Two climbers fell victim to rockfall in the mountains of Kabardino-Balkaria

Former President of the Kuban Mountaineering Federation Alexander Rastorguev died while climbing Mount Dzhangi-Tau in Kabardino-Balkaria, after being caught in a rockfall. Another participant in the climb was injured, and rescuers evacuated her to Nalchik.

The emergency in the mountains of Kabardino-Balkaria became known today in the afternoon. A group of three climbers, climbing Mount Dzhangi-Tau, were caught in a rockfall at an altitude of 5,085 meters, and one of them received fatal injuries.

Emergency Ministry employees organized a rescue operation by helicopter for the other two members of the group. At 18:40 Moscow time, the injured climber with an arm injury was evacuated from the gorge and taken to the Republican Clinical Hospital of Nalchik, the second member of the group independently descended to the Bezengi alpine camp, the department's Telegram channel reported.

The group was caught in a rockfall on August 27. A resident of Krasnodar died on the spot from his injuries, and "two other climbers with various bodily injuries were evacuated by rescuers," according to a statement from the Investigative Committee of Kabardino-Balkaria.

The evacuation of the body of the deceased climber is scheduled for Friday, August 29, the Ministry of Emergency Situations for Kabardino-Balkaria added.

The deceased is the former president of the Kuban Mountaineering Federation, 68-year-old master of sports in mountaineering Alexander Rastorguev, according to a statement from the Russian Mountaineering Federation. His group began climbing Dzhangi-Tau on August 25.

According to the Mountaineering Federation, Rastorguev has completed more than 200 climbs. He headed the Kuban Mountaineering Federation in 2010-2011. Rastorguev's colleagues from the Kuban Mountaineering Federation consider his death a tragic accident, noting that he was a "serious professional" and loved the Bezengi region very much, but rockfalls in the mountains are absolutely unpredictable.

“He himself lived in Novorossiysk. He was involved in mountaineering all his life. He knew the mountains in this area very well, he always went there. By mountaineering standards, these are difficult mountains. According to the information that is available, there was a rockfall, most likely some kind of accident. Rockfalls are, in principle, a common occurrence, but not in all places it happens regularly: in some places it happens often and everyone knows about it, and in some places it happens unexpectedly,” the representative of the federation “Podyom” quotes.

The route that Rastorguev’s group took was considered safe, the athletes followed all the rules, notes the Telegram channel “112” from the words of the director of the Bezengi training and sports base, Aliya Anaeva.

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