Missing mountaineers Pakistan’s Ali Sadpara, 45, Iceland’s John Snorri, 47, and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr, 34, who were trying to return from their K2 climb, have been declared dead by the family and the government.
After having been missing for more than 10 days, Ali Sadpara’s son, Sajid Sadpara, during a press conference in Skardu said that there was no hope of his father returning at this point.
“Pakistan has lost a great mountaineer, my father and two other climbers are no more with us,” Sajid Ali Sadpara said.
“To all the climbers who appreciate Ali Sadpara’s achievements and look up to him, I promise that I will carry on his dreams and missions and will continue to walk in his footsteps,” Sajid added.
He also thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the courageous pilots of the Askari Aviation for conducting a thorough search and rescue operation amid the harsh weather for his father.
It is pertinent here to mention that the first search and rescue operation was launched on February 6, hours after the mountaineers were officially declared missing, however, rescue efforts had to be suspended multiple times owing to bad weather conditions.
During the conference, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Tourism Minister Raja Nasir Ali Khan said that, whilst considering the weather conditions at K2, Pakistan Army, government and family of the mountaineer have reached the conclusion that Ali Sadpara and his comrades have expired.
The minister said, “Government pays tribute to the services of national hero Ali Sadpara, and he will be given civil award along with his son Sajid Sadpara. A mountaineering school will be established in the name of Ali Sadpara.”
Sadpara’s son also broke the news on Twitter. Sajid tweeted, “My father Ali Sadpara and other climbers are no more in this world.”
Sadpara, Snorri and Pablo Mohr had departed for their journey on February 3 after Sadpara’s birthday, asking fans and admirers to “keep us in your prayers”.
The trio was attempting to reach the 8,611-meter (28,251 foot) Korakarum-2 summit, commonly known as K2, without supplemental oxygen to make history. They, however, lost contact with the base camp when they were only 411 meters away from the snow-capped top.
Sajid Sadpara, who had initially been on the climb with them, returned to the base camp after he was sent back from an altitude of 8,200 meters owing to a malfunction in his oxygen regulator.
They had started their attempt for the final summit in the early hours of February 5, hoping to accomplish the difficult feat by afternoon. On the same day, at approximately 12:30 pm, the GPS with the mountaineers had stopped working. They were declared missing the next day.
“All three were strong mountaineers — willing, able and with the courage to make history by standing on top of K2 in winter conditions. Based on the last known contact by John Snorri’s telephone, we are confident that all three men made it to the top of K2 and something happened on the descent,” a representative from their management had said earlier, reading a statement on behalf of the families of foreign climbers.
Sophisticated satellite technology had also been used in the search operation. “For the first time ever, this team is working with the Iceland Space Agency to review the SAR technology – that has never been used before for searching and rescuing – not the SAT technology, to cover every inch of the higher elevations of the mountain despite bad weather conditions,” read a statement issued from Skardu last week.
The search camp had been established by Rao Ahmad, Ali Sadpara’s long-time friend and his son Sajid Sadpara, along with British-American climber Vanessa O’Brien, also Pakistan’s Goodwill Ambassador who has previously summited the K2 with John Snorri.
The team had the support of the ICEYE – a global leader in small satellite synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) technology that produces high-resolution imagery collected even through clouds and darkness, according to information available on its website.
Unfortunately, the technology seems not to have proven fruitful in this case.
Born in 1976 in a remote Sadpara village in Skurdu district of the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, which borders neighbouring China, Sadpara was the only Pakistani to have scaled eight peaks measuring above 8,000 meters – five in Pakistan and three in Nepal.
