“Great things are done when men and mountains meet,” said William Blake, the 19th century English poet. But he had not met the brother and sister mountaineering team, Mirza and Samina Ali Baig for whom great things have been achieved when men, women and mountains meet.
The siblings spoke about their encounters with mighty mountains as part of AKU’s Special Lecture Series (SLS). This August, the duo marked two major milestones: climbing Mt Everest and the highest peak on each of the world’s seven continents.
With this feat, Samina has become the first Pakistani woman and only the third Pakistani to successfully climb Everest.
So it was an evening of story telling, an intimate glimpse into their mountaineering adventures that held the audience spellbound.
Hailing from Shimshal, a remote village in Gilgit-Baltistan in the north of Pakistan, Mirza recounted how he took up mountain climbing at just 16. “I didn’t even have enough money to buy a pair of shoes when I started climbing mountains,” he said. He started work as a porter carrying loads for foreign mountaineers before progressing to camp cook but all the while dreaming of achieving more.
“You can do anything you want,” Mirza said. “All you need to do is put in some extra work.” For him the idea of climbing a mountain is synonymous with the journey that each one of us takes in life – it's the vision and then the commitment and determination to carry through that makes the difference.
Samina, the younger of the two, drew inspiration from her brother and the pair started climbing together in 2010. In the initial stages of their partnership, the two climbed a number of peaks over 6,000 metres in Pakistan.
“If a woman can climb mountains, which is the world’s most dangerous sport, she is capable of doing anything,” says Samina. “The only thing required is opportunity.” And it was Mirza, her older brother who trained her and provided that opening.
It would take the pair seven years of persistence before they could embark on their historic ascent of Mt. Everest (8,848 metres). The trek, which lasted over 50 days, culminated in the proud hoisting of the Pakistani flag on the top of world by Samina on May 19, 2013. Supported by her brother, she climbed to the summit first, a genuine demonstration of their belief in equality.
“Samina’s work is out of the ordinary. The women in Pakistan don’t think about climbing mountains but believe me they can do it if they want to,” said Mirza while commenting on his sister’s feat and the message it sends to women throughout the country.
Building on this success, Mirza and Samina embarked on a whirlwind circumnavigation of the globe, the Seven Summits challenge. In just eight months, they travelled to every continent to scale the highest mountain. First was South America and Mount Aconcagua, followed by Mount Vinson in Antarctica, Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Puncak Jaya in Indonesia, Mount McKinley in Alaska and Elbrus in Russia.
Their success highlights their determination to make a difference, to promote peace and to send a signal to people in this country that women, given the opportunity, are equal citizens in a global world.
