On October 29, Nepalese climber Nirmal Purja reached the summit of 26,335-foot Shishapangma听in Tibet, finishing a season that saw him summit all 14听of the world鈥檚 8,000-meter听peaks in just six months and seven days.听
With the summit, the 35-year-old handily broke the previous fastest time of just under eight years, set by South Korean Kim Chang-Ho in 2013, and became the 43rd person in history to climb all 14听8,000-meter听peaks. Purja used supplemental oxygen, while Kim did not.听
Purja grew up in Nepal鈥檚 low-lying Chitwan region. At 18, he joined the Nepalese Ghurkas, a regiment听in the British Army, and served for 16 years, including 10 years in the Special Forces. He didn鈥檛 set eyes on the giants of the Himalaya until 2012, and almost immediately fell in love with climbing the big peaks.听In March of this year,听Purja quit the military, abandoned his pension, remortgaged his house, and started off on what he called , a mission to climb all 14 of the world's biggest peaks in seven months. With Project Possible, he听hoped听to inspire people to tap into their potential. He also wanted to show the world just how strong Nepalese climbers are. 鈥淚 climb with a Nepalese team purely because these guys are the best climbers,鈥 Purja told听国产吃瓜黑料 last spring. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e the only ones who can keep up.鈥
Project Possible consisted of three phases. During the first,听Purja climbed Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Kanchenjunga, Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu听over the course of 30 days in April and May. On Annapurna,听he and his team fixed the ropes to the summit. On their descent, they learned that Malaysian climber听Wui Kin Chin听was in distress and alone above 7,500 meters. Purja organized the rescue and helped get Chin off the mountain (Chin died five days later).
While descending Kanchenjunga, the world鈥檚 third highest peak, Purja鈥檚 team found three climbers who鈥檇 run out of oxygen. The team听gave up their own supply and helped the men down. To finish off phase one,听Purja climbed Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu听in under 48 hours. He tagged Everest and Lhotse in the same day, despite waiting in line for hours en route to Everest鈥檚听summit. That delay gave him time to snap the most viral photo of the Everest season.听
Funding problems threatened to stymie phase two before it even started, and Purja was left waiting in Nepal while teams were already setting up their base camps in Pakistan鈥檚 Karakoram region. Eventually he was able to raise enough money from donations and sponsors to kick off the second stage of his project, which consisted of Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I and II, K2, and Broad Peak. He summited those five peaks in a little over three weeks. K2 is about 785 feet shorter than Mount Everest, but is far more dangerous鈥攖he statistical likelihood of perishing on K2 is around 25听percent, according to 8000ers.com, a website that tracks data on the world鈥檚 highest peaks. This year heavy snowfall forced most of the teams on K2 to abandon their attempts, but Purja remained,听along with a team led by听British mountain guide听Adrian Ballinger. 鈥淭o have Nims show up and say, 鈥楬ell yes, we鈥檙e going to try this thing! We deserve a good try! It doesn鈥檛 matter what anyone else did,鈥 it听was great motivation,鈥 听with Men's Journal.听
Phase three began on September 23, when Purja summited Cho Oyu听in Nepal. Just four days later,听he stood on top of Manaslu. With one peak to go, Purja faced a significant obstacle: the Chinese government had closed Shishapangma to climbing for the season. The听 that the Nepalese government asked that听Purja receive a special climbing permit, a request that听the Chinese government ultimately granted.听
鈥淚 am overwhelmed and incredibly proud to have completed this final summit and achieved my goal,鈥 Purja said in a release. 鈥淚t has been a grueling but humbling six months, and I hope to have proven that anything is possible with some determination, self-belief, and positivity.鈥
On Instagram, though, he听was already looking forward.
鈥淚 have been thinking a lot already about the next project,鈥 .听鈥淏elieve me my friends, it鈥檚 only the beginning.鈥