Climber and co-owner of Elite Exped, Nimsdai Purja, defended his integrity on Wednesday, sharing video evidence of cut fixed ropes on Mount Everest, following accusations by Nepal’s Department of Tourism that he fabricated the claim.
Purja, who successfully summited both Everest and Lhotse earlier this week, posted a video on Instagram showing the severed ropes, which he claims to have encountered during his ascent. He claimed that the ropes were cut just below the South Summit, corroborating warnings from Peak Promotion, another expedition team involved in a body retrieval mission.
“My team and I summitted Everest and Lhotse – what should be a huge celebration and yet I now have to clear up this negativity,” Purja wrote. “Anything I do is with honesty and integrity – I do not make things up.”
The Elite Exped, alongside 8K Expeditions and Pioneer Adventures, were among the last agencies to conclude their expeditions on Everest before the season wrapped up on Wednesday.
The Department of Tourism had earlier denied the allegations of tampered ropes and announced a legal investigation into Purja’s claims. “The expedition is proceeding as planned,” the department said in a statement, rejecting Purja’s allegation.
On Sunday, Purja’s team received a radio warning from Peak Promotion about the cut ropes, which forced the latter to abort their rescue mission. According to video posted by Purja, his subsequent ascent on Monday confirmed the cut ropes, prompting his team to fix new ones and continue to the summit.
In his post, Purja hit back at the ongoing negativity and false stories aimed at discrediting him even as he is working to promote Nepal’s climbing community. “I have faced a lot of negativity and people trying to bring me down behind the scenes since 2019 – when all I ever wanted to do was raise the name of Nepal and its climbing community, and bring tourists to see this beautiful country,” he wrote.
Record holding Sanu Sherpa, only person to have scaled 14 eight-thousanders twice, confirmed the fixed line was cut in the video.
Purja welcomed the Department of Tourism’s investigation, expressing hope that it would uncover the truth behind the cut ropes. “As you can see I have the evidence to back up exactly what was reported,” he added, urging for unity within the mountaineering community.
The video evidence shared by Purja includes statements from other Sherpa guides corroborating the rope-cutting incident.
On May 27, a day after Purja made the allegation, Kali Bahadur Bhujel, spokesperson for the Department of Tourism, said that several climbers from Pioneer Adventures had summited the peak after Purja’s allegation and claimed that the ropes were intact.
The EOAN issued a separate statement on the same day, accusing Purja of trying to defame the mountaineering industry with false allegations. It demanded action be taken against Purja.
The Department complied and issued a statement saying it started a probe into the matter, and assured that legal action would be taken against Purja.
