Nirmal Purja: 'Nims' is the fastest person to climb world's tallest mountains
- Published
'I am overwhelmed and incredibly proud to have completed this final summit'
What could you achieve in six months and six days?
How about smashing a record that took the last person almost eight years to achieve? One daring climber has done just that.
In 189 days, Nirmal "Nims" Purja has completed his challenge to climb to the top of the 14 tallest mountains on the planet, beating the world record by seven years, five months and eight days.
Finishing the last summit on 29 October, Nims is now one of only 40 climbers to achieve this monumental challenge, and he has become a mountaineering legend.
But what's so special about these 14 mountains? Well, each mountain enters the 'death zone,' which means that they are so tall that human life cannot exist near the top!
Nims stands at the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world
Nims said: "It has been a gruelling but humbling six months, and I hope to have proven that anything is possible with some determination, self-belief and positivity."
More about the challenge
Nims' mission included the climbs of Everest, K2, Lhotse, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Kanchenjunga, Makalu, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum, Gasherbrum II, Broad Peak, Cho You, Manaslu and Shishapangma.
Each of the 14 tallest mountains in the world is part of the 'eight-thousander' group, meaning that each mountain is more than 8,000 metres tall. But just how tall is that?
If you took an average house with an upstairs and downstairs and stacked lots and lots of them on top of each other, you would need at least a thousand houses just to reach the smallest mountain in the list!
Mount Everest is 8,848m tall
But that's still a very big number. Let's take a look at the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building located in the city Dubai.
Standing at 828 metres tall, you would need almost eleven Burj Khalifa buildings to reach the massive height of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world!
I could not have made it happen without the unending support of my friends and family who have been in my heart this entire time.
Nims has had a truly incredible six months of climbing!
If making the climbs wasn't enough, two days into his world-record attempt, Nims successfully rescued fellow a climber who had been separated from another expedition.
He then went on to rescue two more climbers the following month!
Nims' next adventure will involve climbing Ama Dablam in the Himalayas, to plant a poppy for Remembrance Day commemorations on 11 November.
