K2 (archive photo)
Photo:
HO / REUTERS
Three climbers are missing on the second highest mountain in the world, K2.
The expedition leader and the Pakistani mountain sports club have announced this.
Mountaineers John Snorri from Iceland, Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile and Muhammad Ali Sadpara from Pakistan reportedly lost contact with the base camp on Friday.
"More than 30 hours have already passed, we (in base camp) have not received any messages from John Snorri, Ali Sadpara and Juan Pablo Mohr because none of the GPS trackers seem to be working," the expedition leader announced on Twitter.
An army helicopter was looking for the missing climbers.
"Unfortunately, they can't find anything and the conditions up in the mountain and even in the base camp are getting worse and worse."
In the past few weeks, three mountaineers have already died trying to climb K2.
On January 16, a team of ten Nepalese Sherpas managed to reach the summit in winter for the first time.
The 8,611-meter-high mountain near the Pakistani-China border was previously the only one of the 14 eight-thousanders in the world that had never been climbed in winter.
The K2 is considered to be far more demanding than the almost 8,849 meter high Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
Reasons include the steep route and the danger of avalanches.
The wind reaches speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, the temperatures drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius.
So far, only around 300 people have climbed K2.
Icon: The mirror
ply / AFP / dpa