Pakistan celebrates country's first woman to conquer K2 summit
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ISLAMABAD • Pakistan's Samina Baig is the first woman from the country to reach summit K2, the world's second highest mountain.
The 31-year-old reached the top of the 8,611m peak early on Friday as part of a seven-member local team, and was followed hours later by a second Pakistani woman, Dubai-based Naila Kiani.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised Ms Baig and Ms Kiani, with his office tweeting that both "have emerged as symbols of courage and bravery".
Bangladeshi female climber Wasfia Nazreen also became the first person from her country to scale the mountain on Friday, her expedition told AFP.
Iranian Afsaneh Hesamifard and Lebanese-Saudi Nelly Attar, meanwhile, became the first women from their respective countries to conquer K2, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said.
Pakistan is home to five of the world's 14 mountains that are higher than 8,000 metres, and climbing them all is considered the ultimate achievement of any mountaineer.
Besides being far more technically difficult to climb than Everest, K2 has notoriously fickle weather, and has been scaled by only 425 people since 1954 - including around 20 women.
More than 6,000 people have climbed Everest since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reached the top in 1953 - some of them multiple times.
In 2013, Ms Baig became the first Pakistani woman to climb Everest.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
