Remains of American climber Mallory Geis found weeks after avalanche killed entire expedition
Search teams in northern Pakistan have found the remains of American mountaineer Mallory Geis following an avalanche that killed all 10 members of an international climbing expedition on Broad Peak, officials said Friday.
Geis’ remains were located by local volunteers searching the mountain, according to Irfan Arshad Khan, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.
The expedition was Geis’ first attempt to climb an 8,000-meter peak in Pakistan.
“Mallory was a bright light who was loved deeply by her family and friends,” her family said in a statement. “She will be profoundly missed.”
The discovery came as rescuers continued the difficult operation to locate and recover members of the 10-person expedition, which was swept away by an avalanche after losing contact with base camp on July 30.
Authorities later concluded that all 10 climbers had died in one of Pakistan’s deadliest mountaineering disasters in recent years.
Renowned British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, widely known as Nims Dai, led the expedition.
Officials said a ground team located the remains of Purja and three other climbers — Wang Zhong, Nima Sherpa and Kili Pemba Sherpa — on Sunday.
Purja, a Nepal-born former British Army soldier, became one of the world’s best-known mountaineers after climbing all 14 of the world’s peaks above 8,000 meters in 189 days in 2019. His achievement was chronicled in the Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.” His record was later broken.
Purja’s expedition company paid tribute to him, describing him as “a leader who inspired millions through his courage, humility and unwavering belief that human potential is far greater than we often imagine.”
Khan called the disaster “an immeasurable loss to the global mountaineering fraternity” and praised military personnel, civilian rescuers, Sherpas and local volunteers involved in the recovery effort.
Rescuers located four bodies Friday but were able to recover only three — Geis, Omani climber Nathira Ahmed and Nepalese climber Bahadur Gurung — after severe weather grounded search-and-rescue helicopters.
Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi, who had been missing since July 30, was found Thursday by local volunteers. Other rescuers helped carry his body toward base camp, where authorities hoped to transport it by helicopter to a regional air base if weather permitted.
The Broad Peak expedition was expected to be Sakhi’s final climb. A guide with Pakistan-based adventure company Moving Mountains, he was also a geographer and high-altitude photographer who had climbed several of the world’s major peaks.
The expedition included climbers from Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, China, Britain and the United States.
As recovery efforts continued, mountaineers, diplomats and members of civil society gathered for a candlelight vigil in Islamabad to remember those killed.
Broad Peak rises 8,051 meters, or 26,414 feet, in Pakistan’s Karakoram range near K2. It is the world’s 12th-highest mountain.
Northern Pakistan is home to some of the world’s highest and most dangerous peaks, where climbers face avalanches, falling rock and ice, extreme altitude and rapidly changing weather.
