As is always the case after mountain disasters, at some point all that remains is the hope for a miracle. This is also true following the massive avalanche that swept down yesterday – as reported – on the eight-thousander Broad Peak in Pakistan, striking a ten-member international team that was on a summit attempt an altitude of about 6,600 meters. The latest update from the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) offers little hope of finding the missing climbers alive.
Do not spread unconfirmed information
Two identified bodies – those of Nadhira Al Harthy from Oman and Pur Bahadur, known as “Yukta” Gurung from Nepal – as well as a body part belonging to an as-yet-unidentified climber have been brought to the town of Skardu, the ACP reported. “Sohail Sakhi’s rucksack and broken garmin (were) found.,” the statement continued. “No other body was visible on surface.”
It is unclear whether this refers only to the base of the mountain, where the two bodies were found, or to the entire mountainside of Broad Peak. The Pakistani mountaineering federation asked that no unconfirmed information be shared.
The names of the ten climbers who were caught in the avalanche yesterday have been officially confirmed. In addition to the two fatalities mentioned – Nadhira Al Harthy and Yukta Gurung – those missing include the Nepalese climbers Nirmal Purja, Kili Pemba Sherpa, Nawang Thindu Sherpa, Nima Sherpa, and Gyalu Sherpa; the Pakistani Sohail Sakhi; the American Mallory Geis; and the Chinese Wang Zhong.
Nirmal Purja and Kili Pemba Sherpa among the missing
Nirmal Purja is known far beyond the world of mountaineering – not least because of the Netflix documentary “14 Peaks,” which chronicles his ascents of all the eight-thousanders in 2019 within just six months and six days.
“Nimsdai,” as he is also known, is something of a superstar in the world of Nepalese mountaineering. The 43-year-old, who is also a British citizen, has more eight-thousanders to his credit than anyone else in the world: 57, 29 of them without bottled oxygen. With a successful summit of Broad Peak without a breathing mask, Purja would be the first person ever to have climbed all eight-thousanders twice without bottled oxygen.
Kili Pemba, known as Kilu “Sherpa” only completed his collection of the 14 eight-thousanders at the beginning of July. Gyalu Sherpa summited Kangchenjunga three times during the spring season of 2025.
Sohail Sakhi is part of a new generation of strong and self-confident Pakistani mountaineers. He has already scaled four of his home country’s five eight-thousanders: K2, Nanga Parbat, and Gasherbrum I and II – all without bottled oxygen. In 2025, he climbed Nanga Parbat solo; on K2 that same season, he was part of the rope-fixing team – as he was last spring on Kangchenjunga in Nepal, the world’s third-highest mountain.
The Chinese climber Wang Zhong had summited eleven eight-thousanders as a client on commercial expeditions.
The two confirmed fatalities from Broad Peak mentioned above were also well-known figures in the climbing community. Nadhira Al Harthy had stood on the summit of Mount Everest in 2019—the first woman from Oman to do so—as well as on Manaslu in 2021, K2 in 2022, and Nanga Parbat in 2024. Yukta Gurung climbed twelve of the 14 eight-thousanders. He reached the summit of Everest ten times on his own.
Update 5.30 pm: According to ACP, the team of Mingma Gyalje Sherpa (Imagine Nepal) has located with a drone the bodies of seven missing climbers on the mountain. Their identity cannot yet be verified, it said.