According to Elia Saikaly ‘s Instagram post , Imtiaz and Akbar, the missing climber Ali Sadpara’s cousin and nephew, arrived at basecamp a little more than 24 hours ago to take part in recue operation.
Muhammad Ali Sadpara has been missing for three days along with his two foreign companions: John Snorri from Iceland and JP Mohr from Chile.
“Both (are) incredibly talented Pakistani climbers who have summited K2,” Elia remarked.
According to the Instagram post:
It was an emotional arrival just after dark as Sajid, who turned back at the bottleneck due to an oxygen failure, returned alive after a monumental descent to basecamp without his Father Ali.
Imtiaz and and Akbar are heading up K2 today, boots on the hill, by their own will, to see if they can possibly locate John, Ali and JP.
Imtiaz said: “Ali is a brother to us. A hero for Pakistan. We will climb as high as we can within our limits. There is hope, but we know the reality of the mountain, especially in winter.”
Akbar then said: “When Ali left basecamp, he had the Pakistani flag with him. Everytime he climbs, he has the mountain close to his chest, Pakistan is in his veins and blood. He’s our hero.”
These brave men are volunteers, who chose to undertake this mission. They know the mountain better than anyone and tell us they’ll respect the mountain, the weather and their limits.
