up from the south route and reached the peak from the base camp in three days.
He was at the top today at 7.30 am and is now returning back.” Sadpara is the second Pakistani to conquer the mountain after Nazir Sabir, who reached the summit in 2000, he said. “We were in touch with him and he told us he hoisted the Pakistan flag at Mount Everest this morning,” said Wazir Jaffar, president of a local mountaineering welfare association.
Pakistan and Nepal are home to some of the world’s highest mountains, but poor security has seen fewer and fewer mountaineers from around the world ascend the peaks on Pakistan’s side of the Himalayas. Around 3,000 people have made it to the top of Everest since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first conquered the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) peak in 1953.
