Alpine club of Pakistan says foreign climbers call off K2 winter expedition

ISLAMABAD: The Alpine Club of Pakistan has said the winter expedition to climb the world’s second highest peak, K2, had officially been called off by foreign climbers due to bad weather.
Last month, a team of 10 from Nepal became the first climbers in history to successfully complete a winter attempt on the summit of K2 — one of last remaining big feats in mountaineering. But what began as a historic season turned deadly last week, after three climbers went missing on K2 on Friday, with hopes of their survival fading rapidly.
Muhammad Ali Sadpara, 45, of Pakistan, John Snorri, 47, of Iceland, and Juan Pablo Mohr, 33, of Chile, were last seen Friday around noon at what is considered the most difficult part of the climb: the Bottleneck, a steep and narrow gully just 300 meters shy of the 8,611 meter (28,251 ft) high K2.
The spot is just above the ceiling of helicopters, which have been searching for nearly five days now. There was no rescue mission on Wednesday because of bad weather.
“All foreign climbers at the K2 base camp have decided to end the K2 winter expedition 2020- 2021 in view of weather conditions,” Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said in a text message.
In a separate message about the missing climbers, he said they had now been missing for more than 90 hours.
“Due to the bad weather, no helicopter search flight for today,” Haidri said, saying rescue and search operations would continue once the weather improved.
It was the missing group’s second attempt at climbing K2 this winter, in a season that has already seen three other climbers die in the area.
Bulgarian Atanas Skatov’s body was picked up by a helicopter on February 5. Officials believe he fell while trying to climb K2.
On the same day that 10 Nepali sherpas became the first people to summit K2 in the winter, Spanish climber Sergio Mingote, 49, died after he fell down a crevasse attempting to make his way down to Base Camp.
In 2008, 11 climbers died on K2 over the course of two days.