ISLAMABAD: The body of legendary Pakistani mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara has been found just below the infamous Bottleneck feature of K2, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) information minister Fatehullah Khan confirmed on Monday.
Talking to a private news channel, GB’s information minister said that the bodies of Mohammad Ali Sadpara and John Snorri were recovered. “Three bodies of the missing climbers were spotted from binoculars at 9:00 am today and it will take some days to bring the bodies to the base camp through Pakistan Army helicopters,” he said.
Khan added that Sadpara’s body was identified from the black-and-yellow suit he wore during the winter summit. Meanwhile, Muhammad Ali’s son, Sajid Sadpara, has also confirmed the development.
Sajid Sadpara, along with Canadian filmmaker Elia Saikaly and Pasang Kaji Sherpa, is on a trek to find the bodies of his father, Snorri, and Mohr. The team reached Camp 4 this morning and flew a drone around the area in search of the bodies, sources said.
Apart from Sajid, Sherpa and Saikaly the team also includes Fazal Ali and Aziz Baig. The last Instagram update made by Saikaly two days back said that they had begun their “final search and summit attempt”
Earlier, several mountaineering blogs also reported that Ali Sadpara’s body has been found. “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 broke the news.
The body of legendary Pakistani mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara seems to have found just below bottleneck, according to the sources at Base Camp. #K22021
— Everest Today (@EverestToday) July 26, 2021
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 Twitter.
#Breaking #news #K2
The death body of late legendary climber national hero Muhammad ali Sadpra below 300m from botalneck.
Rest in peace ????#k2 alisadpar #heroes #RIP #Mountain— Alpine Adventure Guides (@Alpine_Pakistan) July 26, 2021
Sadpara declared dead
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’.
Sadpara, Snorri and Juan Pablo went missing on K2 on February 5 while attempting an unprecedented winter ascent without supplemental oxygen. K2 had never been scaled in winter until only last month when a Nepalese team accomplished the feat.
The trio was last seen near Bottleneck – the most treacherous trek of K2 – by Sajid Sadpara, who was also part of the expedition but had to give up after his oxygen tank malfunctioned.
Sajid Sadpara to summit K2
Last month, Ali Sadpara’s son Sajid had announced that he will be summiting the K2 once again to make a documentary on his father and also to locate his dead body.
“I want to go to K2 to know what happened to my father and John Snorri,” said Sajid in a press conference as he announced his plans to start climbing the world’s second-tallest mountain from tomorrow.
“A documentary on the life of Jon Snorri and Ali Sadpara is in the making. [I hope] go to K2 to search [the dead body] and make a documentary,” said Sajid, adding that it may take him and his team 40 to 45 days to summit the peak.
