Nirmal Purja

Nirmal Purja, born on July 25, 1983, is a distinguished Nepalese mountaineer, writer, mountain guide, and former soldier. Before embarking on his remarkable mountaineering career, he served in the British Army with the Brigade of Gurkhas and later joined the Special Boat Service, the elite special forces unit of the Royal Navy.

Purja gained international acclaim for his extraordinary achievement of climbing all fourteen eight-thousanders—peaks exceeding eight thousand meters—in just six months and six days, utilizing bottled oxygen. This remarkable feat, accomplished between April and October of 2019, set a world record at the time, although it was surpassed in 2023 by Kristin Harila and Tenjen Sherpa, who completed the challenge in ninety-two days.

In addition to his record-setting climbs, Purja made history as the first individual to summit Mount Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu within a span of forty-eight hours. His adventurous spirit and determination were further exemplified in 2021 when he led a team of nine other Nepalese climbers to achieve the first winter ascent of K2, one of the most challenging peaks in the world.