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Karakoram Dispatch

Body Of Mountaineer Nirmal Purja, Three Others Retrieved From Broad Peak

Andoram Desk3 September 2026 · 07:15 UTC · 3 sources

An avalanche struck a team of climbers high on Broad Peak, 8,051m (26,414ft), in Pakistan’s Karakoram range on Thursday, July 30, catching ten people including Nepali mountaineer Nirmal “Nims” Purja. Seven bodies have since been recovered, and three climbers remained missing as of the most recent report from the Alpine Club of Pakistan, carried by Gripped. The incident has drawn responses from multiple expedition operators and national authorities coordinating search and rescue work on the mountain.

What happened

The avalanche hit the group on the standard West Ridge route, between Camp II and Camp III, with outlets giving varying figures for the elevation: ExplorersWeb reported the slide hit around 6,660m (21,850ft), Desnivel put it at about 6,600m (21,654ft), and Climbing cited a figure of 6,579m (21,580ft) ExplorersWeb Desnivel Climbing. Accounts also diverge on timing. The Alpine Club of Pakistan said the avalanche struck around midday on Thursday, while ExplorersWeb reported it occurred near 9:20am, Desnivel gave 9:30am local time, and Climbing reported roughly 9am; Climbing added that GPS tracks from the climbers’ devices placed the event between 8:57am and 9:30am. Ten climbers were caught in the slide Alpinist Magazine. News of the avalanche first broke via Everest Chronicle before being confirmed by the Alpine Club of Pakistan and by Mingma David Sherpa, co-founder of Elite Exped.

GPS trackers belonging to several of the missing climbers went stationary above 7,800m (25,591ft) after the avalanche, according to Alpinist Alpinist Magazine. ExplorersWeb reported that trackers showed the climbers had stopped ascending around 9:30am before falling several hundred metres Climbing. Individual tracker data illustrated the scale of the falls: Mallory Geis’s device recorded a sudden descent of 543m (1,784ft), while Nadhira Al Harthy’s showed a drop of 1,651m (5,417ft).

The people involved

Four separate teams were present on the mountain at the time: a pair consisting of guide Sohail Sakhi and his client Mallory Geis; Purja’s Elite Exped team; a group from Imagine Nepal; and a party from Seven Summit Treks ExplorersWeb. The Alpine Club of Pakistan’s initial report listed the climbers caught in the avalanche as five Nepalese climbers led by Purja, Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi, an Omani climber identified as “Nathira,” American climber Mallory Geiss, Chinese climber “Mr. Wang,” and one additional foreign climber. Desnivel later named the ten as Nirmal Purja, Yukta Gurung, Nima Sherpa, Gyalu Sherpa, Nwang Thendou Sherpa, Kili Pemba Sherpa, Sohail Saki, Mallory Geis, Nadhira Al Harthy and Wang Zhong Desnivel; the spelling variants between the two reports were not reconciled in the supplied accounts.

Purja, who led the Elite Exped team, was accompanied on the climb by guides Pur Bahadur “Yukta” Gurung and Nima Sherpa Climbing. Sohail Sakhi, from Hunza Valley in Pakistan, worked as a high-altitude guide, mathematician, mountain photographer and drone pilot, and had summited Nanga Parbat, K2, and both Gasherbrum I and II; he had also spoken out on pay equity for Pakistani guides. His client, Mallory Geis, 39, of San Antonio, Texas, worked as a travel photographer and ran a pilates studio; Broad Peak was her first attempt on an 8,000m peak, following earlier summits of Lobuche East and Mera Peak. Nadhira Al Harthy of Oman had summited Everest in 2019 and K2 in 2022, and became the first Omani to summit Nanga Parbat in 2024, alongside earlier ascents of Manaslu and Ama Dablam Desnivel. Wang Zhong, a Chinese climber, had summited eleven 8,000m peaks, most recently Gasherbrum II on July 4 together with Purja; Broad Peak would have been his thirteenth, with Shishapangma remaining. Pur Bahadur “Yukta” Gurung, an IMFGA-certified guide from Luprak, Nepal, had summited 8,000m peaks 28 times, including ten ascents of Everest and two of K2, and had worked for Elite Exped since 2022. Kili Pemba “Kilu” Sherpa, a lead guide for Imagine Nepal, had completed all fourteen 8,000m peaks, finishing with Nanga Parbat on July 3, had summited Everest fifteen times, and had taken part in the 2021 winter ascent of K2. Nawang Thendu Sherpa, a guide with Seven Summit Treks, had summited six 8,000m peaks and had previously taken part in high-altitude rescue efforts, including on Annapurna in 2025. Imagine Nepal’s team leader, Mingma G, was not on Broad Peak at the time, as he was climbing K2 ExplorersWeb; Imagine Nepal said its climbers had reached Camp 2 on Wednesday and had planned to move to Camp 3 on Thursday ahead of a planned Friday summit.

