Nirmal Purja, Nepal-born mountaineer and former Royal Marine widely known as “Nims Dai”, is among ten climbers feared missing after an avalanche hit the 8,047-metre Broad Peak in Pakistan on Thursday.
A tracking device carried by Purja has continued to show movement, according to his business partner, offering a glimmer of hope as rescuers prepare to launch a helicopter search.
The missing team includes five Nepali climbers led by Nimsdai, the Nepal-born former British special forces soldier who won global acclaim after climbing all 14 of the world’s mountains above 8,000 metres in just over six months in 2019.
Also on the expedition are Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi from Hunza, Omani mountaineer Nathira, American climber Mallory Geis, a Chinese climber identified as Wang
, and other climbers from multiple expedition companies.
The avalanche hit around midday on Thursday on the 8,047-metre peak in the Karakoram range, according to the Alpine Club of Pakistan, severing contact with the expedition.
“The entire team has reportedly been out of communication since the avalanche,” Karrar Haidri, senior vice-president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told Everest Chronicle.
Initially there was confusion about the timeline.
The large avalanche (or avalanches; some sources report two) occurred around 9:20 am on Thursday. However, no alarm went out until almost 13 hours later, even though each team has staff at Base Camp and other climbers are often there, too. “We only found out at 10 pm,” Naila Kiani of the Alpine Club of Pakistan told ExplorersWeb.
“We are all shocked,” Kiani said.
Hope emerged Friday morning from tracking data.
Speaking to Kantipur on Friday morning, Mingma Gyabu Sherpa, also a member of Nepal’s House of Representatives, said data from Purja’s tracking device indicated his location had changed after the avalanche. “Initially, it appeared that he had been swept downhill by the avalanche,” he said. “But after the point where the tracking had stopped, the location appears to have shifted again.”
Mingma said they only received detailed information about the incident on Thursday evening, although the avalanche had occurred earlier in the day.
The team was heading higher on the mountain as scheduled.
According to Imagine Nepal, the climbers on Broad Peak had reached Camp 2 on Wednesday. The plan was to go to Camp 3 on Thursday, then, after a short break, continue to the summit on Friday. The avalanche seems to have hit the climbers between Camps 2 and 3, at around 6,660m.
Rescue operations began immediately.
“Two helicopters will fly to Broad Peak on Friday, loaded with rescuers and oxygen.”
Mingma David Sherpa, co-founder of Elite Exped, confirmed the incident and said a search helicopter was expected to reach the area early Friday, weather permitting.
In the viral moment on Thursday around midday, an international team of climbers became caught in a massive avalanche roughly 6,660 meters up the mountain between Camps 2 and 3, according to initial reports.
According to the climbers’ GPS locations, they had been thrown down a full kilometre by the avalanche, and were likely trapped.
An avalanche swept the world’s 12th-highest mountain just as a big group was on its way to the summit. Ten people are unaccounted for, including Nirmal “Nims” Purja.
Purja’s recent climbing achievements made the incident particularly poignant.
The incident comes just nine days after Nimsdai climbed Pakistan’s Gasherbrum II without supplemental oxygen, completing the 57th successful ascent of an 8,000-metre peak in his career. The ascent left him with only Cho Oyu remaining to complete his self-declared “Hat-Trick Project” — climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks three times while also completing the Seven Summits three times.
Before his departure for Broad Peak, Purja had posted a personal message.
“Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down,” he wrote. “I take zero mountains for granted. Not one. The moment my foot leaves basecamp, it’s 100%. Always has been.
Rescue efforts continue to prepare for deployment Friday morning at Broad Peak.