Legendary Climber Nims Purja Among Six Still Missing After Deadly Broad Peak Avalanche
Finn's Take· TL;DR- Legendary climber Nims Purja among six still missing after avalanche struck Broad Peak on July 31, killing four climbers including first Omani woman to summit Everest.
- Rescue efforts delayed 13 hours despite base camp staff present; satellite data shows Purja descended 800 meters during avalanche before signal stopped at 6,660 meters.
- Broad Peak remains deadly mountain; rescuers detected possible life signs from one missing climber's tracker as search continues after weather suspension.
A Disaster Unfolds on One of the World's Most Dangerous Mountains
Emergency crews on the ground and in helicopters have been scouring the Karakoram mountain range for the ten climbers believed to have been on 8,047-meter-tall Broad Peak when an avalanche struck around midday on Thursday, July 31. The large avalanche — some sources report there may have been two — struck at approximately 9:20 a.m., yet no alarm went out until nearly 13 hours later, even though each team had staff at Base Camp. The entire day, when a prompt response might have allowed helicopters to reach the site before dark, was lost.
Four people have been found dead, according to Irfan Arshad Khan, the Pakistan Alpine Club's president. The remains of three of them — identified as American climber Mallory Geis, Omani climber Nadhira Al Harthy, and Nepali climber Pur Bahadur Gurung — were recovered from the mountain and taken to a military hospital by army helicopter. Al Harthy was the first Omani woman to summit Mount Everest. As of today, August 1, six climbers remain unaccounted for, and the search presses on.
Who Is Nims Purja — and What Was He Doing on Broad Peak?
Purja rose to fame after the popular Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible was released in 2021, chronicling his successful attempt to break the speed record for climbing the world's 14 peaks above 8,000 meters. He became the first person ever to climb all 14 of the world's highest peaks surpassing the 8,000-meter mark in just 189 days. In 2024, he went even further, becoming the fastest person to summit all 14 of those peaks without supplementary oxygen.
According to the Everest Chronicle, the avalanche occurred only days after Purja completed his 57th successful ascent of an 8,000-meter peak — an oxygenless ascent of Gasherbrum II on July 21 — as he was nearing completion of a campaign to climb all 14 such peaks three times. After Broad Peak, Purja had planned to climb Cho Oyu, the world's sixth-highest mountain, to become the first person in history to climb all 14 "8,000ers" twice. He was leading the expedition for his company, Elite Exped, when the avalanche occurred.
Desperate Search, Faint Signals of Hope
Tracking data reviewed by rescuers showed Purja's satellite tracker recorded a rapid descent of about 800 meters during the avalanche before transmissions stopped. Rescuers noted that slight movement was later detected from one missing climber's Garmin InReach tracker, offering a possible sign of life. The avalanche appears to have struck the climbers between Camps 2 and 3, at around 6,660 meters.
Search and rescue operations resumed on Saturday, August 1, after poor weather conditions forced rescuers to suspend the mission on Friday. Two helicopters carrying Pakistani high-altitude climbers Sirbaz Khan and Sherzad Karim had launched an aerial search on Friday with rescue equipment and supplemental oxygen. The mountaineering star was among 10 climbers engulfed by the fast-moving avalanche — and notably, other expeditions had already left the mountain over concerns about a recent heavy snowfall.
A Tragedy That Echoes Across the Mountaineering World
Broad Peak has claimed dozens of lives since it was first summited in 1957. Pakistan's worst modern mountaineering disaster occurred in 2008, when 11 climbers were killed after an avalanche on K2. The scale of this latest tragedy — cutting through an international team of elite and amateur climbers alike — is a stark reminder that even the most experienced mountaineers operate on borrowed time at extreme altitude.
The still-missing climbers include Purja, Kili Pemba Sherpa, Nima Sherpa, Gyalu Sherpa, and Nawang Thindu Sherpa — a group of Nepali high-altitude workers whose names rarely make international headlines but whose skill and sacrifice underpin almost every major Himalayan expedition. As rescuers continue combing the debris fields of Broad Peak today, the world waits for news about whether any of the six can be found alive. The coming hours, with weather conditions a constant wildcard, will be decisive.