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Nepal on Thursday repatriated the mortal remains of climber Pur Bahadur Gurung, "Yukta" (37), who was killed in the Broad Peak avalanche in Pakistan last week.
The mortal remains of the 10-time Everest summiteer who holds the record of the highest number of Everest ascents among members of the Gurung community of Nepal were flown from Pakistan to Kathmandu via Qatar. Gurung also had the record of the non-Sherpa climber from Nepal with the highest number of Everest summits in the world. Family members, relatives and mountaineers in hundreds had gathered at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu late evening. The environment turned emotional as family members, relatives and mountaineers paid their tribute to the body of the deceased climber whose funeral has been planned for Friday. Born on December 24, 1988, in Laprak, of Gorkha district, Pur Bahadur Gurung, commonly known as "Yukta" grew up with the Himalayas around him every day of his childhood. Driven by the dream of becoming a British Gurkha, Gurung, who rose to fame, spent the early years of his adulthood working at a hotel in the nearby district of Manang. His time there ignited his interest towards trekking guide, which ultimately dragged him to the capital, Kathmandu, to become a mountain guide. Working as a porter in 2009, he summited Mount Everest for the first time in 2011. The calling from Everest repeated in 2017, 2018, and 2019, then twice in 2022, and again in 2024. He stood atop the Everest summit on May 19 and October 15, 2025, with his tenth and last summit of the world's highest peak on May 20, 2026. Gurung not only limited himself to Mount Everest; he went on to climb twelve of the world's fourteen mountains above 8,000 meters, and he had climbed all but two of them. Among his most remarkable feats was climbing K2 in Pakistan in just 24 hours, a pace that stunned even experienced mountaineers. This year, in a single season, he climbed three separate 8,000-meter peaks. The famed mountaineer, a few months back, had just earned the 'International Mountain Guide' certification through the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association, following the demanding IFMGA examination process. On Broad Peak, he was a member of Nirmal Purja's Elite Exped expedition team that was hit by an avalanche at the end of July. It was three weeks back that the Nepali climber had travelled to Pakistan for Broad Peak as he failed to obtain permission for Shishapangma in Tibet. (ANI)
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