Celebrated Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja and nine others were confirmed dead on Saturday after an avalanche on Broad Peak in northern Pakistan.
“Today 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,” his expedition organising company Elite Exped said in an Instagram post.
“We have also received confirmation that other members of the expedition sadly did not survive,” it added, without giving details.
Purja, 43, and nine others, including Nadhira Al Harthy, the first Omani woman to summit Mount Everest, had been missing since Thursday after being struck by an avalanche on the 8,051-metre Broad Peak, the world's 12th highest mountain, a technically difficult climb in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region.
Purja, who served with British special forces as a Gurkha, set a record for the fastest ascent of the world's 14 highest mountains, completing the feat in six months in 2019. He became widely known internationally after the Netflix documentary chronicling his journey "14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible" was released two years later.
The 10 mountaineers were caught in an avalanche around midday on Thursday. Six of the 10 were Nepalis and the others were from Pakistan, Oman, the US and China.
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