The helicopters of Pakistan army have returned back to Sakardu on remaining unsuccessful to navigate traces at the height of 7000m of lost climbers including Ali Sadpara and two other climbers who were returning back to the base camp after acing K2 in winter.
In a tweet, Waqas Johar the Assistant Commissioner Shigar, Gilgit-Baltistan, has confirmed that no success of finding the missing mountaineers is achieved so far and the weather conditions are worsening with the passage of time too.
The two Pak Army helicopters have returned to skardu after doing search operation at k2 . They have found no clues . Weather condition is not good at k2. Sajjid sadpara is descending from camp 2. #k2winterexpedition2021
— waqas johar (@waqas_johar) February 6, 2021
Sadpara, Snorri, Prieto succeed acing K2 in winter
A three-male mountaineers team including Muhammad Ali Sadpara, John Snorri from Iceland and Jp Mohr Prieto from Chile aced K2 peaking 8,711m in winter on Friday.
According to the sources, one of the Bulgarian climbers ended up dying during the descending journey whereas out of 22 mountain-climbers, only three managed to climb successfully the peak of K2 in winters.
The successful climbers inform the sources of having started the journey of climbing the most technical part of the mountain from the midnight of Thursday.
Moreover, Muhammad Ali Sadpara along with his son Sahid Sadpara among the 22 climbers initiated the ascending journey from the base camp on Wednesday.
As the climbers arrived at camp 2 on Wednesday evening, they stayed for a night and then continued the journey from Thursday morning to reach camp 3 till the evening.
As per the statement released by the expedition, Muhammad Ali Sadpara, his son Sajid Sadpara, John Snorri from Iceland and one climber from SST, Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto of Chile, left their camp for the final climbing mission at midnight between Thursday and Friday, aspiring to reach the peak in next 14 hours.
However, the 18 members of the SST climbers during the ascending decided to withdraw the expedition.
After spending Thursday night at camp 3, they started descending on Friday morning to the base camp.
Furthermore, the team leader of the SST expedition, Chhang Dawa Sherpa added that the weather remained quite favourable till the early morning of Friday.
Bulgarian Climber's death
In addition, all climbers returned safely to the base camp except the Bulgarian climber who lost his life while descending k2.
The news of the second death of a foreigner during the time period of the last three weeks got ascertained on Friday by the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP).
“Bulgarian climber Atanas Skatov fell to his death and came to rest in an inaccessible place near Camp 2. A rescue helicopter has taken his body, together with his fiancée, who was in Base Camp, back to Skardu,” said Karrar Haidri.
“Atanas Skatov was climbing with his Sherpa and was a few metres ahead when his safety rope snapped,” he said.