Families despair as weather halts Pakistan search for K2 climbers
K2, the world’s second-highest peak, is displayed on a cellphone in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Feb. 9, 2021.
(Anjum Naveed / Associated Press)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
Families of the three mountaineers who went missing in Pakistan last week while attempting to scale K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, grew more desperate Tuesday, a day after bad weather halted the search for the climbers.
Hopes for the survival of the three Pakistani climber Ali Sadpara, Jon Snorri of Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile were waning as heavy clouds continued to obscure K2.
Pakistani military helicopters were grounded. They waited for an opening in the weather but were unable to resume the search Tuesday, said Karrar Haidri, head of the Pakistan Alpine Club.
ISLAMABAD
A group of foreign mountaineers ended their plans to try and scale the treacherous K2 mountain in Pakistan, the world’s second highest peak, because of bad weather, a mountaineering official said Wednesday.
The decision came after three climbers went missing last week and a subsequent search to find them hasn’t been successful.
Karrar Haidri, Pakistan Alpine Club secretary, said the decision to cancel was made by Chhang Dawa Sherpa, who heads Seven Summit Treks expedition company, and was the leader of a group that planned to attempt a winter ascent of K2.
Haidri said the decision was Sherpa’s and there was no government ban on winter expeditions. He said some mountaineers were still on the mountain.
Hopes faded Wednesday for three climbers lost on Pakistan's brutal K2 as bad weather halted search operations on the world's second highest mountain. "No search operation has been carried out since yesterday afternoon," Raja Nasir Ali Khan, the tourism minister in Gilgit-Baltistan where K2 is located, told AFP Wednesday.