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.
Continue reading “Pakistan’s mountain guides establish their own association”
