Kyrgyzstan mission to rescue stranded Russian climber suspended

An aerial view taken from a commercial plane shows Tian Shan Range in Kyrgyzstan. Photo / Getty Images

A search for a Russian climber stranded on Kyrgyzstan’s highest mountain has been suspended due to severe weather, the Central Asian country’s authorities say.

Natalia Nagovitsyna broke her leg climbing the 7,439m Victory Peak while she was at an altitude of about 7000m and has been stranded in the mountains for 11 days.

An Italian climber, Luca Sinigaglia, died on August 15 trying to save her.

Italian rescuers went to the scene to try to recover his body using a helicopter, according to the Italian foreign ministry.

The operation launched to rescue Nagovitsyna, who turned 48 on August 20, according to Russian media, has so far been unsuccessful.

A rescue helicopter crashed in the mountains and a group of climbers had to stop their ascent when their leader becoming seriously ill, according to Kyrgyz authorities.

On Sunday, “weather conditions deteriorated sharply, so all rescue operations have been suspended”, the spokesman for the Kyrgyz emergency situations ministry, Adil Chargynov, told Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

Temperatures are currently hovering around -30C at night at the summit of Victory Peak, accompanied by gusts of wind and snowstorms, according to a source at the ministry quoted by Russian news agency TASS.

According to Chargynov, “all climbers, all experts share the view that she is unfortunately no longer alive”.

“We know where she is. But it’s impossible to get there,” Dmitry Grekov, head of the Victory Peak base camp, told TASS.

According to him, “no one has ever been evacuated” from such an altitude of the mountain.

“It’s impossible to do it manually, only by helicopter, and we don’t have such helicopters in Kyrgyzstan.”

Nagovitsyna’s husband Sergei died of a stroke in 2021 while climbing Khan Tengri (7010m), the highest peak in Kazakhstan, also in Central Asia, Russian media reported.

- Agence France-Presse