Nat Geo names Wasfia Adventurer of the Year

Wasfia Nazreen

Bangladeshi mountaineer Wasfia Nazreen has been named an Adventurer of the Year 2014-15 by the National Geographic.

The Washington-based magazine, also known as Nat Geo, announced this on its website yesterday.

A total of 10 people in as many categories have been named in the list with Wasfia earning the prestige in the activist category.

In her profile, the magazine hailed her commitment to empowering women and girls in Bangladesh.

She is the second Bangladeshi woman to conquer the Mount Everest. She set foot atop the world's highest peak on May 26, 2012.

She was the first Bangladeshi to summit Aconcagua, South America's highest peak; Denali, North America's highest peak; Mt Elbrus, Europe's highest mountain; and Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest point.

In 2011, Wasfia, also a social-worker and writer, had taken up the challenge of scaling the highest mountains of each of the seven continents in celebration of 40 years of independence of Bangladesh and women progress. She has successfully completed the mission in six continents.

She now plans to summit the seventh -- Oceania's Carstensz Pyramid -- late this month, according to the magazine.

“Eighty percent of the people [in Bangladesh] haven't seen a mountain,” Nazreen was quoted as saying by the magazine. “Going to every continent took the Bangladeshi people to every continent. It gave them a lot of pride.”

She has recently launched the Ösel Foundation, aimed at educating marginalised young women and getting them into the outdoors.