An eleven-member team of world’s top skiers reache Islamabad on Saturday to participate in a week-long heli-skiing event titled “Pakistan Pure Discovery” that would kick-off in Skardu.
The event is being organised by Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) in collaboration with Walkabout Films, the only film production company of the country focusing on extreme sports events, wildlife and natural heritage.
It is a unique event as skiers from across the globe would be skiing in the Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan, an area where no one has ever skied before.
Briefing the media at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, ISPR Director General Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said that the purpose of the event was to showcase the spectacular beauty, challenging peaks and potential of extreme sports in the northern areas of the country.
“The event is meant to restore mountain tourism for international tourists in Pakistan to bring peace and stability in the region,” he said.
He said “Pakistan Pure Discovery” was a set of heli-skiing events that would ‘hold the best that Pakistan has to offer’.
He said Pakistan Army had taken the initiative to promote trekking, mountaineering and skiing in the country.
“These skiers belong to France, Canada, Russia, Serbia, Ireland and Switzerland and most of them have volunteered themselves to come Pakistan and participate in the event,” he added.
Bajwa said that the skiing event would be organised every year on a regular basis. He also invited country’s youth to come forward and participate in healthy activities of mountaineering and trekking.
All members of the heli-skiing team are certified and qualified professionals. Their team leader is Brice Lequetier who hails from France.
In an otherwise all male team, the only woman was Samyra Rashid of
Pakistan. She in not only among the first skiers to ever ski this territory, but will be the first woman to do so. She will also be the only Pakistani skiing with the team.
