Nirmal Purja dies in Broad Peak avalanche near 14-peak mission milestone

Kathmandu,UPDATED: Aug 1, 2026 18:14 IST

Nirmal Purja, the Nepali-British climber known as Nims or Nimsdai, has died after an avalanche on Broad Peak in the Karakoram Range. Three days before he went missing on the 8,051-metre mountain, Purja had written on X: "Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down. I take zero mountains for granted. Not one."

Purja, 43, was among 10 climbers swept away by the avalanche at an altitude of around 7,000 metres on Thursday. His death was confirmed on Saturday by Elite Exped, the expedition company he founded, which said no member of the expedition survived. The Broad Peak climb, on the world’s 12th-highest mountain in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Gilgit-Baltistan, came as Purja was close to completing his mission of climbing all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres twice.

Purja had climbed all 14 eight-thousanders in six months and six days in 2019, setting a new record. His achievements also included the fastest ascents of the world’s three highest mountains — Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga — and being among the first mountaineers to summit K2 during winter in January 2021. Ang Tshering Sherpa, former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, called him "one of the best climbers" in the world, adding, "He has climbed eight thousanders for most of the time."

Born on July 25, 1983, in Myagdi district of Gandaki Province, Purja grew up in Chitwan in Nepal’s flatlands rather than in the shadow of the Himalayas. According to his website, he did well at school but did not initially dream of climbing mountains. Instead, he wanted to become a Gurkha in the British military like his father and brothers.

Purja began his military career in 2003 and served for 16 years, including six years as a Gurkha and 10 years with the UK Special Forces. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2018. According to the UK’s Gurkha Museum, he was the first Gurkha to join the UK Special Boat Service, a unit largely made up of Royal Marines. The museum says, "During his time with the SBS, Nims developed an interest in mountaineering, which quickly developed into a passion. In December 2012, whilst on leave from his Special Forces duties, Nims set out to trek to Everest Base Camp. This experience fired his passion and ambition for the mountains almost immediately."

After leaving the military, Purja moved quickly into high-altitude climbing. His Project Possible 14/7 challenge saw him scale all 14 eight-thousanders in record time. He later wrote about the feat in the book, Beyond Possible: One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks - My Life in the Death Zone. He was also the subject of the November 2021 Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, which followed his team’s attempt to climb all 14 eight-thousanders in what was then a record time of under seven months.

His public life also saw controversy. In 2024, Purja faced allegations of wrongdoing in his companies through a series of newspaper articles in a leading Nepal daily. He filed a complaint with the Nepal Press Council, which sided with him in February 2025 and blacklisted the daily. The newspaper called the decision arbitrary. Purja had earlier also faced allegations of sexual harassment made by two foreigners, which he denied as false and defamatory.

Purja’s death on Broad Peak ends the career of a climber who set records on the world’s highest mountains, served in the British military and remained a prominent figure in mountaineering until his final expedition.

With PTI Inputs

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