About
Naila Kiani is a Aerospace Engineer from University of London, Banker, Mountaineer, Trained Boxer, Rock Climber and Mother of two. She began her mountaineering journey in 2018 with the K2 Base Camp Trek and even had her Wedding photoshoot there. Fast forward to 2021, despite delivering a baby 7 months ago and the Covid-19 pandemic, she successfully summited Gasherbrum-II (8,035m) becoming the first Pakistani woman to climb an 8,000m mountain in Pakistan. She then later summited ‘The Savage Mountain’, K2 (8,611m), achieving the feat in her first attempt. Naila then climbed Gasherbrum-I (8,080m) straight after K2. With these achievements she quickly became the first Pakistani female Mountaineer to scale 3 peaks above 8,000m in Pakistan. From there, she went from strength-to-strength, becoming the first ever female in Pakistan’s history to summit 11 of the world’s 14 8,000m peaks and the fastest ever Pakistani in history, in both male and female categories, to have summited these mountains, all accomplished in under 3 years.
Journey
“I wanted to show the beauty of Pakistan to the rest of the world,” said Naila Kiani as she narrated her daunting yet inspiring journey as a mountaineer in Pakistan.
“I went through some really tough times, but without these hardships, I would never have the strength to climb the highest peak of Pakistan”
She further described how being a woman, a mother, and someone from a humble background didn’t stop her from pursuing the aim of climbing the three highest peaks, and that, too, within a year. “You too can do anything you want to if I, a girl from Rawalpindi, can climb the highest peaks of Pakistan, something I once believed to be impossible. You simply need to tap into your inner strength.”
Sponsors
BARD Foundation stated
“This is a moment of great pride for us that Naila and her team have achieved success in their monumental feat to summit the K2. She has been a truly resilient fighter. Naila’s successful summit bears testament to the potential women have to achieve anything they set their minds to”
News
