Pakistani mountaineer Sirbaz Khan has achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first person from Pakistan to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks without using supplemental oxygen. He completed this extraordinary feat on Sunday by reaching the summit of Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain.
Khan, who hails from Hunza Valley, reached the 8,586m summit of Kangchenjunga at 11:50 am local time. While he had previously climbed all 14 “eight-thousanders,” he had used bottled oxygen during two of those climbs. Determined to complete the project without artificial oxygen, he returned this year to re-climb Annapurna in April and Kangchenjunga in May — this time entirely without supplemental aid.
“When I first announced this goal after summiting Nanga Parbat in 2017, my aim was clear: to scale all 14 of the world’s 8,000m peaks without using oxygen. Even though I had already summited them all, something still felt incomplete,” Sirbaz shared earlier this year.
Fewer than 25 climbers globally have summited all 14 of the world’s highest mountains without supplemental oxygen. Sirbaz now joins this elite group, demonstrating extraordinary stamina and resilience in the so-called “death zone” above 8,000 metres, where oxygen levels are critically low.
His journey began with Nanga Parbat in 2017, and over the years, he steadily added some of the world’s most formidable peaks to his list. He climbed K2 in July 2018, followed by Lhotse in May 2019, becoming the first Pakistani to summit the 8,516m peak.
Later in 2019, Sirbaz scaled Broad Peak and Manaslu — the latter making him only the second Pakistani to reach its 8,163m summit. In 2021, he made history again by becoming the first Pakistani to summit Annapurna and later Mount Everest.
In July 2021, he led an all-Pakistani team to the top of Gasherbrum II and went on to become the first Pakistani to conquer Dhaulagiri in October the same year.
His momentum continued in 2022 with successful ascents of Kangchenjunga and Makalu, followed by Gasherbrum I. In 2023, he added Cho Oyu to his accomplishments, and by summiting Shishapangma in October 2024, he had officially completed the list of all 14 peaks.
To achieve the oxygen-free distinction, he courageously returned this year to reattempt the two climbs he had previously completed using bottled oxygen — Annapurna and Kangchenjunga — ultimately fulfilling his original mission.
