“Stay true to your vision without overlooking the risks.” – Nirmal Purja
A man who has delivered his stories of challenge and hard work to an extremely wide variety of audiences and the name Nims Dai has been on every Nepali’s tongue. Nirmal Purja, Nims is a Nepalese mountaineer who holds multiple mountaineering world records. He is the only mountaineer in history to hold the record for climbing all 14 mountain peaks above 8,000 metres in a record time of 6 months and 6 days with the aid of bottled oxygen. He was also the first to reach the summits of Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in a time period of 48 hours. In 2021, Purja, along with his team successfully completed the first-ever winter ascent of Pakistan’s K2.
Table of Contents
Biography:

Name | Nirmal Purja |
Nationality | Nepali |
Born | 25 July 1983Myagdi, Gandaki Province, Nepal |
Occupation | Mountainaire |
Notable ascents | 1. Fastest ascent of all fourteen eight-thousander mountains, with a record time of 6 months and 6 days (supplemental oxygen aid) 2. World record ascent of Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in 48 hours 3. First winter ascent of K2 |
Early Life
Nims Dai was born in July 1983 in Dana, a small village in Nepal’s Myagdi district. At age 4, his family moved lower down to the Chitwan District near Kathmandu. His father was a Gurkha soldier and his mother was from a farmer family. Being from two different Nepalese castes, their love marriage was disapproved and they were cut off financially and socially from their own families. Nirmal Purja came from a really poor family but his family gave him all the facilities that he needed. His three older brothers became Gurka soldiers too and they funded Purja to attend an English-speaking boarding school. During his schooling, Purja became skilled in kickboxing.
Career
Military Career
From a young age, Purja had a goal to become a British Army. It was his only dream and was the only thing he wanted to do. At the age of eighteen, he achieved the goal of becoming a Gurkha in the British military.
Nirmal Purja joined the Brigade of Gurkhas in 2003 and in 2009 he was accepted for Special Boat Service (SBS). The SBS is regarded as the most elite unit in the British military. He was the first Gurkha to join this unit as a cold-weather warfare specialist. Serving SBS for many years, in 2018 he joined the Special Air Services(SAS) by passing on a surprise invitation. After joining SAS and resigning from SBS he completely focused on his high altitude mountaineering career and projects.
Mountaineering Career
His climbing career started in December 2012 when leaving on his Special Forces duties which were set out on a trek to Everest Base Camp. After that, his interest in mountaineering fired on passion and ambition for the mountains immediately. Then in that same year, he reached his first peak, the summit of Lobuche East without any previous experience as a mountaineer.
On 18 May 2014, he made his first ascent of an eight-thousander with the aid of summiting Dhaulagiri (8,167 metres) in the course of a go back journey of simplest 15 days. On thirteen May 2016, Purja summited Mount Everest, his 2nd eight-thousander.
On 15 May 2017, Purja led the Gurkha Expedition “G200E”, which summited Everest collectively with thirteen Gurkhas to commemorate two hundred years of Gurkha carrier withinside the British Army. On nine June 2018, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) with the aid of Queen Elizabeth II for his works in excessive altitude mountaineering. After serving the British Tier for 10 years he took the decision to leave the force in 2019 to pursue his mountaineering dream and to complete a project which no one thought could be possible.
Project Possible
‘Everything in life is possible armed only with a determined approach and positive mindset’.- Nirmal Purja
Project Possible was started from Nim’s dream to climb all the world’s fourteen highest peaks (the 8000ers) in just seven months.
On 24 May 2019: Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Kanchenjunga, Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu. He climbed with his team among different mountaineers. The ultimate 5 summits had been climbed in the best 12 days. He broke his preceding Guinness World Record through mountain climbing Mount Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu in 2 days and 30 minutes.
Puja finished the second segment in July 2019, mountain climbing Nanga Parbat (8126 m, 6 July), Gasherbrum I (8080 m, 15 July), Gasherbrum II (8034 m, 18 July), K2 (8611 metres, 24 July) and Broad Peak (8047 m, 26 July), all in Pakistan.
The 1/3 and ultimate segment commenced in September 2019. He summited Cho Oyu (8188 m, Tibet, China) on 23 September and Manaslu (8163 m, Nepal) on 27 September. On 1 October 2019, the Chinese government agreed to provide Purja and his crew a unique allow to scale Shishapangma (8027 m, Tibet, China) withinside the fall season, at the request of the Nepali government. Purja left Nepal for Tibet on 18 October 2019, main a 5-member excursion to climb the mountain and finished Project Possible 14/7 with a hit summit on 29 October the usage of supplemental oxygen.
Other than the quickest ascent with supplemental oxygen of the 14 tallest mountains withinside the world, Purja broke the subsequent records: maximum 8000 m mountains withinside the Spring season, mountain climbing six; maximum 8000 m mountains withinside the Summer season, mountain climbing 5; the quickest summit of the 3 maximum mountains withinside the world, Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga; the quickest summit of the 5 maximum mountains withinside the world, Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu; quickest decrease 8000ers, Gasherbrum 1, 2 and Broad Peak; quickest better 8000ers, consecutive summits of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in forty-eight hours (beats his very own preceding document of five days).
The climbing took six months and six days between April 2019 to October 2019, after the summit of Shishapangma. After Nims proudly introduced to the world “Mission Achieved” turning in on his promise and what many claimed to be impossible.
Winter ascent of K2
Nirmal Purja, at the side of 9 different Nepali mountaineers, made records on sixteen January 2021 because the first to ascend K2 withinside the harsh climate situations of the winter. After horrible climate situations hit the bottom camps on the foot of K2 and a few gadgets became lost, Nepali mountaineers of those groups determined to enrol in efforts and climb the height together, as a group. Purja became the handiest group member to the summit without using supplemental oxygen, turning into the individual to do so.
14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible(Netflix film)
“Giving up is not in the blood, sir. It’s not in the blood.”- Nirmal Purja
14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible is a 2020 documentary film about Nims Dai and his team climbing the world’s all 14 highest peaks in seven months under Project Possible.
It is a Netflix documentary movie that follows the fearless Nepali mountaineering legend as he attempts an impossible quest to summit all 14 of the world’s ‘8,000-meter Death Zone’ peaks in just 7 months. The climbing footage was taken by the expedition team, later additional images and interviews were added by the director, and interviews with Reinhold Messner and Purja’s family.
The movie was directed by Torquil Jones and produced by Noah Media Group which got premiered at the DOC NYC Film Festival and was released on Netflix on 29 November 2021.
Nirmal Purja Wife
The famous Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja is married to his wife Suchi Purja. They have been married since 2006.
Social Media:
Nirmal Purja’s Official Website: Nims Dai
Nirmal Purja’s Youtube: Nims Dai
Related Posts
-
Priyanka Rani Joshi’s Biography: Miss Nepal World 2022
-
Surakshya Panta Biography: The first Nepali Actress at Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet
-
Balen Shah’s Biography: The new Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitian
-
Sanjay Silwal Gupta Biography | Age, Girlfriend, Career
-
Miss Nepal Earth 2020- Supriya Shrestha Biography, Age, Education