When an avalanche killed climber Nirmal Purja, his friends faced the hardest mission of all

ByCarrie Davies Pakistan correspondent, Reporting fromIslamabad.

Key points

• At 08: 30, Mingma G spoke to Kili Pemba Sherpa – better known as Kilu – a childhood friend and expert climber in Nims's group.
• Mingma G and Nirmal Purja met in Pakistan in 2021, where they were part of the first team to summit the world's second-highest mountain, K2, during winter.
• In 2024 the New York Times published sexual misconduct allegations from two women.
• But by 15: 00, no-one at base camp had had any contact with the group on Broad Peak.
• But this July, an avalanche swept through Pakistan's Broad Peak while the two were on their way up, engulfing everything in its path.

As he picked his way past the frozen slope towards two bodies, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa knew his friends were gone.

Together, the three of them had climbed the world's highest peaks, under crisp mountain skies and in treacherous snowstorms. Nirmal Purja and Kili Pemba Sherpa were two of the strongest climbers Mingma G had ever known.

But this July, an avalanche swept through Pakistan's Broad Peak while the two were on their way up, engulfing everything in its path. The drone images seemed clear: no-one had survived.

As Mingma G came closer to the fluorescent down suits, sharp against the snow, he couldn't shake the idea they were waiting for him, and yet.

"I informed them: 'It's ok. You don't have to be here in the cold anymore.'".

Speaking to the BBC in Islamabad, he recalls the terrible moment he reached for their bodies.

Holding one of them, he promised: "I'm here to take you guys home."

As he was known – from his Netflix documentary 14 Peaks, in which he successfully climbed the world's 14 highest mountains in just over six months, mingma G knew of Nirmal – or Nims. The pair, both avid climbers from Nepal, had taken different paths.

Mingma G came from the Sherpa community and built his reputation as a mountain guide over 20 years. Nims was a former Gurkha and British Special Forces soldier who rapidly became one of the world's best-known mountaineers.

Plenty of saw Nims as an incredible climber who assisted Nepalese climbers gain international recognition in a field dominated by foreigners. But he additionally had his critics: they stated he focused too much on records, and on marketing his expeditions to a growing social media after.

In 2024 the New York Times published sexual misconduct allegations from two women. It purja strongly denied through his lawyer at the time, who remarked they were "false and defamatory". Purja again denied the allegations in a lengthy interview shortly after.

Before Mingma G met Nims, he wasn't sure regarding him: "In the beginning, I had the feeling he was very arrogant."

But that changed when their paths crossed five years ago, as competitors on their way to K2. This person then decided to climb the mountain together and share the record. Mingma G notes he identified Nims to be "very kind-hearted, one of the most beautiful human beings I've met".

Over the years the two would meet on various mountains worldwide: Nims "would always be on Everest".

This summer they met again, walking into the Karakoram range, before they would split up for different climbs. Nims headed for Broad Peak and Mingma G for K2, around 8km (five miles) apart.

Nims asked Mingma G to wait another day so they could meet once more before embarking on these separate missions, but that session never happened.

"That was the last thing he informed me. I still regret it."

On 30 July, "we had perfect weather, sunshine, no winds, " Mingma G notes.

By then, he was leading a team up K2. Nims's team of climbers had joined others to form a larger group of 10 that was making its way up Broad Peak.

At 08: 30, Mingma G spoke to Kili Pemba Sherpa – better known as Kilu – a childhood friend and expert climber in Nims's group. Snow conditions looked good, Kilu had remarked, and the two agreed to speak again when they both reached the next camp on their respective mountains.

For context, the BBC spoke to two trekkers who spotted the climbers scaling Broad Peak. "We were cheering them on, " one notes. He took a photo of them on the slope, small silhouettes against the snow.

For context, the group continued ascending. But less than an hour afterwards, there was a "thundercrack", the other trekker states: "a huge avalanche, starting from the top going down both sides of Broad Peak".

"We were hoping and praying that the climbers were above the avalanche, " the first trekker continues. But they couldn't see the silhouettes on the slope. The trekkers' guide notified base camp regarding what they had witnessed.

For context, the cause of the avalanche is still being investigated, but the Alpine Club of Pakistan informed the BBC that while it had snowed heavily earlier that week, their initial research suggested that it was caused by the collapse of an ice slab, irrespective of snowfall.

By the time Mingma G reached the next camp on K2, his team had not heard from the Broad Peak climbers. They didn't panic since climbers often turn off the radio to save battery life. But something was bothering him.

One of the Broad Peak climbers, Wang Zhong, was a close friend and a client. He would normally message Mingma G through his Garmin satellite tracker to let him know he'd arrived safely at the next camp. But there was no message from him.

Thousands of metres below, Pakistani mountain guide Waqar Ali notes he was additionally trying to contact the group, but to no avail. He thought they may have been sleeping, in preparation for a final push towards the summit that night.

Mingma G was 7, 300m up on K2, where communication was tough. His team began calling office-holders, families, contacts in Kathmandu and anyone who might have been in touch with the climbers.

He notes it was probably 20: 00 when they first heard that the altitude readings from the Broad Peak climbers' trackers had dramatically fallen: one of them had dropped by around 1, 600m.

It was too late to climb and too dark to send up a drone, so he decided to wait for sunrise. "I had hope, " Mingma G notes. Especially for Kilu and Nims. This person were "experienced and physically. Strong".

Early next morning, a drone was sent up and shortly after, the operator radioed them. The drone had spotted bodies down the mountain. It looked like there were no survivors. "I was totally blank, " Mingma G recalls in a low voice.

He wasn't quite ready to accept he had lost so plenty of dear friends at once.

"Maybe still I had a feeling they might all be alive wanted somebody to support them secure down. That was just something I had in my heart and mind." Afterwards that day, Mingma G called off his K2 expedition.

Down at the base of Broad Peak, Waqar wept as he arrived with another climber to start the tough job of bringing the bodies back.

They retrieved the bodies of Nadhira Al Harthy, the first Omani woman to climb Everest, and Pur Bahadur Gurung, a Nepalese climber who had summited 12 of the world's 14 highest peaks.

But there were still bodies on the mountain and Mingma G was determined to bring his friends home.

When he called Nims's wife and brother-in-law to tell them the tragic news, he notes they struggled to believe it. Kilu's wife "couldn't say much, but told me: 'don't leave your brother on the mountain'". Organising the next steps of the recovery mission was complicated.

Taken together, the developments around when an avalanche killed climber Nirmal Purja, his friends faced the hardest point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.