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'Just before setting off for Pakistan...': Nirmal Purja's final Instagram post before he was killed by an avalanche
The 43-year-old prodigy was killed in an avalanche that hit Broad Peak, located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir at an altitude of around 7,000 metres, on Thursday.
Nirmal Purja, the Nepali-British climber popularly known as Nims or Nimsdai, died after being swept away by an avalanche that struck Broad Peak in Pakistan at an altitude of around 7,000 metres on Thursday.
The famed mountaineer's final social media post before his untimely death has now caught the internet's attention, as it explains his reasons for undertaking the climb and reveals the larger feat he hoped to achieve.
“The mission shifts, the compass holds”
In his final social media post, Purja wrote about the unlikely chances that led him to scale Broad Peak. “This was never the plan,” he explained. “Initially, the plan was to climb just G2. But just before setting off for Pakistan, I ran the numbers on my 8000m summits. That’s when it hit me: if I tick off Broad Peak whilst I’m here , only one remains “Cho Oyu.” Then I become the FIRST person in history to climb all 14 eight-thousanders twice. Without oxygen.”
As the world's 12th highest mountain, Broad Peek is considered one of the most challenging summits for a mountaineer. Purja, however, had successfully climbed all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres around the world in just six months and six days, setting a new record in 2019. He was about to complete his mission of climbing all 14 eight-thousanders twice after completing the Broad Peak.
After describing how his only ever competition was “against the man I was yesterday”, he said, “They criticised me when I climbed the 14 without O’s during Project Possible. If you haven’t seen what that took, watch 14 Peaks on Netflix. That film is the unfiltered truth.”
Purja refers to a November 2021 Netflix documentary '14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible,' which followed his team's attempt to climb all 14 eight-thousanders in what was then a record time of under seven months.
“And now? Now I’m heading for the double without oxygen: triple in total. The noise hasn’t stopped. I just stopped listening,” he added.
Also Read I Who was Nirmal Purja, world-famous mountaineer dead after Karakoram avalanche in Pakistan?
He then directly addresses his upcoming Broad Peek adventure. “Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down. I take zero mountains for granted. Not one. The moment my foot leaves basecamp, it’s 100%. Always has been. Always will be,” he adds.
“My purpose has never been about me. It’s about what I represent. It’s about showing YOU that your own mountains—whatever they are—are climbable.”
A military career to a mountaineer
Scaling mountains wasn't always Purja's cup of tea. Instead, he began a distinguished military career in 2003, serving six years as a Gurkha and another 10 with the UK's Special Boat Service (SBS). He was also appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2018.
According to the UK's Gurkha Museum, Purja was the first Gurkha to join the UK Special Boat Service, a unit predominantly made up of Royal Marines and regarded as one of the British military's most elite forces.
"During his time with the SBS, Nims developed an interest in mountaineering, which quickly turned into a passion. In December 2012, while on leave from his Special Forces duties, Nims set out to trek to Everest Base Camp. This experience fired his passion and ambition for the mountains almost immediately," the museum says on its website.
Soon after discovering his passion, Purja chronicled his feat of scaling the world's 14 'death zone' peaks in record time in his book, Beyond Possible: One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – My Life in the Death Zone.
His death, along with those of 10 other climbers travelling with him, was confirmed in a statement issued by Elite Exped, the expedition company he founded, on Saturday. The company added that no member of the expedition survived the avalanche.
