Bodies of three elite Nepali climbers killed in Broad Peak avalanche arrive in Kathmandu

KATHMANDU: More than 10 days after a massive avalanche swept them off Pakistan’s Broad Peak, the remains of three of Nepal’s most decorated high-altitude guides and climbers returned home to grieving families.

Emotions ran high at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Tuesday as officials brought out the coffins one by one and placed them in a hearse. Kili Pemba Sherpa, known widely as Kilu, along with Gyalu Sherpa and Nima Sherpa, arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport aboard a Qatar Airways flight from Doha.

Relatives, fellow climbers, Nepal Mountaineering Association officials and expedition company representatives gathered as the coffins were unloaded, with family members breaking down beside the caskets. After airport formalities, the bodies made their way to their destination.

The three guides were among 10 climbers killed when an avalanche struck around 9:30 am on July 30 as the group climbed between Camp 2 and Camp 3, roughly 6,600 meters up the 8,051-meter peak, the world’s 12th-highest mountain, in Pakistan’s Karakoram range.

#WATCH | Nepal: More than ten days after a massive avalanche swept them off at PoK’s Broad Peak, the remains of three of Nepal’s most decorated high-altitude guides returned home Tuesday to grieving families.

Mortal remains of Kili Pemba Sherpa, known widely as Kilu, along with… pic.twitter.com/73gnlkflT7

— ANI (@ANI) August 11, 2026

The entire 10-person international team perished, including British-Nepali climbing star Nirmal Purja, also known as Nimsdai; Pur Bahadur Gurung; Nawang Thindu Sherpa; Omani climber Nadhira Al Harthy; Chinese climber Wang Zhong; Pakistani guide Sohail Sakhi; and American climber Mallory Geis.

Kili Pemba Sherpa, 46, of Rolwaling Valley in Dolakha district, had built one of the most formidable resumes in Himalayan climbing. He took part in the historic first winter ascent of K2 in January 2021 and, just weeks before his death, completed all fourteen of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks with a summit of Nanga Parbat on July 3. He guided for Imagine Nepal.

Gyalu Sherpa, also known as Gyaljen and affiliated with Seven Summit Treks, hailed from Okhaldhunga and had summited Kanchenjunga three times in a single season, a feat many in the climbing world consider record-setting in addition to multiple Everest ascents.

Nima Sherpa, in his mid-30s and from Sankhuwasabha, worked as a senior guide for Elite Exped and had already summited four 8,000-meter peaks in the 2026 season alone before joining the fatal Broad Peak expedition.

BROAD PEAK TRAGEDY – FULL TIMELINE, TEAMS, CONDITIONS & DELAYS

30 July 2026 avalanche | All 10 confirmed dead

THE TEAMS (4 commercial operators that joined for a shared summit push)

Elite Exped:
Nirmal “Nimsdai” Purja (UK/Nepal) – central figure / leader of the group
Pur… pic.twitter.com/sFtkwyj7je

— k2 (@KrisAnnapurna) August 8, 2026

Of the five Nepali climbers, the bodies of four have been retrieved from one of the world’s most technical mountains. Last week, the body of Pur Bahadur Gurung was repatriated while British-Nepali climber Purja’s remains were flown to the United Kingdom, where he held citizenship.

Recovery efforts continue for the three climbers still on the mountain: one Nepali, one Pakistani and one American hampered by difficult high-altitude conditions.

Broad Peak, straddling the border of Pakistan and China in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, has long been considered a serious, but comparatively less crowded 8,000-meter objective than nearby K2. Its exposed upper sections between Camp 2 and Camp 3, however, have been the site of previous avalanche incidents, and mountaineers have noted shifting snowpack conditions in the Karakoram. Some climbers and researchers attributed it to changing weather patterns that have made route assessment increasingly unpredictable in recent seasons.

The scale of the July 30 avalanche, which claimed an entire ten-member team in a single event, is being described by veteran climbers as among the deadliest single incidents in the mountain’s history and one of the worst disasters affecting Nepali high-altitude workers since the 2014 Everest icefall avalanche and the 2015 earthquake-triggered avalanche at Everest Base Camp. (ANI)