Overall, there are three fully serviced expeditions on K2 and Broad Peak — Karakorum Expeditions, Madison Mountaineering, and Pioneer Adventure. The last two count on fixed ropes and strong Sherpa climbers. In addition, some independent climbers and smaller groups have hired local logistical support until Base Camp.

Meanwhile, Sajid Sadpara is in Urdukas with Elia Saikaly, filming the second part of a documentary about the fate of John Snorri and the Sadparas’ winter K2 attempt.

Soon, they too will begin their search for the remains of the missing climbers.

The understandable personal interest of relatives and friends and professional interests for future documentaries aside, the likeliest to find the bodies are those who reach Camp 3 and beyond first, that is, the rope-fixing teams.

What if the bodies are found?

When ExplorersWeb asked Garrett Madison what he would do if his team found the bodies of the missing climbers, he didn’t hesitate.

“Our objective is to climb the mountain and we are not deviating from our route,” he said.

“However, if we came across any deceased climber, of course, we would immediately report it to the [liaison officer] and the authorities and we would wait for their instructions.”

“Yes, I would like to find them, mainly because the families need to close that sad chapter,” Jordi Tosas said.

“But for that reason, the first thing we would do is inform the families and ask what we should do.”

Tosas added: “But it’s not just that. We don’t know what we might find, where, and in what state. We have no resources to perform a retrieval operation with any guarantees.”

Tosas has experience with this sort of delicate situation. He has been on K2 before, climbing the Magic Line.

Back then, his Spanish team discovered the remains of Renato Casarotto, lost in 1986 somewhere on the Magic Line. They found him at the Filippo Glacier near Base Camp.

“We found half his body buried in the glacier ice,” Tosas said.

The team contacted Casarotto’s fiancé in Italy. Following her instructions, they moved him and buried him at Casarotto’s memorial farther down. “We didn’t share the details back then, but in fact, it took us two days to free the remains from the ice,” Tosas said.

“We had to melt around it with warm water.”

Finally, Tosas expressed some doubts about finding anything of the missing mountaineers.

Mountain conditions change dramatically between winter and summer, he pointed out.

“The large crevasse right above Camp 3 may have changed, or fresh snow might have partly closed it,” he said.

“Winter conditions are usually drier.”

Source: Angela Benavides – EXPLORERSWEB