The New York Times Reports of Sexual Harassment by Nirmal Purja

On May 31, The New York Times ran an article written by Anna Callaghan and Jenny Vrentas titled ‘For Women Climbers, Dangers Go Beyond Avalanches and Storms’, with a subtitle that reads, “Women are increasingly reporting sexual harassment and abuse in the sport, including accusations against the renowned climber Nirmal Purja.”

The article goes on to quote former Miss Finland Lotta Hintsa and Dr. April Leonardo, who, as the article notes, “described experiences in recent years in which he [Purja] kissed them without consent, made aggressive advances or touched them sexually against their wishes. They said they felt powerless and wary of angering Mr. Purja.”

Purja was the focus of the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks, in which he climbed the world’s 14 8,000-metre peaks in record time. That record was broke last year and Purja has since been caught up in several public controversies, including the latest in which he claimed his ropes were cut near the summit of Mount Everest.

In The New York Times article, Leonardo said Purja had asked her “When can I mount you?” not long after physically assaulting her. And Hintsa said that Purja made unwanted physical advancements toward her in a hotel room, saying that she “described feeling relieved when he began to masturbate, hopeful that the episode would soon be over.” To read the full article visit The New York Times here.

Update – May 31

A statement was shared to Parja’s Instagram story, we’ve included a screenshot of it below. We’ll update the story when more information is made available.