Apart from the rash of opinions, the tragedy that took 10 lives on Broad Peak on July 30 is better understood now. Some have offered analysis based on trackers, the mountain layout, and timelines. Climbers who were in Broad Peak Base Camp and on neighboring K2 have also begun to speak out.
From what we know, the avalanche was both lethal and so big that the 10 climbers in its path could not avoid it. If anything could have been avoided here, it was the 10-hour delay between when the avalanche occurred and when Base Camp realized something was wrong and radioed for assistance.
One of the rescuers, Abid Baid of Pakistan, has also given ExplorersWeb new details about the recovery operation. The Hunza climber is back in Skardu after a long trek from Broad Peak Base Camp. He plans to return to the mountain to recover the remains of his close friend, Sohail Sakhi, one of three victims who remain unaccounted for.
The avalanche
A huge avalanche struck 10 climbers in four teams at around 9:30 am Pakistan time on July 30, as they climbed between Camp 2 and Camp 3 on the normal route of Broad Peak. The snow swept away the climbers at around 6,600m. Their trackers revealed that they fell hundreds of meters and landed in an off-route area that was difficult to access. Two came to rest near the base of the mountain.
Flow of the avalanche, altitudes, and the tracker of Nirmal Purja, showing his upward climb. Graphic compiled by Gorskie Mapy
Looking at some videos of the avalanche shared by Jenjen Sherpa from neighboring K2, it seems the avalanche came from a snowy rib located up and to the right of Camp 3. Rather than a slab avalanche like the one on Shisha Pangma in 2023, killing two American women and their guides, the Broad Peak slide might have been triggered by a cornice or serac falling from that rib. It was massive and violent enough to sweep the climbers off the normal route, which follows a kind of ridge, toward one of the adjacent gullies:
The avalanche flowed on both sides of the ridge around the normal route and into two surrounding gullies. (See Nirmal Purja’s line of ascent in blue.) Graphic compiled by Gorskie Mapy
The silence
The disaster came as a surprise to everyone, including the rescue services of the Pakistani Air Force, who didn’t learn of a potential incident until 10 hours after it occurred. Everyone wondered: How can such a calamity go unnoticed for an entire day?
Jenjen Lama, in charge of the Seven Summit Treks (7ST) expedition on neighboring K2, told Everest Live that the delay occurred because no one thought anything was wrong. Jenjen Lama saw the avalanche and even filmed it from K2. He called the 7ST team at Broad Peak Base Camp and suggested they check with their climbers to see if anyone had been affected.
He explained that although none of the Broad Peak climbers answered radio calls from their Base Camp, no one was worried at first. According to Jenjen, everyone figured the guides had turned their radios off to save power. There is no cell phone or internet connection at the Baltoro 8,000’ers, and Starlink is not permitted.
It was only in the evening that they started to wonder why no one had called in. They asked someone from 7ST in Kathmandu (!) to check the climbers’ trackers. Then they saw the sudden loss of altitude on some of them and raised the alarm.
Jenjen posted a high-quality video of the Broad Peak avalanche on TikTok, which looks to have been filmed from the glacier:
