Pran Foods
From Sea to Summit: Shakil proudly achieved 3 World Records with PRAN.
Ikramul Hasan Shakil hoisted the flag of Bangladesh on the Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, after walking all the way from Cox’s Bazar. He reached the summit at 6:30 am Nepal time on Monday, 19 May.
Shakil’s Nepali travel agency 8K Expeditions confirmed the news to Prothom Alo.
In the meantime, expedition coordinators said in a post on Ikramul Hasan’s Facebook page at 2:10 pm today, “We just received news that Shakil has summited and is in good health. He has descended to Camp 4. Details is unavailable at the moment due to network issues.”
Ikramul Hasan named his journey “Sea to Summit.” He began his trek toward Everest on 25 February at noon from Inani Beach in Cox’s Bazar. He walked through Chattogram, Feni, Cumilla, and Munshiganj, reaching Dhaka after 12 days.
After a short break, he resumed his walk through Gazipur, Tangail, Sirajganj, and arrived in Panchagarh on 28 March. The next day, he crossed into India, passing through Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, and entered Nepal on 31 March. After walking nearly 1,400 kilometres, he reached the Everest Base Camp on 29 April.
Since then, Ikramul stayed at the base camp. On 6 May, he began a rotation climb, reaching up to Camp 3 before returning to base camp on 10 May.
This rotation was a vital part of acclimatisation before the final summit attempt. For the main expedition, he left base camp and reached Camp 2 on 16 May, arrived at Camp 3 on 17 May, and Camp 4 on 18 May. From Camp 4, he made his final summit push today, Monday.
In 1990, Australian mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape planned his second ascent of Everest and called the sole expedition “Sea to Summit,” intending to walk from sea level to the top of the world.
He started from Ganga Sagar in India and walked 1,200 kilometres in 96 days to reach the summit.
Inspired by Macartney-Snape, Ikramul Hasan named his own journey “Sea to Summit,” and began the expedition from Cox’s Bazar, the most popular tourist destination in Bangladesh, and walked all the way to conquer Everest.
PRAN sponsored the “Sea to Summit” expedition in association with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Mr. Noodles, Makalu E-Traders in Nepal, and Systema Toothbrush.
Mount Everest saw its first successful summit over a hundred years after the first expedition attempts. New Zealander Edmund Hillary, along with Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953.
Musa Ibrahim became the first Bangladeshi to conquer the Everest peak on 23 May 2010. MA Muhit summited the peak in 2011 and again in 2012. On 19 May 2012, Nishat Majumder became the first Bangladeshi woman to summit Everest. On May 26 of the same year, Wasfia Nazreen also summited Everest. On 20 May 2013, Sajal Khaled became the fifth Bangladeshi to summit Everest, but he died on the descent.
After that, there was a long gap in Everest expeditions by Bangladeshis. After 11 years, on 19 May last year, Babar Ali raised the red and green flag atop Everest. This year, Ikramul Hasan continued that legacy.
Ikramul Hasan received his basic and advanced mountaineering training from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in India.
He has successfully summited Himalayan peaks such as Kyajo Ri, Draupadi Ka Danda II, Himlung, and Dolma Khang. He gained fame when he trekked the 1,700-kilometer-long Great Himalaya Trail, which spans east to west across Nepal through the Himalayan range, in 2023.
