The four-member Pakistani team that successfully completed the Annapurna expedition. — Photo courtesy: Sirbaz Khan Instagram
Overcoming “tons of snow” and a thunderstorm, climbers Sirbaz Khan and Muhammad Abdul Joshi became the first Pakistanis to summit the 8,091-metre Annapurna peak in Nepal on Friday.
The Sirbaz-Joshi duo made the first summit push on April 13 but were unable to succeed as ropes could not be fixed. The second summit push on April 14 was again unsuccessful as the team ran out of rope at Camp IV (6,900m). For the Pakistani team, it was a case of ‘third time lucky’ and at 1:17pm on Friday, Sirbaz and Joshi were standing on top of Annapurna, according to details shared by their teammates on social media.