Special forces soldier in heroic Himalayas rescue as team ropes from helicopter to reach injured doctor

This image was posted on Nims Purja's social media along with the news that the rescue mission had been a success Photo / Instagram /Nimsdai

Atop one of the world's most dangerous mountains, former special forces soldier Nirmal Purja MBE was just days in to his world-record attempt to climb all 14 peaks of the Himalayas in seven months when he learned that a fellow climber was missing.

Purja, or 'Nims' as he is known, was descending Mount Annapurna in Nepal on Tuesday when the ex-Special Boat Service soldier was alerted that Dr Chin Wui Kin, 48, had been separated from an accompanying group.

The mountain is the 10th tallest in the world and is considered the globe's most dangerous 8000-plus metre peak. It was the first of 14 to be tackled by Purja and his team as part of Project Possible, an attempt to break the current world record by more than seven years.

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The level of damage and risk to Dr Chins life may have been avoided, if the emergency insurance company had acted quicker. . If you aren’t willing to act at the point of emergency, why sell the service in the first place ? . I’m very upset and angry with the rescue company that Mr Chin was a customer of. . Bare in mind Annapurna 1 is not Everest or any other 8000ers. It’s one of most dangerous and hardest 8000m peak to climb. . As a leader of fixing lines/ropes on this mountain, I hadn’t slept for days during the summit push as we had to start early so that the ropes and trail blazing is done before the main team commits. Almost all of the season mountaineers thought it was impossible to summit Annapurna due to snow conditions. . After knowing that Dr Chin was missing, I held my team and some of the strongest members on the Expedition for the rescue of Dr Chin at camp 4. . We were waiting for Oxygen to get dropped off at us by helicopter so we could go start searching for him on the mountains. (This is all what his insurance company had to do , just drop 6 bottles of Oxygen at Camp 4 where I was on standby with my rescue team) . I was told that the rescue company denied the emergency help and I couldn’t hold my team any longer at the extreme altitude risking their life. I was the last man to leave camp 4 and I had thought he was possibly dead by then on those dangerous slopes. . I arrived at the base camp with my team very late that night. Next morning, I could hear a helicopter which went on Recce and I was told Dr Chin is alive. His wife paid for the helicopter to go and confirm. . After sleeping for only 4 hrs, Project Possible 14/7 team (@nimsdai, @mingma_david_sherpa , @galjen_s2009 @gesmantamang ) were triggered for the rescue mission . What it took us 16 hrs to get to Dr Chins location on the summit push from camp 3, we covered the same distance in 4 hrs at this emergency situation. . Finally we got him down to camp 3, from where he was picked by heli on longline. He’s critical at the hospital and his life is still in danger and even if he survive he may lose his limbs. This could have been easily avoided. . . #nimsdai #beyondpossible

A post shared by Nirmal Purja MBE - Nimsdai (@nimsdai) on Apr 27, 2019 at 8:34am PDT

Chin, an anesthesiologist and accomplished climber, had been left stranded for 36 hours on his own without an oxygen bottle, food and water after he became separated from a 13-member expedition during his descent from the 26,545 foot summit to base camp four - the first stop on the way down.

It was at camp four, at nearly 25,000 feet, that Purja and his team discovered that Chin was missing. However, rather than set back out up the mountain to find the Malaysian national, Purja was first forced to descend to base camp to retrieve oxygen for the rescue mission as a helicopter was unable to send any up.

A still from a video posted to Purja's social media account shows his team reaching Chin. Photo / Instagram / Nims Dai

He wrote on social media: "We were waiting for oxygen to get dropped off to us by helicopter so we could go and start searching for him on the mountains.

"I couldn't hold my team any longer at the extreme altitude risking their life. I was the last man to leave camp 4 and I had thought he [Dr Chin] was possibly dead by then on those dangerous slopes.

"Bear in mind Annapurna 1 is ... one of the most dangerous and technical hardest 8000m peak to climb."

On Thursday morning, Purja and three of his "strongest" climbers flew back up to 21,325 feet, the highest point possible, and roped down in to camp three from a helicopter which was paid for by Chin's wife.

The rescue team led by Purja, who served in the UK military for 16 years, included Mingma Sherpa, Gesman Tamang and Gyalzen Sherpa.

Chin Wui Kin was rescued from Annapurna and was taken to hospital in Kathmandu. Photo / Instagram / Dawa Sherpa

He said: "When the altitude is too great then we have to do a 'long line' rescue. We are literally underneath the helicopter and are dropped close to the site. We still had a long climb past camp four, the last base before the summit, and we realised that we had to work quickly."

Days before, Purja and his team had taken 18 hours to climb from camp three to the summit, but the four men reached Chin in just four hours in a feat that the former special forces soldier called "incredible".

Purja, who was awarded an MBE by the Queen in 2016 for his outstanding achievement on high altitude mountaineering, managed to move the injured doctor down from the summit to camp three by Friday, where a helicopter was able to drop a long line down to attach to Chin. He was then taken to Kathmandu Hospital.

Purja said: "He is alive but still in critical condition. I did go and visit him in hospital. He is with his wife and the medical experts and I wish him a good recovery."

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Long line rescue for Annapurna 1

A post shared by Mingma Sherpa (@mingma_sherpa_14) on Apr 25, 2019 at 9:41am PDT

According to the organisers of the expeditions, Seven Summit Treks, Chin had been without an oxygen bottle, food and water for more than 40 hours and it was his medical knowledge and familiarity with the mountains that kept him safe.

Mingma Sherpa, head of the organisation, told MailOnline: "It's a big thing to stay alive in that altitude without food, water, and oxygen". He described Chin as fine but not in condition to walk.

Project Possible began last week with the team successfully making the 8,091m ascent of Mount Annapurna.

Annapurna is avalanche-prone, technically difficult and has a higher death rate than Everest, the world's highest peak.

Nine South Korean climbers were killed last October after a snowstorm swept them off a cliff on Mount Gurja, west of Annapurna.