THE TEN · #02

01 AUG 2026

PUR BAHADUR “YUKTA” GURUNG:
The Senior Guide Who Knew Every Step

Twenty-eight eight-thousander summits, ten of them Everest. The brother in the brotherhood who carried the rope farthest.

In the guide world of the Himalaya there are climbers, and then there are men like Pur Bahadur “Yukta” Gurung — veterans for whom the highest places on Earth had become a second home. Twenty-eight eight-thousander summits. Ten ascents of Everest. He was, by any measure, one of the finest and most experienced guides the region ever produced.

Raised in the Shadow of the Great Ones

Yukta came from a mountain family, born beneath the great ridges of Nepal where altitude was simply a fact of everyday life. He climbed his first eight-thousanders as a young man and never really stopped. Over two decades he guided hundreds of clients safely to the summit, earning the deep trust of the expeditions he worked for and the climbers who placed their lives in his hands.

The Senior Guide of Broad Peak

In the summer of 2026, Yukta signed on as senior guide for the Broad Peak campaign — the strongest team to walk the Baltoro that season. On 30 July he was up on the west ridge, guiding as he always did, when the mountain let go. An avalanche swept him and nine others from the face. To those around him he was not just a guide; he was the experienced one, the brother, the certain pair of hands.

“Twenty-eight eight-thousander summits, ten Everest — a brother in the brotherhood.” from the memorial

The Himalaya lost far more than a guide that day. It lost Yukta Gurung, a mountain unto himself, who gave his life doing the very thing he had mastered. Meet the ten →