Third-day search and rescue operation has been launched by Pakistan Army with local mountaineers to find missing climbers Ali Sadpara, John Snorri from Iceland and Juan Pablo from Chile who have gone missing trying to summit the 8,611-metre (28,250-foot) high K2 mountain, the world’s second highest mountain.
According to Deputy Commissioner Shigar, helicopters are on the way to K-2 for the third consecutive day in search of missing mountaineers.
2×Heli are on the way starting search soon at K2. @HomeDeptGB @RandhawaAli #k2winterexpedition2021
— Deputy Commissioner, Shigar (@DeputyShigar) February 8, 2021
Search operations were underway on Saturday and Sunday after the trio went missing on Friday night after they began their winter expedition to summit K2 back in December.
According to the team, these three climbers have not been contacted since the three began their push for the K2 summit from camp 3 at midnight between Thursday and Friday. Several experts, including four 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 SST winter expedition team, are part of the rescue mission.
The team’s official further said that the search will continue until all three are located. He added that teams were searching for the missing climbers by following the route they had taken towards the summit through helicopters.
The helicopters reportedly flew to a height of 7,000 meters on Saturday afternoon in their attempt to locate the missing mountaineers but were unable to find any clues to their whereabouts. They had to return due to worsening weather and light conditions.
In a conversation with reporters in Skardu on Sunday, Sajid Sadpara, the son of Muhammad Ali Sadpara, who was part of the expedition and returned to camp 3 after facing issues with his oxygen regulator, said: “Rescue operations now only make sense if they are carried out to bring back his body. Otherwise, for the chance for anyone to survive at 8,000 metres [after being missing for] two to three days are next to none.”
