"I' ve climbed many peaks, including several 6,000ers,” Bibi ‘Zoni’ Afzoon Aslam, team leader of the women’s expedition to Bari La Peak (5,400m) that took place last month told me. “But this was a new experience for me — to lead nine women from different parts of the country.” I was one of those nine women.

Bibi Afzoon, or Zoni as she is fondly called, is a well-regarded mountaineer and guide from Gilgit-Baltistan. She was a part of the women’s expedition to K2 (2024) as well. “When I looked at the faces of the girls approaching the summit one by one, I was so happy,” she adds, “I’m very proud of us and that we can all come together and rise as one unit.”

Organised by the Alpine Club of Pakistan under its new management — Maj Gen Irfan Arshad (president) and Ayaz Shigri (general secretary) — the women’s expedition to Bari La was the first of its kind. Never before had there been an expedition where women from across the country — Sindh (yours truly), Balochistan (Laraib Batool), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Marya Bangash), Punjab (Bismah Hassan and Iqra Jillani), Azad Kashmir (Mona Khan), Islamabad Capital Territory (Shahreen) and Gilgit Baltistan (Bibi ‘Zoni’ Afzoon Aslam and Zeba Shigri) — had come together to climb one mountain.

We also had Amina Chaudhry in the team, who was climbing while filming the entire expedition and flying a drone at the summit as well.

In a first-of-its-kind expedition, 10 women from every region of Pakistan came together to climb the 5,400m Bari La Peak. Eos presents a first-hand account…

For those of us that arrived early, we got to visit the Sadpara Mountaineering School, where we were taught how to rappel off a 50m ‘lower’ top — only for the extremely brave adrenaline junkies out there. We also had a........

© Dawn (Magazines)