Bangladeshi mountaineer Babar Ali has made history by becoming the first person from the country to successfully summit Mount Makalu, the world’s fifth highest peak at 8,485 metres.
He reached the summit at 5:45 am (Bangladesh time) on Saturday, according to expedition organisers.
Located in Nepal’s Mahalangur Himal range, Makalu is one of the most technically challenging eight-thousanders, and this marks the first successful ascent by a Bangladeshi climber.
With this achievement, Babar Ali has now climbed five of the world’s 14 peaks above 8,000 metres, a record unmatched by any other Bangladeshi mountaineer.
The expedition, titled “Expedition Makalu: The Fifth Frontier,” was organised by the mountaineering club Vertical Dreamers.
Club president Farhan Zaman confirmed the summit, citing Nepal-based outfitter Makalu Adventure.
He said Babar is expected to descend to Camp 2 before returning to base camp within a day.
Known as the “Great Black One,” Mount Makalu stands at 8,485 metres (27,838 feet) on the Nepal–China border.
Babar Ali was accompanied on the summit push by Ang Kami Sherpa.
He left Bangladesh on 7 April for the expedition, travelling to Tumlingtar on 9 April after initial preparations.
From there, he reached Seduwa by road and trekked to the advanced base camp on 18 April.
As part of acclimatisation, he climbed to Camp 1 on 21 April, reached Camp 2 the following day, and briefly touched 7,000 metres before returning to base camp.
On a second rotation on 27 April, he spent a night at Camp 2 before descending.
He later waited for a suitable weather window before launching his summit attempt.
On 30 April, Babar ascended directly to Camp 2 (6,600m) and proceeded to Camp 3 at 7,400 metres on 1 May, where he rested before beginning the final summit push at night.
After a continuous and demanding ascent of over 1,100 metres in the high-altitude “death zone,” he successfully reached the summit early Saturday morning.
Babar Ali began his mountaineering journey in 2014.
He is a founding member and current general secretary of Vertical Dreamers, based in Chattogram. He received basic training from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in India in 2017.
He became the first Bangladeshi to summit Ama Dablam in 2022, followed by successful ascents of Mount Everest and Lhotse in 2024. Last year, he also climbed Annapurna I and later summited Manaslu without supplemental oxygen.
