Pakistani mountaineer Sirbaz Khan successfully scaled Kangchenjunga (8,586 metres) in Nepal without using supplementary oxygen on Sunday.
With this latest achievement, he becomes the first Pakistani to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks without oxygen support.
“We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Mr Sirbaz Khan — our dear friend, client, and partner from Pakistan — on his incredible achievement of summiting Kangchenjunga (8,586 m), the world’s third-highest mountain, without supplemental oxygen this morning, 18 May 2025,” expedition organiser Imagine Nepal announced on social media.
Sirbaz had previously summited Kangchenjunga in May 2022 with oxygen support. The latest ascent was aimed at completing the full 14×8000 challenge without supplemental oxygen.
In October 2024, he completed all 14 eight-thousanders with the summit of Shishapangma (8,027 m) in Tibet. However, some of these climbs were done using oxygen. With today’s ascent of Kangchenjunga without oxygen, he has now completed all 14 peaks without using bottled oxygen.
Sirbaz, 38, hails from Aliabad village in the Hunza district of Gilgit-Baltistan and began his mountaineering career in 2017 with the successful ascent of Nanga Parbat (8,126 m).
He has summited K2 three times, in 2018, 2022, and 2024, and climbed Mount Everest twice, in 2021 and 2024. He also completed two ascents of each Annapurna and Kangchenjunga.
In July 2019, Sirbaz climbed Broad Peak (8,051 metres) without the use of supplementary oxygen. Later that year, in September, he scaled Manaslu in Nepal, becoming the second Pakistani after Shehroze Kashif to summit the 8,163-metre peak. In April 2021, he became the first Pakistani to summit Annapurna, initially using oxygen support. The following month, he summited Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain at 8,849 metres.
