Shehroze Kashif became the youngest Pakistani to climb all 14 of the world’s eight-thousanders on 9 October 2024, when he stood on the summit of Shishapangma in Tibet at the age of 22. The Lahore-born climber is only the second Pakistani in history to complete the full set of peaks above 8,000 metres, finishing just six days after Sirbaz Khan became the first, and his five-year campaign began when he was a schoolboy who had talked his way onto Broad Peak at 17.
The Last Peak: Shishapangma
Shishapangma, at 8,027 metres, is the lowest of the 14 giants and the only one lying entirely inside Tibet. For years it was also the most frustrating for climbers chasing the full set, because Chinese permits were scarce and the mountain stayed effectively closed to foreign teams. Both Pakistani climbers had to wait for it. When the mountain finally opened in autumn 2024, the two men travelled together, and Sirbaz Khan reached the top on 3 October to become the first Pakistani to complete the 14. Shehroze Kashif followed on 9 October, on a summit day organised by Seven Summit Treks when 29 climbers reached the top and twelve of them, from Nepal, Pakistan, Japan, Poland, Britain, Russia, Taiwan, France, Romania and Italy, completed their own sets of 14. Among them was Nepal’s Nima Rinji Sherpa, at 18 the youngest person ever to finish the 14, and of the twelve who completed their sets that week, only Nima Rinji and France’s Alasdair McKenzie, at 20, were younger than the 22-year-old Pakistani. It is a reminder of how exceptional the company is: in all of climbing history, only a few dozen people have stood on every eight-thousander.
The shared finish had its own symmetry. Sirbaz Khan, from Hunza, had completed his other 13 eight-thousanders earlier and, like Kashif, was left waiting on the one peak that permits kept out of reach. In September 2024 the two men began their final Shishapangma campaign in the same expedition window, the veteran of Pakistan’s mountains and the young record-breaker from Lahore, and within six days of each other they closed the account for Pakistan, first and second.
A Childhood Pointed Uphill
Shehroze Kashif was born in Lahore on 11 March 2002, about as far from the Karakoram as a Pakistani child can grow up, and he started climbing at 11 with Makra Peak in Kaghan Valley. At 12 he added Musa ka Musalla and Chembra Peak, at 13 Mingli Sar in Shimshal, at 15 he crossed Khurdopin Pass, and at 18 he climbed Khusar Gang in alpine style, without the support structure of a big expedition. The pattern was set early: this was not a hobby fitted around school, it was the organising fact of his life, pursued with a persistence that his later records only confirmed.
The Broad Boy Becomes a Record Machine
His first eight-thousander was Broad Peak, summited on 14 July 2019 at the age of 17, an ascent that earned him the nickname The Broad Boy. Then came the spring that made him famous. On 11 May 2021 he summited Mount Everest and became, at 19, the youngest Pakistani ever to stand on top of the world; the Sports Board Punjab made him a youth ambassador for the province. Ten weeks later, on 27 July 2021, he summited K2 and became the youngest climber in the world, at that time, to top the Savage Mountain. He added Manaslu in September 2021, and in November 2022 Guinness World Records recognised his Everest and K2 ascents in the same season, a double no teenager had achieved before him.
Five Summits in One Spring, and a Night of Fear
The year 2022 showed both his speed and the price of the mountains. On 5 May he summited Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-highest peak, becoming the youngest climber in the world and the first Pakistani to top it. Eleven days later he stood on Lhotse, and on 28 May he and Sirbaz Khan summited Makalu together. On 5 July he summited Nanga Parbat, Pakistan’s Killer Mountain, but on the descent he and Fazal Ali went missing between the high camps in bad weather, and for a night Pakistan feared the worst before the two were found and an army rescue brought them down safely. He finished the season anyway: Gasherbrum II on 8 August and Gasherbrum I on 12 August took his tally to ten eight-thousanders by the age of 20.
The True Summit Problem, and the Long Finish
One entry on his list carries an asterisk that he himself removed. His 2021 Manaslu ascent, like almost every ascent that season, stopped at a fore summit a short distance below the true top, something the climbing world only fully reckoned with afterwards. Rather than argue the point, Shehroze Kashif went back: on 20 September 2023 he stood on Manaslu’s true summit. Around that return he finished the set methodically, Annapurna on 16 April 2023, Dhaulagiri on 17 May 2023 and Cho Oyu on 6 October 2023, leaving only the locked door of Shishapangma. While he waited for Tibet to open, a documentary on his journey, Above the Sleeping Giant, was launched in February 2024.
Shehroze Kashif and the Full List of 14
His complete record, in order: Broad Peak (14 July 2019), Mount Everest (11 May 2021), K2 (27 July 2021), Manaslu (25 September 2021, true summit 20 September 2023), Kangchenjunga (5 May 2022), Lhotse (16 May 2022), Makalu (28 May 2022), Nanga Parbat (5 July 2022), Gasherbrum II (8 August 2022), Gasherbrum I (12 August 2022), Annapurna (16 April 2023), Dhaulagiri (17 May 2023), Cho Oyu (6 October 2023) and Shishapangma (9 October 2024). Five of the 14 stand in Pakistan itself, and he has climbed all five of his home giants, a detail that sits naturally alongside the country’s other mountain stories on our Pakistan world rankings and records page and gatherings like the festival at Shandur, the world’s highest polo ground.
In Rare Company
Completing the 14 eight-thousanders is mountaineering’s defining long campaign: it took Reinhold Messner 16 years to become the first, in 1986. Shehroze Kashif did it in five years and three months, from Broad Peak at 17 to Shishapangma at 22, and he did it as a climber from Lahore, a city of plains, in a sport where Pakistan’s own high-altitude porters have historically carried other nations’ expeditions. That two Pakistanis, Sirbaz Khan from Hunza and Shehroze Kashif, finished the set within six days of each other in October 2024 says something about where Pakistani climbing now stands. Their stories lead the mountaineering coverage collected on our Pakistan sports good news page.
Still only in his early twenties, with a documentary made about him and a youth ambassadorship behind him, Kashif has time to choose what a second act looks like. The first act is already in the record books, fourteen times over.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Shehroze Kashif, biography and expedition record
- Wikipedia: Eight-thousander, the list of climbers who have completed all 14
- Abenteuer Berg: More than a dozen newcomers to the list of climbers with all 14 eight-thousanders, Shishapangma, October 2024
- Photo: Shehroze Kashif in his expedition suit in the high mountains (Photo: Iamthanes via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Umar is an engineer by profession and a passionate writer by passion. He has a deep interest in sharing good news related to Pakistan and has been working hard to promote the positive image of his homeland. Umar has written numerous articles on various topics related to Pakistan, such as technology, sports, culture, and economy.