Nazir Sabir Expeditions

Leaders in Adventure Tourism

Nazir Sabir's Profile

Mountains fascinated Nazir Sabir from his early days in Hunza, the place where he was born and brought up. Soon this fascination became a passion and over two decades of wandering in the higher wilderness earned him many successes including the distinction of having climbed four of the five 8000m peaks in Pakistan including the inhospitable K2 (8616m) the world's second highest via a new route - the West Ridge/SSW Ridge in 1981. On May 17, 2000 he stood on the summit of Everest becoming the first Pakistani to scale the roof of the world. His latest honour is the Presidentship of the Alpine Club of Pakistan to which he was elected unanimously on October 10, 2004.

He earned the prestigious President's Award for Pride of Performance in 1982 and The Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Distinction) in 2001 for his outstanding achievements in mountaineering. As a reward of years of services rendered to the people of Hunza, Nazir was elected as their representative to the Northern Area Legislative Council in the October 1994 elections and appointed Advisor on Education and Tourism to the government.

Apart from the adventure travel business which he is running under the name of Nazir Sabir Expeditions he has been actively involved in promotion of tourism in Pakistan and has traveled extensively around the world lecturing on the country's cultural, historical and adventure potential. He has also been raising his voice on environmental matters.

Career and Achievements


1974/75		Training trips to Passu Peak and Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat.
1976		Made the first ascent of Virgin Paiyu 6660m with fellow Col. Manzoor and Maj. Bashir.
1977		Member of Pak-Japan joint expedition to K2 8616m. Reached 8300m in the first summit bid with four colleagues and abandoned due to blizzard and zero visibility. Fourth summit attempt abandoned to search for missing members at 8180m.
1978		Attempted Khosar Gung solo 6401m from North Face and abandoned 80m below the summit due to a huge crevasse.
1979		Attempted Khosar Gung from South Face in the company of Y. Yamaguchi. M. Fujita abandoned at 6200m due heavy snow and avalanche problems.
1981		Waseda University Alpine Club Expedition invited as a special guest climber to K2 8616m. Made the first ascent of West Ridge/SSW Ridge reaching summit on August 07, 1981 with Eiho Otani of Japan Waseda University Alpine Club after a historic bivouac at 8510m.
1981		Attempted Mummery route on the Diamer Glacier with Japanese friends in winter. Abandoned due heavy snow and extreme dangerous conditions.
1981		Winter ascent of Mt. Fuji (Japan) in two hours.
1982		Member of Pakistan-Messner Expedition. Climbed Gasherbrum II 8035m and Broad Peak 8047m in pure Alpine style in the company of Reinhold Messner and fellow Sher Khan in one week.
1982		Recipient President's Medal for Pride of Performance for outstanding achievements in mountaineering sport.
1983		Member of Tohokeiryukai Japan Nanga Parbat 8125m Expedition. Survived a fatal fall of 400m down the Rupal Wall in an avalanche while Shimura fell another 2000m never to be found again.
1984		Alpine Style attempt on Broad Peak. Abandoned due rock fall dangers.
1984		Accompanied Tsuneo Hasegawa - Japan's renowned mountaineer's solo attempt to Nanga Parbat as Liaison Officer. Hasegawa reached 7850m up the Rupal Face in late November solo. Abandoned due cold temperatures and blizzard.
1985		Accompanied Doug Scott, the legendary climber from UK and his team to Diran 7327m and Nanga Parbat 8125m as member/L.O.
1986/87		Extensive winter climbing in Japanese Alps.
1987/88		First International Winter K2 Expedition Liaison Officer.
1988		Became mountaineer turned entrepreneur with adventure outfitting company "Nazir Sabir Expeditions".
1989		Climbed solo in the upper reaches of Shimshal in Hunza and made first ascent of Mingling SAR 6210m and unnamed 6000m peak above Shimshal Pass in late Oct.
1990		Accompanied Tsuneo Hasegawa on the South Face of the then highest unclimbed Ultar 7388m as member / L.O.
1990		Climbed in Canadian Rockies during the film shooting of Hollywood produced Film "K2" as their technical consultant.
1991		Joined Tsuneo Hasegawa on the second attempt on Ultar. An avalanche on their way to C-2 killed Hasegawa and Hoshino. Nazir escaped another close call by only 8 minutes!
1992		Launched an expedition to Hidden Peak 8068m with K2 fellow E. Otani of TV Asahi Japan. After acclimatization dashed to the summit from BC in two days with two HAPs via the long West Ridge and returned to BC on third day.
1994		Accompanied Tohokeiryukai team to South face of Diran. Abandoned the summit attempt due avalanche prone snow conditions high on the summit slopes.
1994		Elected to the Northern Area Legislative Council from Hunza for a 5-year term with a massive mandate by his people.
1995		Appointed Advisor for Education for Northern Area by the Government of Pakistan.
1997		As Pakistan Golden Jubilee Everest Expedition leader made three summit attempts with five other colleagues. Had to abandon at 8560m due to white out and blizzards.
1998		Given the portfolio of Advisor for Tourism for Northern Area.
2000		Represented Pakistan at WTM London, JATA Conference at Tokyo and PATA Mart, Nepal.
2000		Summitted Everest (8848m) from Nepal side on May 17th 2000 at 7:32 a.m. local time as a member of Mountain Madness Everest USA Int'l Expedition 2000.
2001		Awarded the "Sitara-e-Imtiaz" (Star of Distinction) by the President of Pakistan for outstanding achievements in the mountaineering and being the first Pakistani to climb Everest.
2002		On the invitation of UIAA/IUCN (www.uiaa.ch/) participated in an Indo-Pak Peace Climb in the Swiss Alps organized to focus attention on environmental degradation in the Siachen Glacier area due to conflict between India and Pakistan. Also attended the Int'l Congress on "Future of Mountain Sports" (www.mountainfuture.at) at Innsbruck (Austria).
2003		Participated and made presentation on Golden Jubilee Nanga Parbat on Pakistan at Asia Pacific Week in Berlin organized by Embassy of Pakistan.
2004		Elected President of the Alpine Club of Pakistan on October 10 for a 3-year term.
2007		Again elected as President of the Alpine Club of Pakistan for another term.
		Acted as delegate at an International workshop on Food Security and Cross Border Tourism jointly organized by GTZ and AKF in Dushanbe.
2009		Represented Alpine Club of Pakistan at the International Mountain Summit (IMS) Tyrol in Nov 2009 and attended the Graz Mountain Film Festival.
		Making his second visit to Vancouver, Canada to represent a different image of Pakistan by giving a presentation called "Higher Heavens".
		Collaborated with Pakistan Consulate and VIMFF in organizing an event "Zoom on Pakistan" and did a talk there.
----		A committed environmentalist involved in conservation activities in the Northern Area.
----		Has represented Pakistan and delivered lectures on Pakistan Tourism at international forums and Alpine Clubs in USA, UK, Canada, Australia and Japan. Was a jury at the Banff International Film Festival Canada in 1996 and also at Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) in 2002. Participated in Int'l Film Festivals at Bratislava (Czech Republic) and Trento (Italy).
----		As a photojournalist and naturalist Nazir has a collection of over 5000 slides of mountains and the culture surrounding them.
----		He is the only Pakistani to have been honored by the Alpine Club (UK) in 1992, Polish Mountaineering Federation in 2002 and American Alpine Club in 2008 with the honorary membership.

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