Avalanche on Broad Peak Leaves Ten Climbers Missing, Including Famed Mountaineer Nirmal Purja
An avalanche on Broad Peak, the world's twelfth-highest mountain, struck an international climbing expedition on Thursday, leaving ten people missing. Among them is Nirmal Purja, the Nepal-born British mountaineer who gained global fame after climbing all fourteen 8,000-metre peaks in a record 189 days — and whose feat was immortalised in the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.
The Alpine Club of Pakistan confirmed that the avalanche hit around midday on Broad Peak (8,047 metres) in the Karakoram range, within Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan. Besides Purja, the missing group includes five Nepalese climbers, Pakistani mountaineer Sohail Sakhi, an Omani climber named Nathira, American Mallory Geis, a Chinese climber identified only as Wang, and one other foreign national. Communication with the expedition has been completely lost.
A single beacon of hope emerged when Mingma Gyabu Sherpa — Purja's business partner and a Nepali lawmaker — reported that a tracking device Purja was carrying showed his location shifted after the avalanche. Initially, data indicated he was swept downhill by the slide; later, the tracking signal moved again, suggesting he might have relocated. Sherpa cautioned that the data cannot confirm Purja's condition or consciousness.
Rescue helicopters remain grounded as of Friday morning due to severe weather over the Karakoram. The Alpine Club of Pakistan said its president, Maj Gen Irfan Arshad, and senior officials are coordinating efforts to deploy aircraft the moment conditions allow. Time is critical, as survivors trapped in high-altitude avalanche debris face extreme cold and altitude sickness.
What the Tracking Data Could Mean and the Grim Reality of Karakoram Rescues
Nirmal Purja's Climbing Legacy and the Stakes for the Missing Team
Purja, known as Nims Dai, served in the British Army's elite Special Boat Service before transitioning to professional mountaineering. His 2019 "Project Possible" — summiting all 14 eight-thousanders in 189 days, smashing the previous record of nearly eight years — turned him into one of the most recognisable figures in modern mountaineering. The Netflix film expanded his fame far beyond the climbing community. While the record was later beaten in 2023 by Norwegian Kristin Harila and Tenjin Sherpa (92 days), Purja's achievement remains legendary.
What the Tracking Device Signal Could Indicate
The shifting location of Purja's tracking device offers a faint but real possibility that he survived the avalanche and may have moved after the slide. In mountain rescue, post-avalanche movement is rare: victims are often fatally buried or immobilised by trauma. A secondary movement could mean he freed himself from debris or was only partially buried. However, it might also reflect passive displacement (e.g. the device sliding with meltwater or a secondary slough) rather than conscious action. Rescue teams will be careful not to over-interpret the data before a helicopter reaches the coordinates.
The Rescue Challenge: Weather, Terrain, and Time
The Karakoram is among the most technically demanding high-altitude ranges on Earth, with fatality rates exceeding those of the Himalayas. Broad Peak's upper slopes have a history of sudden, unpredictable avalanches during the summer climbing season. Helicopter operations are heavily constrained by altitude, wind, and cloud cover. Even if weather clears, searchers must pinpoint survivors amid vast debris fields at over 7,000 metres — likely within the first 24–48 hours to have any realistic chance of a live recovery. The group's international composition adds diplomatic and logistical complexity to the coordination of rescue assets.
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