Special forces veteran conquers 14 highest peaks in just 189 days
A FORMER Gurkha soldier and special forces member has broken the record for climbing the world’s highest peaks and had time to rescue three fellow climbers along the way.
Nirmal Purja, 36, yesterday completed his ascent of the world’s 14 tallest mountains. It took him 189 days, knocking nearly seven-and-a-half years off the previous record.
“It has been a gruelling but humbling six months, and I hope to have proven that anything is possible with some determination, self-belief and positivity,” he said.
On April 23, days into his record bid and while descending Annapurna, Mr Purja, known as Nims, led a successful search for Dr Chin Wui Kin, left without food, water or oxygen after he became separated from another group.
Less than a month later, having made it to the summit of Kanchenjunga, also in Nepal, he and his team rescued two climbers from a height of 8,400m, giving their own spare oxygen to them.
Mr Purja joined the British Army’s Gurkhas in 2003, before going on to serve in the Royal Marines and Special Boat Service.
He has now joined a list of just 40 climbers who have completed what is considered to be one of the ultimate mountaineering challenges. He was accompanied throughout his campaign by a team of Nepalese sherpa guides.
His final ascent was the Tibetan peak of Shishapangma. “I believed in this project and I made sure to surround myself with people who believed in it too,” said Mr Purja.
‘It is a great achievement and a milestone in the history of climbing’
“This was never just about me, which is the reason I’ve been able to overcome some huge obstacles on this journey.”
The relentless pace of the feat was exhausting, Mr Purja has said, with the ascent of China’s Gasherbrum I in July being the hardest part.
“From Nanga Parbat we covered eight days of trekking in just three days of hard ‘tabbing’,” he said.
“We had to carry all of our own kit as we had left the porters behind and we had to catch the weather window. To cover that distance and then summit was the hardest.”
Mr Purja left the military earlier this year to focus on his climbing career.
Mingma Sherpa, of Seven Summit Treks in Kathmandu, which equipped the expedition, said Mr Purja was in good health and safely descending last night. He is expected in Kathmandu on Friday.
Climbing experts called the record a momentous achievement. “It is a great achievement for mountaineering and mountaineers and a milestone in the history of climbing,” said Ang Tshering, who previously headed the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
Mr Purja’s team said he had broken a string of other records along the way, including the fastest climb to the summit of the world’s five highest peaks.
During his climb of Everest in May he took a widely shared photograph of a “traffic jam” of climbers near the summit.
Mr Purja’s photograph rekindled a debate about overcrowding on the mountain and concerns it was leading to the deaths of climbers forced to wait for hours at dangerously high altitude.