An avalanche struck Broad Peak around midday on Thursday and cut off contact with a 10-member international climbing team led by Nirmal Purja. The team, which included five Nepali climbers, was reported missing on the 8,047-metre peak in the Karakoram range.
The missing climbers also included Pakistani mountaineer Sohail Sakhi, Omani climber Nathira, American climber Mallory Geis, a Chinese climber identified as Wang and another foreign climber. For readers searching Nims Purja now, that is the point: a high-profile climber and his team vanished in one of the world’s most dangerous mountain corridors, and rescue planners moved quickly as the clock turned to Friday.
Major General Irfan Arshad said the Alpine Club of Pakistan was working with government authorities and rescue agencies to mount an emergency response. The club said every possible effort was being made to mobilize helicopter support and all available rescue resources as soon as weather and conditions allowed.
There was still no immediate confirmation of casualties or survivors, and that gap hangs over the operation. Karrar Haidri said the entire team had reportedly been out of communication since the avalanche, while Mingma David Sherpa said a search helicopter was expected to reach the area early Friday, weather permitting.
Broad Peak lies on the Pakistan-China border near K2, and avalanches are among the main hazards there. For Purja, the avalanche interrupted a campaign that had already put him back in the headlines: nine days earlier, he had climbed Pakistan's Gasherbrum II without supplemental oxygen, his 57th successful ascent of an 8,000-metre peak. He has said his self-declared Hat-Trick Project still needs Cho Oyu, with the goal tied to raising more than £1 million for the Nimsdai Foundation, which supports humanitarian and education initiatives in Nepal.
What happens next depends on the mountain and the weather. If the helicopter reaches the site on Friday and conditions hold, the search can widen; if not, the team remains trapped in the worst kind of uncertainty, missing on an 8,047-metre peak where minutes can matter and daylight is never enough.
