Shehrbano Saiyid CLIMBING ADVOCATE

Smoking cigarettes at a high altitude, without water or food, is a poor decision. This was a lesson Shehrbano Saiyid learned the hard way 6,000 metres up in Pakistani’s Karakoram mountain range. While descending the northern peak Manglik Sar, she began to feel ill from the elevation on an empty stomach.

Shehrbano ate some snow and just about mustered the energy to continue, only to realise that descent in just nine intense hours. Shehrbano was the slowest of the nine women coming back down that morning, but without her they wouldn’t have been climbing the mountain at all.