Three lost climbers who were attempting to summit K2 are believed to be dead, a Pakistani official in the northern town of Skardu said on Thursday. 

Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara, Jon Snorri of Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile were reported missing on February 5 while attempting a winter ascent of the world's second-highest mountain.

"Weather experts, climbers, and experts from the Pakistan army have reached the conclusion that a human being cannot live for that long in such harsh weather," said Raja Nasir Ali Khan, the minister for tourism in the Pakistani province of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Khan said on Twitter that authorities had been unable to trace the climbers through the helicopter's aerial footage. 

A search for the missing climbers was called off last week due to clouds, strong winds and snow, which made search-and-rescue operations too dangerous. Khan said the search for bodies would continue. 

What did the families say? 

Sadpara's son, Sajid, told reporters that he appreciated the authorities' efforts to try to find the mountaineers. He had started the climb with the group, but turned around after his oxygen tanks failed.

"I believe they scaled it but had an accident while coming down,'' Sadpara added.

A statement from the families of Snorri and Mohr also thanked the search and rescue teams, and said based on the last contact from Snorri's phone, they are "confident that all three men made it to the top of K2 and something happened on the descent.''

'The savage mountain' 

The 8,611-meter (28,251-foot) K2 mountain is subject to harsh conditions that have made it less popular with climbers than Mount Everest.

Located in the Karakorum mountain range on the China-Pakistan border,  K2 is known among climbers as "the savage mountain," due to the potential for unpredictably changing weather. 

The Pakistani military had said the recuse mission faced "extremely challenging conditions."

Temperatures on K2 can be as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit), and winds can blow at over 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour.

Dozens of mountaineers have tried to reach the K2 summit and set a record this winter, as the Pakistani borders remained open during the coronavirus pandemic. 

In January, a team of Nepali mountaineers completed the first-ever known winter ascent of K2.

fb/wmr (AFP, AP)