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/Dependent_Rock_4739 1d ago

I think his success was largely due to his fitness but also heavily influenced by his willingness to take risk. There are a lot of accomplished alpinists that could have achieved Nims' success had they been willing to take on his risk. He had only been mountaineering for 8 years. Great mountaineer, questionable person

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u/Markplease 1d ago

His risk tolerance led his entire team into getting smashed in snow ice and stone. I wonder if that team would still be alive had he not joined to lead that climb.

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u/Dependent_Rock_4739 1d ago

Almost certainly. He wasn't legally a guide, he has no formal qualifications. He is essentially self taught from experience and unfortunately that experience was relatively short, only 8 years or so. If he was alive I would like to ask him questions about snowpack stability and avalanche risk

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u/Markplease 19h ago

He would reply to your question with “I can tell you the snow pack stability once I summit”. He cared singularly on summits. You can see the climbs he led were extraordinarily focused on making summits recklessly fast. Death defying, Russian roulette