ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Rescue teams supported by military aviation assets have restarted search operations for six missing mountaineers who were swept away in a sudden avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak, officials confirmed Saturday. The recovery effort comes one day after three of the four fatalities located so far were extracted from the disaster site, deepening a tragedy that has hit the global mountaineering community.
Local law enforcement official Tahir Khan outlined the status of victim identification and transport Saturday. The remains of Omani climber Nathira Ahmed are being airlifted to Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, for final processing and repatriation. Meanwhile, the bodies of American climber Mallory Geis and Nepalese climber Bahadur Gurung are currently held at a medical facility in Skardu, the primary urban hub for expeditions in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.
Despite the continuation of ground and air search efforts, officials have acknowledged that optimism for finding the missing climbers alive is rapidly diminishing. Karrar Haidri, vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, shared that the entire 10-member expedition lost all contact with its base camp on Thursday, moments after the avalanche hit the team as they were ascending the 8,051-meter mountain, one of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 meters.
The full expedition roster, released by the Alpine Club, includes five Nepalese climbers, the Omani and American climbers, Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi, a Chinese climber identified publicly only by the surname Wang, and a sixth foreign member whose identity has not yet been released to the public. The expedition was organized under the leadership of famed high-altitude mountaineer Nirmal Purja, a Nepal-born former British Army soldier known widely to the climbing community as Nims Dai. Purja earned global acclaim in 2019 when he completed ascents of all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in a groundbreaking 189 days, a feat that was later chronicled in the popular Netflix documentary *14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible*. Purja’s record was ultimately broken in 2023 by another climber.
Pakistan-based adventure travel firm Moving Mountains announced the expedition’s departure in late April, sharing that the team had departed for the remote starting town of Askole and extending well wishes for a safe summit bid. According to the company’s public profile of the team, the Broad Peak attempt marked Geis’ first effort to summit an 8,000-meter peak in Pakistan. For Sakhi, the expedition was planned to be his final major climb before retirement. A veteran guide for Moving Mountains, Sakhi is also an accomplished geographer and high-altitude photographer who has already summited many of the world’s most iconic high peaks.
High-altitude climbing in northern Pakistan carries inherent and persistent risk: avalanches, falling rock and ice, extreme altitude sickness, and rapidly shifting weather patterns make accidents a regular occurrence for expedition teams operating in the region. Multiple experienced climbing teams are assisting military personnel in the ongoing search for the six missing climbers, with army helicopters conducting regular aerial scans of the avalanche path to locate any signs of the missing team members.