Nimsdai Purja
My team and I have been working very hard behind the scenes since the tragic avalanche to try and get Anna and Mingmar home to their families. Out of respect for their families, and because we have been grieving ourselves, I have not posted on here. But don’t confuse that respectful silence with not caring or not taking action to help and support their families, our team and everyone involved in this sad event.
We have been working hard with all authorities and organisations involved. We gained the kind permission by the authorities to return up the mountain to recover Anna and Mingmar back to a safe location at Camp 2. I led the team to find our loved ones and bring them down to Camp 2 – this is as far as we are allowed to bring them currently. We have their precise location. This was tough on the team both physically and mentally, but we needed to do this to ensure we could find them again. We are now working with all authorities on repatriation – this will involve a helicopter flying to Camp 2 to bring them home to Kathmandu and then on to their families. I am so grateful and thankful to everyone working so hard to bring this about. All we want to do is reunite the families with their loved ones this climbing season.
We would ask the media not to speculate about this tragic incident. I have seen a few reports and have been shocked at some of the assumptions made – without anyone coming to those involved – and without thinking about the impact this will have on everyone’s loved ones.
There were four guiding companies involved in this tragedy and 52 climbers were on the summit push. We all believed the conditions were safe or we would not have gone for a summit push. Safety is always our main concern, whether someone is going for a record or not – it makes no difference to the decision-making process. Safety is paramount. This is the first incident like this we have been involved in – our team has an exceptional safety record. We are holding Anna and Mingmar’s loved ones close in our thoughts and we are hopeful we will receive the helicopter permissions this week. This mission will be again led by myself. Me and my team would like to thank everyone for their kind support during this difficult time – it means so much to us.
Note: Nimsdai writing about Anna and Mingmar in Facebook on October 23, 2023.
Photo: Nimsdai Purja
