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NEPAL-MOUNTAINEERING-RECORD
Nepali climber set for final push in record 14-peak bid
KATHMANDU, Sept 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The current record for climbing the
world’s 14 tallest peaks is almost eight years. Nepali climber, Nirmal Purja,
who served in the British special forces, has a target of seven months.
On Monday Purja arrived at the advance base camp of the 8,201-metre
(26,906-feet) Cho Oyu, ready for the final phase of the last three peaks in
his feat of astonishing endurance.
“Nobody believed I could do this when I first said it… I’m so glad to be
inspiring generations of all ages through this endeavour. This is what keeps
me going,” Purja told AFP by phone.
“This is not about me… it is to show what the human body can do. To
establish a paradigm shift in perception of human potential,” Purja said.
Only a teenager when he joined the British Gurkhas, Purja or “Nims dai”
climbed both the 8,848-metre Everest and Lhotse at 8,516 metres in a record
10 hours and 15 minutes in 2017.
This inspired the 36-year-old to start “Project Possible”, scaling the 14
peaks — all higher than 8,000 metres — in seven months.
But doing so is radically ambitious. In the 1980s, it took Polish climber
Jerzy Kukuczka seven years, 11 months and 14 days.
South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho managed it in about a month less —
although he did, unlike Kukuczka and Purja, do it without supplementary
oxygen.
Before he set off on his first expedition, Purja had a detailed tattoo of
the 14 mountains engraved on his back, with colourful prayer flags tracing
his journey to the peaks.
– Sprinting up K2 –
Swapping his army boots for crampons, Purja quit the military after 16
years of service and re-mortgaged his house to begin his expedition and start
raising funds.
Purja began his attempt in April with the 8,091-metre Annapurna, checking
the illustrious “8,000ers” Dhaulagiri, Kanchenjunga, Everest, Lhotse and
Makalu off his list in only a month to finish his first phase.
A month later, he was heading to Pakistan for the second part of his
mission where he first tackled the notorious Nanga Parbat at 8,125 metres.
Twenty-three days later he was standing atop Broad Peak, his fifth and final
mountain of the second phase.
Battling sleep deprivation to meet his target, Purja said he was almost
sprinting up and down five of Pakistan’s highest peaks including K2, the
second tallest in the world.
“I felt like this is one down and next to go (with every summit). We still
have another to climb,” Purja said.
On track to make climbing history, the phenomenal mountaineer has in the
process also set several speed climbing records this year.
This included his summits of Everest, Lhotse and Mount Makalu, three of
the world’s five highest mountains, in a record 48 hours — and despite the
deadly overcrowding this season on the planet’s top peak.
Purja also made headlines with his miraculous rescue operation of a
Malaysian climber from Mount Annapurna after two nights in the open above
7,000 metres.
“It is only a matter of time until he completes his project, he has
already proven his amazing capability,” said Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit
Treks, Purja’s expedition operator.
– No flip-flops –
Raised in a village in the northwest district of Chitwan, Purja said he
did not even have flip-flops growing up.
“My life story tells anyone who doesn’t have privilege to dream about
bigger things. Anything is possible if you put your heart and mind and give
100 percent to it,” he said.
He also hopes to lift the standing of Nepali climbers — Sherpas who often
work as guides for foreign climbers in the Himalayas — as he feels they are
not “given the right credit”.
But there is a potential spanner in the works.
The Chinese government’s decision to close Mount Shishapangma for the
season could potentially stymie Purja’s plans.
But efforts are underway to seek a special permission for him.
“Dealing with all sorts from admin, logistics, fundings and politics; now
my climbing mode is ON,” he said on Facebook on Monday.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1050 hrs