Overview
- An avalanche struck Broad Peak during a summit push on Thursday, July 30, sweeping a 10-person international expedition down roughly 1,000 metres and cutting all communications with the team.
- On August 1 the expedition company Elite Exped and associated organisations publicly confirmed that Nirmal “Nims” Purja died in the avalanche.
- Search-and-recovery teams have recovered multiple bodies and partial remains, with some individuals identified by officials as Nadhira Ahmed Abdullah Al Harthy and Pur Bahadur Gurung and reports also naming Sarah Mallory Geis.
- Rescue operations have used Pakistan Army helicopters and local high-altitude teams but have been repeatedly limited by poor weather, dangerous terrain and operational safety constraints that have delayed ground access and formal identifications.
- GPS and tracker data from the climbers indicated the group was swept far downhill and showed subsequent location changes for Purja’s device, and the incident has renewed focus on the limits of high-altitude rescue on eight-thousand-metre peaks and the human toll for families and support teams.