ISLAMABAD: The search for three climbers who went missing in the Kashmir valley has ended unsuccessfully.

The last search and rescue effort was mounted after Eidul Azha. The team expanded their search area and also searched for the missing climbers near another mountain. The search party hoped that the climbers had perhaps decided to attempt a different peak.

“This has been the longest search effort carried out to satisfy the families of the missing climbers. Nobody can help now. Winter has set in and there has been more snowfall. If required, the search will begin again next summer after the snow has melted,” Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) president Col Manzoor Hussain said.

Professional rock climber Imran Junaidi and two others, Usman Khalid and Khurram Shehzad, were making an attempt to climb a 6,326 metre Serwali peak in the Kashmir valley. They had reached 4,700 metres, which is where they last reported back to base from. 

The expedition left Islamabad on August 22, according to sponsors. On August 26 the group headed up from base camp, and remained in contact until August 31.

From the advance camp, the climbers reported that they would likely lose contact as they were going behind the mountain. They also informed base camp that they would return on September 4.

However, seven days later the three climbers were reported missing, and a search operation was launched. The communication gear carried by the climbers, such as walkie talkies, were ineffective in the area.

As part of the search operation, army helicopter pilots performed four sorties for two consecutive days and flew six to seven hours without spotting the missing climbers or clues that could help trace their location.

The APC president and veteran mountaineer explained that a climber could survive four to five hours after falling into a crevasse or being buried under an avalanche. 

“Heat escaped the body quickly in sub-zero temperatures, and a climber has an hour – maybe two – to get out of the cold, hostile environment and find warmth to survive,” Col Hussain said. 

He said that Serwali was no easy peak to climb. APC had sent an expedition in 2003 that returned unsuccessfully.

“Imran Junaidi was the only experienced climber. The other two were possibly not as well prepared to take on such a difficult challenge,” he said. 

The APC has speculated that the climbers disappeared in an avalanche. One of the rescue teams reported that there is evidence of a fresh avalanche at the site where the climbers reported their last position.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2015

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