#01 — The Legend
NIRMAL
PURJA
They called him “Nimsdai” — Big Brother of the fearless. Born 25 July 1983 in Myagdi, Nepal, he joined the British Army’s Gurkhas and then the Special Boat Service before turning his discipline to the mountains. In 2019 he stood on all fourteen of the 8,000-metre peaks in a single season — six months and six days — slashing a record that had stood for nearly eight years. In 2021 he led the first winter ascent of K2. In 2024 he finished the same fourteen again, without a single breath of oxygen. He held eighteen Guinness World Records and fifty-two summits above 8,000. Broad Peak would have been his third passage over 8,000. He asked the mountain for nothing but safe passage.
The record sheet
Project Possible — all 14 in 189 days
Annapurna on 23 April to Shishapangma on 29 October. The previous record for all fourteen was seven years, ten months.
Everest, Lhotse & Makalu in 48 hours
The first human to stand on the world’s first, fourth and fifth highest summits inside two days.
The five of Pakistan in 23 days
K2, Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak and both Gasherbrums — the fastest sweep of the Karakoram ever recorded.
First winter ascent of K2
16 January, with nine other Nepali climbers, after thirty-four years of failure — and the only summit without oxygen.
All 14 again — without a breath of oxygen
Completed on Shishapangma, 4 October, in two years four months — the fastest no-oxygen traverse of the fourteen.
The fourteen twice, with and without oxygen
21 October: the first man in history to summit the 14 peaks and the Seven Summits both ways.