WorldRescuers searching for 10 climbers missing after an avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak located four bodies on Friday and were continuing to search for the other six despite adverse weather that hampered helicopter flights, officials said.Rescuers have located 4 bodies on Broad Peak so far as weather hampers searchThe Associated Press · Posted: Jul 31, 2026 9:34 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.Nirmal Purja, one of the team members of the all-Nepalese mountaineering team that became the first to scale Mount K2 in winter, receives a scarf as they arrive at Tribhuwan International airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Jan. 26, 2021. He is one of 10 climbers missing after an avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak. (Niranjan Shrestha/The Associated Press)Rescuers searching for 10 climbers missing after an avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak located four bodies on Friday and were continuing to search for the other six despite adverse weather that hampered helicopter flights, officials said.Efforts were underway to retrieve the bodies of the four climbers despite the harsh weather, according to senior government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They did not immediately identify which bodies were found.Among those missing is Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, 43, who set a record for the fastest ascent of the world's 14 highest mountains, a feat chronicled in the 2021 Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible. Bad weather continued to hamper the rescue effort on Friday, according to a statement from the Gilgit-Baltistan region’s Chief Minister Amjad Hussain.The climbers lost contact with their base camp after an avalanche struck Broad Peak while they were attempting to scale the mountain, said Karrar Haidri, vice-president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan. "The team has been out of communication since Thursday," said Haidri, adding that army helicopters were part of the search-and-rescue operation. In this photo released by the Alpine Club of Pakistan on Friday, members of a mountaineers rescue team pose for a photo with honorary general secretary of Alpine Club of Pakistan Ayaz Ahmed Shigri, centre, before departing for a search operation for climbers missing after an avalanche on Broad Peak, in northern Pakistan. (Alpine Club of Pakistan/The Associated Press)World's 12th-highest mountainAccording to the Alpine Club, the expedition comprised five Nepali climbers, Pakistani mountaineer Sohail Sakhi, Omani climber Nathira, American climber Mallory Geis, a Chinese climber identified only as Wang, and another foreign climber.On Friday, China’s government said it was trying to verify if any of its nationals were among the 10 climbers missing. Sakhi is a guide for the company, as well as a geographer and high-altitude photographer, and has climbed some of the world’s major peaks, according to Moving Mountains’ website. Geis, 39, lives in San Antonio. She announced on social media earlier this year that she was closing her Pilates studio to take "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."These climbers from Nepal just became the first to conquer K2 in winterMan shatters record for scaling world's highest peaksPurja first climbed Annapurna, the 10th-highest mountain in the world, on April 23, 2019, and then began taking on other "8,000ers."He became more widely known internationally after the Netflix documentary chronicling his journey was released two years later. At 8,047 metres, Broad Peak is the world’s 12th-highest mountain. It lies in Pakistan’s Karakoram range, home to five of the world’s 14 peaks above 8,000 metres, attracting climbers from around the globe.Accidents are common during climbing expeditions in northern Pakistan because of avalanches and rapidly changing weather. The world's second-largest mountain, the 8,611-metre-high K2, left, and the 8,051-metre-high Broad Peak, right, are illuminated by the moon at Concordia, the confluence of the Baltoro and Godwin-Austen glaciers, in the Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan on Sept. 7, 2014. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)With files from Reuters