The History of Broad Peak: First Ascent, Famous Climbs & Key Expeditions
Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain in the world at 8,051m, has a history shorter than many of its Karakoram neighbors but no less dramatic. In under seventy years, it has produced one of mountaineering’s boldest early alpine-style ascents, a personal twenty-five-year quest that ended in tragedy, a Netflix film, and, most recently, the deadliest single incident the mountain has ever seen. This is the full story, from the first ascent in 1957 to today. For everything else about climbing the mountain route, difficulty, and current expedition planning see our Complete Guide to Climbing Broad Peak.
The First Ascent of Broad Peak (1957)
Who Climbed Broad Peak First?
An Austrian expedition of just four climbers Marcus Schmuck, Hermann Buhl, Kurt Diemberger, and Fritz Wintersteller made the first ascent on June 9, 1957. They climbed the West Spur (sometimes called the West Ridge), the same line that remains the standard route today.
The Austrian Expedition Details
What made this ascent remarkable wasn’t just that it succeeded it was how. The four-man team climbed in pure alpine style, without supplemental oxygen and without high-altitude porters ferrying loads above base camp, at a time when most 8,000m expeditions still relied on large siege-style teams and fixed camps stocked by porters. It was the first 8,000m peak ever climbed in this lightweight style, a template that would influence high-altitude climbing for decades afterward.
Hermann Buhl’s Role
Hermann Buhl was already a legendary figure in Austrian climbing by 1957, having made the first, famously solo ascent of Nanga Parbat in 1953. On Broad Peak, Buhl was a key figure in the team’s decision-making and among the summit party. His success here added a second 8,000m first ascent to his career but his story ends on the same trip: weeks after Broad Peak, Buhl died in a fall while attempting nearby Chogolisa, cutting short one of the era’s most influential climbing careers.
Notable Broad Peak Expeditions
The 1988 Expedition and Maciej Berbeka’s First Attempt
In 1988, a Polish team led by Andrzej Zawada set out to climb K2 not Broad Peak. Deteriorating weather forced a change of plans, and climbers Maciej Berbeka and Alek Lwow, unwilling to return home empty-handed, convinced Zawada to let them attempt a fast, alpine-style push on nearby Broad Peak instead. Berbeka climbed to what he believed was the summit, only to learn later that he had stopped at the Rocky Summit, roughly 23m below the true summit a false-summit confusion that has caught out other climbers on this mountain’s unusually long ridge, as we cover in our post on Broad Peak’s difficulty. Resentful over the mix-up, Berbeka withdrew from mountaineering for years afterward.
The 2013 Winter Expedition
Twenty-five years later, Berbeka returned to finish what he’d started. In March 2013, he joined the Polish national winter Himalayan expedition’s push for the first winter ascent of Broad Peak a mountain that had never been climbed in that season. On March 5, 2013, Berbeka and teammate Tomasz Kowalski reached the true summit. Both men died during the descent after failing to reach Camp 4, when contact was lost and a search confirmed they hadn’t survived the night. It was the achievement Berbeka had spent a quarter-century chasing, reached at the cost of his life a story that later inspired the 2022 film covered below.
Other Significant Ascents
Broad Peak’s climbing history includes several other notable threads. In 1975, a Polish team led by Janusz Ferenski made the first confirmed ascent of Broad Peak Central, one of the mountain’s subsidiary summits. On the speed-record side, Nepali mountaineer Nirmal “Nims” Purja summited Broad Peak in 2019 as part of his record-setting climb of all fourteen 8,000m peaks in under seven months a name that, tragically, returned to Broad Peak’s history in 2026, when Purja was among ten climbers killed in the mountain’s worst single disaster. We cover that event in full in our Complete Guide to Climbing Broad Peak.
The Broad Peak Movie (2022)
Is Broad Peak a True Story?
Yes,with an important clarification the brief version of this question often gets wrong. The film isn’t a dramatization of a rescue mission. It’s a biographical drama covering Maciej Berbeka’s own two Broad Peak expeditions: his near-miss in 1988 and his fatal return for the first winter ascent in 2013. Director Leszek Dawid and screenwriter Łukasz Ludkowski based the film on Berbeka’s real story, drawing on journalist Jacek Hugo-Bader’s 2014 book about the events leading to Berbeka’s death.
What the Broad Peak Film Covers
The film opens with the 1988 K2 expedition’s shift to Broad Peak, follows Berbeka’s confusion over the false summit and his subsequent years away from climbing, and then picks up his decision pushed in part by former teammate Krzysztof Wielicki to return in 2013 and finish the climb. Ireneusz Czop stars as Berbeka, alongside Maja Ostaszewska as his wife Ewa. The film treats both the personal cost of high-altitude obsession and the technical reality of winter Karakoram climbing with more grounding than most mountaineering dramas attempt.
Where to Watch the Broad Peak Movie
Broad Peak (2022) is available to stream on Netflix, where it released on September 14, 2022.
Broad Peak’s Place in Mountaineering History
The 8,000m Challenge
Only fourteen mountains on Earth exceed 8,000m, and Broad Peak ranks 12th among them. Its combination of a genuinely serious altitude challenge with a standard route that avoids K2-level sustained technical climbing has made it one of the more frequently attempted eight-thousanders
Milestones in Broad Peak History
- 1957: First ascent, by an Austrian team climbing alpine-style without oxygen or high-altitude porters.
- 1975: First ascent of Broad Peak Central by a Polish team.
- 1988: Maciej Berbeka reaches the Rocky Summit, unknowingly falling short of the true summit.
- 2013: First winter ascent of Broad Peak; Berbeka and Tomasz Kowalski reach the true summit but die during the descent.
- 2019: Nirmal Purja summits Broad Peak during his record-setting fourteen-peak speed climb.
- 2022: Netflix releases Broad Peak, dramatizing Berbeka’s story.
- 2026: A catastrophic avalanche kills ten climbers, including Purja, in the deadliest single incident in the mountain’s history. Full details in our Complete Guide to Climbing Broad Peak
Book Your Broad Peak Expedition
Nearly seventy years after the first Austrian team reached the summit, Broad Peak remains one of the Karakoram’s defining mountaineering objectives. Book your Broad Peak expedition with our experienced team, or read our guide on whether Broad Peak is easy to climb to see if it’s the right objective for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who climbed Broad Peak first?
An Austrian team of Marcus Schmuck, Hermann Buhl, Kurt Diemberger, and Fritz Wintersteller, on June 9, 1957, via the West Spur.
Is the Broad Peak movie a true story?
Yes. The 2022 Netflix film is based on Maciej Berbeka’s real 1988 and 2013 expeditions to Broad Peak not a rescue mission, but his own personal, decades-long attempt to reach the true summit.
What is the history of Broad Peak?
First climbed in 1957 in a landmark alpine-style ascent, Broad Peak’s history includes Berbeka’s 1988 false-summit confusion, the tragic first winter ascent in 2013, a 2022 film adaptation, and the devastating 2026 avalanche the deadliest event in the mountain’s history. See our Complete Guide to Climbing Broad Peak for the full picture, including current route and safety information.
