Nepali climber scales 14 peaks in 6 months and 6 days
KATHMANDU: It always is a herculean task for any climber to scale the peak of one single mountain as it involves days of meticulous planning and giving due consideration to health, weather and the locations. So it is natural for a mountaineer to take time before planning for next adventure once he/she finishes the first one. And the gap between first and the second expedition could be of months or may be more than a year.
But for Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja all these are just thoughts put on paper as he doesn’t gives a hoot to preplanning aspect of his expeditions. And the results are record breaking as he has smashed the speed record for summiting the world’s 14 highest peaks, racing up all “8000ers” in just six months and six days.
The previous record for the 14 mountains above 8,000 metres (around 26,250 feet) -completed by Nirmal Purja at 8.59 am (1259 GMT) on Tuesday -- was almost eight years.
“MISSION ACHIEVED! says @nimsdai from the summit of #Shishapangma,” read a post on Purja’s Facebook page, while a statement quoted the former British elite soldier as being “overwhelmed and incredibly proud” ater his 189-day feat.
“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,” the 36-year-old said.
“We started with nothing, but look how far we’ve come.”
Purja, a former member of the Gurkhas - a brigade of Nepalis in British army famous for their fearlessness -- as well as the elite Special
Boat Service, kicked off “Project Possible” in April.
In the first part of his record atempt, Purja ticked off Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Kanchenjunga, Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in just one month.
He was not alone on Everest, reaching the summit on May 22 with 320 others and snapping a photo of a traffic jam of climbers on the world’s highest mountain that went viral.
This season a record 885 people climbed the famous mountain. A total of 11 people died, with at least four of those deaths blamed on overcrowding.
A month later, Purja headed to Pakistan for the second part, where he first tackled the notorious Nanga Parbat at 8,125 metres.
Batling sleep deprivation to meet his target, Purja said he was almost sprinting up and down five of Pakistan’s highest peaks including Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II and K2, the second highest in the world.