What happened: The Pakistani skier Naveed Spicher shared the details of his expedition on November 22 in an exclusive interview with ProperGaanda. He also shared that Parveena Ismail a female skier from her team broke a world record. While talking about his summit of two 6,000 meter peaks, Naveed said, “We had a team of total 6 skiers, Azam Baig, Naveed Joshi who was with his snowboard, and two female skiers, Parveena Ismail and Maria Wafa.” He also shared that Parveena Ismail was able to break a world record by climbing the 6,000-meter peak of Magliksar. On the other hand, Maria Wafa did her best, but she turned back to base due to some health issue.
The expedition: Naveed Spicher, answering a question, said, “We approached the government for funds and sponsors, but we were unable to get any. However, a few generous donors who are our friends sponsored the journey.” At the same time, Naveed talked about the 2-week expedition and said, “The snowboarder had to snowboard on the 6,000-meter peak, but he couldn’t as the weather conditions were very harsh.” However, Parveena hailing from the Smishal valley set a record by becoming the first in Pakistan’s mountaineering history to ski down the Magliksar peak alongside Azam and Naveed Spicher. At the same time, Naveed’s team was accompanied by two filmmakers, @MOHSINKAMALPHOTOGRAPHY @muazzullah and musician Wasim Shimshali(@wasim_haider19).
Also: The expedition was named “Rise and Run Ski” which renowned climber Aminullah Baig supervised. Naveed also shared that the harsh weather conditions stopped the team from climbing a few peaks, but the team’s determination motivated the female skier and others to ski down the 6,000-meter peak. Maria Wafa is a tourism and hospitality management student at Karakoram International University. Naveed also highlighted the mountaineering journey of Maria and said, “She has summited Magliksar and participated in an inter-university Winter sports championship. She has a strong personality and is extremely passionate about ‘extreme adventure sports.’”
Who is Naveed Spicher? A climber, alpinist, mountain guide and blogger started his climbing journey in 2018 after growing up in the mountains. He is trying to motivate the youth by inspiring them to compete and participate in mountaineering sports.