First-ever: All-girls Pakistani team summits Rupal Peak

Karachi: A team of female climbers, mostly from Karachi, created history last week when their group became the first ever all-girls team to scale 5,642 metre Rupal Peak in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The team was led by Paras Ali and the other member who were successful in summit the peak included Sohniya Babar, Sana Jamil, Hafsa Asad and Sonia Nisa. Rupal Peak is in western Himalaya and lies in south of Nanga Parbat. It is also used by climbers to acclimatise with conditions before summitting other peaks.

Paras Ali told Geo News after her successful summit that she was proud to achieve the summit and leading the first ever female team to summit that peak. “It was a technical climb and I am glad that we managed it,” she said.

“I wanted to do something different and then did some research on Rupal Peak, got to know that no other female team has ever summitted this peak. So, I decided to attempt that,” Paras added.

Another climber Sana Jamil expressed her delight on her Instagram saying “still can’t believe, we did it.”

Team member Hafsa Asad commented that she feels so proud to be one of the members of 1st Pakistani Girls Team who Summited Rupal Peak. “It was the indeed the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life but it was all worth it at the end,” she commented.

Sohniya Babar described the summit as “difficult but not impossible.” The team, after reaching the top, also raised Pakistan’s flag and chanted slogans of Pakistan Zindabad atop Rupal which is greatly overshadowed by Nanga Parbat from Rupal face.