Four bodies found after avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak

Rescuers searching for 10 climbers missing after an avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak have located four bodies, officials said Friday, as harsh weather slowed efforts to reach the remaining members of the expedition, including famed British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja.

The climbers lost contact with their base camp after the avalanche struck while they were attempting to scale the mountain, said Karrar Haidri, vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan. “The team has been out of communication since Thursday,” Haidri said, adding that army helicopters were involved in the search-and-rescue operation.

A police spokesperson in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region said on Facebook that “preliminary reports indicate that four bodies have so far been recovered,” according to AFP. The Associated Press, cited by Al Jazeera, reported that authorities had not identified the bodies. Sajid Hussain, deputy director of the tourism department in Gilgit-Baltistan, told Reuters the search for the remaining six climbers was focused on a “remote and difficult area.”

Bad weather continued to hamper the operation Friday, according to a statement from Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Amjad Hussain. The Alpine Club of Pakistan said rescue resources, including helicopter support, were being mobilized “at the earliest opportunity, subject to weather and operational conditions.”

Purja, 43, widely known as Nims Dai, was leading the expedition, according to the Alpine Club. The group included five Nepali climbers, Pakistani mountaineer Sohail Sakhi from Hunza, Omani climber Nathira, American climber Mallory Geis, a Chinese climber identified only as Wang, and another foreign climber whose nationality was not disclosed.

China’s government said Friday it was trying to verify whether any Chinese nationals were among the missing. “We will provide assistance to Chinese citizens in need and are also willing to offer help in accordance with the needs of the Pakistani side,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in Beijing.

Purja, a Nepal-born former soldier in the British army, has become one of the world’s best-known high-altitude climbers. He climbed the world’s 14 highest peaks in 189 days in 2019, a feat featured in the Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible.” CBS News reported that the record was surpassed in 2023. Al Jazeera reported that Purja has broken multiple climbing records since becoming a full-time mountaineer and tour guide in 2018 after leaving the British military, and that in 2021 he completed the first winter ascent of K2 as part of a team of 10 Nepalese climbers.

Moving Mountains, a Pakistan-based travel company, announced late last month that the expedition team was heading to the town of Askole and wished them a safe journey on Broad Peak. The company said it was Geis’ first attempt at an 8,000-meter peak in Pakistan and was expected to be Sakhi’s final one. Sakhi is a guide for the company, as well as a geographer and high-altitude photographer, according to its website.

Geis, 39, lives in San Antonio. Earlier this year, she wrote on social media that she was closing her Pilates studio to take “a giant leap of faith into the unknown to see where life goes,” adding, “I have a sneaking suspicion there will be lots of helmets, harnesses, and crampons involved.”

Broad Peak, at 26,401 feet, or 8,047 meters, is the world’s 12th-highest mountain. It lies in Pakistan’s Karakoram range, which is home to five of the world’s 14 peaks above 26,000 feet and draws climbers from around the world. Accidents are common during expeditions in northern Pakistan because of avalanches and rapidly changing weather.