Wasfia back after scaling 7 Summits

Wasfia Nazreen, the first Bangladeshi to climb all the seven highest peaks in seven continents, returned home last night.

She arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 11:15pm on a flight of Malindo Air.

The National Geographic adventurer scaled the summit of Carstensz Pyramid, the highest mountain of Oceania/Australasia, on November 18 to become the only Bangladeshi to have achieved the feat.

With this, she completed her seven highest peak conquering campaign named “Bangladesh on Seven Summits”.

In 2011, Wasfia, also a social worker and a writer, took up the challenge to climb the highest mountain in each of the seven continents in celebration of Bangladesh's 40 years of independence and women empowerment.

She has successfully completed scaling Mount Elbrus in Europe, Mount Aconcagua in South America, Mount Denali in North America, Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica, Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Mount Everest in Asia.

Earlier, in an interview with the BBC Bangla, she said she never thought she would come back alive.

She said that conquering the 4,884-metre peak in Indonesia's Papua province was tougher than scaling the Mount Everest.

Wasfia also shared one of her exceptional experiences she had while returning to the base camp after conquering Carstensz.

“We were returning from the mountain and passing through a village. An elderly man died there. The superstitious villagers blamed us for the death.”

The villagers held them captive for four hours, she said, adding that they had to pay the villagers $4,000 for their release.