Nirmal Purja and team killed in Broad Peak avalanche
An avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan’s Gilgit‑Baltistan region swept away a ten‑person international expedition on 4 August 2026, killing all members including renowned British‑Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja. The bodies of Purja, Chinese climber Zhong Wang, Nepali climbers Nima Sherpa and Kilu Sherpa were recovered and brought to the base camp, while three climbers remain missing. Earlier recoveries had yielded the bodies of Nathira Ahmed, Mallory Geis and Bahadur Gurung.
Rescue operations were hampered by severe weather that grounded helicopters, forcing teams to search on foot. The expedition, organized by Elite Expeditions and supported by the Alpine Club of Pakistan, comprised climbers from Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar and Nepalese officials expressed condolences, and candle‑light vigils were held in Kathmandu.
Purja, famed for his 2019 Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible” and for attempting a record to climb all fourteen 8,000‑metre peaks twice without supplemental oxygen, was mourned as a loss to the global mountaineering community.
Entities: Agnieszka Wiernik · Alpine Club of Pakistan · Broad Peak · Elite Expeditions · Ishaq Dar · Karakoram Vision · Nima Sherpa · Nirmal Purja · Pakistan · Wang Zhong
Claims
What the coverage asserts, and how well corroborated each claim is across sources.
- [● 10 SOURCES] Three climbers from the ten‑person expedition remain missing. (multiple)
- [● 9 SOURCES] The avalanche also killed Wang Zhong, Nima Sherpa and Kili Pemba Sherpa. (multiple)
- [● 9 SOURCES] Rescue teams recovered the bodies of Nirmal Purja and three other climbers. (multiple)
- [● 7 SOURCES] Nirmal Purja was featured in the Netflix documentary '14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible'. (multiple)
- [● 9 SOURCES] Rescue operations were hampered by adverse weather, limiting helicopter use. (multiple)
- [● 7 SOURCES] The expedition was attempting a record to climb all 14 eight‑thousand‑metre peaks twice without supplemental oxygen. (multiple)
- [● 7 SOURCES] Earlier, four other bodies—Nathira Ahmed, Mallory Geis and Bahadur Gurung—had been recovered. (multiple)
- [● 10 SOURCES] An avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan killed Nirmal Purja. (multiple)