An aerial search to find three experienced climbers who lost contact with the base camp during a winter climb from K2, the second highest mountain in the world, will resume on Monday morning, officials said.
The celebrated Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara and his two companions, John Snorri from Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile, lost contact with the base camp on Friday night and were reported missing on Saturday after their support team stopped. receive reports from them during the ascent.
The K2, in the Karakoram mountain range, is 8,611 meters (28,250 feet) high and is one of the most dangerous climbs in the world, sometimes called the “killer mountain”. Last month, a team of 10 Nepalese climbers became the first to climb the summit in winter.
Karrar Haideri, an officer of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said: “The base camp received no sign of Sadpara and his foreign companions after 8,000 meters … A search is underway and we will pray for his safe return home.”
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying Iceland’s foreign minister, Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, spoke to his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, by telephone. Qureshi assured him that Pakistan would spare no effort in finding the missing climbers.
Sadpara and his team left the base camp on February 3, a month after their first attempt to climb the mountain failed due to weather conditions.
Although Mount Everest is 237 meters higher, K2 is much further north and is subject to worse weather conditions, according to mountaineering experts. They say that winter climbing is particularly dangerous because of rapid and unpredictable changes in weather conditions.
Winter winds on the K2 can blow at more than 125 mph and temperatures can drop to -60 ° C. In one of the deadliest mountaineering accidents of all time, 11 climbers died in a single day trying to climb the K2 in 2008 .
Haideri said Sadpara’s son Sajid had safely returned to base camp after his oxygen regulator failed at 8,000 meters. He was on board the rescue helicopter on Sunday.
Haideri mentioned Sadpara’s experience as a mountaineer who climbed the eight highest mountains in the world.