Broad Peak keeps hold of Nirmal Purja five days after avalanche
Fresh avalanche and unstable slopes delay recovery of the renowned mountaineer and two fellow climbers as rescuers seek military approval for a helicopter operation.
Recovery teams on Pakistan's Broad Peak have been unable to bring down the bodies of renowned mountaineer Nirmal Purja, known as Nimsdai, and Chinese climber Wang Zhong after fresh avalanche danger and steep terrain stalled operations, officials said on Monday.
The two bodies remain above base camp on the world's 12th-highest mountain, despite rescuers successfully lowering the bodies of Nepali climbers Kili Pemba Sherpa and Nima Sherpa to a flat area on the Concordia side of the mountain.
"The bodies of Nirmal Purja and Wang Zhong are still above base camp," Irfan Arshad Khan, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP), told Everest Chronicle in a WhatsApp message.
The four bodies had been lowered to Camp I on Sunday, but deteriorating conditions prevented further progress.
Khan, who has been coordinating the recovery effort, said rescuers were unable to abseil the remaining bodies because they were lying on an extremely steep slope.
"The terrain is very difficult, making it impossible to bring them down safely," he said.
Veteran Nepali climber Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, widely known as Mingma G, said a fresh avalanche had further complicated the operation.
"There was another avalanche," he said, adding that rescuers had been forced to suspend efforts to move the bodies to base camp.
Another body, believed to be that of Nawang Thindu Sherpa, remains stranded on a sharp ridge where recovery is considered highly dangerous, according to climbers involved in the mission.
Nepali rescuers have renewed calls for a long-line helicopter recovery, arguing that an aerial evacuation would be safer and more efficient than exposing climbers to repeated risks on unstable slopes.
However, Pakistani authorities have yet to authorise such an operation. Any helicopter mission in the Karakoram requires clearance from the Pakistani military.
Mingma David Sherpa, a Nepali lawmaker and co-owner of Elite Expeditions who travelled to Pakistan to coordinate the search and recovery effort, is holding consultations with Pakistani government officials and military authorities to secure approval for a long-line helicopter operation.
According to team members, rescuers had planned to rappel four bodies to the flat area on the Concordia side of the mountain but succeeded only in bringing down Kili Pemba Sherpa and Nima Sherpa.
So far, the bodies of six climbers — Pur Bahadur Gurung, known as Yukta, Nadhira Al Harthy of Oman, American climber Sarah Mallory Geis, Gyalu Sherpa, Kili Pemba Sherpa and Nima Sherpa — have been recovered from the mountain.
Three bodies, including those of Purja, Wang Zhong and Nawang Thindu Sherpa, remain on the mountain, while Pakistani climber Sohail Shahzad has yet to be located.
The avalanche struck on Thursday morning above Camp II on Broad Peak, and search and recovery operations began the following day.
