Nahida Manzoor first Kashmiri woman to climb Mount Everest

Nahida Manzoor, 23, on Wednesday became the first Kashmiri woman to scale the world’s highest peak Mount Everest.

“The Fourth summit of the day is Ms Nahida Manzoor along with her Sherpa Guide Mr Nima Kancha. Nahida hails from the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The lady has been passionate about the snow peaks and took to the mountains at a very young age,” Transcend Adventures, which planned her adventure trip, wrote on social networking site Facebook.

“She scaled the summit in the morning. She is descending now and it will take her two days to climb down,” tour agency manager Vidur Vij said.

On April 21, Manzoor had posted her photo from the Everest base camp. On her Facebook page, she describes herself as an “Alpinist, mountaineer, climber and a shooter” who also likes table tennis, badminton, volleyball and riding.

A resident of Zewan in Srinagar, Manzoor started climbing mountains from the age of 10. Gradually, this became her passion. In 2017, she took mountaineering professionally and pursued courses in mountaineering, rock climbing and skiing from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering.

Before scaling Mount Evereat, Manzoor had climbed Mount Deo Tibba, Manali (6001 metres) and Friendship Peak of Himachal Pradesh (5,289 metres), besides Srinagar’s highest peak Mount Mahadev and Mount Tatakooti in Pir Panjal.

While starting an online crowd-funding campaign on the social media in March to fulfil her childhood dream, the final year arts student had written that she would attempt to reach the 8,848-metre (29,029 feet) summit from the lesser climbed route, the southern side.

“At the age of 23, for someone like me who is struggling to make ends meet, it is an impossible task to spend ₹30 lakh. But I believe that something like money shouldn’t stop you from dreaming big and this is where I need your support,” she wrote while seeking money to fund her travel and pay requisite fee to the Nepal government.

Belonging to a middle class family, Manzoor’s father is a shopkeeper.

The crowd funding campaign attracted some sponsors, including Srinagar deputy commissioner Shahid Choudhary. “It is a major achievement for the entire valley and she has shown the way for others. We are proud of her,” said Choudhary.

“Kashmiris too have dreams & aspirations like everyone else. Somewhere between stereotyping & demonising them, human stories are lost. All of twenty three,Nahida Manzoor is the first Kashmiri woman to scale Mt Everest. More power to her & the youth of J&K,”former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted.