Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Nirmal Purja
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British athlete Nirmal Purja.
Last updated on December 3, 2024.
On the trail from Namche Bazaar, you come up and you see this big mountain, Ama Dablam. Wow! I just started thinking, what would it feel like to be on the top of that mountain? What would you be able to see?
As a Nepali, I hope my climbs put a spotlight on the talented climbers here.
We all have fear in life. I don't let that fear control me. I control it, manage it, use it as a positive.
Of course, when you climb, you have to carry your gear and so having a really light-but-strong backpack from Osprey has always been helpful for me.
Funding has been the hardest part, and my wife has been extremely supportive both when I decided to leave my job, and even when I re-mortgaged our home and put equity into the project. I am lucky to have such a loving and supportive partner.
Rescuing people from 8,450 meters is way harder than climbing a mountain.
Sherpa were always involved with the setting of the lines, but they never got the platform to tell any story, I think. And so these people have always remained in the shadow. But now obviously with the internet, the whole platform and everything, people can hold a light these days.
What I am humble and proud about is that I was able to show a path, simply to demonstrate what could be possible with 8,000-meter peaks. Now that the paradigm has shifted, more people can relate to that possibility, and it should be easier next time to conceptualize and achieve it.
K-2 in winter is something people had thought about for a long time, but had never accomplished. For me, more satisfaction came from winter K2 because it was done in a different manner and style, a message of team unification rather than just me climbing for myself.
I summited four mountains - Kangchenjunga, Makalu, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum I - in one push. I didn't camp anywhere. Just went boom, summit, brother.
Well, the best advice I can ever give to anyone, not only in terms of mountaineering but in general life, is not to listen to anyone. Listen to your heart, believe in yourself and always give 100 percent.
I genuinely feel like, when people climb K2, it's everywhere in the news, everybody covers it.
People are only limited by their imagination. If you don't dream then you won't do it. Human beings are capable of doing amazing things.
When people are in stressful situations, they do shout.
I was born in Nepal, I grew up in the Gurkhas, and I became a man in the SBS.
I have my company, Elite Himalayan Adventures, which provides a platform for those who seek to push their limits on extreme adventures, whether that be Everest and Lhotse in Nepal, or K2 and Broad Peak in Pakistan.
I wasn't looking too much into my social media when I was on K2, but overall it's been really humbling to see all of the appreciation.
When you say you are from Nepal, people always ask you if you've seen Everest. And I had to say no. I felt like I had to go and do this, just for my sanity.
I convinced my wife to let me climb Everest. I emptied my savings and took out a loan so I could afford to make the trip. I wanted to do it solo and I pushed myself too hard. I was carrying too much gear and got altitude sickness. I meditated to the point where I was feeling better, but didn't make it up, because I got involved with a rescue.
Because of what I did and where I came from, people just assumed I'd climbed every mountain in my country.
My favorite food is dahl bhat, the only Nepalese food you can eat on all the expeditions. Everyone from the mountaineering community would know this!
To be honest, I really can't lie on the beach for more than an hour.
The biggest thing I learned from being in the special forces is the decision-making process and also the willingness not to give up. You need to have a certain mindset. I call it a positive mindset.
We've climbed in 60- to 75-kilometer-an-hour wind conditions without ropes, and yes we put in fixed lines when we can because of the safety. But it's all calculated risk and you have to be so flexible in doing this project, and that's why we've been so successful. We always climb with what we have.
But hey, man, if I summited K2 in winter, without oxygen, frost-nipped fingers are a small price to pay. It was worth it. Think about it, things could have been a lot worse.
My father was a Gurkha, as well as my brothers, and I appreciated the attitude I saw coming from them after they joined. The Gurkhas go through a huge selection process with thousands trying to get in, and only 25 people make it at a time.
We used to live in this little house where the whole of the upper floor was used for chickens. It was four days' walk to the nearest road.
There were no good schools in my village. So my family moved so that my siblings and I would get a better education.
If you compare the number of people who climb Everest to the number who climb Mt. Blanc, it is like only 2 percent. But people don't talk about how crowded Mt. Blanc is.
I think you should be able to imagine things in a different way. And, you have to dedicate both your physical and mental abilities to that ambition to accomplish it.
You definitely need a really decent bomb-proof summit suit, because that's what you wear in these extreme conditions and at extreme altitude.
The 14-8,000-meter-peaks-in-six-months project was something nobody could imagine was ever possible. It's tough just to climb one 8,000-meter peak, let alone 14 in such a short period of time.
The hardest climb for me was Kangchenjunga, at 28,169 feet the world's third-highest mountain. The first thing that made this summit difficult was the speed that I climbed and summited two 8,000-er's, back-to-back.
When I joined the special forces it was never for the money. It was for pure desire to serve in an elite unit.
I disagree with it, but people come to Everest carrying a huge financial burden. Not only that, but they have spent more than two months and a lot of effort to be ready. That's why everybody rushes for the top.
Extreme high-altitude mountaineering deserves its place among the world's most extreme sports.
It's part of my Special Forces training. You're taught to come up with a solutions, not look for excuses.
I was head of the Cold Weather Warfare unit within the Special Boat Service. My job was to do extreme climbs, learn about new technology, and create new ideas on how to operate in those conditions.
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