Touching tribute woman stuck on mountain after abandoned rescue attempt made to her husband
A mountain climber who has been trapped for almost two weeks without rescue once paid tribute to her husband, who himself died on a mountain several years ago.
Mountain climber Natalia Nagovitsina has been trapped on Victory Peak in Kyrgyzstan for almost two weeks after she broke her leg and was unable to descend down the mountain.
Several attempts to rescue her since she got stuck on 12 August were launched but officials have called them off after an Italian climber who reached Nagovitsina and delivered her a sleeping bag to help her survive the freezing cold -23C temperatures died from prolonged exposure to low oxygen and hypothermia.
The body of Luca Sinigaglia was recovered from an ice cave where he is thought to have collapsed from exhaustion, but repeated rescue attempts for Nagovitsina have failed including ventures using a helicopter.
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One helicopter crashed while trying to reach her while another was flying in zero visibility and had to give up, while one final attempt to climb to her location was abandoned due to poor weather conditions.
The head of the Kyrgyz Mountaineering Federation has said it is 'highly likely' that Nagovitsina has died, explaining that she has been stuck at an altitude 'practically incompatible with normal life'.
Nagovitsina previously said she was 'not afraid to die' in a resurfaced clip from a documentary which followed the attempts of her and her husband Sergei to climb Khan-Tengri Peak.
Sergei suffered a stroke while on the mountain and Natalia was ordered to continue her descent, but refused to leave her husband as she explained that he couldn't sit up and his speech was 'confused'.
Mountain rescue told her 'you won't be able to help him in any way' as they urged her to descend to safer ground, but she responded by saying: "I understand everything, but I will not leave him alone."
Search teams were eventually able to reach their position and try to help Sergei down the mountain, but in a state of delirium he broke free from his would-be rescuers and plummeted to his death, his body was never found.
A year later Natalia left a touching tribute to her husband as she climbed Khan-Tengri Peak once again to install a plaque of her husband and create a place of memorial for him on the mountain.
"You know, I was not afraid to die. I was afraid to be disabled, that I will get frostbite, they will take away my arms and legs, and what will I do," she told the documentary as she said she would rather die than not be able to climb mountains.
"In fact, this is it. Yes, this is the worst punishment. This is what worried me a lot and that we die - no."
CNN reports that she was last spotted on 19 August by a drone and she was believed to still be alive then, but heavy snowfall has led to further attempts at rescue being called off.
Topics: Extreme Sports, World News, Russia
Joe Harker