The response

Naila Kiani of the Alpine Club of Pakistan told ExplorersWeb that the club did not learn of the avalanche until 10pm on Thursday, close to thirteen hours after it struck, and said the club was shocked by the delay ExplorersWeb. Club president Major General Irfan Arshad said he was coordinating with government authorities to mobilise search and rescue efforts, including helicopters, subject to weather conditions, and two helicopters carrying rescuers and oxygen were scheduled to fly to Broad Peak on Friday. Karakorum Expeditions reported on the morning of July 31 that four bodies had been recovered at the base of the avalanche Desnivel, two of which were identified as Nadhira Al Harthy and Pur Bahadur “Yukta” Gurung. A press release from the Commissioner of Baltistan that same day confirmed the recovery of three bodies — Gurung, Al Harthy and Mallory Geis Climbing. Rescuers also spotted further climbers by drone, though their identities and condition remained unconfirmed, and the search was set to resume on August 1 after poor weather. A subsequent Alpine Club of Pakistan update reported four further bodies recovered and brought down to Camp 1 at 5,600m (18,373ft): Purja, Wang Zhong, Nima Sherpa and Kili Pemba Sherpa. One body was spotted at a higher point on the mountain but its recovery was postponed owing to risk, and an amputated leg, believed to belong to one of the remaining climbers, was also recovered. On August 1, Elite Exped confirmed via Instagram the deaths of Purja and Nima Sherpa, asking for privacy for their families; the club’s president publicly asked Elite Exped to stop releasing such information until rescue teams had physically reached the victims. The Alpine Club of Pakistan described the overall recovery operation as exceptionally challenging and technically demanding, led by Nepali mountaineer Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, with bodies transported to Broad Peak base camp Gripped. The club recognised Pakistani climbers Sirbaz Khan, Abid Baig and Sherbaz, and Nepali climbers Dipen Gurung and Pemba Chhewang Sherpa for their roles, and thanked the Pakistan Army, the governments of Pakistan and Gilgit-Baltistan, the British High Commission, and the Embassy of Nepal. By the time of Gripped’s report, seven bodies had been recovered in total, and three climbers remained missing, with recovery teams saying efforts would continue as conditions allowed.

Background and context

Broad Peak, known locally as Falchan Kangri — meaning “broad peak” in Balti — sits in Gilgit-Baltistan and is described by ExplorersWeb and Desnivel as the world’s twelfth-highest mountain ExplorersWeb Desnivel. Purja’s presence on the mountain stemmed from a late addition to his itinerary. Elite Exped stated that his primary objective for the season was his Hat-Trick Project for the Nimsdai Foundation, and that he decided shortly before departing to also attempt Broad Peak Climbing. Purja posted on social media that the peak had been a last-minute addition, since his original plan covered only Gasherbrum II, and that completing Broad Peak would leave only Cho Oyu, 8,188m (26,864ft), needed to become the first person to climb all fourteen 8,000m peaks twice without supplemental oxygen. Purja had completed the 14 Peaks Challenge without supplemental oxygen on October 4, 2024, after two years and 150 days, having earlier completed the challenge with supplemental oxygen in six months in 2019, a feat documented in the Netflix film “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible”. In January 2021, he was among ten Nepali climbers who made a winter ascent of K2. Climbing reported that Purja had summited 8,000m peaks 57 times in his life, more than anyone else on record, including 29 ascents without supplemental oxygen, and that his most recent summit, Gasherbrum II, had come less than a week before his death.

What is not yet confirmed

The identities and condition of the three climbers still listed as missing have not been confirmed in the supplied reporting Gripped. The exact cause of the discrepancy in the avalanche’s reported time, ranging from roughly 9am to midday across different sources, has not been resolved ExplorersWeb Desnivel Climbing. Similarly, the precise elevation at which the avalanche struck remains inconsistently reported, with figures ranging from about 6,579m to 6,660m (21,580–21,850ft). The spelling discrepancies between the Alpine Club of Pakistan’s initial list of climbers and the names later reported by Desnivel, including “Nathira” versus Nadhira Al Harthy and “Mr. Wang” versus Wang Zhong, have not been formally reconciled. It also remains unclear why the Alpine Club of Pakistan was not notified of the avalanche for nearly thirteen hours after it occurred, and the circumstances surrounding the one body spotted at a higher location on the mountain, whose recovery was postponed, have not been further detailed.

Sources referenced

Written by Andoram by combining 5 independently published reports, each linked above. We synthesise facts and reproduce no source text.

Coverage timeline

This page is an automatically compiled index of third-party reporting. Headlines and links belong to their publishers; Andoram reproduces no article text. Last compiled 3 Sep 2026 07:15 UTC.

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