KATHMANDU: A former Gurkha soldier is planning to climb one of the most challenging mountains in the Himalayas to plant a poppy as a tribute to Remembrance Day on Sunday.

Nirmal Purja, aka 'Nims' began his climb of Mt Ama Dablam, known as the ‘Matterhorn of the Himalayas’ in the eastern region of Nepal this weekend and hopes to reach the 6,812-metre peak (22.349 ft) to mark the special Centenary milestone of the end of World War One and broadcast live to the world from the mountain with a poppy at 8:00 am Nepalese Standard Time (NST) to join the rest of the nation as it falls silent in memory and respect. Meanwhile, Purja is at the base camp preparing for the climb.

It has been reported that he will be broadcasting live on his social media Instagram @nimsdai and Facebook.

Thirty-five-year-old Purja was born in Dhaulagiri region of Nepal and joined the famous Brigade of Gurkhas in 2003 before joining the Royal Marines. In the past six years, Purja has successfully led seven expeditions over 8000 metres in the Himalayas and received 'Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire' (MBE) from Her Majesty The Queen for his ‘outstanding work’ in high altitude mountaineering. He’s also the founder and expedition leader at an adventure company — Elite Himalayan Adventures.

This image shows former Gurkha soldier (right top bottom) and Guinness World Records certificate for the fastest time to climb three of the higher five mountains above 8,000 metres. Photo: THT

Presently, Purja is the fastest man in the world to climb Everest (8,848m/29,029ft), Lhotse (8,516m/2,7939ft), and Makalu (8,463m/2,7765ft), which he accomplished in 5 days. He has also achieved the fastest time ever from the summit of Everest to the summit of Lhotse taking a total of 10 hours 15 minutes, beating the previous record of 20 hours 2 mins; The fastest consecutive summits of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu (higher 8000ers) taking a total of five days and the first person to summit Everest twice, Lhotse once and Makalu once in one season taking a total of 17 days.

Next year Purja would put effort on raising over £1million for mindfulness charities, helping the war veterans and local Nepali charity.

He has the aim to climb all fourteen Himalayan peaks above 8,000 metres in a single 7 month season. The existing world record for these consecutive ascents is  7 years, 11 months and 14 days.