An old video of Pakistani mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara singing Tum Chalay Ao has gone viral on social media. In the video, the brave mountaineer can be seen singing, clapping and dancing to the song with his friends in a camp.
Sadpara, who had embarked on a mission to summit K2 in the winters with Iceland’s John Snorri and Chile’s JP Mohr went missing on Friday.
Sadpara’s son Sajid Ali Sadpara on Sunday told the media that the chances of the mountaineers’ survival are very low. Efforts to locate the missing climbers are ongoing since Saturday but have been unsuccessful due to poor weather conditions.
Talking to the reporters in Skardu, Sajid had said: “Rescue operations now only make sense if they are carried out to bring back the bodies. Otherwise, the chances for anyone to survive after being missing for two to three days at 8,000 meters are very bleak.”
However, Sajid is convinced that his father summited the peak.
“My father has the experience of summiting all the mountains,” wrote Sajid on Twitter. “I saw him near the K2 mountain last time. I am sure he has summited K2.”
“On the way back, there were gusty winds that might have caused a problem,” he added.
Later, Sajid also shared a picture of himself before leaving for a rescue mission on the third day.
Gilgit Baltistan’s Home Secretary Muhammad Ali Randhawa also shared pictures taken of the K2 on the Pakistan Army Aviation Helicopters during the search operation.
Meanwhile, Alpine Club of Pakistan secretary Karrar Haider told AFP that “a second helicopters’ search found no sign of missing climbers”.
He added that the helicopters’ crew traced the route up to a height of 7,000 metres (23,000 feet).
Chhang Dawa Sherpa, their expedition manager, said he was part of one search team trying to trace the mountaineers.
“The search team went through the Abruzzi and other routes, we had less weather visibility above C 4 (camp 4), unfortunately, no trace at all,” Sherpa said in a statement.
Bad weather today (Monday) forced Pakistan Army helicopters to temporarily halt their search for three mountaineers. The officials are uncertain about when weather conditions would improve enough for it to resume again.
Conditions on K2 are harsh: winds can blow at more than 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour) and temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit). Unlike Mount Everest, which has been scaled by thousands of climbers young and old, K2 is much less travelled due to its tough conditions.
Earlier on Saturday Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis, Zulfi Bukhari had said that Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa have expressed their concern over the missing climbers and are personally monitoring all developments.
