Samar Khan, previously famous for being the first woman in the world to cycle on the Baifo glacier of Gilgit Baltistan and also for being the first Pakistani to cycle on the ‘Roof of Africa’, has now conquered a new feat; she became the first Pakistani female cyclist to have reached K-2 basecamp.
Samar Khan announced the beginning of her journey to her followers on Instagram 2 weeks ago; through her captions, she explained her reason for carrying out this adventure and kept her followers up-to-date regarding her expedition by regular follow-up posts.
She enlightened her followers as to why she was emphasizing the fact that it was a bicycle journey – because she wanted to “cut out carbon footprint & to preserve natural assets like glaciers & peaks.”
With regular posts and explanatory captions, Samar kept her followers intrigued and informed at each step and stage of her adventure. Upon the completion of her journey she posted, “Doorway to Choghori (K2). The stage where prayers are answered or sometimes delayed, where I got to see the clear face of majestic Choghori, standing with grace.”
Samar Khan described her journey and told her followers how it had been extremely tough, with harsh climates and how she faced many nights where she had to “chase oxygen and prayers.” She further wrote about how she carried out the journey in patches, on a path filled with rocks and deep crevices, up to extremely high elevations, and even had to paddle across several water bodies, including Jula, Paijo, etc.
Of course, some people took to Twitter to spew negativity regarding Samar Khan’s journey and how a porter could be seen carrying her bicycle across some areas, downplaying the actual efforts which had led to this achievement.
However, Samar Khan replied to these rumors through her caption on a post on Instagram, stating that, “Many are throwing irrelevant theories and queries having no knowledge to the ground realities and mountain biking knowledge.”
