Last Missing Climbers’ Bodies Are Found, Pakistan Officials Say


The bodies of 10 people who were climbing Broad Peak in Pakistan when an avalanche struck on Thursday, including Nirmal Purja, a well-known British-Nepali mountaineer, have all been either recovered or located, according to Pakistani officials and Mr. Purja’s company.

The body of Kili Pemba Sherpa, a Nepali climber, was recovered on Saturday, said Faisal Pirzada, a senior official in the Pakistani region of Gilgit-Baltistan, which includes Broad Peak. The deaths of four other climbers, including Mr. Purja, were confirmed on Friday and earlier Saturday.

Mr. Pirzada said the bodies of the five remaining climbers who had been missing since Thursday had been located on the mountain. He said attempts to recover their bodies would continue, but that they were in an area that would be difficult and dangerous to reach.

Mr. Purja, 43, was known for climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in record time in 2019, a project that was chronicled in a 2021 Netflix documentary. His body was found earlier on Saturday, his expedition company, Elite Exped, said in a statement.

“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,” the statement read.

The 10 climbers, spread over four teams, had set off for Broad Peak’s summit in the early hours of Thursday morning.

By 9 a.m., the tour operators had lost contact with the climbers, but the first reports of an avalanche only surfaced on Thursday evening. The team was at an altitude of about 6,600 meters, according to the regional commissioner’s office.

A search-and-rescue operation started on Friday morning, nearly 24 hours after contact with the climbers had been lost. Regional officials said on Friday that rescuers had spotted the bodies of some of the climbers using drone footage, which helped to narrow the search area.

Officials in Gilgit-Baltistan confirmed the deaths of three climbers on Friday: Nadhira Alharthy, the first Omani woman to summit Mount Everest; Sarah Mallory Geis, an American climber; and Pur Bahadur Gurung, a Nepali climber who was part of an expedition led by Mr. Purja, according to the regional officials.

Among the climbers still missing on Saturday were Sohail Sakhi, a renowned Pakistani alpinist who was guiding Ms. Geis, and Wang Zhong, a Chinese climber.

Broad Peak is the world’s 12th highest mountain, with a summit of 8,047 meters (26,400 feet) above sea level. It lies near Pakistan’s border with China in the Karakoram mountain range, and close to K2, the world’s second-highest mountain.

Francesca Regalado contributed reporting.



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