Rescue teams in Pakistan have recovered the bodies of seven climbers, including celebrated Nepali-British mountaineer Nirmal Purja, from Broad Peak following an avalanche that killed all ten members of an international expedition three days ago. Three climbers remain missing, among them Sohail Sakhi, a Pakistani guide and photographer who had planned to retire from expedition work after this climb. Recovery efforts are continuing under extremely difficult conditions on the 8,051-metre peak, the world's twelfth-highest mountain, located in Pakistan's Karakoram range.
The avalanche struck around midday on Thursday, trapping the group high on the mountain. Three bodies — Nepali climber Pur Bahadur Gurung, Omani mountaineer Nadhira Al Harthy, and American climber Mallory Geis — were retrieved on Friday, with a fourth recovered the same day. On Sunday, a ground team of eight climbers from Pakistan and Nepal reached approximately 5,700 metres and located Purja alongside three others: Chinese climber Wang Zhong and Nepali climbers Nima Sherpa and Kili Pemba Sherpa. All four were being brought down to Camp 1. Rescuers also confirmed the presence of one additional body at a significantly higher elevation, but the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) said recovery there was unlikely given the hazardous terrain and weather conditions that have repeatedly grounded helicopters.
Purja, 43, also known as Nims Dai, was a former Gurkha — Nepali soldiers who serve in the British Army — who later became a special forces soldier before entering the world of elite mountaineering. In 2019 he set a record by climbing all 14 of the world's peaks above 8,000 metres in just 189 days, a feat later documented in the Netflix series 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible. That record has since been surpassed, but Purja remained one of the sport's most recognisable figures. He was reportedly attempting Broad Peak for the second time, as part of a goal to become the first person to summit all 14 eight-thousanders twice, without supplemental oxygen.
The expedition brought together climbers from Nepal, Pakistan, Oman, the United States, and China, reflecting the broad international draw of Broad Peak, considered one of the most technically demanding ascents among the world's highest mountains. Tributes have poured in from around the world. Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah said the climbers' courage and dedication would remain an inspiration. At Small Heaven School in Nepal's Chitwan district, where Purja boarded for eight years before joining the Gurkhas, students and teachers gathered around his photograph, lighting candles and laying flowers.
The ACP described Purja as "a man who made the impossible possible," adding that his loss "on the very mountains he so loved is a devastating blow to the global mountaineering family." British climber Kenton Cool, who has summited Everest more times than any non-Sherpa, called Purja "charismatic" and noted that he had been "at the forefront of shaking up high-altitude guiding." The recovery operation, complicated by the remote and treacherous terrain and Pakistan's limited capacity for long-line helicopter rescues compared with neighbouring Nepal, is expected to continue in the days ahead.