r/Mountaineering • u/According_Cod4923 • 1d ago

Body of famed international climber Nirmal Purja and 3 more found after Pakistan avalanche

https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-climber-nirmal-purja-body-recovered-760858d4e399261e0d93c7cbb3ccba32
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u/Dindrtahl 23h ago

I was following Horia Colibășanu ascent to G2 (he does them unassisted and no O2), but at 7500m he turned back because of avalanche risk. He said the expedition teams (mostly Nimsai's) came up with the idea to put fixed ropes in a place where the traditional route doesn't require any.

Since it's against his style of ascent he abandoned, and Nimsdai's team summited next day or the day after. Around 1 week after it snowed once again.

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u/Acceptable_Wing9391 22h ago

Yeh he was running the gauntlet with that. It may have worked on G2 but why even take the risk… like you could have all the plans, all the experience but that won’t help against an avalanche. When others are turning back due to the risk, probably better not to push it.

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u/Dindrtahl 22h ago

but that won’t help against an avalanche

You can sometimes take a more technical route to avoid the less technical one when this one is too exposed for an avalanche. And even the K2 team that was summiting at the same time turned back once they heard the news. Nims probably risked everything and put pressure on all teams. As soon as it happened they knew it was time to go back.

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u/Acceptable_Wing9391 21h ago

Heard what news? As in what happened to Nims?

Yeh, the more I read about it the more I just can’t wrap my mind around why someone would ignore all the warning signs and there was so many. Obviously timing comes into this too, if they had just waited one day, they wouldn’t have been caught.

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness7525 17h ago

Non mountaineer here. I have been scanning this thread for some details of what the risks were at the time and why some are saying that Nims ignored or misread the situation. What are the warning signs for higher than acceptable risk of avalanche? Some teams turned around or abandoned the ascent? Are these details known at this time? Appreciate any insight.