Legendary Mountaineer's Voice Message To NDTV's Vishnu Som Hours Before He Vanished

At 8.07 pm on Wednesday evening, I got a WhatsApp voice message from Nirmal 'Nims' Purja, arguably the greatest mountaineer in history.

"Hey brother, greetings and namaste," he said. "Right now, I am on Camp 2 of Broad Peak which is among 8,000-metre (26,247 foot) mountains."

This was an incredible message. I had never spoken to Nims before but managed to get through to him through my brother, who knew his acquaintances in Nepal.

Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain in the world, is on the Karakoram mountain range, straddling the border between Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan and Xinjiang, China - just a few kilometres from K2 in what is Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

I wanted to invite Nims for an NDTV event we have planned in a few weeks. To get a message from the great man himself was quite unbelievable.

Nims was chasing a new world record.

"I am now running for my 58th summit of 8,000-metre peaks, which is the highest in the world. I just opened the internet to check the weather forecast. But this message got downloaded as well," he told me.

Camp 2 of Broad Peak is at 21,161 feet, short of what is known as the 'death zone' in international mountaineering. But that's where Nims and his expedition were headed. Anything above 8,000 metres means the body cannot acclimatise - the air contains only about a third of the oxygen available at sea level. At this altitude, cells begin dying faster than they can be replaced. Climbers in the 'death zone' are effectively on a countdown.

Nims was the team leader.

All 10 climbers are now missing in an avalanche: 5 Nepali climbers, 1 Pakistani, 1 American, 1 Omani, 1 Chinese and one more foreign climber.

Reports indicate that the avalanche struck along Broad Peak's standard West Ridge route between Camp 2 and Camp 3. This would be at an altitude between 21,600 and 21,850 feet. Four bodies have reportedly been located at the avalanche site.

Worryingly, there was no alarm call raised till nearly 13 hours after the incident, believed to have happened at 9 am on Thursday, just 13 hours after Nims messaged me.

"I will be in touch after the summit," Nims told me. "'But if there is anything, please leave the message, what you are thinking [about the event where I had invited him]... all that. I will also be connecting with Vicky who manages all my diaries and stuff. That will make it easier to move things forward."

At 10.08 am local time in India, less than 14 hours after his voice-note to me, the avalanche struck along Broad Peak's West Ridge route, between Camp 2 and Camp 3 at an altitude between 21,600 and 21,850 feet. This was between 4,593-4,823 feet south of the summit of Broad Peak that Nims was attempting.

Nims Purja is the most celebrated ultra high-altitude climber of his generation. Born in Nepal, he served in the British Army's Gurkha Regiment before joining the elite British special forces in the SBS, the elite Special Boat Service. He subsequently went on to redefine what was thought to be impossible in Himalayan climbing.

Nirmal 'Nims' Purja's first 8,000-metre summit, Dhaulagiri. Nims is in the middle, with Dawa Sherpa (left) and Krish Thapa (right).

With a background of extreme physical and mental endurance training, Purja achieved global recognition in 2019 by summiting all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks. He did this in just under seven months. This was a new world record, shattering what had been done earlier - when climbers took years to achieve this feat.

The Netflix documentary "14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible," turned Nims into the most recognisable figure in modern mountaineering, inspiring a wave of interest in high-altitude climbing.

Beyond speed records in climbing, Purja built a solid reputation in high-altitude rescues, including an operation that pulled a stranded climber from Annapurna at extreme altitude. Through his Nimsdai Foundation, Purja went on to fund humanitarian and education projects in Nepal.

Over the last few months, Nims had reportedly been pursuing an ambitious goal: becoming the first person to climb all fourteen 8,000-metre peaks twice, entirely without supplemental oxygen. He completed an oxygen-less ascent of Gasherbrum 2 on July 21, leaving only Broad Peak and Cho Oyu remaining to complete that milestone.

This sat alongside - but was distinct from - his broader "Hat Trick Campaign," a separate, larger goal of summiting all 14 of the 8,000-metre peaks three times (plus the Seven Summits three times), which he had already nearly completed.

With weather clearing this morning, helicopters have joined the search. Two helicopters carrying senior Pakistani high-altitude climbers have been dispatched with rescue gear and supplemental oxygen to conduct an aerial search for the six still unaccounted for, including Purja.

Some reports say Purja's satellite tracking device placed him at 21,847 feet at 9.38 am on Thursday. This then reportedly showed a rapid fall of approximately 800 metres by 10.18 am. There is no signal which has been detected since then.

"Hope you guys are well and it's great to be connected. Thank you guys and greetings from Camp 2 on Broad Peak. Ciao Ciao," Nims told me.

I replied to his message: "Stay safe! We will be in touch."

Nims saw the message at 8.15 pm IST on July 29. He was gone less than 14 hours later.