‘I’ve climbed Everest but I can’t get funding’: Samina Baig on conquering sexism at high altitudes

Every year, scores of mountaineers head to northern Pakistan to climb K2. But it’s not cheap, and sponsors are apprehensive about backing amateurs. So why can’t the first Pakistani female climber to summit the highest mountains on the seven continents – including Everest – get sponsored? Raza Hamdani investigates

Despite her achievements, Baig has failed to find a sponsor for an expedition to the top of K2 (AFP)

Whenever there is any news about Samina Baig, it’s always about her accomplishments in mountaineering, her appointment as national goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Council or being selected by the prime minister of Pakistan to join the National Youth Council. So when she announced on Twitter that she had failed to get sponsorship two years in a row to summit the second highest and most dangerous mountain in the world, K2, Pakistanis and the mountaineering community were shocked.

“I am not a beginner. I have summited Mount Everest,” Baig tells me, oozing the kind of confidence that can only be gained from the tops of mountains, “and the seven highest peaks on each of the seven continents (a feat she accomplished in just eight months and at 23 years of age) and many other peaks in Pakistan.”

This wasn’t the first time she had faced barriers to funding. Before climbing Everest, she approached many organisations for support, and was turned away. “But God helped me and a New Zealander came forward and supported me to raise the Pakistani flag on top of Everest,” she tells me.