Nirmal Purja’s Body Recovered 3 Days After Broad Peak Avalanche Killed 10 Climbers
Gilgit-Baltistan: Rescuers recovered the body of British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja on Sunday, three days after an avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Gilgit-Baltistan region killed him along with nine other climbers. Broad Peak ranks as the world’s 12th-highest mountain and is known among climbers as one of the more technically demanding 8,000-metre peaks.
The Alpine Club of Pakistan said Purja’s body was found at roughly 5,700 metres. Rescue teams also spotted three more bodies further up the mountain, though those climbers haven’t yet been identified.
Elite Expeditions, the company Purja founded, confirmed his death on Saturday, a day before his body was recovered. He was 43.
The avalanche hit on Thursday, severing contact with the international team Purja was leading.
The Alpine Club of Pakistan described the recovery in a social media post, saying the ground rescue team had reached Purja at approximately 5,700 metres a mountain, the club noted, that he loved and that ultimately took his life.
Purja’s group included five Nepali climbers, one Pakistani, one Omani, one American and one Chinese national.
Four Bodies Brought Down the Mountain
Ayaz Shigri, general secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said rescue teams were carrying four bodies down from the mountain: Purja’s, those of two other Nepali climbers, and one Chinese national.
Shigri said rescuers had also confirmed a fifth body at a much higher elevation, one they haven’t yet been able to reach.
He pointed to avalanche danger, difficult terrain and poor weather as the reasons the recovery operation has been so slow, adding that conditions have made it impossible to bring in helicopters. Given how hazardous the site remains, he said, another recovery attempt in the near term looks unlikely.
Three other climbers an Omani woman, a Nepali man and an American woman were recovered on Friday and flown to Skardu, according to regional authorities. They were identified as Nadhira Ahmed Abdullah Al Harthy of Oman, Pur Bahadur Gurung of Nepal, and Mallory Geis of the United States.
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News of the deaths has drawn an outpouring of grief from mountaineers around the world.
A Record-Setting Career
Before he became a professional climber and expedition guide, Purja served in Britain’s Brigade of Gurkhas and later the Royal Marines’ Special Boat Squadron. He went on to become one of the most decorated names in mountaineering.
In 2019, he climbed all 14 of the world’s mountains above 8,000 metres in just six months and six days — a feat that set a new world record and turned him into a global name in the sport.
Prince William posted a tribute on X, saying Purja had served with distinction in the British Armed Forces before becoming one of the world’s greatest mountaineers and putting Nepalese climbers on the map.
Earlier in the week, Purja had written on X that he was on track to become the first person to climb all 14 “super peaks” twice without supplemental oxygen. Before setting out on Broad Peak, he’d asked the mountain for nothing more than safe passage up and back down.
Search crews have been combing the mountainside by air and on foot since losing contact with the expedition on Thursday.
Mingma G Sherpa, a mountaineer involved in the rescue effort, paid tribute to the climbers on Saturday, saying the team would bring them home to their families.
Condolences continued to pour in after officials confirmed that no one on the expedition had survived.
About Broad Peak
Broad Peak sits in Pakistan’s Karakoram range and is the world’s 12th-highest mountain, widely regarded as one of the toughest and most technically demanding of the 8,000-metre peaks. An Austrian expedition made the first successful summit in 1957.