After Everest, Pakistan's Samina Baig set to conquer K2

Renowned Pakistani mountaineers Samina Baig and Sajid Sadpara, son of legendary Ali Sadpara, were among climbers expected to scale K2 — the world’s second tallest mountain — on Tuesday.

Baig, the first Pakistani female mountaineer to summit Mount Everest, is now determined to wave the green flag on the 8,611-metre high K2.

She also holds the honour of scaling the seven highest peaks in the world, known as the Seven Summits.

Baig's six-member expedition team has been sponsored by the Special Communication Organisation, which is supervising the campaign titled 'SCO K2 Dream'.

Read more: Scottish climber dies while attempting to summit K2

“K2 is definitely one of the toughest mountains in the world,” Baig told Arab News in an interview ahead of leaving for the climb. “Many people have lost their lives on its slopes. Most recently, we lost our colleague [Muhammad] Ali [Sadpara] Bhai. But this is all part of life. It is part of the game.”

Everest Today, a mountain blog with over 44,000 followers on Twitter, said that Sajid and other climbers had reached the Camp-4 of K2.

The son of legendary Ali Sadpara had tweeted his picture a couple of days ago from Camp-2.

Sajid and Canadian filmmaker Elia Saikaly are also searching for Sadpara, who went missing along with Iceland’s John Snorri and Chilean Juan Pablo Mohr while attempting to summit the peak in February.

The trio had lost contact with Base Camp on Feb 5 while attempting an unprecedented winter ascent without supplemental oxygen. K2, nicknamed the ‘Killer Mountain’, had never been scaled in winter until a Nepalese team accomplished the feat less than a month before the Sadpara expedition.

“We have started our climb again. Will resume search, both physical and by drones; above 8000m and beyond bottleneck. I am hopeful of finding a trace and answers #MissionSadpara #K2Search,” Sajid wrote on his Twitter handle on Saturday.

Also read: Sherpas find body presumed to be of legendary Sadpara on K2

Sherpas seem to have found the body of Ali Sadpara, a mountaineering blog reported earlier, though there is no official confirmation yet.

“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 said.

Quoting sources at the Base Camp, Everest Today says that legendary Sadpara’s body was spotted by Madison Mountaineering sherpas “just above CIV on K2 w/ black and yellow suit”.

Winds on K2's peak can blow at more than 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour) and temperatures drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit).

With Pakistan's borders open and with few other places to go, this winter an unprecedented four teams totalling around 60 climbers have converged on the mountain, more than all previous expeditions put together.

Unlike Mount Everest, which has been topped by thousands of climbers young and old, K2 is much less travelled.

On Sunday, Scottish climber Rick Allen has died while attempting to summit the world's second-highest peak.

Allen was killed after being hit by an avalanche while attempting a new route on the mountain over the weekend. His body was recovered on Sunday evening.

"After consulting with his family and friends, the legend will be buried this morning under the foot of Mighty K2," Karakorum Expeditions wrote on Facebook Monday.

A charity that Allen was raising money for during the climb also confirmed his death.

Allen's death comes a week after South Korea's Kim Hong-bin was killed after falling into a crevasse while descending from the nearby Broad Peak.