Mallory Geis, 39, of San Antonio, Texas, was part of a 10-person team attempting to scale Pakistan’s Broad Peak
Credit: Mallory Geis/Instagram; JOE STENSON/AFP via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Authorities said the bodies of four climbers of a 10-member expedition team attempting to scale Broad Peak in Pakistan were recovered following a July 30 avalanche
- Three of the four victims were identified, including Mallory Geis, 39, of Texas
- The search for the six other missing climbers was suspended due to inclement weather and is expected to resume
An American woman has been confirmed dead following an avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak, local authorities said, while the search for the other missing mountaineers is expected to continue over the weekend.
Police in Gilgit-Baltistan, a region of Pakistan, said that four bodies were recovered, according to a Friday, July 31, Facebook post.
Three of the victims were identified as Sarah Mallory Geis of the U.S.; Pur Bahadur Gurung of Nepal; and Nadhira Alharthy of Oman, according to a Friday press release from the Gilgit-Baltistan government. The identity of the fourth body has not been publicly announced.
Authorities said the four victims were part of a 10-member international expedition that entered Skardu District in an attempt to climb Broad Peak on Wednesday, July 29.
They added that the climbing team was last contacted by 9 a.m. local time on Thursday, July 30, by the tour operator, but no further contact was made afterward. On that same day, around 8 p.m., an avalanche was reported as the expedition team was making an ascent on the mountain at an altitude of 6,660 meters.
A rescue mission began on Friday at 8:30 a.m., the government said. First responders found and recovered the bodies of the three victims during their ascent on foot from base camp.
Geis, 39, hailed from San Antonio, Texas, The Associated Press reported. In a Feb. 20 Instagram post, she announced that she is closing her Pilates studio and “now [I] have just one incredibly high maintenance client to train for the foreseeable future: me.”
“The universe placed experiences and people in my life to push me in a direction I never saw coming. When I kept refusing to take the hint and do the scary thing of starting over, those nudges got louder,” she later wrote.
“So here we go. Taking a giant leap of faith into the unknown to see where life goes. I have a sneaking suspicion there will be lots of helmets, harnesses, and crampons involved,” she concluded.
Alharthy, who was also confirmed dead, was the first woman from Oman to reach the peak of Mount Everest in 2019, The New York Times reported.
Meanwhile, at least seven other climbers remain unaccounted for, said the government, including Nirmal Purja, who previously served in the British Army and rose to wider prominence when he starred in the 2021 Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, per Sky News.
The search for the missing mountaineers was suspended because of inclement weather and is expected to resume on Saturday, Aug. 1.
“The rescue team has reported that they have spotted a few dead bodies of the climbers through drone footages,” the government’s news release stated.
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Moving Mountains, a Pakistani adventure organization, made the announcement about its team for the Broad Peak climb, which included Geis, a month ago in an Instagram post. It added that the event would mark Geis’ first climb on the mountain.
The 12th-highest mountain in the world, Broad Peak is regarded as a challenging climb, the AP reported. Dozens of people have died trying to make it to the summit after it was scaled in 1957.
PEOPLE contacted the Gilgit-Baltistan government and police and Moving Mountains on Friday, but did not receive immediate comment.
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