The 43-year-old was born in a small village in Nepal’s mountainous Myagdi district, located around 1,600m above sea level.
He came from a family of Gurkhas, a world-famous group of Nepalese soldiers who have served in different armed forces, including the British Army.
Following in the footsteps of his father and elder brothers, he joined the Gurkhas in 2003 at age 18 and joined the UK Special Forces in 2009.
During his 16 years in the British military, he developed an interest in mountaineering.
In 2012, he walked to Everest base camp and, instead of returning to Kathmandu as planned, he decided to learn how to climb “for real”, according to his website.
He soon conquered the 6,119m Lobuche East, which was his “first peak”, according to his website.
This spontaneous spirit for adventure remained part of his personality, even on his most recent expedition to Broad Peak.
In his last post on X, which was published on Monday, Purja said that he had not intended to climb Broad Peak.
“Initially, the plan was to climb just G2,” he wrote, referring to Gasherbrum II, another peak located in the Karakoram mountain range.
