The story of Nirmal Purja—the braveheart who conquered the world’s 14 highest peaks in just six months

We have heard of the famous quote, Where there's a will, there's a way, but we know of very few who have followed it. Well, Nirmal Purja did. This ex-Gurkha soldier from Nepal showed the world that nothing is impossible if one is determined. This mountaineer climbed the world’s highest 14 peaks in record time.

Who is Nirmal Purja?
A Nepali mountaineer and former soldier of Britain's Special Boat Services,, Purja created a new record by touching the world’s 14 highest mountains (all above 8000 m and also known as the ‘eight-thousanders’), in a record time of six months and six days. By doing so, he also broke the previous record of just under 8 years. Before this, the record was held by Jerzy Kukuczka, a Polish mountaineer, who took seven years, 11 months and 14 days in 1987 to reach the 14 summits.

Purja declared his achievement via a post on his various social media accounts. In his Facebook post, he wrote: “MISSION ACHIEVED!“ The picture he posted was from the summit of Shishapangma, a mountain in China.
Purja quit his job with the Special Boat Service and decided to set out on his dream sojourn, which he named Project Possible.

The beginning of Project Possible

Purja started his campaign in Nepal on April 23, 2019, and finished the first six-summit phase on May 24, 2019. This included Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Kanchenjunga, Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu. In fact, the last five peaks were climbed in just 12 days. Not only this, during this campaign, the man broke his own Guinness World Record by climbing Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in 2 days and 30 minutes.

In his second phase that he completed in July 2019, Purja climbed Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, K2 and Broad Peak (all in Pakistan).

His third and final phase started in September 2019, wherein he summited Cho Oyu in China and Manaslu in Nepal. Then, in the month of October, he had to take permission from the Chinese authorities to scale Shishapangma, and he successfully completed his project in October 2019.

A braveheart, the man not only achieved his target but also managed to rescue four other climbers and gained worldwide attention in no time.

A look at his 14 mountains achievement in order:

Annapurna, Nepal (23 April)
Dhaulagiri, Nepal (12 May)
Kanchenjunga, Nepal (15 May)
Everest, Nepal (22 May)
Lhotse, Nepal (22 May)
Makalu, Nepal (24 May)
Nanga Parbat, Pakistan (3 July)
Gasherbrum 1, Pakistan (15 July)
Gasherbrum 2, Pakistan (18 July)
K2, Pakistan (24 July)
Broad Peak, Pakistan (26 July)
Cho Oyu, China (23 September)
Manaslu, Nepal (27 September)
Shishapangma, China (29 October)