No one survived Thursday’s avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak. Nepal has lost six climbers, among them Nims Purja, the man who redefined high-altitude mountaineering, in the country’s darkest day on the world’s highest peaks.
All 10 climbers caught in Thursday’s avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak have died, including renowned Nepali mountaineer Nirmal “Nimsdai” Purja, ending two days of searching that gripped the global climbing community.
Purja’s company, Elite Exped, confirmed his death Saturday. “Today, it is with profound sadness and immense heartbreak that we confirm that Nirmal ‘Nimsdai’ Purja tragically lost his life following the avalanche on Broad Peak,” the company said. “We have also received confirmation that other members of the expedition sadly did not survive.”
Nims Purja Confirmed Dead in Broad Peak Avalanche
Search teams have located nine of the 10 climbers. “We have located 9 of the climbers and are now looking for Sohail and working on retrieving the bodies,” said Mingma Gyalje Sherpa “Mingma G”, the veteran Nepali climber leading the search, referring to Pakistani guide Sohail Sakhi.
The 10 victims are:
- Nirmal Purja “Nimsdai” (Nepal), expedition leader and Elite Exped co-founder
- Pur Bahadur Gurung “Yukta” (Nepal)
- Kili Pemba Sherpa “Kilu” (Nepal)
- Nima Sherpa (Nepal)
- Nawang Thindu Sherpa (Nepal)
- Gyalu Sherpa (Nepal)
- Sohail Sakhi (Pakistan)
- Sarah Mallory Geis (United States)
- Nadhira Al Harthy (Oman)
- Wang Zhong (China)
The bodies of Yukta, Al Harthy and Geis were recovered first and airlifted to Skardu, where a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed the American’s death. Recovery of the remaining climbers is underway as weather permits.
What happened
The avalanche struck at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday, July 30, at roughly 6,600 meters, as the expedition climbed between Camp II and Camp III on the 8,047-meter peak, the world’s 12th highest, in the Karakoram range.
The slide swept the group down the mountain’s main west-facing gully. GPS data from the climbers’ devices suggests some were carried nearly 1,000 meters, according to Alpine Club of Pakistan General Secretary Ayaz Shigri. Al Harthy’s tracker recorded a fall of more than 1,600 meters.
No alarm reached rescue services until late Thursday night, roughly 13 hours after the slide. “We only found out at 10 pm,” Naila Kiani of the Alpine Club of Pakistan told ExplorersWeb. The delay meant helicopters could not fly before dark, and the search began only Friday morning.
Heavy snowfall had blanketed Broad Peak in the week before the avalanche, and most teams had already left the mountain over safety concerns. Two climbers who walked out on July 25 later described unstable, unconsolidated snow between Camp 2 and Camp 3.
Broad Peak avalanche four bodies recovered
Nepal’s heaviest loss
Six of the dead were Nepali, several of them among the most accomplished guides of their generation.
Purja, 43, a former Gurkha and British special forces soldier, rose to global fame in 2019 by summiting all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in six months and six days, a feat documented in the Netflix film “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.” He went on to complete all 14 a second time without supplemental oxygen and had stood atop 8,000-meter peaks 57 times, more than anyone in history. Days before the climb, he wrote on Instagram: “Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down.”
Kili Pemba Sherpa had also climbed all 14 of the 8,000-meter peaks and, like Purja, was part of the historic Nepali team that made the first winter ascent of K2 in 2021. In 2018, he guided a double-amputee climber to the summit of Everest.
Yukta was one of Purja’s most trusted senior guides. “The mountains had taken him to extraordinary heights, and today, he rests forever in their embrace,” the Nepal Mountain Guide Team wrote in tribute.
Al Harthy was the first Omani woman to summit Everest and had climbed K2 and Manaslu. Sakhi, from Hunza, was a respected IFMGA guide and mentor in Pakistani climbing.
“The world has lost one of mountaineering’s greatest climbers; a leader who inspired millions through his courage, humility and unwavering belief that human potential is far greater than we often imagine,” Elite Exped said of Purja.
The recovery and what comes next
Two Pakistan Army Aviation helicopters, ground teams and drones remain deployed, with K2 expedition teams having abandoned their summit pushes to support the operation. Mingma David Sherpa, Purja’s partner at Elite Exped, flew in from Nepal with two other climbers to join the effort.
The governments of Nepal, Pakistan and Gilgit-Baltistan are coordinating the recovery, and families are being briefed through official channels.
The disaster is the deadliest in Pakistani mountaineering since the 2008 K2 tragedy that killed 11 climbers, and the single heaviest loss of Nepali climbers in a mountaineering accident abroad.
Questions are already being raised about the 13-hour gap between the avalanche and the alarm, and why the expedition pushed for the summit when nearly every other team had left the mountain. Those answers will come later. For now, Nepal mourns.
Casualty information is based on statements from Elite Exped, the Alpine Club of Pakistan, search leader Mingma G and government officials as of Aug. 1.