'Won't leave him behind': Against all odds, Purja’s ‘formidable rival’ brings his body back to Broad Peak base camp

Nirmal Purja and Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, known across the climbing world as Nimsdai and Mingma G, spent years running rival premier expedition outfits in Kathmandu — Purja’s Elite Exped and Mingma G’s Imagine Nepal — while competing for clients and records on the world’s highest mountains. But a week after the July 30 avalanche on Broad Peak (8,047m) in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir killed Purja and other climbers, Mingma fulfilled a vow he had taken as his team trekked to the site and brought back the body of the man who was once his fiercest professional rival, close friend and, on some of mountaineering’s most important days, his summit partner,

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