Nirmal Purja, the Nepal-born former special forces soldier who transformed modern mountaineering by climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks in a record six months, has died in an avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak. He was 43.
His death was confirmed on Saturday by Elite Expedition in a statement shared on social media.
“It is with profound sadness and immense heartbreak that we confirm that Nirmal ‘Nimsdai’ Purja tragically lost his life following the avalanche on Broad Peak. We have also received confirmation that other members of the expedition sadly did not survive,” the statement said, as per The Kathmandu Post.
Pujra’s Location Shifted After Avalanche
Purja was leading an expedition on Broad Peak when an avalanche struck the team on July 30, 2026. Pakistani mountaineering authorities said there had been no communication with the group after the incident.
Earlier, Mingma Gyabu Sherpa, a member of Nepal’s House of Representatives and Purja’s business partner, had said tracking data indicated that Purja’s location shifted after the avalanche — initially suggesting he had been swept downhill before the signal moved again and eventually stopped.
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Widely known as “Nims Dai”, Purja became a global icon in mountaineering after completing his ambitious Project Possible in 2019. He scaled all 14 of the world’s peaks above 8,000 metres in just six months and six days, smashing the previous record by more than seven years and redefining what many believed was humanly possible.
Broad Peak, one of the world’s highest and most technically demanding mountains, has long been regarded as a formidable challenge for climbers. First successfully summited by an Austrian expedition in 1957, the peak has claimed dozens of lives over the decades, with 2013 ranking among its deadliest years after at least six climbers were killed.
Who Was Purja?
Born on July 25, 1983, in Nepal’s Myagdi district, Nirmal Purja came from a family of Gurkha soldiers. After serving six years as a British Gurkha, he became the first Nepali to join the elite British Special Boat Service (SBS), later earning an MBE in 2018 for his military service and mountaineering achievements.
Purja’s life changed after a 2012 trek to Everest Base Camp inspired him to pursue high-altitude climbing. In 2019, he stunned the world by completing Project Possible, scaling all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks in just six months and six days—more than seven years faster than the previous record. The feat, documented in the Netflix film 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, transformed him into one of the world’s most recognised mountaineers.
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To fund the expedition, Purja resigned from the SBS, gave up his pension and sold his house in the UK. Along the way, he repeatedly paused his own summit attempts to rescue stranded climbers, reinforcing his belief that mountaineering was about more than records.
Purja later co-founded Elite Expedition and, in 2021, was part of the historic all-Nepali team that completed the first-ever winter ascent of K2. He also championed greater recognition for Nepali climbers through the Nimsdai Foundation and served as chairman of Mustang Helicopters.
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