He was part of the up-and-coming young generation of Pakistani mountaineers. “In the high mountains, making the right decision is crucial, but even more important is believing in yourself,” wrote Shah Doulat in summer 2024, after he had successfully led an expedition to an eight-thousander for the first time as the main person in charge on Gasherbrum II. On Friday, Shah fell to his death.
According to the Pakistani newspaper “The Dawn,” the 29-year-old mountain guide was ice climbing with a foreign client near the village of Khyber in the Hunza Valley. Doulat slipped on the ice and fell 400 meters, the report said. Locals were only able to recover his body. The mountaineer was just 29 years old.
Samina Baig: “A gem in our family”
Shah came from the Shimshal Valley in the Hunza region. He was “a true gem in our family,” writes his cousin, the well-known Pakistani mountaineer Samina Baig, on Instagram.
In 2013, she became the first woman from Pakistan to climb Mount Everest and, a year later, the first from her country to stand on the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each continent.
In 2022, Samina also scaled K2, the second-highest mountain on earth, together with her cousin Shah Doulat. “(As) A young mountaineer he achieved so much in such a short life, touching many hearts with his courage and gentle spirit,” writes Baig.
He dedicated his first eight-thousander to his deceased cousins
Doulat dedicated his summit success on K2, his first one on an eight-thousander, to his cousins Jehan Baig and Karim Meherban, who had lost their lives on the same mountain in 2008.
With a total of eleven deaths, it was one of the greatest tragedies on the second-highest mountain on earth. Because of the accident, Shah’s family initially forbade the then 11-year-old from continuing to climb mountains. But his passion for the mountains could not be curbed in the long run.
Without breathing mask on Nanga Parbat and Gasherbrum I
At the end of 2021, Shah founded his own expedition company, Summit Experts. In 2023, he also scaled Nanga Parbat – without bottled oxygen. “An epic ascent that pushed me beyond limits,” he wrote afterwards. “This journey was a true test of real alpinism.
Facing every challenges and proving that in the mountains we find our strength.”
In 2024, Doulat summited Gasherbrum II. In 2025, he stood on Gasherbrum I, his fourth eight-thousander, once again without an oxygen mask.
For this summer, he had planned a double expedition to K2 and Broad Peak. The latter was still missing from his collection of Pakistan’s five eight-thousanders. It remains unfinished.
Shah Doulat’s humble credo on the mountain, which he formulated on Instagram a little over a year ago, will hopefully live on after his untimely death: “Move in silence. Let your action do the talking.”
