Broad Peak avalanche: seven climbers still missing
Pakistani army helicopters and local high-altitude climbers resumed the search on Saturday, two days after an avalanche struck the ten-member expedition led by Nirmal Purja.
The search for seven climbers missing after an avalanche on Broad Peak swept an international expedition resumed on Saturday morning, after bad weather grounded Pakistani army helicopters the previous evening. The expedition was led by Nirmal Purja, a Nepal-born former British Army soldier whose ascent of all fourteen 8,000-metre peaks became the subject of a Netflix documentary.
The avalanche hit the ten-member team on Thursday, July 30, as it was climbing at roughly 6,600 metres. Alongside Purja, 43, the group included five Nepali climbers, one Pakistani, one Omani, one American and one Chinese climber. Contact with base camp was lost the same day.
“The team has been out of communication since Thursday,” said Karrar Haidri, vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.
What is known about the victims
Pakistani rescuers located four bodies on Friday. Three were recovered and identified: Pur Bahadur Gurung of Nepal, Nadhira Al Harthy of Oman and Sarah Mallory Geis of the United States. The fourth body has been located but not yet recovered or identified, which is why it is still counted among the seven climbers whose fate has not been confirmed.
The three identified climbers came from very different corners of the mountaineering world. Gurung had 28 ascents of peaks above 8,000 metres. Al Harthy was the first Omani woman to summit Everest. Geis, 39, from San Antonio, was attempting her first 8,000-metre peak.
The missing include Purja, Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi and a Chinese climber identified by the surname Wang. The Alpine Club of Pakistan said a rescue team drone had filmed seven climbers, adding that official confirmation is still pending. A tracking device carried by Purja kept registering a change of location after the avalanche, according to his business partner.
Who is running the search
The ground operation is coordinated by Mingma Gyalje Sherpa together with the Alpine Club of Pakistan, with the Pakistani army, military helicopters and local high-altitude climbers taking part. That detail carries more weight than it first appears. Mingma Gyalje Sherpa and Nirmal Purja were both part of the ten-man Nepali team that made the first winter ascent of K2 in January 2021. The man now directing the search and the man listed as missing stood on the same summit five years ago, a few valleys away from where the avalanche came down.
Why is Broad Peak more dangerous than it looks?
Broad Peak rises to 8,047 metres and is the twelfth highest mountain on earth. Because it sits next to K2 and its normal route is less steep, it has long been treated as one of the more approachable 8,000-metre peaks, and its record says otherwise. An Austrian team made the first ascent in 1957, with Hermann Buhl, Kurt Diemberger, Marcus Schmuck and Fritz Wintersteller on the summit, and Buhl died weeks later on nearby Chogolisa. The first winter ascent, in March 2013, cost a Polish expedition two lives: Maciej Berbeka and Tomasz Kowalski never came back off the ridge.
China said on Friday it was following the fate of its citizen. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing:
We will provide assistance to Chinese citizens in need and we are also ready to offer help in line with the needs of the Pakistani side.
The weather window now sets the pace. Helicopters at that altitude fly only while the sky is clear and the wind allows an approach to the ridge, and each additional day under the avalanche debris narrows the chance that any of the seven will be found alive. The Alpine Club of Pakistan said it would report on Saturday’s search only once the rescue teams descend to base camp.
