“Don’t be afraid to dream big,” Nirmal “Nims” Purja says in the opening voiceover of the new Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible,” out now.
Climbing a single eight-thousander is a huge endeavor that can take months, inflict a significant toll on the body and requires a good degree of luck in terms of weather and conditions.
Born and raised at a relatively moderate altitude in Western Nepal, Purja spent 16 years in the British Armed Forces, initially part of the notoriously tough Brigade of Gurkhas and then in the elite Special Boat Service unit, which is the UK equivalent of the Navy SEALs.
One scene in the film has him visiting a London clinic that studies performance at high altitudes, and a clinician there says the mountain-climber possesses a unique physiology that allows him to access more oxygen at high altitudes, making for better performance both mentally and physically.
Purja and his team of Nepalese sherpas start with Annapurna, a daunting peak.
The team descends to camp for the night, only to learn there’s a climber from another team stranded up on the mountain.
The man tragically dies in his arms. From there, Purja attempts to descend on his own in the darkness, but after several hours without supplementary oxygen, he’s in bad shape himself and suffering from HACE: high-altitude cerebral edema.
The team climbs the remaining three mountains in Nepal — Everest, Lhotse and Makalu — within 48 hours, setting a new world record, at the end of May.
“The queue was so intense, people were fighting,” says Purja.
The most daunting of Pakistan’s peaks is the famous K2, and when Purja and his team arrive at base camp, spirits are low.
He and his team make it up K2, climbing a particularly treacherous stretch in the middle of the night, when temperatures are coldest, so the snow is harder and the avalanche danger is lesser.
His request is initially denied, so Purja petitions government officials and urges his social media followers to write the Chinese government and demand access to the mountain.