Experienced mountaineer Natalia Nagovitsina, 47, has been stuck on Victory Peak in Kyrgyzstan for at least 10 days, as temperatures have sunk to lows of -23C.
Victory Peak, also known as Jengish Chokusu or Pik Pobedy, is Kyrgyzstan’s highest mountain at 24,406 ft, and is located in the Tian Shan range, on the Kyrgyzstan–China border near Lake Issyk-Kul.
Drone footage from three days ago show Nagovitsina moving about on the rock, as a sleeping bag was delivered to her by Italian climber Luca Sinigaglia.
To help her ride out the weather, the 49-year-old brought her a tent, as well as food supplies, water and a gas cooker.
After bringing her the supplies, sadly Sinigaglia passed away from prolonged exposure to low oxygen and hypothermia.
Russian mountaineer Natalia Nagovitsina, 47, has been stuck on Victory Peak in Kyrgyzstan for ten days (east2west)
“He carried out an act of great courage. He would never have left anyone behind, and especially not Natalia, with whom he had survived an experience that made them very close,” said Sinigaglia’s sister Patrizia, according to The Times.
His body was recovered from an ice cave where he was said to have collapsed from exhaustion.
“It was an action to be proud of that unfortunately did not allow him to return to us. But that was Luca,” Sinigaglia added.
Nagovitsina was seen moving about in drone footage earlier this week (east2west)
Other attempts to rescue Nagovitsina, both via climbing and helicopter pursuit, have failed after defence ministry helicopter Mi-8 crashed, while another chopper was forced to fly back down due to the bad weather.
It comes after the latest search for the woman was called off, according to Dmitry Grekov, rescue leader and head of base camp.
Grekov said that mountaineer Vitaly Akimov – who was in charge of a team seeking to rescue Nagovitsina – had to abandon the mission because he was suffering from back pain after the helicopter crash.
The experienced climber has reportedly been trapped since she broke her leg (east2west)
When asked she is likely to be alive, Grekov replied: “I think not, because she has been there since 12 August – count how much time has passed.
“It is unrealistic. It is unrealistic to survive at such an altitude.”
It comes after the Russian Mountaineering Federation said a rescue mission would be a ‘miracle’.
Alexander Pyatnitsyn, the federation’s vice president, said: “It will be almost impossible to save her.
“There’s a three-kilometre-long ridge, and it takes at least 30 people in such a situation to rescue a person from there.”
Featured Image Credit: EAST2WEST
