Pakistan: son finds his father's body on the second highest mountain on earth

Mountaineers in the Karakoram Mountains (archive image)

Photo: WOLFGANG RATTAY / REUTERS

At the beginning of the year, Sajid Ali wanted to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world, with a group of mountaineers.

His father and two other men were killed.

Now the son has found the bodies of the men when he climbed the mountain again with a search team.

The Pakistani tour operator organization (Pato) confirmed on Tuesday that the bodies of mountaineers who had disappeared three months ago had been found.

The men are Sajid Ali's father, Muhammad Ali Sadpara, as well as Mohr Prieto from Chile and John Snorri from Iceland.

Sajid Ali and his team discovered the bodies of the three climbers at an altitude of around 8,000 meters in a steep section called the Bottleneck and, according to the tour operator organization, were able to clearly identify them.

Army helicopters and members of other expeditions would join Ali and his team on Tuesday in an attempt to recover the bodies, said Karrar Haidri of the Pakistani Alpine Club.

However, at the height it is almost impossible to dig a body out of the snow, Pato said.

The relatives may be asked to bury the deceased on the mountain.

The 8,611 meter high Mount Godwin Austen, also known as K2, is located in the Karakoram Mountains in northern Pakistan on the border with China.

It is considered extremely difficult by mountaineers.

An ascent in winter is an additional challenge.

It was only in January that a team of ten Nepalese Sherpas managed to climb the eight-thousander for the first time in history.

zob / dpa