Soldier’s daring feat saves man at 25,000ft
A SPECIAL FORCES soldier abandoned his world record attempt climbing the world’s most dangerous mountains to save a stricken doctor who lay injured in the snow.
Nirmal Purja dangled from a rope under a helicopter before rescuing the climber and bringing him down the mountain so he could safely be transported to hospital.
Mr Purja, known as “Nims”, was descending Mount Annapurna in Nepal on Tuesday when word reached him that Dr Chin Wui Kin had been separated from his group.
Dr Chin, 48, an anaesthesiologist and an accomplished climber, was left stranded near the 26,545ft summit of Annapurna for two days without oxygen after he became separated from a 13-member expedition during their descent.
The mountain is the 10th highest and the world’s most dangerous peak over 26,000ft. It was the first of 14 climbs in seven months to be tackled by Mr Purja and his team as part of Project Possible – an attempt to break the world record of 11 months.
It was at camp four, at 25,000ft, that Mr Purja, a former Royal Gurkha in the Special Boat Service, and his team heard about Dr Chin. But before setting out back up the mountain to find the Malaysian national, Mr Purja first descended to base camp to get oxygen for the rescue.
On Thursday, Mr Purja and three others flew back up to 21,325ft by helicopter, the highest point possible, and descended to camp three by rope.
He said: “When the altitude is too great we have to do a longline rescue – we are literally underneath the helicopter and are dropped close to the site. We still had a long climb and realised that we had to work quickly.”
Days before, Mr Purja and his team had taken 18 hours to climb from camp three to the summit, but the four men reached Dr Chin in just four hours in a feat described as “incredible”.
Mr Purja, who was awarded an MBE by the Queen in 2016 for his outstanding achievement in high altitude mountaineering, managed to move the injured doctor from the summit to camp three by Friday, where a helicopter was able to drop a long line down to attach to Dr Chin. He was taken to Kathmandu Hospital.
Mr Purja said: “He is alive but still in critical condition. I did go and visit him in hospital. He is with his wife and the medical experts and I wish him a good recovery.”
According to the organisers of the expeditions, Seven Summit Treks, Mr Chin had been without an oxygen bottle, food and water for more than 40 hours and it was his medical knowledge and familiarity with the mountains that kept him safe.
Mingma Sherpa, head of the organisation, said: “It’s a big thing to stay alive in that altitude without food, water, and oxygen”.
Project Possible began last week.
Those of us for whom a country stroll is a feat of endurance will have watched the London marathon with admiration yesterday. But when it comes to exceptional physical challenges in the most inhospitable of environments it would take a lot to top the heroics of Gurkha Nirmal “Nims” Purja MBE. The former Special Boat Service member was descending Mt Annapurna in the Himalayas where he had begun a recordbreaking series of climbs when he was alerted to the plight of an injured mountaineer stranded for two days. A rescue helicopter could not land at the high altitude so Mr Purja was tied beneath the aircraft on a long line and lowered to the casualty. It makes a long run look like a walk in the park.