"It's important when someone passes, not necessarily just to focus on how they were lost, but importantly how they lived."
Those were the words of former Royal Marines colonel Al Carns as he reflected on the legacy left behind by renowned British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal "Nims" Purja, who lost his life alongside nine others in an avalanche in Pakistan.
Speaking about the bond they shared in a post on Instagram, Mr Carns recalled not only commanding Nims during their time in Special Forces, but having "served alongside him in life" - remarks that came shortly after Nims' body was recovered from Broad Peak.
'Al, I've been shot, I've been shot'
Born in Nepal, the 43-year-old served a distinguished 16-year military career, first spending six years in the Army in the Brigade of Gurkhas and later serving in Special Forces.
"He'd met my kids. We had too many a long night drinking sessions in the past, and I'd spoken to him just four days before we lost him," Mr Carns said.
He recalled his most memorable experience of meeting Nims came during an "epic firefight" with the Taliban while on operations in Afghanistan.
"It was the middle of the night, and I managed to get myself up onto a roof and was putting some rounds down and getting shot back at," Mr Carns said.
Jumping back down, he recalled asking Nims to go back up onto the single-storey roof to provide covering fire. "No problem," he responded.
"I gave him a leg up, and he jumped on the roof and started putting some rounds down," Mr Carns continued.
"Within about three seconds, there's a cracked thud, and I heard 'Ahh!' and Nims rolled off of the roof and fell on the ground like an absolute sack," he said with a laugh, remembering him shouting: "Al, I've been shot, I've been shot!"
The bullet had grazed the lower part of his neck, damaging his radio and lodging into the butt of his rifle.
"I said 'you'll be fine mate; there's nothing wrong with you, you'll be okay'. He was like 'Ah god, no problem, no problem – I need a new rifle, let's go, let's go'.
"So we gave him a new rifle, and away we went for the next 10 to 12 hours of a major firefight in Afghanistan."
Brave as 10 men
The next time they met, Nims had left the military, and Mr Carns was shown what he described as "the most amazing start of a documentary" – the beginning of an ambitious project which would see Nims and his team attempt to summit all 14 of the highest peaks in record time.
By that point, he had already summited 10 of them.
"Before we even got to the end of the presentation, I closed the laptop and went 'Nims – this is absolutely amazing, but you must be careful'," he said.
"Next thing happens, 14 Peaks documentary comes out, and before you know it, he's one of the best recognised mountaineers and most successful mountaineers the world has ever seen and is likely to see for some time."
The Netflix film follows Project Possible, charting the journey of Nims and his team as they attempt to climb all 14 of the world's highest peaks – which all sit above 8,000 metres – within a then-record time of under seven months.
The previous record was seven years and 310 days.
Mr Carns also extended his thanks to the team of rescuers who helped recover the body of Nims and some of the other climbers on Broad Peak – an 8,047m (26,400ft) mountain situated on the Pakistan-China border.
"That in itself is exceptionally dangerous," he said. "They'll be hugely courageous to do it, and they've done an amazing job.
"So thank you to everyone that's been involved, and my heart goes out to Nims' family and friends, and we're here if they need anything at all.
"Nims, you're a legend, courageous and brave as 10 men. You'll be sorely missed."
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