Who is the greatest sports person in the history of the world across all domains of physical endurance and achievement? Most of you may not have even heard his name. He is Nirmal “Nims” Purja, the fastest man to climb all fourteen 8000 meter Himalayan peaks - in just six months.
Reinholdt Meissner, first to climb all fourteen 8000ers took 17 years to do it. The fastest it has ever been done was 7 years. But Nims Purja did it in an incredible 6 months. He summitted Everest, Lhotse (4th highest) and Makalu (5th highest) in a total of just 48 hours. Total.
Climbing Kanchenjunga in a single day from base camp to summit while hungover 🤯
Nirmal wasn’t satisfied with breaking six world records on this mind bending and physically near impossible feat. He wanted to go further. And he did. He then set the world record for the fastest Big Five (tallest peaks of all continents). He did all in less than two months.
In January 2021, Nirmal went on to summit K2, where many a great mountaineer have perished in the best of weather conditions, a second time. Without supplementary oxygen. And in peak winter, when temperatures drop to -80 degrees.
climbing.com/people/nirmal-…
In a mountaineering career of just nine years, Nirmal now holds ten world records, most of which will probably never be broken. His team member and now business partner Mingma Sherpa became the youngest to summit all fourteen 8000m peaks, at age 30.
Catch his stunning biography on Netflix, 14 Peaks. Trailer is on YouTube.
Nirmal jokingly called himself the “Usain Bolt of the eight thousanders”. But Usain Bolt only needed to sprint for ten seconds on smooth ground (he’s an amazing athlete too). Nirmal’s playground is the “death zone” above 8000m, where oxygen is not enough for life to exist.
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