Expert explains why it’s so difficult to rescue climber who broke leg 22,000ft up mountain
A new rescue attempt is being planned for Natalia Nagovitsina, a 47-year-old woman who has been stuck on Victory Peak in Kyrgyzstan since 12 August after she broke her leg.
The mountain climber has been stuck 22,965 feet (7,000 metres) up a mountain for days after previous efforts to get her down were called off due to adverse conditions.
People were previously able to reach the stricken woman and bring her supplies to help her survive, but Italian climber Luca Sinigaglia died on the mountain after delivering them.
Attempts to use helicopters to reach the site where the woman with the broken leg is stuck have been unsuccessful, as one of the aircraft crashed and the other suffered from poor visibility and couldn't continue.
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A new rescue attempt hinges on a drone being able to fly up and relocate Nagovitsina to see if she is still alive and in the same place as before.
Such rescue attempts will be incredibly difficult, as Eric Raúl Albino Lliuya of the Mountain Rescue Association in South America explained to LADbible.
His team successfully rescued a climber from Nevado Huascarán Sur, the tallest mountain in Peru, at a comparable height to the one the Russian woman is stuck at, and he laid out what makes for the 'extremely complex and often life-threatening challenges' involved in saving lives at that sort of altitude.
At the elevation where Nagovitsina is stuck, the thin air presents a huge amount of danger to any rescuers attempting to recover her and help her off the mountain.
Lliuya said: "At this elevation, oxygen levels are critically low, making even simple tasks exhausting. Rescuers face risks of hypoxia, high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), and high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE)."
Up there, it is simply harder to do pretty much anything, and the expert also pointed towards the 'unpredictable weather', another major factor in halting rescues.
The weather was a major reason why recovery attempts were called off over the weekend, and Lliuya said 'high winds, sub-zero temperatures, and whiteouts' can slow down operations or subject rescuers to 'frostbite, hypothermia, and avalanches'.
With two helicopter-based rescues unsuccessful in the search for Nagovitsina, the expert explained that 'most helicopters cannot operate safely above 6,000 meters due to thin air, turbulence and lack of power', leaving rescuers stuck having to do things on foot.
During Lliuya's rescue operation in Peru, they did not have a helicopter capable of flying beyond 4,900 metres, which limited what they were able to do.
With rescuers forced to do things on foot, the terrain poses as much danger as possible, as 'steep, icy and avalanche-prone routes' make everything slower.
Lliuya's experience told him that 'carrying a stretcher at this altitude can take several hours to move just a short distance', so with Nagovitsina's broken leg, any rescue would be a major logistical challenge.
On top of all of these obstacles, Lliuya said that the low number of personnel with training in mountain rescue or who worked as guides on the mountain meant that only a few people would be able to render much help.
He said: "In many cases, these combined factors sadly mean that rescue attempts become nearly impossible without jeopardising additional lives.
"Each mission must carefully balance the ethical duty to attempt a rescue with the very real risks of severe injury or loss of life for rescuers."
The mountain rescue expert said that rescue operations at 7,000 metres would be 'even more challenging and highly dangerous', and the 'combination of altitude, weather, and technical terrain often makes survival and rescue success highly improbable'.
"The tragic situation involving Ms. Natalia Nagovitsina illustrates the extreme complexity and risks inherent in high-altitude rescues," he told LADbible.
"When climbers attempt to provide supplies at such elevations, the dangers are multiplied: exhaustion, hypoxia, and severe weather conditions put both the rescuers and the victim at very high risk, as sadly demonstrated by the death of one of the rescuers.
"The helicopter operations also highlight one of the biggest challenges: most helicopters cannot operate safely above 6,000 meters due to thin air, turbulence, and lack of power.
"At altitudes around 7,000 meters, stability is nearly impossible, and poor visibility only increases the risks of accidents, as shown by the crash and the failed attempts."
Rescues at such heights are thus 'not only extremely dangerous but sometimes impossible without putting additional lives at risk', something that will have to be taken into account should Nagovitsina be spotted alive and reachable.
Topics: Extreme Sports, World News, Russia
Joe Harker