{"id":395096,"date":"2026-08-01T23:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T23:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/395096\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T23:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T23:47:08","slug":"family-speaks-out-after-san-antonio-woman-9-others-found-dead-following-avalanche-in-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/395096\/","title":{"rendered":"Family speaks out after San Antonio woman, 9 others found dead following avalanche in Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The family of a San Antonio woman who died in an avalanche<\/a> said they are heartbroken for all the families impacted by the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Mallory Geis, 39, was discovered Friday after the avalanche on Broad Peak in the Skardu District of Pakistan, the family confirmed in a statement shared with KSAT 12.<\/p>\n

The family described her as “a bright light who was loved deeply by her family and friends” who \u201cwill be profoundly missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said they are grateful for the outpouring of love and support they have receieved, and are asking for privacy to process the \u201cunimaginable loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mallory Geis was among a group of climbers who went missing after the avalanche. All 10 were confirmed dead, climbing company Moving Mountains said Saturday.<\/p>\n

The expedition was Geis\u2019 first try at an 8,000-meter peak in Pakistan, while it was expected to be the final one for Sakhi, who is a guide for the company, as well as a geographer and high-altitude photographer who has climbed some of the world\u2019s major peaks, according to the Moving Mountains website.<\/p>\n

Geis, 39, lived in San Antonio. She announced on social media earlier this year that she was closing her Pilates studio to take \u201ca giant leap of faith into the unknown to see where life goes. I have a sneaking suspicion there will be lots of helmets, harnesses, and crampons involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimberly Hardman, a climber based in Alaska, met Geis at a Colorado women\u2019s ice climbing weekend in January and they instantly connected and talked about climbing all over the world.<\/p>\n

Geis was relatively new to ice climbing but was a natural athlete with experience mountaineering after climbing in Nepal, according to Hardman, who said Geis respected the mountains and understood the risks of climbing. <\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t go into it blindly, Hardman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was wanting to learn and grow,\u201d Hardman said. \u201cThat\u2019s what brought her to her happy place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karrar Haidri, vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said the climbers lost contact with base camp Thursday while attempting to scale the mountain.<\/p>\n

Broad Peak, at 8,047 meters (26,401 feet), is the world\u2019s 12th-highest mountain. It lies in Pakistan\u2019s Karakoram range, home to five of the world\u2019s 14 peaks above<\/a> 8,000 meters, attracting climbers from around the globe.<\/p>\n

The expedition comprised five Nepali climbers in addition to the Omani and American climbers, Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi, a Chinese climber identified only as Wang and one other foreign climber, according to the Alpine Club.<\/p>\n

China said it was trying to verify whether any of its nationals were among the 10 climbers missing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will provide assistance to Chinese citizens in need and are also willing to offer help in accordance with the needs of the Pakistani side,\u201d Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Friday in Beijing.<\/p>\n

The expedition leader was the renowned mountaineer Nirmal Purja<\/a>, a Nepal-born former soldier in the British army widely known as Nims Dai. He climbed the world\u2019s 14 highest peaks in a record 189 days in 2019, an achievement featured in the Netflix documentary, \u201c14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible.\u201d His record was surpassed<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

Moving Mountains, a travel company based in Pakistan, announced late last month that the expedition team was on its way to the small town of Askole and wished them a safe journey climbing Broad Peak. <\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Associated Press journalists Munir Ahmed and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Josh Kelety in Phoenix contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The family of a San Antonio woman who died in an avalanche said they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[631,86650,138618,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-395096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-death","tag-islamabad","tag-mallory-geis","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}