LAHORE: A documentary on record-breaking Pakistani mountaineer Shehroze Kashif and his inspiring journey, titled Above the Sleeping Giant, was launched at a local hotel.

The 21-year-old mountaineer has scaled 13 out of total 14 8,000 metre plus highest mountains of the world. His last mission completed was scaling the sixth highest peak Cho Oyu in Tibet, an autonomous region in China, last year. Shehroze’s next target is to scale Shishapangma, an 8,027 meter high peak in Tibet, after which his Mission 14 will be completed.

By successfully scaling Shishapangma, Shehroze Kashif will become the first mountaineer to summit 14 peaks higher than 8,000 meters at the age of 21.

By reaching the top of ‘True Summit’ of Manaslu, which is part of Nepalese-Himalayas, last year in September, he has also become the youngest Pakistani to climb it. This was the second time Shehroze scaled this mountain as he had climbed Manaslu in September 2021 first time, but two days after it was revealed that the actual summit point — which was later identified as the ‘true summit’ — was a few metres ahead than the spot that was considered the summit point.

Shehroze, born in Lahore on March 11, 2002, became the youngest climber in the world to summit K2 on July 27, 2021. He became the youngest Pakistani to summit the Mount Everest on May 11, 2021. After the successful summit of Mount Everest, the Sports Board Punjab made him the youth ambassador of Punjab. He started his journey by submitting first mountain name Broad Peak at the age of 17, after which he was called ‘The Broad Boy’.

He currently holds two Guinness World Records for being the youngest to climb K2 and the youngest to climb Broad Peak. He started climbing mountains at the age of 11 with the first one being Makra Peak, followed by Musa Ka Musalla and Chembra Peak at age 12, Mingli Sar in Shimshal at age 13 and Khurdopin Pass at age 15 and Khosar Gang in alpine style at 18 years of age.

On May 5, 2022, Shehroze became the youngest in the world and the first Pakistani to reach the summit of Kangchenjunga -- the third highest peak in the world, followed by the world’s fourth-highest peak, Lhotse (8,516m), in Nepal. On 28 May 2022, Kashif and Sirbaz Khan summited 8,485 metres Makalu, the world’s fifth-highest peak, in Nepal.

In July 2022, Sehroze Kashif and Fazal Ali went missing between Camp 4 and Camp 3 after successfully submitting Nanga Parbat. However, the duo was discovered shortly after.

Sponsored by Bilquis and Abdul Razak Dawood (BARD) Foundation, Shehroze Kashif’s documentary highlighted all the achievements of this young mountaineer.

The documentary is set to inspire audiences globally sharing the triumphs and challenges of Shehroze’s achievements.

Abdul Razak Dawood and Mehreen Dawood said such events were organised to highlight the success stories of the hero of the nation. They said Shehroze was a pride of Pakistan and BARD would continue to promote the younger generation to contribute to the bright future of the country.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2024