{"id":30129,"date":"2026-08-01T18:19:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/nirmal-purja-dies-in-broad-peak-avalanche\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T18:19:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:49:55","slug":"nirmal-purja-dies-in-broad-peak-avalanche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/nirmal-purja-dies-in-broad-peak-avalanche\/","title":{"rendered":"Nirmal Purja Dies in Broad Peak Avalanche"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"\">\n<div class=\"f3e032cb\"><picture class=\"c62bd949\" style=\"visibility:visible\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/360x0\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/unnamed91785586447905_1785587180.gif\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/512x0\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/unnamed91785586447905_1785587180.gif\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/unnamed91785586447905_1785587180.gif\" alt=\"\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"f97587ba\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Renowned Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja, whose record-breaking ascent of the world&#8217;s 14 highest peaks earned him global recognition, has died after being caught in an avalanche while climbing Broad Peak in Pakistan&#8217;s Karakoram range.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:0\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">His mountaineering company, Elite Expedition, confirmed his death on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Purja was attempting to summit the 8,051-metre Broad Peak on July 30 when an avalanche struck at an altitude of around 7,000 metres.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Following the incident, 10 climbers, including Purja, were reported missing. The missing group included six Nepalese mountaineers.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:0\"\/><span style=\"font-size:0\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>Record-breaking mountaineer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Known as &#8220;Nims Dai&#8221; in the mountaineering community, Purja rose to international prominence in 2019 after launching Project Possible, an ambitious mission to climb all 14 mountains above 8,000 metres within seven months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">The feat was widely regarded as nearly impossible, but Purja completed it in just six months and six days, breaking the nearly eight-year-old world record set by South Korean mountaineer Kim Chang-ho.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">He also became the first climber to summit Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu within 48 hours, and was part of the team that achieved the first-ever winter ascent of K2 in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>Third expedition to Broad Peak proved fatal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Purja first summited Broad Peak in 2019 during Project Possible. He returned to the mountain in July 2022, completing the climb without supplemental oxygen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">His latest expedition marked his third attempt on Broad Peak, during which he was caught in the avalanche that claimed his life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>From Gurkha soldier to elite special forces<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Born on July 25, 1983, in Dana village of Nepal&#8217;s Myagdi district, Purja came from a family with a long tradition of military service in the Gorkha Regiment. His father and three elder brothers also served as Gorkha soldiers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Following in their footsteps, Purja joined the British Army&#8217;s Gorkha Regiment before becoming the first Nepali to be selected for the Special Boat Service (SBS), the British Royal Navy&#8217;s elite special forces unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">During his military career, he participated in several operations in extreme conditions, experiences that later inspired his passion for high-altitude mountaineering.<\/p>\n<div class=\"f3e032cb\"><picture class=\"c62bd949\" style=\"visibility:visible\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/360x0\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/nirmal-purja1785499224_1785585163.jpg\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/512x0\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/nirmal-purja1785499224_1785585163.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"730\" height=\"1640\" src=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/nirmal-purja1785499224_1785585163.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"f97587ba\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>Left military career to chase his dream<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Purja first visited Everest Base Camp in 2012 while serving in the military. Inspired to climb the world&#8217;s highest peak, he underwent rigorous training and summited Mount Everest in 2014.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">He resigned from military service in 2018 to pursue mountaineering full-time and focused on his goal of climbing every mountain above 8,000 metres.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Financing the expeditions was a major challenge. To fund his dream, Purja sold his house and invested everything into his climbing career.<\/p>\n<div class=\"f3e032cb\"><picture class=\"c62bd949\" style=\"visibility:visible\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/360x0\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/what-is-avalanche1785499214_1785585178.jpg\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/webp\/thumb\/512x0\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/what-is-avalanche1785499214_1785585178.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"730\" height=\"2273\" src=\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/what-is-avalanche1785499214_1785585178.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"f97587ba\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\"><strong>Netflix documentary brought global acclaim<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">Purja&#8217;s extraordinary achievements reached a worldwide audience through the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, which chronicled his record-breaking quest to climb all 14 eight-thousanders in just over six months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">The documentary highlighted the extreme weather, avalanche risks, oxygen shortages and life-threatening challenges faced by Purja and his Nepali team, while also drawing international attention to the contributions of Nepali climbers and Sherpas in Himalayan mountaineering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"word-break:break-word;text-align:left;white-space:pre-line\">In 2020, Purja published his autobiography, Beyond Possible, detailing his childhood, military career, the story behind Project Possible, and the journey that made him one of the world&#8217;s most celebrated mountaineers.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:0\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renowned Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja, whose record-breaking ascent of the world&#8217;s 14 highest peaks earned him global recognition, has died after being caught in an avalanche while climbing Broad Peak in Pakistan&#8217;s Karakoram range. His mountaineering company, Elite Expedition, confirmed his death on Saturday. Purja was attempting to summit the 8,051-metre Broad Peak on July&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23275,23273,23278,23277,23274,23276,23272,22033],"class_list":["post-30129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation","tag-avalanche","tag-broad-peak","tag-climbing-accident","tag-elite-exped","tag-mountaineering","tag-nepal","tag-nirmal-purja","tag-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}