The President of the Mountaineering Federation of the KBR believes that the tragedy with the death of tourists could be repeated

by time news

An international-class rescuer who has twice ascended Everest from the south and north Abdulkhalim Elmezov commented to Kommersant on the death of five tourists on Elbrus. According to him, the Emergencies Ministry does not have the authority to restrict visits to the mountain when the weather worsens, which is why the tragedy may repeat itself more than once.

“Now in the Elbrus region there is still a large number of tourists who are currently undergoing acclimatization and preparing for the ascent, and this is despite the fact that there are practically no conditions for the ascent,” said Mr. Elmezov. According to him, in the group that climbed on September 23, in fact, there was not a single professional guide who would realistically assess the difficulties of climbing people up the mountain and descending in especially difficult conditions. “Leading people up the mountain in bad weather is in any case to expose them to danger. Earlier, the Ministry of Emergency Situations had the right to close the mountain in case of worsening weather conditions. Now the Rescue Service does not have such levers, and there are more and more commercial firms that sell tours to Elbrus, ”he said.

Let us remind you that the combined team of 23 residents of different regions of Russia began the ascent to Elbrus at 10 am on September 23, although traditionally the ascent takes place at night. The people were accompanied by four guides. Before the ascent, they registered with the Ministry of Emergency Situations. At the beginning of the ascent, four tourists refused the ascent and went down on their own. The rest continued on the route. On the rise, one of the tourists from Yekaterinburg became ill, and they began to lower her to the saddle. She died in the arms of the guide who took her down.

16 people reached the summit, but on the descent they were overtaken by bad weather. The weather began to worsen on September 22: it started raining in low-lying areas – on Elbrus, as a rule, a blizzard with wind begins. The group requested assistance from the rescuers, while it split up and continued the descent. As a result, four tourists died from hypothermia. The rest were taken to the KBR medical facilities with frostbite and various injuries. Investigative Committee on this fact opened a criminal case under Part 3 of Art. 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (provision of services that do not meet the requirements of the safety of life and health of the consumer, which inadvertently resulted in the death of two or more persons).

Alexandra Larintseva, Pyatigorsk

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