Who Was Nirmal Purja? Netflix Climbing Star Killed in Avalanche

0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Nirmal "Nimsdai" Purja, the record-breaking mountaineer whose remarkable Himalayan feats were chronicled in the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible , has died after an avalanche struck his expedition on Broad Peak in Pakistan.

His expedition company, Elite Exped, confirmed his death on Saturday, saying it was with "profound sadness and immense heartbreak" that it had lost its founder following the avalanche, which also claimed the lives of nine other climbers.

Purja, 43, was widely regarded as one of the greatest high-altitude climbers of his generation, transforming what many experts believed was physically impossible into reality through a string of record-breaking ascents that made him an international star.

His death prompted tributes from around the world, including from Prince William, who praised the former British soldier's extraordinary achievements and described him as "one of the world's greatest mountaineers."

Born in Nepal on July 25, 1983, Purja grew up in the Myagdi district in the foothills of the Himalayas before beginning a military career.

Aged 18, he joined the British army's elite Brigade of Gurkhas, comprised of Nepalese soldiers. He became the first Gurkha to pass the notoriously demanding selection process for the elite Special Boat Service (SBS), one of the U.K.'s special forces units, where he served for another decade.

Purja left the military to pursue mountaineering full time, quickly establishing himself as one of the sport's most accomplished climbers. In 2018, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his achievements.

He later co-founded Elite Exped alongside fellow Nepalese climbers Mingma David Sherpa and Tejan Gurung, building a company focused on high-altitude expeditions while emphasizing safety and Nepalese leadership in the mountaineering industry.

Purja became a household name in the climbing world in 2019 after completing "Project Possible," an audacious mission to climb all 14 mountains higher than 8,000 meters in a single season.

He reached every summit in just 189 days, smashing the previous record of more than seven years and rewriting the limits of high-altitude mountaineering. The achievement earned him multiple Guinness World Records and international acclaim.

He then became internationally famous after starring in Netflix's 2021 documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible documenting his mission.

The film showed the physical and logistical challenges involved in completing the mission in just over six months and introduced millions of viewers to Purja's relentless determination, military discipline and belief that conventional limits could be broken. It helped transform him into one of the world's best-known adventure athletes.

That same year, he helped lead the first all-Nepalese team to successfully summit K2—the world's second-highest mountain—in winter, long regarded as one of mountaineering's greatest remaining challenges. He and his fellow climbers famously sang Nepal's national anthem as they approached the summit.

Beyond his records, Purja earned widespread respect for repeatedly risking his own objectives to rescue climbers stranded high in the so-called "death zone" on some of the world's most dangerous mountains. Elite Exped highlighted those rescues as central to its safety-first philosophy, noting that Purja frequently abandoned personal goals to help others in distress.

He also appeared in Finding Michael , the documentary following British television personality Spencer Matthews' search for the remains of his brother on Mount Everest.

Just five days before his death, Purja posted on X: "Here’s the secret I’ve carried through every expedition: I never competed with anyone else. My only battle was against the man I was yesterday. Every single day, pushing my own limits. Because the moment you look sideways: at what others are doing, saying, achieving: you drift off your compass. Your heading is YOURS. Guard it fiercely."

He added: "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. This one is dedicated to everyone who carried me here. Supporters. Critics. All of you. Without both sides, there is no fire. So thank you genuinely. 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."

In May 2024, two women accused Purja of sexual harassment and assault in a New York Times article. According to the NYT , Purja refused requests for an interview but issued a statement through his lawyer denying the allegations and calling them "false and defamatory." Purja also made a statement on Instagram in which he denied the allegations, described them as "heinous" and alleged that the NYT article omitted "key context and details from multiple witnesses."

In February 2025, DBBC Productions released Summit Justice , a podcast series examining the allegations published in the New York Times , in which Purja responded to and denied the claims made against him.

Also in 2025, the Nepal Press Council blacklisted The Himalayan Times following an investigation into "imbalanced" articles about Purja and his companies, Skydive Nimsdai and Elite Exped.

The newspaper had published 17 articles alleging wrongdoing by Purja and his businesses. In response, Purja and his companies filed a complaint with the Nepal Press Council.

It ruled that the publication had breached the Journalistic Code of Conduct, stating that the articles were "unilateral and imbalanced, aimed at creating hatred and discrimination, and potentially causing damage to individuals."

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