Nirmal Purja's record-breaking adventure of scaling 14 tallest mountain peaks in a 7- month period!!

 Nirmal Purja, scaled 14 peaks in 7 month time. /english.alarabiya.net

Climbing the tallest peak in the world Mt. Everest alone  is a tough one and considered a great achievement.  Scaling every  14 peak in different countries above the so-called “death zone” altitude of 8,000m in no more than seven-month time is a  Herculean job that needs, superb experience in high altitude mountain-climbing, good health. guts,  right weather windows up hills, right mountain gear and above all elements of luck.  A young Napalese mountaineer made this feat recently in a short period less than just seven months. 

 ace mountaineer Nirmal Purja,independent.ie

Nirmal Purja, a  36 year old Nepalese professional mountaineer, with ease, broke  the previous mountaineering record for successfully climbing the world’s 14 highest peaks, completing the feat in  a short span of just 189 days.  The 14th peak and the last one  he climbed was the 8,027-meter (26,340-foot) Mount Shishapangma in China  on  29 October, 2019,  None of the 14 peaks he scaled was below 8000 meters  (26,240 feet) in height.  South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho in 2013 held the previous record of climbing 14 tallest peaks and he took  seven years, 10 months and six days to complete it. Veteran mountain climbers consider this a monumental achievement in the annals of mountaineerin  history.

Ang Tshering,  former head  of  the Nepal Mountaineering Association said, “It is a great achievement for mountaineering and mountaineers and a milestone in the history of climbing,” 

Purja joined the British army in 2003 and left the job  earlier this year  with a view to pursuing his dream mission of climbing all the 14 highest peaks in the  record time.  He  began his odyssey  of dangerous mission (dubbed  “14/7” - “Project Possible'')  to scale 14 tough peaks on April 23 with a climb of Mt. Annapurna in Nepal. He then scaled Mt. Dhaulagiri on May 12, Mt. Kanchenjunga on May 15, Mt. Everest on May 22, Mt. Lhotse on May 22, Mt.  Makalu on May 24 and Mt. Manaslu on Sept. 27.

In Pakistan, he  successfully stood atop  Mt. Nanga Parbat on July 3, Mt. Gasherbrum 1 on July 15, Mount Gasherbrum 2 on July 18, Mount K2 on July 24 and Mt. Broad Peak on July 26. The final ones being  Mt. Cho You on Sept. 23 and Mt. Shishapangma on Oct. 29, both in China. As China refused to give him permission, he sought the help of the Nepalese government and later got the permit for him to climb the mountain.

About his record-breaking 14 peak in less than 7 month period Mr Purja said,  It had been a “gruelling” six months, but he was “overwhelmed and incredibly proud” to have completed the challenge. His  early adventures  were  marked by a series of dramatic rescues of stranded mountain climbers. In 2016  he rescued  a climber left in the Everest “death zone”,  brought her down from 8,450m to safety alone. She is happily living in India.

Records are not new to this man  whose spirit of adventurism in the midst of risks to life is unrelenting. He was the first Gurkha to have  climbed Everest while serving the British military. The Queen awarded him an MBE in 2018 for his achievement in extreme high-altitude mountain climbing. Mr Purja already held three Guinness World Records for the fastest consecutive summits of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in five days, the fastest time from the summit of Everest to the summit of Lhotse, and he was the first person to summit Everest twice, Lhotse once and Makalu once, in the same season.  His 14/7 14 peak mission saw him breaking  another six world records, including the most 8,000m-plus mountains scaled in both a spring and summer season. He broke  his own record for the fastest consecutive summits of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu down to just 48 hours. Yet another interesting fact is one of his Sherpa guides during the  mission,Mingma David, became the youngest person on Earth to have scaled all the 14 tallest mountains.

Mt. Everest 2019 season: traffic jam of climbers. .bendbulletin.com

 Above image:  2019 mountain climbing season: A long queue of climbers line a path on Mount Everest in May. Nirmal Purja took this picture during one of his ''Project Possible'' climbs, and it went viral. Purja set the speed record for completing the world’s 14 highest climbs in just over six months. (Nirmal Purja/@Nimsdai Project Possible via AP). That seson had two short weather windows in the death zone...........

Many people may not be aware of the traffic jam on Everest  during this year's mountain climbing season that provided just two short weather windows in the death zone.  It meant the climbers had limited time near the summit.  It was Purja’s  stunning photo of a long line of climbers just below the Mt. Everest summit  went viral that brought to light the  over-issue of permits to the climbers by the Nepalese govt. This  forced them to wait long hours in  the death zone to wait for their turn. Stuck in the traffic in a rugged terrain with depleted oxygen about 14 climbers people died on the higher slopes. This tragedy  raised the eyebrows of the public and professional climbers. In the media world over, over-crowding on Everest became a serious subject of debate and discussion  about the numbers of climbers attempting the world’s tallest mountain. In the future,  the number of prospective climbers to M. Everest will be under check.
 His great achievement will give inspiration to the youths world over who want to try their luck in mountaineering. Nirmal Purja's motto is : ''It is about trusting your ability.”
 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/nepal-mountaineer-record-speed-climber-nirmal-nims-purja-death-zone-https://time.com/5713700/worlds-highest-peaks-record