Crews Just Recovered the Remains of Sarah Mallory Geis, the American Climber Killed on Broad Peak

On August 21, volunteer search and rescue crews located the body of American climber Sarah Mallory Geis, 39, bringing to a close the search for the tenth and final victim of an avalanche that struck Broad Peak on July 30 Outside Arab News Pakistan ExplorersWeb. One other climber involved in the same accident, Nawang Thendu Sherpa, remains on the mountain after search teams located but were unable to retrieve his body.

What happened

The avalanche hit four separate climbing teams at around 9 A.M. local time on July 30, striking above Broad Peak’s Camp II at an elevation of roughly 6,450 metres (21,160 feet) Outside. Broad Peak itself rises in Pakistan’s Karakoram range; Outside gives its height as 26,414 feet (8,047m), while Arab News describes it as 8,000m (26,247 feet) Arab News Pakistan. Andoram’s own reference puts the peak at 8,051m (26,414ft). Ten climbers were killed in the slide ExplorersWeb. According to the Associated Press, Pakistani authorities initially reported on July 31 that Geis’s body had already been recovered, but Outside later reported that rescuers had in fact only recovered her detached leg that day, with the remainder of her body unaccounted for over the following weeks. Arab News states that the search for Geis began on July 31, immediately after the avalanche. Eight of the ten victims besides Geis and Nawang Thendu Sherpa have already been recovered.

The people involved

Geis, a resident of San Antonio, Texas, was on her first attempt at one of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks Outside Arab News Pakistan ExplorersWeb. Arab News refers to her simply as “Mallory Geis”. ExplorersWeb reported that before travelling to Broad Peak, she had summited Lobuche East (6,119m/20,075ft) and Mera Peak (6,476m/21,247ft) in Nepal, and had completed ice-climbing training in the United States earlier in the year. According to CNN, as cited by Outside, Geis had recently closed a Pilates studio in order to concentrate on mountaineering, a point ExplorersWeb also makes. Arab News reported that she had written on social media earlier in the year about closing the studio to take what she called “a giant leap of faith into the unknown to see where life goes,” referencing helmets, harnesses and crampons. Her father, George Geis, told San Antonio station KENS 5 after the avalanche that the family’s “main objective now is to get her back”. Her family also released a statement earlier in August describing her as “a bright light who was loved deeply by her family and friends”. Among the ten killed was Nirmal “Nims” Purja, the Nepali-British climber known as “Nims Dai,” who was leading the expedition. Purja had climbed the world’s 14 highest peaks in 189 days in 2019, an achievement later featured in the Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible”; Arab News noted that his record was broken in 2023.

The response

Alpine Club of Pakistan President Major General Irfan Arshad Khan told Dawn that volunteer porters are moving Geis’s body down to a nearby base camp, from where it is eventually meant to be airlifted by helicopter to Skardu Outside ExplorersWeb. Ayaz Shigri, General Secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, confirmed the identification of the body and, according to Dawn, described the same two-stage plan of moving it first to Base Camp before a helicopter transfer to Skardu. Officials located Nawang Thendu Sherpa’s body on July 31 but, according to the Everest Chronicle, left it in place because of extreme terrain hazards; ExplorersWeb similarly reported that search teams found his body but left it on the mountain owing to the danger of the terrain. A candlelight vigil was held in Kathmandu on August 4 to commemorate those who died in the avalanche. In a separate incident on August 20, UK-based Pakistani climber Asma Mushtaq died while descending Spantik (7,027m/23,054ft) after a successful summit. Her guiding agency, Karakoram Calling, said she suffered a severe high-altitude medical emergency at around 6,400m (20,997ft), and that guides were unable to save her. A recovery team has since been deployed for her body, and her family has reached Skardu.

Background

Broad Peak is ranked as the 12th-highest mountain in the world Outside. Lukas Furtenbach, founder of Furtenbach Adventures, told Outside that it is among the more frequently climbed 8,000-metre peaks, though significantly less popular than Everest and Manaslu, with between 50 and 100 climbers attempting it each year, a figure he described as placing it in the “upper middle” by volume. He added that expeditions to Broad Peak typically take six to eight weeks, much of that time spent acclimatising and waiting for suitable weather. Outside described the July 30 avalanche as the deadliest high-altitude mountaineering accident since 2015, when an earthquake-triggered avalanche swept through Mount Everest Base Camp and killed 22 people. Arab News noted more broadly that accidents are common on climbing expeditions in northern Pakistan because of avalanches, falling ice and rock, high altitude and rapidly changing weather Arab News Pakistan. Mushtaq, who worked as an obstetrics and gynaecology specialist and documented her travels online, had previously completed a winter ascent of Musa ka Musallah (4,076m/13,373ft) and taken part in trips to the Rupal and Arandu areas before attempting Spantik, known as the “Golden Peak” for the colour of sunset light on its slopes ExplorersWeb.

What is not yet confirmed

It remains unclear why Pakistani authorities initially reported on July 31 that Geis’s body had been recovered when, according to Outside, only a detached leg had in fact been found at that time Outside. No timeline has been given for when Geis’s body will actually reach Skardu by helicopter, nor whether weather or logistics have affected the plan described by the Alpine Club of Pakistan ExplorersWeb. Whether any further attempt will be made to retrieve Nawang Thendu Sherpa’s body from Broad Peak, or whether it will remain on the mountain, has not been stated. The outcome of the recovery effort for Asma Mushtaq’s body from Spantik has also not yet been reported.

Sources referenced

• Authorities Have Found the Body of Sarah Mallory Geis, the Last Climber Missing After Broad Peak’s Deadly Avalanche — Outside
• Remains of last missing climber found after Pakistan’s Broad Peak avalanche — Arab News Pakistan
• Final Body Found on Broad Peak and Another Death in the Karakoram — ExplorersWeb

Written by Andoram by combining 3 independently published reports, each linked above. We synthesise facts and reproduce no source text.

Coverage timeline

• Crews Just Found the Remains of Sarah Mallory Geis, the American Climber Killed on Broad Peak — Outside Magazine, 24 Aug 2026, 19:03 UTC
• Crews Just Recovered the Remains of Sarah Mallory Geis, the American Climber Killed on Broad Peak — Outside Magazine, 24 Aug 2026, 18:58 UTC
• Authorities Have Found the Body of Sarah Mallory Geis, the Last Climber Missing After Broad Peak’s Deadly Avalanche — Outside, 24 Aug 2026, 18:53 UTC
• Remains of Mallory Geis found after deadly avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak — expressnews.com, 21 Aug 2026, 21:15 UTC

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 31 Aug 2026 19:00 UTC.