Meet our Everest Base Camp Pioneers: Tariq Parvez

Meet Tariq Parvez, a British Pakistani expeditionist who’s done it all! From braving K2, to conquering the highest peaks the UK has to offer with his 13 year old. A proud supporter of the charity for over 10 years, Tariq is now preparing for his most physically demanding challenge yet…IKCA’s Everest Base Camp, taking place next month.

When Tariq isn’t out conquering a mountain somewhere, he’s back at home in Bradford with his lovely wife and two sons, where he works as a restaurateur of the UK Ambala chain of restaurants.

We sat down to chat with him about his fundraising efforts for IKCA and his training routine for the Everest Base Camp.

Why did you choose to fundraise for IKCA?

I was always into challenges like running marathons, and hiking. When I met brother Ikhlaq 10 years ago, he introduced me to IKCA and asked if I would be interested in fundraising with my efforts. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity, as I couldn’t think of a more noble cause than to push my limits for needy cancer patients in Pakistan. Ever since then, I’ve taken part in all of IKCA’s 3 peaks challenges, and have climbed with Yorkshire 3 peaks, twice with my son in record breaking time.

Most recently, I took part in the ‘Great North Run’ for IKCA, completing the marathon in 1 hour and 53 mins in Newcastle. I am now looking forward to the upcoming Everest Base Camp challenge.

Do you take part in challenges like this regularly?

Yes, I ran the Marrakech half marathon in January and at the end of June, took part in the K2 base camp challenge… the second highest mountain in the world, after Mount Everest. It was an amazing expedition.

Tell us a bit about the K2 challenge? What was strenuous, how did you prepare? How long did it take to complete?

It was the 10 of us and although we were already training every Sunday, we realised that the K2 would require a little more physical training as we knew it would be difficult. So we trained harder, and what a good thing we did! With that extra effort, we were more physically able to take on K2.

The hike to the base camp took us around 2 weeks, both up and down. In total, it was 250km, around 11 or 12 days of trekking. It was an amazing experience and was really worth going.

What are you doing to prepare for the Everest Base Camp Challenge?

Having done the K2, I don’t think it will be harder than that. So I’m just training as normal, which involves training every week on Sundays and aside from that, I spend around 90mins at the gym every morning. I’m really just trying my best.

What are you looking forward to most about the challenge?

It’s the best one there is, the highest one! I know we can’t go to the top, but at least we’ll get to the basecamp, and that would be something different. Not only will we be highlighting the charity and the cause on the mountain, we’ll also be helping those with cancer. And that tops all!

What are you dreading the most, about the challenge?

I hope it’ll be fine. As I said, we recently did the K2 and that was more difficult. Especially at night, because we had to sleep in the tents. As long as we don’t get altitude sickness, it should be fine. We’ll see what happens InshaAllah.

 

Show Tariq your support by donating to his fundraising efforts on his JustGiving Page.

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