14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible star Nirmal Purja dies; mountaineering world mourns

Just after 9 a.m. local time on July 30, 2026 , a massive avalanche ripped through the route between Camp 2 and Camp 3 on Broad Peak in Pakistan’s Karakoram, sweeping a 10-person international team down the mountain’s main west-facing gully at roughly 6,450–7,000 meters. Among them was Nirmal “Nimsdai” Purja, the record-smashing climber many viewers first met in Netflix ’s 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan said all 10 climbers were caught in the slide, including five Nepalese guides from Purja’s Elite Exped. Rescue efforts led by Mingma G and Sirbaz Khan recovered four bodies in the days that followed, among them Omani climber Nadhira Al-Harthy and Nepali climber Pur Bahadur Gurung. Elite Exped, the guiding company Purja co-founded, confirmed his death in a statement.

The Netflix connection

For a lot of Americans, Purja’s story came alive in 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible on Netflix, which followed his audacious “Project Possible” quest to summit all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks in a single push. He didn’t just do it — he shattered the timeline, finishing in six months and six days, a record that had stood for nearly eight years.

What stuck with viewers were the moments he chose people over peaks. On Kanchenjunga, at about 8,450 meters in the death zone, Purja and his team handed over their supplemental oxygen to three stranded climbers — a move he called a “suicidal attempt” and “probably the hardest moment” of the entire project. On Annapurna, he waited 12 hours for help that never arrived, holding a dying climber in his arms.

“I’ve never left anyone in the war. I wasn’t going to leave someone on a mountain that I’m on.”

More than a mountaineer

Before fame found him on screen, Purja built his grit in uniform. He joined the Brigade of Gurkhas in 2003 and in 2009 became the first Gorkha soldier in more than 200 years to be inducted into the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service — Britain’s elite special forces. That special-operations mindset defined the way he moved in the high Himalaya.

In 2021, he helped lead an all-Nepali team on the first-ever winter ascent of K2, a watershed moment that underscored Nepali climbers’ shift from behind-the-scenes support to center-stage leadership on the world’s hardest peaks.

• Summited all 14 eight-thousanders in 6 months, 6 days.
• Co-led the historic winter K2 ascent in 2021 with an all-Nepali team.
• Co-founded the guiding company Elite Exped.
• Known to climbers and viewers alike as Nimsdai.
• Broad Peak, where the avalanche struck, is the world’s 12th-highest mountain at 8,047 meters.

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible is currently streaming on Netflix in the U.S.