K2 is the most famous peak on the Pakistani side of the Himalayan range and the world’s second tallest after Mount Everest. It is located between Gilgit and its Baltistan division in the region of northern Pakistan. K2 is the highest point of the Karakoram mountain range and the highest point in both Pakistan and Xinjiang China.
Known as the “savage mountain”, winds on the peak can blow at more than 200 kilometers per hour (125 miles per hour) and temperatures drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit) in winter. Since K2 was first conquered in 1954, about 280 people have succeeded in climbing it – with roughly one death for every three successful climbs.
Missing climbers and search operation
The rescue operation to locate three mountaineers, including Pakistan’s renowned Muhammad Ali Sadpara, who went missing on February 4, while attempting to summit the world’s second-highest peak, K2, continued for the second day on Sunday (today).
According to reports, Muhammad Ali Sadpara, MP Mohr from Chile and John Snorri from Iceland have not been getting in touch since the three began their push for the K2 summit from camp III at midnight between Thursday and Friday.
The deputy commissioner of the Baltistan division, in a tweet, confirmed that Sajid Sadpara, son of Ali Sadpara, who was also part of the expedition, had reached K 2 base camp after waiting for the three climbers at camp III for over 20 hours.
Pakistan Army helicopters embarked on a “search flight” on Saturday but returned to Gilgit-Skardu after they were unable to locate three mountaineers. Pakistan Army helicopter flew to a height of 7,000 meters to try to locate the missing mountaineers with no success.
On Sunday, a special team has been formed for the search of missing Pakistani mountaineers. The rescue operation launched with the help of local mountaineers while two helicopters of the Pakistan Army also take part in the search.
Several experts, including four local high altitude climbers, Fazal Ali and Jalal from Shimshal, Imtiaz Hussain and Akbar Ali from Skardu, Chhang Dawa Sherpa and other members of the Seven Summit Treks (SST) winter expedition team, are part of the rescue mission.
Most dangerous area of the mountain
Of the five highest mountains in the world, K2 is the deadliest; approximately one person dies on the mountain for every four who reach the summit.
Sadpara’s son, Sajid Sadpara was with the three up until the bottleneck, the most dangerous area of the peak, and had returned to camp III after facing issues with his oxygen regulator.
The three mountaineers lost contact with base camp late on Friday night and were reported missing on Saturday after their support team stopped receiving information from them during their ascent of the 8,611-meter high K2.
It emerged that the three climbers had managed to summit K2, prompting congratulations from the nation, including the GB governor and chief minister. Although, no official statement has been issued in this regard and it is currently unclear whether they managed to summit the peak on Friday or not.
According to official sources from the expedition team said the only verified news was that the mountaineers had crossed the bottleneck which led many to assume that they had reached the summit. The reports of the missing climbers come a day after a Bulgarian mountaineer was confirmed to have died on K2.
Death incidents in K2
K2 is around 800 feet shorter than Everest, but professional climbers consider the ascent much more difficult. Nearly 100 people have died while climbing K2 and it’s considered one of the most grueling climbs in the world. And while nearly 4,000 people have attempted Everest, only 300 have tried to climb K2.
Bulgarian climber Atanas Georgiev Skatov fell to death during an expedition on Pakistan’s K2 his team said on February 5, 2020. Skatov is the second climber to die on K2’s slopes this season after a Spanish mountaineer fell to his death last month. A third climber — Russian-American Alex Goldfarb — also died on a nearby mountain.
On January 18, renowned Spanish climber Sergio Mingote had died while climbing K2. According to the secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP), Karrar Haidri, Mingote was part of the expedition to summit the “savage mountain” during the winter. He fell, around 800 meters, into a crevasse, while coming back to base camp.
New Zealand mountaineers, father and son were killed in K2 avalanche in July 2013. In August 2008, 11 climbers were killed by an avalanche on K2, one of the worst tragedies in climbing history.
Muhammad Ali Sadpara
The prominent clamber Muhammad Ali Sadpara, age-45, was born in Pakistan’s Gilgit- Baltistan Sadpara village Skardu in 1977. He has climbed four of Pakistan’s five mountains above 8,000 meters high. He is the first Pakistani mountaineer to scale the eighth highest peak of over 8,000 meters in the world.
Sadpara has climbed all five, 8,000-metre 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). He is the first Pakistani to have summit Nanga Parbat in the winter season. It is necessary to pray for mountaineers’ safe return and we hope Ali Sadpara and his co-climbers are alive and fine.
