RECORDS · K2

21 JAN 2026

K2 in Winter:
The Impossible Climb That Nimsdai Made Possible

Thirty-four years, eleven expeditions, zero summits. Then a team of ten Nepali climbers stood on K2 in January 2021.

For thirty-four years, the winter ascent of K2 was the last great impossible in high-altitude mountaineering. The Savage Mountain, the second-highest peak on Earth, had been climbed in summer since 1954 — but winter? Winter on K2 means temperatures near minus sixty, winds that feel like they are trying to erase you, and a summit pyramid that has repelled every attempt. Eleven winter expeditions had tried. All had failed.

The Plan

In January 2021, Nirmal Purja announced that his Elite Exped team would attempt it. He selected ten of the strongest Nepali climbers in the world — a who's who of Sherpa and high-altitude talent. The climbing world watched with the particular dread reserved for impossible feats.

The Summit

On 16 January 2021, the team reached the top of K2 in winter. It was the first winter summit in history, done in appalling conditions by a team that supported one another up and down the mountain. It was Purja's leadership, his refusal to accept the impossible, that made it happen. His full legend →

Why It Mattered

The K2 winter ascent reshaped what climbers believed. If the Savage Mountain could be done in the deep freeze, then the era of “impossible” was over — and the record books belonged to the brave. Five years later, on the west ridge of Broad Peak, the man who had made winter K2 possible asked the mountain for nothing but safe passage.

“Nothing is impossible.” — Nirmal Purja, again and again