In July 2026, an avalanche swept through Pakistan's Broad Peak while Nirmal Purja and Kili Pemba Sherpa were on their way up, engulfing everything in its path. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, a close friend of the victims and an experienced climber, knew from drone images that no one had survived. Yet as he picked his way past the frozen slope towards the two bodies in fluorescent down suits, sharp against the snow, he couldn't shake the idea they were waiting for him. "I told them: 'It's ok. You don't have to be here in the cold anymore.'"

Speaking to the BBC in Islamabad, he recalls the terrible moment he reached for their bodies. Holding one of them, he promised: "I'm here to take you guys home."

Mingma G and Nirmal Purja met in Pakistan in 2021, where they were part of the first team to summit the world's second-highest mountain, K2, during winter. Mingma G knew of Nirmal — or Nims, as he was known — from his Netflix documentary 14 Peaks, in which he successfully climbed the world's 14 highest mountains in just over six months.

The pair, both avid climbers from Nepal, had taken different paths. Mingma G came from the Sherpa community and built his reputation as a mountain guide over 20 years. Nims was a former Gurkha and British Special Forces soldier who quickly became one of the world's best-known mountaineers.

Many saw Nims as an incredible climber who helped Nepalese climbers gain international recognition in a field dominated by foreigners. But he also had his critics: they said he focused too much on records, and on marketing his expeditions to a growing social media following. In 2024 the New York Times published sexual misconduct allegations from two women, which Purja strongly denied through his lawyer at the time, who said they were "false and defamatory". Purja again denied the allegations in a lengthy interview soon after.

Before Mingma G met Nims, he wasn't sure about him: "In the beginning, I had the feeling he was very arrogant." But that changed when their paths crossed five years ago, as competitors on their way to K2, who then decided to climb the mountain together and share the record. Mingma G says he found Nims to be "very kind-hearted, one of the most beautiful human beings I've met".

Over the years the two would meet on various mountains around the world: Nims "would always be on Everest". This summer they met again, walking into the Karakoram range, before they would split up for different climbs. Nims headed for Broad Peak and Mingma G for K2, around 8km (five miles) apart. Nims asked Mingma G to wait another day so they could meet once more before embarking on these separate missions, but that meeting never happened. "That was the last thing he told me. I still regret it."

On 30 July, "we had perfect weather, sunshine, no winds," Mingma G says. By then, he was leading a team up K2. Nims's team of climbers had joined others to form a larger group of 10 that was making its way up Broad Peak. At 08:30, Mingma G spoke to Kili Pemba Sherpa — better known as Kilu — a childhood friend and expert climber in Nims's group. Snow conditions looked good, Kilu had said, and the two agreed to speak again when they both reached the next camp on their respective mountains.

The BBC spoke to two trekkers who spotted the climbers scaling Broad Peak. "We were cheering them on," one says. He took a photo of them on the slope, small silhouettes against the snow.