Pakistani climber world’s youngest to summit all four tallest mountains
Kashif, 20, has made several records, including youngest person to summit K2
The 20-year-old Pakistani climber Shehroze Kashif has become the youngest mountaineer to summit the world’s four tallest peaks after scaling the 8,516 metre Mount Lhotse in Nepal.
“Shehroze summited world’s fourth-highest peak Lhotse 8516m at 5:49am Pakistan time” on May 16, reads the caption on his Instagram account. This was the second more-than-8,000m high summit for Kashif in 11 days.
‘The Broad Boy’
“Congratulations to Shehroze Kashif ‘the Broad Boy’ for your successful climb of Mt Lhotse this morning,” Chhang Dawa Sherpa, head of the tour company that arranged his expedition, wrote on Facebook.
“With the success in Lhotse, Shehroze becomes the youngest person ever to climb four highest 8000ers [Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, and Lhotse].” He is now planning to summit Mount Makalu, the world’s fifth-highest peak.
There are 14 mountains in the world that are over 8000 metres high. These are known as the ‘eight-thousanders’ (8000ers) and are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges across Nepal, China and Pakistan. Summiting all 14 is considered one of the ultimate mountaineering challenges.
On the same day Kashif summited Mount Lhotse, a fellow climber Abdul Joshi raised Pakistan’s flag on the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, as part of a 13-member Everest expedition team. This month, Sirbaz Khan became the first Pakistani to scale 10 out of the world’s 14 eight-thousanders after summiting Mount Kanchenjunga.
Kashif, who hails from Lahore, began his climbing journey at the age of 11 when he summited the peaks ranging between 3,000 and 4,000 metres. At the age of 17, he climbed 8,047m Broad peak, the 12th highest mountain in the world, which earned him the title ‘The Broad Boy’. He was 19 when he became the youngest Pakistani to scale Everest.
Guinness record title
In 2021, Shehroze Kashif has achieved the Guinness World Record title for the world’s youngest person to climb the world’s top two tallest mountains in the same year within three months. He also holds the record for being the youngest person to have climbed K2 — the world’s second-highest mountain.