GILGIT: The search operation for lost climbers was called off again on Wednesday due to bad weather conditions, informed missing climber Ali Sadpara’s son Sajid Sadpara in a tweet.
Sajid announced that the search for his father and other mountaineers had to be called off once again as he asked people to remember his father in their prayers.
Earlier, it was reported that a team of six local climbers had been formed to continue the search for missing climbers–Pakistan’s Ali Sadpara (45), Iceland’s John Snorri (47) and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr (34)–by land.
An aerial search operation for the three missing climbers was temporarily suspended a day ago due to strong winds and snowfall, and was to resume Wednesday with the army deploying a C-130 for the mission.
However, prevailing bad weather conditions appeared to have made it difficult to rely only on an air operation.
According to rescue sources, the area around the K2 and Baltoro Glacier remained covered by dark clouds even on Wednesday. The team of climbers was to attempt reaching the treacherous peak on foot with aerial guidance.
Rescue efforts have been ongoing since the climbers went missing on February 5 while attempting to ascent the K2. The climbers were last seen on the day around noon at what is considered the most difficult part of the climb: the Bottleneck, a steep and narrow gully just 300 metres shy of the 8,611 metre (28,251 feet) high K2.
Sajid and his cousins, Imtiaz and Akbar, have also been assisting the rescue efforts. They are all experienced climbers; his cousins are also said to have summited the K2 before.
Separately, Pakistan has assured the Chilean government that it would make all possible efforts to trace the missing heroes.
The assurance was given by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi during his telephonic conversation with Chilean counterpart Andrés Allamand regarding the missing Chilean mountaineer Mohr.
The foreign minister expressed his deep concern over the missing team of mountaineers and apprised his Chilean counterpart of efforts being made by Pakistan to locate them. He assured that Pakistan would make all possible efforts to trace the missing heroes.
Acknowledging the search and rescue operation, the Chilean foreign minister thanked the government of Pakistan on behalf of the people of Chile and the family of Mohr for assistance in the search operations.
FOREIGN CLIMBERS END K2 WINTER EXPEDITION:
Meanwhile, all foreign climbers at the K2 base camp decided to end the K2 winter expedition, considering the harsh weather conditions.
The Alpine Club of Pakistan said that the winter expedition to climb the world’s second highest peak, K2, had officially been called off by foreign climbers due to bad weather.
“All foreign climbers at the K2 base camp have decided to end the K2 winter expedition 2020- 2021 in view of weather conditions,” Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said in a text message.
In a separate message about the missing climbers, he said that they had now been missing for more than 90 hours. “Due to the bad weather, no helicopter search flight for today,” Haidri said, saying rescue and search operations would continue once the weather improved.
It was the missing group’s second attempt at climbing K2 this winter, in a season that has already seen three other climbers die in the area. Bulgarian Atanas Skatov’s body was picked up by a helicopter on February 5. Officials believe he fell while trying to climb K2.
On the same day that 10 Nepali sherpas became the first people to summit K2 in the winter, Spanish climber Sergio Mingote, 49, died after he fell down a crevasse attempting to make his way down to Base Camp. In 2008, 11 climbers died on K2 over the course of two days.
