After 14 Years a Bangladeshi Woman Reaches Highest Summit, Everest

The night was drawing to a close. A dark, inky blue darkness hung over the Himalayas. The air was so thin, lacking oxygen, that every breath felt like a battle with the lungs. The temperature was far below freezing. A Bangladeshi woman was slowly making her way up the sharp icy slopes. Above her was a star-filled sky, and below, a thousand-foot-deep abyss.

Above eight thousand meters, the human body begins to slowly shut down. No one can survive there for long.
Yet, crossing that zone of death, today, May 27, at 5:24 AM, Bangladesh's Nurunnahar Nimni stood on the highest peak in the world.

She hoisted the flag of Bangladesh on the roof of the world.

After a long span of 14 years, another Bangladeshi woman has summited Mount Everest. The news was confirmed by the Bangla Mountaineering and Trekking Club. Ang Temba Sherpa, a representative of the Nepalese expedition organizing company 8K Expeditions, also officially confirmed the achievement. Nimni was accompanied by Dawa Nupu Sherpa and Lakpa Thinduk Sherpa.

This success did not simply begin this morning.

It started many years ago, on the Chandranath Hill in Chittagong.

The year was 2006. Nimni, a first-year student of the Department of Geology at Dhaka University, went to the hills for fieldwork. That was her first close encounter with mountains. She felt a strange pull. After that, the mountains never left her, and she never left them.

A large part of her university life was spent trekking through the hills of Bandarban. Later, she joined a corporate career, became a banker, and maintained a regular office routine, but the call of the mountains never stopped. Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal—one trek after another pushed her higher and higher.

In 2019, while at the Australian Camp in Nepal, her big dream first took shape. She would climb Everest one day. The path to fulfilling that dream was by no means easy.
In 2020, she completed the Everest Base Camp trek. After that, professional preparation began. In 2022, she underwent training at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, India. The same year, she joined the Bangla Mountaineering and Trekking Club.
Mountaineering is still not a leisurely sport in Bangladesh. There are no adequate sponsors, nor is there any strong infrastructure. The cost of a single Everest expedition is close to ten million BDT (one crore taka). Even then, some people risk their very lives for the mountains. Nimni is one of them.

She left Dhaka on April 11. From Kathmandu in Nepal to Lukla, and then to Everest Base Camp. For several weeks, she acclimated her body to the brutal environment of extreme altitude.

Climbing Everest is not just a game of strength; it is also a test of patience. The body has to adapt step by step. Otherwise, a person can die suddenly from altitude sickness.

On May 17, she began her final push. Slowly, she reached Camp-4. It was from there that she set out for the summit. But the Himalayan weather does not conform to human plans. Due to terribly hostile weather, she was forced to turn back.

For many, the dream would have ended right there. But Nimni stood her ground once again.

She waited at Camp-2 for a few days for the weather to clear up. Then, on May 25, the ascent began anew. From Camp-2 to Camp-3. From there to Camp-4.

Then began the most terrifying part.

After evening fell, they kept moving up the ice walls under the faint light of headlamps. All around, there was only the roaring of the wind. In some places, the path was so narrow that a single misstep on one side meant the end.

The final section of Everest features the Hillary Step, a steep ice-covered ridge and a path of fixed ropes. There, the exhausted body refuses to work anymore. But stopping only increases the danger.

After crossing that path of death all night long, Nurunnahar Nimni finally reached the highest point on Earth this morning.
This is also the end of a long wait for Bangladesh.

On May 19, 2012, Nishat Mazumdar became the first Bangladeshi woman to conquer Mount Everest. Just a week later, Wasfia Nazreen reached the summit as well. After that, 14 long years passed without seeing another Bangladeshi woman on the world’s highest peak.
At last, that void has been broken by Nurunnahar Nimmi. To understand the significance of her achievement, let’s briefly look back at Bangladesh’s Everest history.

On May 23, 2010, Musa Ibrahim became the first Bangladeshi to summit Everest. Later, MA Muhit successfully climbed Everest twice.

In 2013, Sajal Khaled reached the summit, but tragedy struck during the descent. The Himalayas claimed his life, and a dreamer from Bangladesh was lost forever in the ice.

Then came another long wait. In 2024, Babar Ali returned Bangladesh to the spotlight. After summiting Everest, he did not stop there—he went on to conquer five of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, a first in Bangladesh’s history. He also made history by successfully climbing the notoriously difficult Makalu.

In 2025, Ikramul Hasan Shakil achieved another remarkable feat by walking all the way from Cox's Bazar Sea Beach to the summit of Everest.

And now, as the only Bangladeshi climber this season, Nurunnahar Nimmi has stood atop Everest, ending a 14-year wait for Bangladeshi women.

Reacting to Nimmi’s success, Babar Ali said,
“After 14 years, a Bangladeshi woman has once again reached the summit of Everest. This will undoubtedly inspire many more women mountaineers in this country.”

Indeed, it will.

Best wishes to Nimmi on her historic achievement.