An American Mountaineer in Pakistan

Guest post by Vanessa O’Brien, a mountaineer and the first American or British woman to successfully summit Pakistan’s K2 mountain, the second highest peak in the world.

I first traveled to Pakistan to climb a mountain. As a seasoned mountaineer, organizing an expedition should have been business as usual for me. However, this trip proved more challenging because of the multiple travel warnings issued by several countries about the threat to foreigners visiting Pakistan. 

With the media’s intense focus on how dangerous Pakistan was, I couldn’t help but wonder - just how terrible could Pakistan be? Was it worse than Detroit, known for one of the highest crime rates in the United States? How did it compare to Chesterfield Square, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Los Angeles, California?   

In my business life, which was in the financial services sector, and in my exploration life as a mountaineer, success was about risk and reward. And when it came to Pakistan, my instinct told me that there was a correlation. Motivated by the same mantra of high risk and high reward, I wasn’t held back by the travel warnings. 

I did not know anyone in Pakistan when I arrived. But after my experience there, it became my favorite country in the world for three reasons: the people, the places, and the opportunities.

First, the “Pakistan Multiplier Effect,” or PME. No, this is not a political party in Pakistan. It is simply how quickly Pakistanis will rally to ensure their friends become your friends. It starts with one introduction, which becomes two, and so on. It shows how important people-to-people contact are between individuals and between nations. Once you spend time and get to know people of Pakistani descent - you will find the kindest, funniest, smartest, most curious and hospitable people on the planet.   

Second, Pakistan’s nature beauty is some of the rarest in the world. Author and climber Galen Rowell referred to the Karakoram Mountains as the “throne Room of the Mountain Gods,” a nod to a concentration of the tallest precipitous peaks on the planet. It also contains the longest glaciers outside the polar regions, including Biafo, Hispar, Baltoro, and Godwin-Austen.

Third, Pakistan is home to the world’s 5th largest population and has the second largest (60%) population of young people under 30 years old. During my climbing years in Pakistan between 2015 and 2017, I met many of these young people who gave me hope for the country’s future. Despite Pakistan’s frequent economic woes, the country boasts top-notch economists and a foreign-friendly business climate compared to other countries in the region.

It took me three years to reach the summit of K2, one of the hardest mountains to climb in the world, with high chance of falling rock, avalanche risk, unpredictable weather, and a host of other challenging technical climbing aspects. There were no summits on K2 in 2015 or 2016 and my team was the only team to summit in 2017. 

We would never have been successful without local expedition partners like Nazir Sabir, Rehmat, Sultan and his team at Nazir Sabir Expeditions. The expedition team includes a group of “low-altitude” porters that carry as much as 9 tons of tents, supplies, equipment, oxygen, and food  to K2 Base Camp and then return home. We also depended on the help of “high-altitude” porters like Fazal Ali, who summited K2 with me, and Ali Reza, who summited Broad Peak.  

We also depended on the care of Farman Ullah Baig, our base camp cook and friend who took great care of us with his delicious cooking. His brother Imam Yar Baig looked after the porters who trekked in and out of base camp.

I am eternally grateful to my Pakistani friends who became like family to me during those three years in Pakistan. And after 16 hours of high winds, deep snow, and white out conditions, I walked  onto the summit of K2 and was met with the bluest and most beautiful of skies. I couldn’t have done it with one less person. Every single person mattered and made a difference. I have my Pakistani family to thank for helping me rise to the challenge in Pakistan. Even though I went to Pakistan for the mountain climbing, I remain connected to the country because of the people.