February 6, 2021
With options for travel few, and Everest closed, alpinist adventurers settled on the idea of a winter assault on K2 which had never been climbed. Some signed on with Seven Summits Trekking., American Colin O'Brady pitched his own effort as a first - like his Antarctica trek and his rowing across the Drake Passage team. [Since his "first" solo crossing of Antarctica I've been following Colin O'Brady on IG - with a bit of skepticism prompted by his shameless self-promotion. It appears that there are a lot of critics. See The problem with Colin O’Brady National Geographic.]
But the glory was taken by a team of ten Sherpas who accomplished the first successful winter climb to the summit of Pakistan's K2 - the world's second highest mountain.
Fortunately he has avoided death on K2. When he got to the Base Camp the ten Sherpa Nepali team had already summited, so no record there. O'Brady, like his climbing partner, Jon Kedrowski @drjonkedski headed to the high Camp 3 (24K feet). But after four hours Kedroski decided it was not to be. Kedrowski retreated safely. O'Brady climbed to Camp 3 - 24,000 feet. Then he too decided not to try to summit. Bulgarian Atanas Skatov @atanasskatovathlete descended an hour earlier but fell to his death, his body recoverd by a Pakistani helicopter.
Alas three other climbers unwisely took the risk. Thirty hours after leaving Camp 3 for the summit their GPS trackers had died, and likely the climbers John Snorri (Iceland), Ali Sadpara (Pakistan), and Juan Pablo “JP” Mohr Prieto (Chile). It now appears that there is no real hope. A Pakistani helicopter was able to get to only 7,000 meters, 3,000 below where the last GPS signal was received. Ali Sadpara's son Sajid - who had turned back when his oxygen regulator failed - has now retreated to camp 1, holding out no real hope for his father and fellow climbers. A rescue mission is underway.
