John Snorri, Muhammad Ali Sadpara and Sajid Ali Sadpara are already at K2 base camp to begin their winter expedition to summit the world’s second-highest peak, K2 (8,611m).
The Icelandic mountaineer, assisted by the two Pakistanis, make up the first expedition that has reached the foot of the mountain with the aim of attempting the first winter ascent in history.
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K2 has never been scaled during the winter season but these strong climbers are ready to do so, John Snorri, 47, from Iceland, Mohammad Ali Sadpara, 44, from Gilgit-Baltistan, and his son, Sajid Ali Sadpara, 21 are the team.
According to the expedition officials, local porters, a cook, and a guide are accompanying the team, which left Skardu for K2 base camp on Dec 1. They reached Goro 2 on Thursday and reached K2 base camp on Sunday. The bad weather caused by snowfall slowed down the expedition.
Asghar Ali Porik of the tour company organized the expedition, said that all equipment required for the mission had already been shifted to the K2 base camp.
He further said that climbers would accustom to the base camp before fixing ropes next week and beginning to climb the peak on Dec 8. The John Snorri led expedition team intended to reach the K2 peak by Dec 30.
Mr. Porik said Mohammad Ali Sadpara, 44, had earlier climbed all five 8,000 meters high peaks in Pakistan, including K2 (8,611m), Gasherbrum-I (8,080m), Gasherbrum-II (8,034m), Nanga Parbat (8,126m), and Broad Peak (8,051m).
Mohammad Ali Sadpara is the first to scale Nanga Parbat in the winter season. He has also climbed 8,516 meters Lhotse peak, located on the border between Tibet region of China and Nepal, and 8,485 meters Makalu peak and 8,156 meters Manaslu in Nepal and 8,516 meters Lhotse peak in Nepal without bottled oxygen.
While his son Sajid Ali Sadpara scaled K2 in the summer season in 2019 with his father as the youngest Pakistani climber.
John Snorri 47 from Iceland, scaled the Lhotse peak in Nepal, K2 and Broad Peak in Pakistan in the summer of 2017 and in fall 2019, he reached the summit of Manaslu peak in Nepal.
