Climber Nirmal Purja Killed in Mountain Avalanche

Nirmal Purja -- a world-renowned climber who gained fame on the hit Netflix documentary '14 Peaks'-- has died ... according to a statement from his company.

Elite Exped -- a travel agency founded by Purja and several others which takes climbers on treks up and down famous mountains -- announced the news on Instagram Saturday morning.

The company states Purja died in an avalanche on Broad Peak -- a famed mountain on the Pakistan-China border.

He's remembered by Elite Exped as "one of mountaineering's greatest climbers" who inspired millions of others to chase their dreams.

According to local officials ... Nirmal's climbing team began their ascent on Wednesday and were last heard from Thursday around 9 AM. A rescue mission began Friday morning. 10 people -- six Nepali citizens and four foreign climbers including American Sarah Mallory Geis -- were killed in the avalanche.

Nirmal was the subject of the documentary "14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible" ... in which he and his team attempted to climb all 14 mountains with elevation greater than 8,000 meters -- or a little over 26K feet -- in a record seven months. This list includes Mount Everest, K2, and Broad Peak.

Nirmal was 43.