Second day ends with no headway made in finding missing K2 climbers
The second day of Pakistan Army’s rescue operation for the three mountaineers who who had gone missing while attempting a winter summit of K2 came to an end with no sign of climbers.
Pakistan’s renowned mountaineer Ali Sadpara and two other fellow climbers, John Snorri from Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile, lost contact with base camp during their ascent of the world’s second highest mountain in northern Pakistan on February 5.
Pakistan Army helicopters flew to a height of 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) on Saturday and Sunday to try to locate the missing mountaineers with no success.
“The base camp received no signals from Sadpara and his foreign companions after 8,000 meters … . A search is on and let’s pray for their safe return home,” Karrar Haideri of Alpine Club of Pakistan told media.
The rescue mission team includes local high altitude climbers, Fazal Ali and Jalal from Shimshal, Imtiaz Hussain and Akbar Ali from Skardu, Chhang Dawa Sherpa and other members of the winter expedition team.
Ali Sadpara may have completed winter summit of K2, son says
Mountaineers and rescue officials in Skardu believe that Ali Sadpara and members of his expedition to summit K2 may have summited the K2 in winter before they went missing.
“They were there [at the K2 bottleneck] at around 11 am. I am sure they summited, and on the way back they had some accident,” Ali Sadpara’s son and young climber, Sajid Sadpara told media. K2 bottleneck which is at around 8300m is considered the most treacherous sections of the 8611m high mountain.
Sajid was also part of the K2 winter expedition had to turn back after his oxygen regulator malfunctioned. He reportedly reached the K2 base camp on Saturday evening after waiting for the other three climbers at Camp 3 for over 20 hours.
Last month, a team of climbers from Nepal became the first mountaineers in history to successfully complete a winter attempt on the summit of K2.