Nahida Manzoor, 26, from Zewan, Srinagar, on Tuesday became the first Kashmiri woman to successfully summit the Mount Everest.
The news about Nahida’s successful summit was made public byTranscend Adventures, the company with which she had gone for her maidenattempt to scale the Everest.
“The Fourth summit of the day is Nahida Manzoor along withher Sherpa Guide Nima Kancha. Nahida has been passionate about snow peaks andtook to the mountains at a very young age,” Transcend Adventures posted ontheir official Facebook page.
Nahida and her group left from Everest Base camp for thesummit on Saturday and on Tuesday she scaled the peak. It will take her atleast two days to return to the base camp.
“At present we don’thave full details about the summit as the communication on south side is notgreat. She was part of five member mountaineers apart from Sherpas. Tomorrowmorning we can provide full details,” Transcend Adventures official Kamleshtold Greater Kashmir.
Nahida had on 4 March started crowd funding to support herdream journey.
Soon after Greater Kashmir carried her story about crowdfunding, TCI Max came forward to sponsor part of her journey and then DeputyCommissioner Srinagar also sponsored her. He then played pivotal role inhelping her to get further sponsorship from J&K State Sports Council.
Mount Everest, at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft), is the world’shighest mountain and a particularly desirable peak for mountaineers. More than4,000 people have scaled the summit since Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa TenzingNorgay first conquered the mountain in 1953. Hundreds have also perished. Apartfrom technical hazards and physical ability, the cost of the climb—rangingbetween $25,000 and $40,000—also discourages many.
Nahida completed her Basic Mountaineering Course and AdvanceMountaineering Course (ABVIMAS) from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM).
She has also done Special Mountaineering Course and Methodof Instructions both from NIM. She has so far scaled the 6001-metre-high MountDeo Tibba-Manali and Friendship Peak of Himachal Pradesh (height 5289 metres).In Kashmir she has scaled Mount Mahadev and Mount Tatakooti.
Before leaving for the expedition Nahida had told GreaterKashmir that it was her dream to scale the Everest since she was 10.
“When I started there were hardly any women who went for theexpeditions, trekking and not to think about undertaking training courses inmountaineering. Now the things have changed and I am seeing more and more girlsjoining adventure sport,” she had said.