Third Body Confirmed as American Climber on Broad Peak, Nirmal Purja Still Missing With Five Others

Since the avalanche struck Broad Peak on Thursday, rescuers have identified three of the four bodies located so far, and six climbers remain missing, according to the Gilgit-Baltistan regional government and the Alpine Club of Pakistan.

The confirmed dead are Nepali climber Pur Bahadur Gurung, Omani climber Nadhira Al Harthy, and American climber Mallory Geis, according to Al Jazeera, which cited the Gilgit-Baltistan government's Friday evening statement. A fourth body has been spotted but not yet recovered. Earlier Friday, the Alpine Club of Pakistan had briefly reported that four bodies were found, then clarified the count was actually two full bodies and a body part, according to the BBC.

Geis, 39, was from San Antonio, Texas, according to US media cited by the BBC. She had closed her Pilates studio earlier this year to pursue outdoor adventures, telling followers on social media it was "a giant leap of faith into the unknown" and joking she suspected there would be "lots of helmets, harnesses, and crampons involved," according to Al Jazeera.

Al Harthy was the first Omani woman to summit Mount Everest and had also climbed Manaslu, K2, and Nanga Parbat, according to Al Jazeera. Gurung was one of five Nepali nationals on the expedition.

Still missing is Nirmal Purja, the Nepali mountaineer known as Nims Dai who set the record in 2019 for climbing all 14 of the world's peaks above 8,000 meters in just over six months, and who later led the first winter summit of K2, according to the Guardian. Purja joined the British Army in 2003 and served in the Royal Navy's Special Boat Service starting in 2009, according to the BBC. The Guardian also noted Purja has faced a prior allegation of sexually inappropriate behavior, which he has denied.

Also missing are a Chinese national identified as Wang Zhong and Pakistani mountaineer Sohail Sakhi, along with additional high-altitude workers, according to Al Jazeera. Police in Gilgit-Baltistan said two British nationals were part of the missing team as well, though Al Jazeera reported police made no mention of a US citizen in that count, a discrepancy that hasn't been resolved in available statements.

GPS trackers carried by the climbers showed the group lost altitude rapidly around 9am local time, at roughly 6,579 meters between camp two and camp three on the mountain's west ridge, the most heavily used ascent route, according to the Guardian. Geis's tracker showed a 543-meter drop; Al Harthy's showed a much larger 1,651-meter fall, figures the Guardian attributed to Climbing magazine.

Purja's tracker behaved differently. It showed the same initial rapid descent but then shifted location afterward, according to the Guardian. The Alpine Club of Pakistan initially treated that movement as a possible sign of survival, but rescuers later found one of the trackers smashed and now believe the signal may have been a glitch rather than evidence anyone moved on their own, according to the BBC.

Aerial drones have spotted seven additional climbers on the mountain whose identities and condition have not been verified, the Alpine Club said, according to the Guardian. Visual searches, including drone flights, were halted as night fell Friday because of weather, and ground teams were not expected to reach the area until Saturday at the earliest, the BBC reported.

Naila Kiani, communications lead for the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said the odds of survival after more than 24 hours in such conditions are "very slim," but added "miracles do happen," according to the BBC.

The rescue effort is complicated by geography specific to Pakistan. Unlike Nepal, which has a developed network of private helicopter operators for high-altitude search and rescue, Pakistan's helicopter assets are controlled by the military, according to the Guardian. Two military helicopters have been dispatched with rescue personnel and specialized equipment, the BBC reported.

Sajid Hussain, deputy director of the tourism department in Gilgit-Baltistan, told Reuters that the search for the six still missing is focused on a "remote and difficult area." China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said Beijing is "urgently working to verify and understand the situation" regarding Wang Zhong, according to Al Jazeera.

Coverage of the story has varied in what it emphasizes. The BBC and outlets aggregated by NewsCord flagged the Alpine Club's shifting body count as a notable miscommunication, while ABC News led primarily with the confirmed identifications rather than the confusion over numbers, according to NewsCord's tracking of 34 outlets. Few outlets in that same comparison reported the precise GPS altitude-loss figures or noted that nearby K2 expeditions had been paused to free up personnel and resources for the Broad Peak search.

Search crews are expected to resume ground operations on Saturday, weather permitting, with the location of at least one climber still entirely unknown, according to the Alpine Club of Pakistan's statement carried by the BBC.