Five people are killed on Elbrus, Russia’s highest mountain. Apparently the participants of the hiking tour weren’t particularly fit. The tour guides are held responsible
The problems would have started on a rope railing on the descent. “The weather deteriorated rapidly, the air pressure fell, with a wind speed of 70 meters per second, fine, dusty snow chased us in our faces,” said mountain guide Anton Nikiforow. “People began to go blind, my colleague couldn’t see anything after half an hour, I was down on the saddle.” With these words, Nikiforov was already sitting in a Moscow TV studio, with a face disfigured by dark red frost wounds and a sense of guilt.
Last Thursday on Elbrus, the 5642 high summit mountain of the Caucasus, a group of 15 recreational mountaineers: indoor climbers and four mountain guides got into a snow storm at minus 20 degrees, five people died, eleven ended up in hospital with frostbite. The disaster sparked a national debate about causes and responsible. The state television hosted a special broadcast of the talk show “Pust Goworit”. In the end, Nikiforov pleaded with mountain tourist Dmitri Parachin, who was also marked by frost, for forgiveness for the death of his wife Irina Galtschuk.
The Russian Investigation Committee has now opened criminal proceedings for “negligence in a service that resulted in the death of two or more people”. Nikiforov’s boss Denis Alimov, owner of the company “Elbrus Guide”, was arrested, he is said to have already confessed.
The newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” quoted a statement that “Elbrus Guide” had its customers sign before the summit storm: “You agree that your stay at altitudes of over 3000 meters can lead to injuries or death.” Local disaster control officer Albert Hadschiev criticized Alimov: “The weather forecast was bad, we warned everyone. Other groups renounced an ascent, these did not. “
The Elbrus: Since there is no clear marine border between Europe and Asia, the allocation of the Elbrus to Europe or Asia is controversial. There are several different definitions of the boundary. Mountaineers like to call Elbrus the highest mountain in Europe, but if the mountain is included in Asia, Mont Blanc, at 4809 meters, would be on top of the podium. In Asia, behind the high peaks of the Himalayas and the Karakoram Mountains, the Elbrus would even fall far short of the top 100. The Elbrus with the higher of its double summit and 5642 meters is definitely the highest point in the Caucasus and Russia. ansi
However, that night at least two other groups started for the Elbrus summit. The highest mountain in Russia is very popular. Also because it can be “hiked” without climbing passages. According to the Mountaineering Association of Russia, the number of people tackling the summit has doubled in recent years to around 15,000.
A guided Elbrus tour can be booked for the equivalent of 500 euros. Most of the providers are pushing preparation and ascent for an eight-day short vacation, although the Elbrus-experienced mountain tourist Natalja Rutkowskaja told our newspaper that at least 14 days of acclimatization were required for 5600 meters.
Mountaineers consider the Elbrus to be unpredictable; weather changes and crevasses lurk. Above all, the low-oxygen altitude can lead not only to dizziness and nausea, but also to a life-threatening increase in pressure in the brain. The Elbrus is not a roller coaster where deaths only occur if the organizer is a bitch, but a force of nature, says mountaineer Kiril Filtschenkow the channel “TV Doschd”. “Anyone who goes there cannot hand over responsibility for their own life to any leader.”
On the day of the accident, a young woman was already feeling sick on the ascent, a mountain guide returned with her. But she could no longer stand on her feet, lost consciousness and died. Others in the group apparently weakened too, the group took about ten hours to the summit, and the storm caught up with them on the descent. A man broke his leg, four other participants could no longer stand on their feet and froze to death, including Irina Galtschuk.
Mountain guide Nikiforow had left the dying woman with his colleague Taulan Kipkejew to bring others into the valley. “We had no right to leave those who lay helpless and groaning in the snow,” Kipkeev complained on the talk show. “But we couldn’t leave those alone who could still walk either.”
Galtchuk’s husband Parachin nevertheless refused to forgive Nikiforov for the death of his wife. Although it later turned out in the program that she had left for Elbrus despite suffering from asthma.
