Gilgit: Two Pakistani climbers are aiming to reach the top of Nepal’s 8,586-meter Kangchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak.

Sirbaz Khan of Gilgit-Hunza Baltistan’s area and Shehroze Kashif of Lahore, the youngest climber to reach K2, are both tackling the peak in separate attempts to become the first Pakistanis to accomplish so.

Both climbers have reached the critical stage and hope to reach the summit by the end of this month.

Mr Sirbaz built the base camp at 5,500 meters on April 5, according to Saad Munawar, the organiser of Pakistani Expedition Kangchenjunga 2022. Sirbaz claimed that they had arrived at Camp 2 on Saturday and was attempting to climb the mountain before the end of the month.

Kangchenjunga is third highest mountain in the world, and the most easterly of the 8000 meter peaks of the Himalaya. The name means Five Treasures of the Great Snow, a reference to its five summits. The name is also spelled Kanchenjunga, but according to the Himalayan Journal article, people who know the Tibetan language strongly insist that the ‘g’ should be there. The huge massif of Kangchenjunga is buttressed by great ridges running roughly due east to west and north to south, forming a giant ‘X’. These ridges contain a host of spectacular 6-7000 meter peaks. On the east ridge in Sikkim, is Siniolchu (22,600′ / 6888m), regarded as one of the most beautiful mountains in the world.

Sirbaz said on his Facebook page that the previous three weeks had been extremely difficult for him since the mountain had pushed him to his limits. He stated that he was looking forward to the last summit push since he felt strong, confident, and hopeful.

Meanwhile, on April 15, climber Shehroze Kashif arrived at Kangchenjunga’s base camp.

Mr Kashif stated on social media that he spent the night in Camp 2 on Saturday amid terrible weather conditions and temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius.

He claimed to have gone halfway up Camp 3 and then returned to the base camp on Sunday.

News source: Dawn News.