Nirmal Purja, Who Climbed All 14 of the World's Highest Peaks in 189 Days, Is Dead in a Broad Peak Avalanche

Nirmal Purja, the British-Nepali climber whose 189-day sprint up all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks made him the most famous mountaineer of his generation, was killed in an avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak, officials with the Alpine Club of Pakistan confirmed Friday. He was 42.

Purja, universally known as "Nims Dai," was leading a 10-person expedition on the 26,401-foot Karakoram summit when the avalanche struck Thursday, July 28. Karrar Haidri, vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said rescuers had recovered three of four bodies located on the mountain by Saturday, with military helicopters resuming the search at first light. Alongside Purja, the dead include Omani climber Nathira Ahmed, American climber Mallory Geis, 39, of San Antonio, and Nepalese climber Bahadur Gurung.

At least six members of the expedition remain missing on the mountain. The team included five Nepalese climbers, one Omani, one American, a Pakistani named Sohail Sakhi, a Chinese climber identified only as Wang, and one other foreign climber. Tahir Khan, a local police official, said conditions on the upper mountain had complicated the recovery effort, with helicopters unable to operate for long stretches because of weather and altitude.

Purja's 2019 feat — summiting every peak above 8,000 meters in six months and six days, a record that had stood at nearly eight years — was documented in the Netflix film "14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible" and turned a former British Special Boat Service operator into an international celebrity. He had served in the Gurkhas and then the SBS, and he framed his climbing project as a demonstration of what Nepali high-altitude workers, long treated as support staff for Western clients, could accomplish under their own name. He went on to lead the first winter ascent of K2 in January 2021, alongside nine other Nepali climbers.

Broad Peak, the world's 12th-highest mountain, sits on the border between Pakistan and China and is often climbed as a companion objective to K2, which rises a few miles away. It has a reputation for deceptively long summit ridges and for avalanche-prone slopes in the Karakoram's short and violent summer season. Pakistani authorities have not released a full account of where the expedition was camped when the slide hit.

Purja had built a commercial guiding company, Elite Exped, around the Nepali-led model, and had been vocal in recent years about crowding and commercialization on the 8,000-meter peaks even as his own operation expanded. He is survived by his wife, Suchi. The Alpine Club of Pakistan said the search for the remaining climbers would continue as long as weather permitted.