- Purja’s company confirmed no survivors from international team.
- Alpine Club confirmed recovery of Purja, three fellow climbers.
- ACP pledged support to recover remaining missing climbers.
A search team has transported the bodies of renowned climber Nirmal Purja and three of his team members to the base camp of the mountain on which they were killed by an avalanche, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said Wednesday.
The avalanche struck on July 30, cutting off contact with the 10-member international expedition led by 43-year-old British-Nepali climber Purja on Broad Peak, one of the world’s highest mountains. His company confirmed there were no survivors.
“On behalf of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, it is announced with great sadness to confirm that, following an exceptionally challenging and technically demanding recovery operation on Broad Peak, the bodies of Nirmal Purja, Zhong Wang, Nima Sherpa, and Kilu Sherpa have been successfully recovered and have now arrived safely at Base Camp,” the ACP posted on social media, referring to a Chinese mountaineer and two other Nepali climbers.
“While today marks an important milestone, three climbers remain missing,” the club said.
“We remain committed to supporting all possible efforts to locate and recover them, whenever conditions allow, so that they too may be returned home to their loved ones,” it added.
The remains of three other members of the team — an American woman, an Omani woman and a Nepali man — had already been flown off the mountain to the northern Pakistani city of Skardu.
The bodies of two Nepali nationals and a Pakistani citizen have not yet been recovered.
Shock and grief have hit members of the alpine climbing community with the President of Nepal’s National Mountain Guide Association Tul Singh Gurung saying they had “lost a generation of accomplished mountaineers”.
The ACP said the recovered bodies of the four climbers would be returned to their families.
“We hope this recovery brings them a measure of peace and the opportunity to lay their loved ones to rest with the dignity they deserve,” the club said.
Broad Peak is the world’s 12th highest mountain, located in the Karakoram range in northern Pakistan, and is regarded as one of the toughest and most technical climbs of all the 8,000-metre-plus ascents.
It was first summited in 1957 by an Austrian team.
