Records & People

Nepal Just Proposed Renaming Annapurna. Here's Why — and Why It Isn't That Simple

Weeks after Nirmal ‘Nimsdai’ Purja died on Broad Peak, his home municipality wants Annapurna renamed in his honour. It still needs Kathmandu’s…

By Dawa Sherpa · Aug 22, 2026

Nepal's Annapurna Rural Municipality has formally asked the federal government in Kathmandu to rename Annapurna I — the world's tenth-highest mountain, and by Guinness World Records' own count, the deadliest 8,000m peak on Earth — after Nirmal 'Nimsdai'…

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Why Annapurna, and why now

Purja became a household name in 2019 after 'Project Possible' — climbing all 14 of the world's 8,000m peaks in six months and six days, smashing a record that had stood at nearly eight years. He summited Annapurna I itself more than once, both during that…

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What the municipality approved

His home municipality moved fast. On 18 August, local officials approved a package of tributes: a life-size statue (the site is still undecided, likely near one of Annapurna's base camps), a museum close to his birthplace in Dana, and — the most consequential…

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The mountain doing the honouring is not a small one

Renaming a trail is a symbolic gesture. Renaming Annapurna I itself would touch a peak with a genuinely fearsome statistical record. Guinness World Records lists Annapurna I as the 'deadliest Himalayan mountain': as of February 2025, it had recorded 75 deaths…

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What this means for trekkers

What this means for you Nothing changes on the ground yet, and nothing may change at all — a peak rename needs sign-off in Kathmandu, consultation with Herzog's family, and almost certainly the agreement of international mapping bodies before 'Nimsdai…

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