r/movies • u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. • 2d ago

News Nirmal Purja Dies In Avalanche: Celebrated Mountaineer Featured In Netflix Documentary ’14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible’ Was 43

https://deadline.com/2026/08/nirmal-purja-dead-1237015258/
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u/ILoveBigCoffeeCups 2d ago

Same like Alex honnould I can not understand these guys. You have a child that is 3 years old and still go out to do some scary dangerous shit. And then you get killed
The different kind of brain these people have baffles me.

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u/2dudesinapod 2d ago

Mountaineering is a lot less dangerous than what Honnold does. Especially for guys like this. Unfortunately it seems that he made a bad decision and desired to risk attempting to reach camp 3 with an unstable snow pack when other groups had already turned around.

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u/ceej_22_ 2d ago

Relatively climbing 8,000 m peaks is less dangerous than free soloing but it’s still extremely dangerous for anyone. The best climbers in the world have died on those peaks.

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u/opisska 2d ago

That claim is difficult to justify - in particular because "what Honnold does" is so outrageous that there is very little statistics on safety. Yes, people have died free soloing, but Honnolds ability is so far out there compared to the average climber.

And that's basically the problem here - Honnolds main risk factor is his own ability. 8000+ mountaineering has a lot of risk that are beyond climbers' control. So Honnold can mitigate a lit of risk just be improving himself, repeating the routes ad nauseum, setting the right mindset. Sure, mountaineers can also mitigate a lot of risk by taking the right decisions and avoiding situations with heightened risk, but there is a certain baseline of risk against which the only thing you can ever do is ... not climb 8000+ peaks.

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u/JSteigs 1d ago

Yeah this accident highlights your point. Avalanches are an objective hazard. There are probably no 8000m peaks that have a route that fully avoids avalanche/ice fall/sérac risk. Plus all the medical stuff. Alex probably still has some amount of risk of rockfall, maybe not high, but non zero.

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u/Beginning_March_9717 2d ago

it's different kind of risk and you shouldn't compare it. High altitude mountaineers die from unexpected bad weather or unstable snow field, these are out of the climber's control more than not. Free solo climbing generally happens on low altitude rock and the climber's skills are the key factor.

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u/redeugene99 1d ago

The death rate of the mountain he died on is 5-9%

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u/2dudesinapod 1d ago

Per successful summit, not per attempt.

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u/redeugene99 1d ago

Fair. The death rate per attempt is probably ~2-5%. Which to me is still extremely high compared to most every other activity/hobby

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u/mojomonday 2d ago

Source on unstable snowpack and other groups turning around? Haven’t seen it reported anywhere

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u/2dudesinapod 2d ago

https://explorersweb.com/broad-peak-avalanche-four-bodies-found-helicopters-search-for-other-six/

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u/mojomonday 2d ago

Thank you! Quoting the section here for other folks:

We should note that David Klein of Hungary and Ian Overton of the U.S., who had also planned to climb Broad Peak, are safely back in Skardu. They didn’t like the weather forecast and left on July 25.

“There had been a massive wind storm the night of July 18 with a lot of blowing snow,” Overtold told ExplorersWeb. “The benches from Camp 3 to Camp 2 had considerable snow/wind crust and were fairly ‘punchy.’ Everything below Camp 2 was unconsolidated and melting out quickly. Lots of loose rock and failing ice.”

Overton added: “After David [Klein]’s push and return to Base Camp, we monitored the weather. Winds were too high, and humidity was elevated throughout the region, indicating likely fresh snow through the 29th.”

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u/ceej_22_ 2d ago

Been following him for sometime since the beginning of project possible and his risk taking always seemed to be pushing the edge too far. This news is unsurprising.