Almost a week has passed since Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara, alongside two international fellows, John Snorri from Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile, left for their K2 winter expedition, with the aim of vanquishing the world’s second highest peak in winters and setting a record. However, fate had some cruel surprises in store, as the trio went missing early on Friday, and had not been communicated ever since. And, although the chances of the audacious hikers safe return is near to none, citizens are still hopeful and awaits a miracle. Consequently, prayers for Sadpara’s harmless homecoming have taken over the social giants.
The pride of Pakistan, Ali Sadpara is a mountaineer, who added to Pakistan’s worldwide fame in terms of mountainous record settings, owing to his obsession with peaks and crests. The daring fighter was a member of the squad that successfully achieved the first ever winter summit on Nanga Parbat in 2016, together with international climbers Alex Txikon and Simone Moro.
Ali Sadpara has climbed 8 out of 14 Eight-thousanders of the world so far, followed with an unsuccessful Mount Everest summit without supplement oxygen in 2018.
Moreover, in June 2018, he was enlisted by speed climber Marc Batard to undertake a five year program entitled “Beyond Mount Everest”. They planned to summit Nanga Parbat, K2 and Mount Everest in 2019, 2021 and 2022 respectively. Hence, the climber was onto the aforementioned mission that might have cost him his existence.
K2 summit 2021
Mountaineers Jon Snorri, Ali Sadpara and Juan Pablo Mohr had joined forces to make a summit bid on K2 – the last 8,000 meter peak unclimbed in winter, until a team of 10 Nepali summited earlier this year. As said by Ali Sadpara, ‘K2 belonged to Pakistanis, which is why, Pakistanis, should be the first to climb this peak.’
Hence, holding onto that determination, Ali Sadpara with two others climbed the 8,611-metre K2, the cruelest roof.
Here to mention, Ali Sadpara had summited the peak earlier with his son, however, this was the K2 winter expedition as the mountaintop remains unconquered during winters. Also, the trip was carried out without supplement oxygen, setting up a world record.
The squad departed for their journey on 3rd February, in the wee hours of Wednesday. They had started their attempt for the final summit by the early hours of Friday, hoping to accomplish the herculean feat by Friday afternoon.
Nevertheless, the K2 winter expedition faced a ruthless twist, as the weather conditions became harsh, snow storm hit the pinnacle amid the team’s expected return, and the trio went missing in snow, wiping out any type of communication with base camps.
After a few contactless hours the news of disappearance of Ali Sadpara and fellows surfaced, stirring tension in the camps. As a result, army search operations were directed. On Saturday, 2 helicopters flew to a height of 7,000m to try to locate the missing mountaineers, but to no success.
Since then, three Army search operations have taken place, trying to locate the missing bodies. Nevertheless, as the weather conditions of the locality are continuously shifting from bad to worse, the operations are facing severe limitations. Hence, no clues of Ali Sadpara, John Snorri and Juan Pablo Mohr have yet surfaced.
Ali Sadpara son Javed Sadpara loses hope
Javed Sadpara, son of Ali Sadpara in an interview mentioned the chances of his father’s safe return are near to negligible, as no person can survive the freezing weather for this long, that too at such a height. It is pertinent to mention that Javed had accompanied the trio in their K2 winter adventure initially, but had to turn back 8,200-meters into the journey due to an equipment glitch.
In a conversation with reporters in Skardu, where he arrived earlier on Sunday, Sajid said: “Rescue operations now only make sense if they are carried out to bring back his body. Otherwise, the chance for anyone to survive at 8,000 metres [after being missing for] two to three days are next to none.”
Sajid said that the last time he saw his father was at the bottleneck of K2, at around 8,200-8,300 metres, the most “technical portion” of the climb, at around 11am on Friday.
“I’m sure he summited the peak and was on his way back after which he encountered an accident which is why he is missing,” stated Sajid.
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Twitter wishes Ali Sadpara’s safe return
Although, Ali Sadpara’s family has given on any last bits of hopes they held, citizens have not. Owing to that, Pakistani twitter still prays for Ali and his companions’ harmless return. When some appreciates the legend for making Pakistan proud, others shed light on his fascination to the hiking, mentioning how the plucky fighter might have passed on, accomplishing what he loved the most.
