Update: I don’t like to report this as unverified, but a rescue is reported underway.
John Snorri’s team was last reported at Camp 3 around 23,760’/7200m but their Garmin GPS tracker showed them at Camp 2 at 22,110’/6700m. After the significant promotion of his and the lauded Pakistani climber Muhammad Ali Sadpara and his son Sajid Ali , they and their home team have gone silent.
Muhammad Ali Sadpara is said to have accurate posts, but there are reported fakes out there and we are hearing nothing from Snorri so take all “official” and “unofficial” updates cautiously:
Wind is catching up. The team is at 6831m waiting out the weather and assessing the situation. More updates to come. They haven’t decided to go down yet!
My personal opinion is they are at C2, trapped by high winds and figuring out how to down climb – not go to the summit.
There are many reasons for their potential dealy. They could be headed down and turn their tracker off for all we really know. They could be trapped by high winds, as was reported by their home team. The batteries could have expired on their GPS tracker and/or Sat phone to give updates, which is hard to believe for such a team. Or sadly something is going on they want to keep quiet until the end result is clear. Finally, they could have turned all the electronics off, to remove any outside pressure – something I would fully understand.
They left Base Camp on Saturday planning to top out on Monday, January 25, 2021, around 9 am. But were last reported to be holding at C3 (or C2) according to their home team’s social media but their GPS showed C2. At least one person, Sajid Ali Sadpara is not using supplemental oxygen, however, he said he would carry a bottle just in case.
The team includes John Snorri Sigurjonsson with Muhammad Ali Sadpara and his son Sajid Ali Climb On! Wishing the best.
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
Resources:
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- A 30-minute documentary of Alan’s 2014 K2 Summit
- Known GPS Trackers:
- The traditional K2 Camp locations are:
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- Base Camp: 17,500ft/5334m
- Advanced Base Camp: 18,650ft/5650m
- Camp 1: 19,965’/6050m
- Camp 2: 22,110’/6700m
- Camp 3: 23,760’/7200m
- Camp 4: 25,080’/7600m
- Summit: 28,251”/8611
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8 thoughts on “Winter K2 Update: Snorri Summit Push Status Unknown”
Thanks Alan for keep us with the latest even if not confirmed. I hope they are safe.
John Snorri’s garmin message reports the team all safely back at BC.
They decent from 9:22Am 6831m (just above “normal” C2) to ABC 13:57, 4,5 ours, quite fast. There they rested, now the tracker is moving from ABC to BC. Another acclimatization round. Weather forecast show low summit winds on Friday, but partly clouded. To catch this window, you should leave BC tomorrow, and reach C4 Thursday. I think for team John not an option, since he used a lot of energy for this attempt. Maybe some other SST climbers will make a bid?
They have to catch camp 3 ASAP, and wait for good weather window, most important K2 want speed once they get any good weather window, they should go for submitt, speed really matters
It looks like Snorri descended from where they were at 6800m to the base of K2 in 3h from his tracker. Is this very fast? I hope it’s the three of them together safe.
Just checked (Dublin Republic of Ireland), Over 20 minutes GPS trackers has descended.
currently the tracker is coming down, altitude right now is just above camp 1. Hopefully they can return to BC safely.
Thank you, Alan, for all the updates. I hope they are okay and safe.
By the way, for you to know your audience: I’m a Belarusian girl living in China, who started climbing mountains not so long ago and you are a great inspiration for me! I read all of your articles, thank you so much for your work. Climb on!
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