Elite Exped confirms all ten Broad Peak climbers are dead
Elite Exped said on Saturday that Nirmal Purja was killed in Thursday's avalanche on Broad Peak and that none of the other nine expedition members survived.
Elite Exped, the company that organised the expedition to Broad Peak, confirmed on Saturday, August 1, 2026, that Nepali climber Nirmal Purja, 43, was killed in an avalanche on the mountain, and that none of the ten climbers swept away survived. When we reported on the accident a day earlier, seven members of the team were still listed as missing and rescuers were working on the assumption that some of them could be found alive.
The avalanche broke loose on Thursday, July 30, shortly before 9:30 am local time at an altitude of around 6,600 metres, while the team was climbing towards the summit of Broad Peak. At 8,051 metres, it is the world’s 12th highest mountain and sits in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region.
The company’s statement read:
Today it is with profound sadness and immense heartbreak that we confirm that Nirmal “Nimsdai” Purja tragically lost his life following an avalanche on Broad Peak.
Elite Exped added: “We have also received confirmation that the other members of the expedition did not survive.” That closed two days in which the count of the missing shifted almost by the hour.
How many bodies have been recovered?
Nepal’s Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Khadak Raj Paudel, said on July 31: “Four bodies have been recovered so far, though their nationalities have not yet been confirmed.” The figure was later revised. Two bodies had been brought down at that point, and by Friday the number recovered had risen to three, with a fourth body located but not retrieved.
The first two recovered were those of Nadhira Al Harthy of Oman and Pur Bahadur Gurung of Nepal. Ground teams found them at the base of the avalanche debris, opposite base camp, among them Waqar Ali, Sona Sherpa and two Pakistani climbers. American climber Mallory Geis was named as the third body recovered. Purja’s death was announced, but not the recovery of his body.
The InReach satellite devices the climbers carried registered falls of several hundred metres. Purja’s unit recorded a drop of roughly 800 metres, while Al Harthy’s signal travelled almost as far down as base camp, an indication of how widely the slide scattered the team.
Who was on the team
Ten people from five countries were on the expedition:
- Nirmal Purja, Nepal
- Pur Bahadur Gurung, known as Yukta, Nepal
- Nima Sherpa, Nepal
- Nawang Thindu Sherpa, Nepal
- Gyalu Sherpa, Nepal
- Kili Pemba Sherpa, Nepal
- Nadhira Al Harthy, Oman
- Sohail Sakhi, Pakistan
- Mallory Geis, United States
- Wang Zhong, China
Al Harthy was the first Omani woman to summit Everest, in 2019, and the first person from her country to reach the top of K2. She held a master’s degree in geography and had served as director of the citizenship department at Oman’s education ministry. Gurung was an IFMGA-certified guide who had reached the summit of Everest ten times, climbed twelve peaks above 8,000 metres and completed K2 within a single day. Geis, 39, came from San Antonio, Texas, closed her pilates studio before leaving, and was attempting her first 8,000-metre peak.
Why Purja’s name travelled beyond climbing circles
Purja was born in Nepal and served in the British Army before turning to high-altitude climbing, where he picked up the nickname Nims Dai. In 2019 he summited all fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres in 189 days, a run that became a documentary film and carried his name well past the sports pages. That record was broken in 2023.
In January 2021 he was part of the all-Nepali team that made the first winter ascent of K2, a summit that had held out against every previous winter attempt. For Nepal’s high-altitude workers, who had spent decades carrying the weight of other people’s expeditions, that climb was proof they could lead their own.
What comes next in the Karakoram
Two helicopters took off at around 8 am Pakistan time carrying climbers Sirbaz Khan and Sherzad Karim for the aerial search. The Alpine Club of Pakistan is coordinating the operation with the Pakistani government, and flights have repeatedly been hampered by poor weather over the massif.
The remaining bodies are still on the mountain, at an altitude where every hour of work is paid for dearly, and any further attempt to bring them down depends on conditions over the Karakoram.
