Sherpas find body of legendary Ali Sadpara, two others on K2

Bodies found below infamous Bottleneck feature on ‘Killer Mountain’ by a rope fixing team

KARACHI:

Sherpas have found the bodies of three mountaineers including that of Pakistan’s celebrated mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara, who went missing on K2, the world’s second highest peak, earlier this year.

“The bodies of 3 lost mountaineers have been found below the Bottleneck on K2. The bodies have been recognised by a rope fixing team,” Alpine Club of Pakistan said in a statement on Monday.

The difficult task is to bring them back, it said, adding that the government of Pakistan is helping through army aviation in this connection.

“Hopefully tomorrow army helicopter will fly to bring the bodies down through sling operation. John Snorii’s body will be move to Iceland as requested by Lina Pablo family.”

“The body of legendary Pakistani mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara seems to have been found just below Bottleneck, according to sources at Base Camp. #K22021,” Everest Today, a mountain blog with over 44,000 followers on Twitter, broke the news earlier today.

Alpine Adventure Guides also confirmed the development. “The dead body of [the] late legendary climber [and] national hero Muhammad Ali Sadpara [has been found] below 300m from Bottleneck. Rest in peace,” it wrote on the microblogging site.

It added that two more bodies were also spotted at “Camp 4 below 300m from Bottleneck”, which is known as the most treacherous trek of K2.

G-B Information Minister Fatahullah Khan also confirmed that the body found earlier today is of Sadpara, according to a private TV channel.

Muhammad Ali Sadpara, along with two colleagues – John Snorri Sigurjónsson from Iceland, and Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto from Chile – were declared dead on Feb 18, nearly two weeks after they went missing on the ‘Savage Mountain’.

The trio had lost contact with Base Camp on Feb 5 while attempting an unprecedented winter ascent without supplemental oxygen. K2, nicknamed the ‘Killer Mountain’, had never been scaled in winter until a Nepalese team accomplished the feat less than a month before the Sadpara expedition.

Ali Sadpara’s son, Sajid Sadpara, who was accompanying the three, had to withdraw after his oxygen regulator malfunctioned and he returned to Base Camp. He is confident the trio had scaled K2 and might have met an accident while descending.

Quoting sources at the Base Camp, Everest Today says that legendary Sadpara’s body was spotted by Madison Mountaineering sherpas “just above CIV on K2 w/ black and yellow suit”.

In an another tweet earlier in the day it said that “Elia Saikaly, Sajid Sadpara among many others reached CIV on K2 (8611m) today. Multiple summits expected tomorrow. #K22021”.

There is no official confirmation of the development thus far.

However, Sadpara’s son tweeted two days back that he was hopeful of finding a trace and answers.

“We have started our climb again. Will resume search, both physical and by drones; above 8000m and beyond bottleneck. I am hopeful of finding a trace and answers #MissionSadpara #K2Search,” he wrote on his Twitter handle.

Winds on K2's peak can blow at more than 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour) and temperatures drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit).

With Pakistan's borders open and with few other places to go, this winter an unprecedented four teams totalling around 60 climbers have converged on the mountain, more than all previous expeditions put together.

Unlike Mount Everest, which has been topped by thousands of climbers young and old, K2 is much less travelled.