Bodies of Three Climbers Killed on K2 in Winter Found
Juan Pablo Mohr, Ali Sadpara and John Snorri went missing during a summit attempt on Feb. 5
The three climbers who had presumably died after going missing on Feb. 5 during an attempt to climb K2 in winter have been located. The bodies of Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara, Iceland’s John Snorri and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr have been found, confirmed Gilgit Baltistan Information Minister Fateh Ullah Khan.
Canadian Elia Saikaly was on K2 this winter when the three climbers went missing, and he’s currently back up at camp four with Sadpara’s son, Sajid, on a sort of recovery mission. The team reached camp four this morning and flew a drone in search of the bodies. The team was able to detect a body above near the bottleneck. There are also reports that rope-fixers helped discover the bodies.
Sajid, 20, was with his father during his father’s final hours high on the world’s second-highest peak, but decided to turn back from the summit push before tragedy struck on Feb. 5. He said that he was out of oxygen when they reached the Bottleneck and that he wasn’t feeling well. He said that his father told him to use the supplementary oxygen that he was carrying.
Sajid was trying to fix the mask regulator, but the oxygen started to leak, so he descended. “I last saw them going up the Bottleneck,” he said. “I left around 12 p.m., and when I reached camp three, it was 5 p.m. I contacted base camp and told them that I reached camp three and that my father and the team are going for the summit. The summit team had no walkie-talkie.” He was advised to descend and made his way down to base camp the following day when a rescue was launched. “I think that they summited,” he said, “and while they were descending, they had an accident, as the wind was very strong at that time.” A rescue mission searched for the climbers, but was called off after a few days.
“I want to go to K2 to know what happened to my father and John Snorri,” said Sajid in a press conference. “A documentary on the life of Jon Snorri and Ali Sadpara is in the making.”
On Jan. 16, 10 Nepalese mountaineers reached the summit of K2 for the first winter ascent. Those climbers were Nirmal Purja, Gelje Sherpa, Mingma David Sherpa, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, Sona Sherpa, Mingma Tenzi Sherpa, Pem Chhiri Sherpa, Dawa Temba Sherpa, Kili Pemba Sherpa and Dawa Tenjing Sherpa.
Two other experienced mountaineers also died on K2 this winter. On Feb. 5, Bulgarian mountaineer Atanas Skatov fell to his death during a summit push. On Feb. 16, Sergi Mingote from Spain died in a fall while descending from camp one. Yesterday, we learned that famed Scottish climber Rick Allen died on K2.
The latest update from Saikaly said, “Sajid just buried Juan Pablo. His father Ali is just above the Bottleneck. We will go up again tonight.” For more updates, visit here. Madison’s team is one of several that will be making a summit push over the next 48 hours.
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