Conquering mountains in 190 days

Nirmal Purja has created history by scaling the world's 14 highest peaks in a record 190 days after he climbed Mt Shishapangma in China last week. The 36-year-old Nepali mountaineer, known as Nims, broke the previous record of a South Korean climber, Kim Chang-ho, who achieved the feat in 2003 to scale all the peaks higher than 8,000 metres in seven years, 10 months and six days. Purja and his team set out on the mission, "Project Possible 14/7", on April 23 to summit all 14 of the 8,000s and started by climbing mountains from Annapurna (8,091 metres). He completed his mission in 190 days today. Purja, a former soldier with United Kingdom Royal Navy's elite Special Boat Service, is aiming to raise nearly $1 million. He has set up a GoFundMe campaign and has vowed to use the money for children in need in Nepal. Kim Chang-ho climbed all 8,000s without using supplemental oxygen. He was killed in a snowstorm at the base camp of Mt Gurja in Nepal's Myagdi district in October 2018. In May, Purja climbed Everest (8,848 metres), descended to South Col and climbed adjoining Lhotse (8,516 metres), then flew to Makalu base camp and climbed that peak (8,481 metres) too, all in 48 hours. He broke his previous record for the same three peaks, taking five days in 2017. Did you know Polish Jerzy Kukuczka is the first mountaineer to climb all 14 peaks, a feat he achieved in seven years, 11 months and 14 days in 1987.