It’s been 12 years since the epic moment when adventurer Omar Samra made it to the top of Mount Everest, making him the first Egyptian to achieve this. And here we are now; we’ve lived to witness another Egyptian raising our flag at the top of the world again.

Sherief El Abd, along with 11 other Arabs of different nationalities, succeeded in climbing the world’s highest summit yesterday, May 25th. It has always been known that climbing Everest is a tough challenge. For starters, its height is 8,848 meters above sea level, and it takes up to four days to make it to the top; the whole journey may take two months, if not more. 

Sherief started his journey into the sporting field simply because he hated how his life was full of routine. He wanted to change things a bit, so in 2016, he started to run marathons, and also started hiking in Nepal. As soon as he climbed his first mountain, he couldn’t stop, and he’s been hiking ever since.

El Abd began his journey to the top of Everest on the 4th of April. He said that he couldn’t believe his efforts for the past three years have finally paid off, especially since he suffered from dehydration during the climbing and grieved for his friend, who died on their way down.

Omar Samra took to Facebook to celebrate the new hero saying, “CONGRATULATIONS to Sherief El Abd for reaching the top of the world on May 23rd! Now Egypt has 2 summits to its name. I hope next one is a woman.”

Mount Everest is no easy task to accomplish; many climbers face horrific challenges through the journey, starting from the camp that they have to stay in for days to adapt to the extreme weather conditions and altitude, the fellow climbers that could die next to you, and the possibility of blizzards that could kill you. However, our hero didn’t give up and did it.

You know what they say, “If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough”. What about you? What’s your biggest dream?

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By Yara Tarek