ISLAMABAD – The Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) said Sunday that a second helicopter search found no sign of the missing climbers Ali Sadpara, John Snorri, and JP Mohr on K2.
The helicopter crew and an accompanying photographer traced the route up to a height of 7,000 m, ACP said. The rescue operation continued for the second day on Sunday to locate the three climbers who went missing while attempting to summit the world’s second-highest mountain, K2.
Meanwhile, Sajid Ali Sadpara, son of Muhammad Ali Sadpara has reached Skardu, who was also part of the expedition, and had reached the K2 base camp on Saturday evening after waiting for the three climbers. K2, at 8,611m (28,251 ft) above sea level, is the second highest mountain in the world, after Mount Everest at 8,848m (29,029 ft). It is located on the China–Pakistan border between Baltistan in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and Dafdar Township in Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China.
K2 is the highest point of the Karakoram mountain range and the highest point in both Pakistan and Xinjiang. It may be mentioned here that Nepali climbers last month broke the previous record during winters of climbing as high as 26,000 feet while attempting to scale K2. The maximum height achieved by teams in winters in the past was 25,320 feet.
Also, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday assured his Iceland counterpart Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson that the Pakistan government was making all efforts to find the missing mountaineers who had lost contact while on a K-2 mission.
“Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson spoke with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on telephone regarding the missing Icelandic mountaineer John Snorri,” said a foreign ministry statement.
Foreign Minister Qureshi apprised Foreign Minister Thórdarson of the specific steps taken by the Pakistani authorities to search and rescue the missing mountaineers. He reassured that Pakistan will spare no effort and will extend all possible support in this regard.
Foreign Minister Thórdarson appreciated ongoing search and rescue operation for John Snorri and other members of the team by Pakistani authorities and thanked for the assistance being extended, added the statement.
Search operation of well known climber Muhammad Ali Sadpara and two foreign climbers who went missing while trying to climb the world’s second-highest peak K-2 would continue on Monday.
The three mountaineers Muhammad Ali Sadpara, Iceland’s John Snorri and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mehar have not been contacted since they began their journey from Camp 3 to the K-2 peak between Thursday and Friday night.
Sajid Sadpra, the son of Muhammad Ali Sadpara after search operation told media that he and Chung Dawa Sherpa, head of Seven Summit International Expedition, joined the search operation with rescue team in Pakistan Army helicopters on the Abruzzi route of K2 and other places but could not find any.
According to Sajid, the rescue and search team searched for an hour and the helicopter flew to an altitude of 7800 meters. He added that at altitudes above Camp 4, there faced difficulties due to low visibility and blowing wind at a speed of 40 km per hour.
Sajid Sadpra added that Ali Sadpara and his companions had an accident on their way back after submitting K-2. He informed that they had reached an altitude of 8200 meters when they contacted with base camp last.
There were little chances that anyone would survive for three days without equipment in this season but search operation could be done to bring the bodies,Sajid added.
Sajid Sadpara said the Pakistan Army and the families of foreign climbers played an important role in the search for Ali Sadpara and missing climbers.
Another rescue team including four climbers Fazal Ali and Jalal from Shamshal, Imtiaz Hussain and Akbar Aleem from Skardu with other experts are also trying to search the missing mountaineers from land route.
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