Nirmal Purja, the British-Nepali mountaineer who scaled the world's 14 highest peaks in just over six months, has died in an avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan. He was 43.

Purja was leading an expedition of 10 other climbers on the mountain when an avalanche struck at around noon on Thursday, July 30, 2026, according to The Guardian. Broad Peak, the world's 12th-highest mountain at 26,400 feet, sits in the Karakoram range along the Pakistan-China border. All ten climbers swept away in the avalanche have been confirmed dead, AP News reported.

Purja's own mountaineering company, Elite Expeditions, confirmed his death in a statement posted on Instagram. His brother Kamal separately issued a statement confirming that Purja and other climbers had died, Deadline reported. Pakistani rescuers recovered the bodies of the climbers from Broad Peak, Al Jazeera confirmed. Among those killed were an Omani climbing legend and a novice American climber. Purja's climbing guide, Nima Sherpa, was also among the dead, ExplorersWeb reported.

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah said six Nepalese and four other foreign climbers, including Purja, died in the Karakoram range, according to Deadline.

Born in Nepal, Purja served 16 years in the British army before turning to high-altitude mountaineering full time. He was awarded an MBE in 2018 for his achievements in extreme high-altitude mountaineering. His defining feat came the following year: in 2019, he climbed all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks in six months and six days, a project that had previously taken years for any single climber to complete. The achievement was chronicled in the 2021 Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, which brought his story to a global audience beyond the climbing world.

Purja lived in Hampshire, England. He is survived by his wife and a three-year-old daughter.