This is another important step on the long-overdue path to emancipation for Pakistani mountaineers.
Last weekend, in a hotel in the city of Skardu in northern Pakistan, they launched the Karakoram Mountain Guides Association (KMGA), which they proudly announced afterwards as “the first national body created by mountaineers, for mountaineers.”
The more than 100 participants at the founding congress elected Sirbaz Khan to head the new mountain guide association. In early October 2024, he became the first Pakistani to complete his collection of all 14 eight-thousanders. In May 2025, Sirbaz also became the first Pakistani mountaineer to stand on the 14 highest mountains in the world without bottled oxygen.
Association wants to professionalize the mountaineering industry
“ I was not even 18 years old when I started working in the mighty Karakorams. First as a kitchen boy, then as a high altitude porter, and then finally as an expedition leader and alpinist,” writes Sirbaz, who turns 39 tomorrow, Wednesday, on Instagram. “Even though I always loved working in the mountains, there were many things that were not so love-able. The (low) living standards, the (low) wages, the lack of insurance, the accidents and deaths, the miseries of the families left behind. I saw it all. Every single year.”
The new association aims to protect the rights of Pakistani employees in mountain tourism, improve safety standards and mountain rescue, offer training—in short, to make the entire mountain industry in the country more professional and raise the international standing of Pakistani mountaineering to a new level.
Mountaineers and mountain entrepreneurs
Other prominent mountaineers from Pakistan are also members of the KMGA’s governing body. The General Secretary is Mirza Ali, who, together with his sister Samina Baig, turned the first Pakistani sibling pair to climb the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each continent. Mirza founded the commercial Pakistani operator Karakorum Expeditions in 2012.
Sajid Ali Sadpara is now also a mountain entrepreneur. The son of Pakistani mountaineering legend Muhammad Ali Sadpara (who died on K2 in the winter of 2021) founded the expedition operator Sadpara Adventures last October. Sajid has now summited nine eight-thousanders without an oxygen mask. He is one of three vice presidents of the KMGA.
With new self-confidence
In principle, Pakistan is currently undergoing a similar development to Nepal, albeit with some delay: for decades, strong local mountaineers worked only for Western expeditions – often without receiving the recognition they deserved for their performances.
Now, however, young Pakistani mountaineers are pursuing their own alpine goals, opening new routes in their home country and acting with confidence – including as entrepreneurs in the commercial expedition sector. Having their own association, by mountaineers for mountaineers, is only a logical consequence.
