Avalanche strikes Broad Peak, 10 climbers missing in Pakistan

Nirmal Purja, the Nepali climber better known as Nimsdai Purja, was leading a multinational ascent of Broad Peak in Pakistan’s Karakoram range when an avalanche struck on July 30 and left 10 climbers missing. Broad Peak, the world’s 12th highest mountain, rises 8,047 meters, or 26,401 feet, though some accounts list it at 8,051 meters.

Purja carried a stature in elite climbing that few mountaineers match. He led the first all-Nepalese team to summit K2 in winter in 2021, climbed from Everest to neighboring Lhotse without supplemental oxygen in May 2026, and became the subject of a Netflix documentary on his record-setting pace through the Himalayas. That profile helped make the Broad Peak expedition a global draw, with climbers from Nepal, Oman, Pakistan and the United States on the mountain.

Recovery teams faced punishing weather after the slide, with adverse conditions and helicopter flight limits slowing efforts on the steep, high-altitude face. Pakistani rescuers recovered bodies from the mountain, and later reports put the number at three, while officials worked to identify the dead. Names tied to the expedition included Omani climber Nadhira Al Harthy, Nepali climber Pur Bahadur Gurung, Pakistani mountaineer Sohail Sakhi and an American climber.

The accident landed in the middle of Pakistan’s summer climbing season, when Broad Peak and the surrounding Karakoram peaks pull elite alpinists despite severe objective hazards. Several other expeditions had already left the mountain after heavy snowfall, a sign that the weather volatility shaping this season had already changed the calculus on one of the world’s most coveted summits.