Adventure athlete Samar Khan has made history by sumiting Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe, and then snowboarded the 5,642-meter peak. She reached the summit at 10 am local time and proudly hoisted Pakistan’s flag.
“I’m pleased to announce that I have successfully climbed Europe’s highest peak, Mt. Elbrus, and snowboarded down, becoming the first Pakistani to pioneer this feat in the world of action sports,” she wrote on Instagram.
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“I set out for the summit push around 3 am and reached the top by 10 am with a green flag, followed by an exhilarating snowboarding descent from Elbrus,” she added, thanking everyone for their support.
Who is Samar Khan?
Hailing from Dir in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Samar Khan embarked on her adventure sports journey in 2015 when she biked to the Khunjerab Pass. She is the first woman to reach the K2 basecamp on a bicycle and the first Pakistani to summit the 6,250-meter Burbucho peak in Shigar’s Arandu and Mount Kilimanjaro on a bike. In 2017, she also became the first Pakistani to cycle on the roof of Africa, Kilimanjaro. Samar Khan won a silver medal in the Sadia Khan Championship in 2022 and emerged as the winner of the Red Bull Homerun snowboarding category in 2021.
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Khan, in a interview with Daily Dawn, said that MTB and snowboarding are new to Pakistan and typically considered sports of the first world. Despite the lack of support, infrastructure, and sports brands in Pakistan, she remains determined to continue her journey with or without support.
Apart from the internet, her primary source of learning was a two-month ESPN global sports mentoring program in the US. “They coached me, and that was the only learning source,” she said.
