Beyond Possible (National Geographic)

Nirmal "Nims" Purja is a Nepalese mountaineer and a holder of multiple mountaineering world records. Prior to taking on a career in mountaineering, he served with the British Armed Forces as a Nepalese Gurkha, and was a soldier in the Special Boat Service (SBS), an elite special forces unit of the Royal Navy. Purja is notable for having climbed all 14 of Earth's eight-thousanders (mountain peaks above 8,000 meters or 26,000 feet) in a record time of six months and six days with the aid of bottled oxygen, beating the previous record of just under eight years. He was also the first to reach the summits of Mount Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu in a time period of 48 hours. In 2021, Purja, along with a team of nine other Nepalese mountaineers, successfully completed the first-ever winter ascent of Pakistan's K2.