World-renowned mountaineer Nirmal "Nims" Purja has died in an avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak, the world's 12th-highest mountain, along with nine other members of his expedition. Purja, 43, and his team were struck while attempting the technically demanding 26,414-foot peak in the Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region on July 30.
The avalanche swept the ten climbers down the mountain's main west-facing gulley, in some cases carrying them nearly a vertical mile. A rescue and recovery mission launched immediately, with military helicopters and ground teams from the Alpine Club of Pakistan searching the difficult terrain, but officials confirmed by August 1 that Purja and the rest of the group had not survived.
A Legendary Climbing Career
Purja rose to global fame in 2019 when he became the first person to summit all 14 of the world's mountains above 8,000 meters in just six months and six days, a feat that had previously been expected to take years. His achievement, chronicled in the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, turned the former British special forces soldier into one of the most recognizable figures in mountaineering, known for his charisma as much as his climbing records.
Before turning to elite mountaineering, Purja served with the Nepal-born Gurkhas and later in Britain's Special Boat Service, where regulations prevented him from discussing his deployments in detail, though he said he took part in every theater of conflict Britain was involved in during his service. He founded the Nimsdai Foundation in 2022 to support Nepal's Sherpa community, a group he frequently credited for making high-altitude mountaineering possible.
A Dangerous Recovery Effort
Recovering the bodies has proven extremely difficult given ongoing avalanche risk on the mountain. Pakistani climber Sirbaz Khan, the first Pakistani to summit all 14 eight-thousanders without supplemental oxygen, told reporters that rescue teams were dealing with two or three additional avalanches every day as they worked to locate and retrieve the climbers. Purja's body was eventually located, though as of early August it remained stuck in a dangerous section of the mountain that rescuers had not yet been able to safely reach.
Tributes poured in from across the climbing world and beyond, including from UK Defence Minister Wes Streeting, who said he was deeply saddened by the loss. The Nimsdai Foundation said in a statement that Purja's legacy would live on through the countless people he inspired to pursue their own version of the impossible.