The army will resume its aerial search operation today to find three missing renowned mountaineers including Pakistani Ali Sadpara, who went missing on 5th February reportedly during their ascent to the K2 peak in this Winter Expedition 2021. The army will deploy C-130 to continue its search for the climbers.
Earlier the Pakistan Army helicopters returned unsuccessful to Skardu from the search operation on Saturday. The army helicopters reportedly flew at the height of 7000 meters but returned clueless amid worsening weather and lighting conditions.
Read more: Pakistani Ali Sadpara, two foreign climbers go missing during K2 expedition
Mountaineers Ali Sadpara, 45, Jon Snorri from Iceland, 47, and Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile, 33, had lost contact with the team after they left to climb the most tricky part of the “killer mountain”, the bottleneck, which is only 300 meters below the total altitude of 8,611 meters of the K2 mountain.
The hope is my brother will be back from his mission which he completed 4 days before. May our hopes & prayers be fruitful. May he return safe & sound to all the eyes that await him. May Allah watch over him. #Ali_sadpara#HonourAliSadpara pic.twitter.com/cgyOU8HtgU
— Zaki Ur Rehman (@zakiurrehman954) February 10, 2021
Ali Sadpara’s son, Sajid Sadpara, was also a part of this mission but he decided to return to camp 3 after discovering a leakage in his oxygen cylinder. The decision to return from an altitude of 8,200 meters was his own, Sajid Sadpara told Express-News.
Sajid Sadpara waited for the mountaineers all night but they did not return. They went missing when they were descending from the summit, he told media outlets.
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The Pakistani army is doing everything in its power to search for the missing climbers, informed Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi adding that he is keeping in touch with Iceland’s Foreign Minister as well to update him on new developments. The Foreign Minister also said that despite all the efforts, “unfortunately as time goes on, we are heading for despair.”
The US embassy in Pakistan also extended its concern and hoped for the mountaineers to return safely. It tweeted “Our thoughts are with the brave climbers, Muhammad Ali Sadpara of Pakistan, Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile, and John Snorri of Iceland, who are missing on K2. We all hope for their safe return.”
Our thoughts are with the brave climbers, Muhammad Ali Sadpara of #Pakistan, Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile, and John Snorri of Iceland, who are missing on #k2 We all hope for their safe return! #K2WinterSummit2021 #alisadpara pic.twitter.com/FS7RQaub2H
— U.S. Embassy Islamabad (@usembislamabad) February 8, 2021
Earlier, on Friday there were false news reports that the team had successfully scaled the world’s second-highest peak, K2. Sadpara before setting off on another attempt to scale the ‘killer mountain’ had affirmed he would wave the Pakistani flag on the peak on February 5th, on Kashmir Day.
Read more: Bulgarian alpinist Skatov dies during an expedition on Pakistan’s K2
Sadpara had planned to complete the final ascent by Friday evening. However, the news of the team missing emerged after unconfirmed reports of them successfully scaling the mountain beamed on national news channels. Prayers are being requested for the missing mountaineers on social media.
Hashtag #AliSadpara is trending with prayers, wishes, and giving good luck to the team for their recovery.
#Ali_sadpara#PakArmy
Today will be an important aerial rescue operation in the history of the country. The operation will cover the entire death zone with the help of state-of-the-art camera installed in C130. pic.twitter.com/btJ64R1a0j— Dopamine (@M_adnanmian) February 9, 2021
Read more: Fears grow as no sign missing climbers on Pakistan’s K2