The avalanche struck last Thursday, hitting ten climbers including Sohail Sakhi and the renowned Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja. During a search and rescue operation that lasted three days, the bodies or remains of the other nine were recovered, but the Pakistani climber could not be found.
On Sunday, Sohail Sakhi's family said in a statement that it was with profound sorrow that they announced that their beloved brother Sohail, one of the victims of the Broad Peak incident, could not be found. The message added that this was an incredibly difficult time, and that with heavy hearts they had made the painful decision to hold the funeral rites.
The family waited for a miracle
At first his close relatives tried to keep news of Thursday's incident from reaching Sohail's mother, Rubina Shaheen — at least for a while. But that proved impossible. When she learned about her son, she drove alone to Skardu without telling anyone, and other relatives followed her there.
Sohail Sakhi's cousin, Ubaid Suleman, says the prominent mountaineers Sirbaz Khan and Naila Kiani were very close friends of Sohail's. According to him, Sirbaz Khan probably learned of the accident before the family did, and had been doing whatever he could to help with rescue efforts ever since.
"Yesterday Sirbaz Khan sent me a message saying we shouldn't stay in Skardu, that we should take Sohail Sakhi's mother back to Hunza, because there was no point in staying — there was no trace of Sohail," Ubaid Suleman says.
My son was in love with the mountains… If he is no longer in this world, at least give me his body so I can find some peace.
"We don't have the strength to say anything," his cousin said.
In his own words
Sohail wrote as well as he climbed. Posting from the high camps to his own Instagram account, he left behind a short piece that reads now like the creed he carried up every mountain.
What do we say to the God of Death? Not today. You are in lands of nowhere, You know you are not coming back, You are Cold, you are tiered, You see no clouds in the sky, Out in the wild, you keep saying, to yourself Not today.
From a master's in physics to K2
Sohail Sakhi was from Hunza and was counted among Pakistan's most experienced high-altitude mountaineers. He had summited several of the world's highest peaks, including K2, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II. Several of these he climbed without supplementary oxygen.
In May 2026 he also summited Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak at 8,586 metres. He was part of the rope-fixing team on that expedition and reached the summit on 20 May.
Ubaid Suleman says Sohail completed a master's degree in physics at COMSATS University in Islamabad, but his interest in mountains and climbing drew him toward building a career in that field. He was a high-altitude photographer as well as a mountaineer, documenting Pakistan's mountain regions, glaciers and high peaks through his images.
He also worked on training young Pakistanis in mountaineering and mountain activities, and represented Pakistani climbers and guides on various international expeditions.
Sohail Sakhi was only seventeen or eighteen when his father — a well-known tour guide in the area — died, and he was still studying at the time. After her husband's death, Sohail's mother took a job at Hunza Public School to make ends meet, while a girls' hostel was already being run out of their home. He has one brother, younger than him.
After completing his education, Sohail Sakhi entered the tourism industry too. He started a hotel in Aliabad with a tour company while also working as a guide. It was during this period, his cousin said, that he took up mountaineering, and he was often occupied with it.
"He put himself in danger to keep me safe"
The prominent woman mountaineer Naila Kiani says she began climbing together with Sohail Sakhi, and that they did their first three expeditions above 8,000 metres together.
"Sirbaz Khan, Sohail Sakhi and I were very close friends. We often discussed our plans with each other. Sohail and Sirbaz are also very close friends. That's probably why Sirbaz was the first climber to reach the site for rescue efforts," she says.
She says one problem in Pakistan's mountaineering world is that most of the country's leading climbers, for various reasons, are not highly educated — and those who are educated usually don't make much of a name for themselves. "But Sohail Sakhi had both qualities. He was highly educated and he also had a vision for mountaineering, which he was working towards."
Naila Kiani says that friendships among climbers are common and they do look after one another, but this is mostly limited to base camp, or up until the point they set off on the expedition. "During an expedition it's usually not possible to look after anyone else, because everyone is in danger at that point. But Sohail was one of those people who would put himself at risk to help others even during expeditions."
She recounted an expedition on Gasherbrum I, where Sirbaz had gone ahead of the two of them to scout the route. "During this I became very tired and ran into trouble. I felt like taking off the protective clothing I was wearing and throwing it away." Her pace had also slowed considerably.
At that point, she says, Sohail Sakhi slowed his own pace and stayed alongside her, so that he could help if she got into danger. "Climbers don't slow down during expeditions, because it can be dangerous. I even told Sohail at that point not to slow down for me, and he said it didn't matter, we'd go up together."
They were only a short distance from the summit, and he put himself at risk and stayed with her until they had completed the climb and she had recovered.
If Sohail hadn't supported me like that, if he hadn't encouraged me, I might have given up. Mountaineers, friends and sincere people like Sohail are very rare.
This account draws on reporting by journalist Muhammad Zubair Khan. All photographs courtesy of @sohailsakhi on Instagram.
