Nirmal Purja Among 10 Climbers Missing After Broad Peak Avalanche

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Nirmal Purja, the mountaineer who once summited five 8,000-metre peaks in twelve days, has not been heard from since Thursday afternoon. An avalanche struck his team on Broad Peak in Pakistan's Karakoram range, and the Alpine Club of Pakistan says the group has not been reachable since. Nine other climbers are missing alongside him.

Photo Credit: Instagram: @nimsdai

Purja, the Nepal-born mountaineer and former Royal Marine widely known as "Nims Dai," was leading the expedition when the avalanche hit around midday on Thursday. The team included Nepali climbers Pur Bahadur Gurung, Kili Pemba Sherpa, Nima Sherpa, Gyalu Sherpa and Nawang Thindu Sherpa, alongside Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi, Chinese climber Wang Zhong, American climber Mallory Geis and Omani climber Ahmed Abdullah Al Harthy.

A Day Lost Before The Alarm Was Raised

The avalanche is believed to have struck around 9:20 am on Thursday, but the alert did not go out until almost 13 hours later - even though teams typically have staff stationed at Base Camp.

"We only found out at 10 pm," Naila Kiani of the Alpine Club of Pakistan told ExplorersWeb, adding that the entire day - when a faster response might have let helicopters reach the site before dark - was lost. "We are all shocked," she said.

Bad weather initially grounded helicopters, forcing rescuers into a ground search instead. Some climbers swept down by the avalanche were carried back to base camp overland, and it was during that operation that two bodies were first found. By Friday, Alpine Club of Pakistan president Irfan Arshad Khan confirmed that ground rescue teams had recovered four bodies, though their identities are yet to be confirmed.

A Flicker Of Hope From Purja's Tracker

Amid the grim recoveries, one detail has kept rescuers and family hopeful. A tracking device carried by Purja has continued to show movement, according to his business partner.

Mingma Gyabu Sherpa, a member of Nepal's House of Representatives, said the data initially suggested Purja had been swept downhill by the avalanche. "But after the point where the tracking had stopped, the location appears to have shifted," he said. Alpine Club general secretary Ayaz Ahmed Shigri said the location of four climbers was showing up on GPS, and that clear weather was expected through the weekend, improving conditions for aerial search.

Who Is Nirmal Purja

Purja, 43, is among the most decorated climbers alive. He first drew global attention by climbing all fourteen of the world's 8,000-metre peaks in six months and six days between April and October 2019, smashing the previous record. In 2024, he became the fastest person to summit all fourteen without supplementary oxygen. He was days away from completing a third full round of all fourteen 8,000ers - his self-styled "Hat Trick Campaign" - having summited Gasherbrum II without oxygen just over a week before the avalanche.

Why Broad Peak Is So Dangerous

At 8,047 metres, Broad Peak is the world's twelfth-highest mountain and is considered slightly less technically demanding than its notorious neighbour K2 - but it is known for sudden, unpredictable weather. Three Iranian climbers died descending the peak in 2013, and Pakistan's worst modern mountaineering disaster came in 2008, when eleven climbers were killed in an avalanche on K2.

For a climber who has spent his career pushing past what mountaineering was thought capable of, Purja's fate now rests on a signal from a tracking device and a stretch of clearing sky over the Karakoram. Rescue teams are working against terrain that has claimed lives before - and against a delay that already cost them a day. What's certain is that ten families are waiting, and the mountains that made Nirmal Purja famous may now decide the rest of his story.