Pur Bahadur Gurung, known throughout the climbing world simply as Yukta, was among Nepal's finest generation of high-altitude mountaineers: a guide of rare technical ability, meticulous judgement and quiet determination whose career appeared destined to culminate in a great success.

Instead, his young life was cut short on July 30 when an avalanche swept him and nine fellow climbers from the slope of Broad Peak in Pakistan's Karakoram. He was 37.

His death came alongside that of his close friend and climbing partner, Nirmal Purja 'Nimsdai'. The two men had forged one of the strongest partnerships in modern Himalayan mountaineering, sharing countless expeditions and an uncompromising pursuit of excellence on world's highest peaks.

Broad Peak was not part of Gurung's initial plan for summer. Three weeks earlier he had travelled to Pakistan intending to guide a client on K2, a mountain he had already climbed twice. When the expedition was abandoned after the client broke an arm, he accepted Purja's invitation to join a Broad Peak ascent instead. It was hardly unfamiliar terrain: both men had already stood on its summit twice.

By then Gurung had climbed 12 of the world's 14 mountains above 8,000 metres. Only Shishapangma and Cho Oyu remained between him and one of mountaineering's greatest distinctions, that of achieving the 14 peaks record.

"I enjoy climbing mountains. This is my profession now," he once told me. "When you reach the summit, the whole world looks different. You feel everything differently."

Born in Laprak, in Gorkha's Dharche Rural Municipality, Gurung came from one of Nepal's most celebrated climbing communities. The village has produced generations of accomplished mountaineers and high-altitude workers, yet even there his achievements stood apart. He became the first climber from Nepal's Gurung community to reach the summit of Mount Everest ten times. But it was not because of passion or ambition that he started out in the climbing industry.

Like many of Nepal's finest guides and mountaineers, he started out in the mountains from the most junior position as a means of livelihood. He dropped out of school in his teens to support his family and over time, he found work as helper and porter in expedition and trekking groups.

His introduction to Everest came unusually early, and in an unconventional way. In 2011, aged just 22, he reached the summit while working as a cook on an expedition. Because he had not climbed as a registered guide or client, the ascent was never officially recognised. His first official Everest summit followed in 2017 with Asian Himalaya, marking the beginning of a career that would establish him among Nepal's elite mountain guides.

During the 2026 spring season he demonstrated extraordinary endurance and versatility, summiting Annapurna I on April 18, Everest on May 20 and Lhotse the following day. Those ascents brought his Everest tally to ten and left only two of the fourteen eight-thousanders unconquered.

Although renowned as a climber, colleagues often regarded his greatest strength as his ability to organise complex expeditions.

"His management and logistics were exceptional," recalled Tul Singh, president of the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA) and Gurung's cousin. "Everything had to be perfect. He was a perfectionist."

Those qualities made him indispensable to Purja. Although Gurung briefly left Elite Exped to join the American skier Jim Morrison's ambitious attempt to ski Everest's forbidding Hornbein Couloir — a project inspired by Morrison's late partner, the ski mountaineer legend Hilaree Nelson, who died on Manaslu in 2022 — Purja persuaded him to return.

Morrison's expedition is the subject of the upcoming National Geographic documentary "Everest: The Other Side", directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin and due for worldwide release on October 30 of this year.

The Everest expedition itself nearly proved fatal. Gurung was caught in an avalanche, swept about 100 metres down the mountain and suffered a broken leg. Later he reflected with characteristic understatement: "I thought I was dead. I survived luckily. It was some miracle."

As a school dropout, he was a self-taught person in many fronts. He quickly learned English while working and became known as much for his administrative skills as for his climbing ability. After Nepal's devastating earthquake in 2015, he helped lead relief and reconstruction efforts in Barpak and Laprak through the Manaslu Foundation, serving as its secretary and overseeing the construction of three schools and a hospital.

His friends remember him as a humble, kind and gentle soul.

Yukta had also recently completed the demanding IFMGA mountain guide course, the highest international qualification in the profession. His formal certification ceremony was scheduled for December, on International Mountain Day.

On August 1, after recovery teams reached the avalanche site, the Alpine Club of Pakistan confirmed Gurung's death alongside that of the Omani climber Nadhira Al Harthy. Recovery operations for the remaining members of the expedition continued for several days.

For Tul Singh, Yukta's loss extended far beyond Nepal's climbing fraternity.

"It is a loss not just to his family or to the Gurung community," he said. "It is a loss to the nation and to the mountaineering world. With his eyes for leadership, management and organizing, he would have been a force to reckon with who was on his way to transforming our mountain industry. He has gone far too soon."

Pur Bahadur Gurung is survived by his wife and a son. Come December, while new IFMGA guides will receive their certificate, the absence of Yukta will be felt by his loved ones, colleagues, and the entire mountaineering community.

The film team has setup a GoFundMe to support Yukta's family while The Juniper Fund has pledged to support all deceased climbers' family for 5 years.