Nirmal Purja feared missing after avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak

Rescue authorities sought helicopter support after an avalanche cut off contact with a ten-member international mountaineering team on Broad Peak, and the Alpine Club of Pakistan said Nirmal Purja was feared missing. The group had been on the 8,047-metre, 26,400-foot mountain in Pakistan’s Karakoram range when the avalanche struck around midday on Thursday, July 30, 2026.

The team included one American, one Chinese national, one Omani and five Nepalis, underscoring how deeply international the high-altitude climbing circuit on Pakistan’s peaks has become. Broad Peak is the world’s 12th highest mountain, and the summer season in the Karakoram had already turned deadly as climbers pushed into terrain where avalanches can erase hours of progress in seconds.

Purja’s name carried particular weight because he is not just another guide on a commercial roster. The Nepal-born former Royal Marine became globally known in 2019 after climbing the world’s 14 highest peaks in six months, a pace that transformed him into one of mountaineering’s most visible figures. In May 2026, he also climbed from the summit of Everest to the summit of neighboring Lhotse without supplemental oxygen, and he had previously climbed Broad Peak in July 2019 during his Project Possible campaign.

That record makes his disappearance especially stark in a sport that increasingly sells speed, efficiency and summit visibility as proof that modern logistics have tamed the high mountains. Broad Peak showed the limits of that promise. At 8,047 metres, it still depends on weather windows, air rescue and a narrow chain of support that can break the moment an avalanche closes a route or cuts radio contact.

The search situation also exposed the practical constraints facing Pakistan’s rescue system. With helicopter support sought after the avalanche, the response hinged on aircraft, clear flying conditions and access to one of the Karakoram’s most remote slopes, where even elite teams and advanced forecasting cannot neutralize the hazard. Purja’s presence on the mountain turned that reality into a global test of how much risk modern extreme mountaineering still accepts in pursuit of records, prestige and commercial expeditions.