New Delhi: The first mountaineer to climb all 14 eight thousanders — peaks more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) in height — was Reinhold Messner. The German achieved the feat on 16 October 1986, when he climbed Lhotse in the Himalayas — close to 16 years after he had summitted his first. Several others followed, including Korean Kim Chang-ho, who held the record for doing it in the shortest span of time — seven years, 10 months and six days. Until Nirmal Purja.
On 29 October 2019, Nirmal Purja, the 40th person to ascend all 14 eight thousanders, created history by doing it in six months and six days. He summitted Annapurna (8,091m) on 23 April, and finished with Shishapangma (8,013m) on 29 October, obliterating a slew of records along the way.
Mountain man
So, who is Nirmal Purja? Born in Myagadi district in Nepal’s Dhaulagiri, Nirmal Purja or Nims as he is fondly called, was a Gurkha and Special Boat Service soldier, who later went on to serve in the elite special forces of the British Royal Army. He was awarded the MBE in June 2018 for his outstanding work in high-altitude mountaineering.
Purja grew up wanting to be a Gurkha in the British military like his father, and when he was 18, his dream came true when he joined the Gurkha regiment in 2003. It was only in 2012, on an expedition to Everest Base Camp, that Purja fell in love with the mountains. At the time, he said, “I got a taste for what it’s like to stand on a peak and have this view.”
Soon, Purja realised he wanted to focus on mountaineering full-time, and he founded Elite Himalayan Adventures, which is where Project Possible 14/7 was conceptualised.
Project Possible
One could argue that Purja was always meant to scale mountains as Dhaulagiri region houses one of the eight thousanders, and Nepal itself is home to several. In April 2019, Purja decided to scale all 14 in seven months. He started a fundraising campaign for his mission called Project Possible 14/7. The £10 donations went into buying carabenas while £30 donations bought ropes to fix the lines.
On 23 April, Purja ascended Annapurna and followed it up with Dhaulagiri (8,167m) on 12 May. Just a look at his climb dates for May is dizzying: after Dhaulagiri, he climbed Kanchenjunga (8,586m) on 15 May, Everest (8,848m) a week later, Lhotse (8,516) on the same day and Makalu (8,481m) on 24 May.
What followed was a slightly slower schedule for July and September, before the final frontier of Shishapangma (8,013m) in October, following a long battle with Chinese authorities to obtain a climbing permit. It was his 14th and final ascent, and it signalled the completion and success of his Project Possible.
ThePrint spoke to Maninder Kohli of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation who said, “[It] marks an evolution in modern mountaineering which has seen a change in the past 10 years, focusing on speed ascents.” Kohli added, “Normally speed ascents are done by Europeans, [but] this feat by Nirmal Purja will put the spotlight on Nepalis and sherpas as they are usually relegated to a back-position and not regarded as mountaineers in their own right.”
While Purja himself wasn’t reachable for a comment, his manager Richard Pickard told ThePrint that his next plan is to summit Ama Dablam in the Himalayas to plant a poppy for Remembrance Day (a day to remember members of the Armed Forces who died in the line of duty during World War I) commemorations on 11 November.
Breaking records and winning hearts
Aside from the new record for the fastest ascent of the 14 peaks, Purja has three other world records to his name. One is for the fastest time from the summit of Everest to the summit of Lhotse (10 hours 15 minutes), beating the previous record of 20 hours. The second is for the fastest consecutive summits between Everest, Lhotse and Makalu, which he did in just 48 hours in May this year, breaking his own earlier record of summitting all three peaks in a span of five days. Purja also holds the record for being the first person to summit Everest twice and both Lhotse and Makalu once, in the same season, in a total of only 17 days.
This breaking of records is not something that finds universal acclaim, though. Not one in favour of speed ascents, Wing Commander Amit Chowdhury of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation said, “We do not encourage this and nor do we acknowledge it, This is not mountaineering, it is mere sensationalism for headline-grabbing.”
This won’t dampen Purja’s spirits, nor those of his many supporters and fans, as congratulatory messages are pouring in from all over the world, including other renowned climbers like Conrad Anker.
For Purja, though, it wasn’t a mindless pursuit of glory. “For me, this project is about pushing myself to see what is possible in human endurance but I will not ‘fight’ Mother Nature…I know when to push and when to wait.”
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