Nima Sherpa spent barely five years climbing above 8,000 metres, and in that short time he had already summited five of the world’s highest peaks, built a reputation as one of Elite Expeditions’ most respected climbers, and put his remote home village on the map. On July 30, on Broad Peak in Pakistan, that rise was cut short.
An avalanche struck just below Camp III on the 8,047-metre peak during the summit push, killing ten climbers in one of the worst disasters the Karakoram has seen in recent years. Nima Sherpa was among them. He was 35.
From the hills of Sankhuwasabha to the highest mountains on earth
Nima Sherpa was born on Deember 1, 1990, in Chyakse Boda, Makalu Rural Municipality–2, in Sankhuwasabha district an ordinary farming family in the shadow of Mount Makalu. There was nothing about his beginnings that pointed toward the Himalaya’s highest summits. Like so many young men from that part of Nepal, his path into the mountains started with carrying loads and showing trekkers the way, not standing on the world’s highest peaks.
He started as a trekking guide in 2015, walking the same trails over and over the Makalu Base Camp trek, which he would eventually complete twelve times, and the Everest-Khumbu circuit, which he walked seven times, along with countless other routes across the country. It was steady, patient work, the kind that builds stamina and judgement long before it builds a reputation.
In 2021, that experience turned into something more. Nima moved from trekking into high-altitude mountaineering, and it did not take long for people to notice him. His first 8,000-metre summit was Manaslu. From there, the list grew: Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse. Each expedition added to a body of experience that, in Nepal’s mountaineering world, cannot be rushed or bought it has to be climbed, one dangerous season at a time.
A season like no other
If there was ever a year that showed what Nima Sherpa had become, it was 2026. Before he ever set foot on Broad Peak, he had already stood on top of four different 8,000-metre peaks that same year, including Manaslu again a punishing schedule that only a small number of climbers in the world attempt, let alone complete. It marked him as one of the standout Nepali mountaineers of the season, a guide whose name was starting to travel well beyond his home district.
Broad Peak, climbed with Elite Expeditions, was meant to be the next step in that rise. Guides who work in the Karakoram will tell you it is a different kind of mountain from the ones in Nepal less infrastructure, and less margin for error than on more heavily trafficked routes. It was exactly the kind of demanding, technical ground where Nima’s skill was needed most. Instead, it became his final expedition.
An experience that cannot be replaced overnight
What made Nima Sherpa valuable on a mountain like Broad Peak was not any one title, but the accumulated experience behind him: five 8,000-metre summits, twelve trips to Makalu Base Camp, seven crossings of the Everest-Khumbu circuit, and years of steady, disciplined work at altitude. That kind of judgement knowing how to read snow, weather, and a route under pressure is built one dangerous season at a time, not handed to the next available guide.
That is exactly why his loss will be felt for so long after he is gone. With him gone, the Himalayan and Karakoram climbing community has lost not just a guide, but a stretch of hard-earned experience that will likely take another generation to rebuild.
Quiet, steady, and never seeking the spotlight
Everyone who worked with Nima describes him the same way humble, hardworking, honest, and calm. He was not a climber who chased attention or headlines. Elite Expeditions, in their tribute, called him one of the company’s most respected climbers, admired by teammates, clients, and friends alike, and said that his calm presence, selfless nature, and steadfast attitude gave confidence to everyone climbing beside him.
He was, by most accounts, a man of few words someone who let his work on the mountain speak for him rather than his words off it. That discipline and quiet determination were exactly what carried him from a village trekking business to some of the hardest summits on the planet.
A village, a wife, and a country in mourning
Wangdi Chhiring Sherpa, chairperson of Makalu Rural Municipality, said the loss of Nima Sherpa is one the entire community feels.
“With the passing of Nima Sherpa, the rural municipality has lost a courageous, honest, and promising young man,” he said. “Through mountaineering, he made a significant contribution to introducing the name of the rural municipality and the country on the international stage.”
He added that the accident on Broad Peak has, once again, stunned Nepal’s mountaineering community a community that has now lost not one family’s son, but a talented and dedicated climber whose death is felt by an entire profession.
Nima’s wife, Pemba Sherpa, had only just travelled to Kathmandu days before the news of the accident reached home. It fell on his village, Chyakse Boda, to absorb the news together a family, a rural municipality, and a country all mourning a young man whose career had only just begun to show what he was capable of.
A short career, a lasting mark
In barely five years of high-altitude climbing, Nima Sherpa summited five of the world’s 8,000-metre giants Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, and Manaslu and put his remote home village on the map in a way few could have imagined when he first started guiding trekkers along the trails around Makalu.
His story follows the path so many Sherpa climbers walk from carrying trekking loads in the hills to standing on the world’s most demanding peaks, trading anonymity for a life spent in service of other people’s summits.
He never asked to be remembered for it. But in the mountains he loved, and among the people who climbed beside him, he will be a quiet, steady presence whose short career had only begun to show what he was capable of.
