MOVING MOUNTAINS

A Nepali mountaineer’s stunning feat puts the spotlight on a mountaineering milestone that has evaded Indians

- SNEHA BHURA

The most treacherous of the 14 ‘death-zone’ mountains in the world is said to be K2. Considered the last frontier in the climbing world, it is the only one among all the 8,000m-plus peaks that has not been climbed in winter. But high-altitude climber Nirmal Purja, aka Nimsdai, says he considers himself “next-level crazy”. He spoke to THE WEEK from Nepal before his December 20 ascent of the ‘Savage Mountain’. “We are only limited by our own imagination,” says the 37-year-old former Gurkha soldier. And, it might just take a climber of Purja’s boundless imagination to accomplish what nobody has before.

His experiences in some of the world’s sketchiest combat zones as part of the UK Special Forces can explain his incredible mountaineering feat in 2019. Purja summited all 14 of the 8,000ers in less than seven months, smashing the previous record of seven years and 11 months. All of these peaks are in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges spanning India, Nepal, Tibet and Pakistan. Some 40 mountaineers have managed to scale them all since the legendary Reinhold Messner first did it in 1986. While most of them took years, Purja’s speed and agility conjure up an image of a Super Mario leaping from peak to peak. He had good financial backing, bottled oxygen and Sherpa guides, but mountaineering experts still laud the remarkable speed.

“I put my own fixed lines and do it for others too,” says Purja. “I have rescued many others along the way, and if anybody does it the way I have done, by raising sponsorships, taking care of the logistics and politics, and dealing with the health of my mom, all at the same time, then we can talk. If you have not been in my shoes, then do not comment from outside.”