Climber’s son announces search for Sadpara’s body on K2

Islamabad: More than four months after the death of mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara during a winter expedition on K2, his climber son has announced the launch of a hunt for the body on the world’s second highest mountain after Everest.

The government had formally declared Mohammad Ali Sadpara and accompanying Jon Snorri of Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile dead two weeks after they went missing on the ‘killer mountain’ on February 5. The search for them by climbers, meteorologists and Pakistan Army’s experts was called off due to bad weather.

“It has been four months and a half since tragedy stuck my father on K2. I know he’s not alive. Though grateful to the virtual base camp that used technologies, I won’t begin to understand to look for him from afar. Now, it is my turn – to go back and see for myself. To trace those last steps,” Sajid Sadpara told reporters at the National Press Club on Thursday.

The 22-year-old, who accompanied his father on the expedition but returned to Camp One after the oxygen regulator failed, said he didn’t know what happened to the three climbers but it was possible that they summited or returned before the summit and one of them got

injured on descent. “Maybe bad weather came in and all three took shelter. Maybe something worse – but speculation does not help. My father is with the Almighty Allah, now. He is safe,” he said.

Sajid, the youngest person to summit K2 (8,611 meters) in summer 2019 at the age of 20, said he wanted to re-trace those last steps – to see what his father might have seen. “To see if he [my father] left any signs for me to follow. If there is anything he wants me to know. John kept a journal of all hiding places he would go to if bad weather set in to bivouac and he’s meticulous at planning them. I will go and search all these places with Canadian filmmaker Elia Saikaly and high-altitude porter Fazal Ali.”