Four climbers found dead after avalanche cuts off 10-member expedition led by mountaineering legend Nirmal Purja

SKARDU — Search teams found four bodies near the site of an avalanche in northern Pakistan that left 10 people missing from a climbing expedition led by renowned British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, police said today.

A spokesman for police in the mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region said search-and-rescue teams had reached the location the avalanche had struck yesterday, cutting off contact with the international expedition that had been in the area.

“Preliminary reports indicate that four (04) bodies have so far been recovered,” Gilgit-Baltistan region’s police spokesman said in a statement on Facebook, adding that the condition of the remaining climbers was still being verified.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan said the expedition comprised 10 people — including five Nepalese, a Pakistani, an Omani, an American, and a climber from China. Police did not mention an American citizen and said two British nationals — a man and a woman — were in the missing team.

“The Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) has received deeply concerning reports of an avalanche that struck a team of climbers on Broad Peak (8,047m) in the Karakoram mountain range,” the club said late yesterday.

“The entire team has reportedly been out of communication since the avalanche,” it said.

Purja, 43, who served with Britain’s Brigade of Gurkhas before joining the Special Boat Squadron of the Royal Marines, has broken multiple climbing records since becoming a full-time mountaineer and tour guide.

He climbed all 14 “eight-thousanders” (peaks above 8,000 metres, or 26,000 feet) in six months and six days between April and October 2019 — then a record.