Climber stuck 23,000ft up Victory Peak refused to leave husband who died on climb

No signs of life have been found by a drone of a mountaineer stranded on a peak in Kyrgyzstan who refused to leave her husband’s side during an expedition four years ago after he suffered a stroke

A woman stranded more than 22,000ft up a mountain with a broken leg had previously refused to leave her husband’s side after he suffered a stroke while at a similar altitude on a prior climb, it has been revealed.

Thermal imaging from a drone launched today in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgystan showed “no sign of life” of Russian climber Natalia Nagovitsina, 47, who is also known as Natasha. The woman is stranded at around 23,000 feet on a mountain known as Jengish Chokusu or Victory Peak, in the Central Asian nation after she was injured on August 12.

The climber who fell 15 days ago and broke her leg previously refused to leave her husband Sergei’s side when he suffered a stroke at a similar altitude on another mountain in Kyrgyzstan in 2021. Natasha defied orders to abandon Khan-Tengri Peak, despite a blizzard setting in on their location.

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She instead declared that she was not afraid of dying while she stayed caring for Sergei until he passed away — it was a situation that Natasha miraculously survived, according to the Daily Mail. After the latest incident, Natasha, 47, was reportedly seen moving on drone footage just days ago and is believed to have survived for at least one week on the mountain.

Her climbing partner helped her as much as possible before returning further down the mountain in a bid to obtain help. As per an earlier report in the Mirror, three days after Natasha went missing, Italian mountaineer Luca Sinigaglia, 49, brought Natalia a tent, sleeping bag, food, water and a gas cooker in a bid to keep her alive while a rescue was arranged. He tragically died on his own way back down the mountain after developing frostbite.

Atrocious weather hampered attempts to bring her down, while there was also criticism of a slow response and botched rescue in the remote location. Earlier today, a drone was flown past the perch at Victory [Pobeda] Peak where the Russian climber been clinging to life. But no evidence was seen that the woman was miraculously still alive, according to Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security which carried out the mission.

A statement from the committee said: “Following an analysis of the obtained data, and taking into account a combination of factors – including the extreme weather conditions and the characteristics of the location – no signs of life were detected at the site where mountaineer Nagovitsina is situated.”

Despite poor weather, the search was “comprehensive “ added leader Colonel-General Kamchybek Tashiev. The drone flight had been called for a day earlier by the son of the stricken mountaineer, Mikhail Nagovitsin, 27, who had asked for assistance from Russia.

He appealed directly to Russian Investigative Committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin — a university classmate of Vladimir Putin — and demanded action to rescue her. In the event, the drone flypast appears to be independent state Kyrgyzstan’s response to the pressure produced by the accident.

Mikhail said: “My mother is an experienced climber and is also in very good shape.” Natasha’s son stated that he was alarmed at how rescuers had halted the search amid claims she had been “left to die”.

He added: “I am sure that she is alive and want the search to be resumed. I ask for assistance in organising aerial video shooting of the Peak Pobeda area using drones to confirm the fact that she is alive.”

Mikhail now appears to have lost his mother despite rescue attempts which were aborted several times. There had been hopes of a window in the bad weather on Monday to enable a new drone flight to the “death zone” where she was trapped. Inside this area, the temperatures plummeted to minus 30C at the weekend.

Rescuers said the weather had not improved and a drone flight was not made at that time. Officials said her body would be recovered next spring after an announcement on Friday deemed that her rescue was hopeless.

The attempt to reach her was abandoned on Friday when a bid to climb up to her was aborted after the group’s leader suffered back problems caused by an Mi-8 helicopter crash landing during an earlier rescue mission. The team gave up trying to reach the climber as they lingered some 3,600 ft below her. If Natasha has died on the peak, her son has now lost both of his parents to separate mountain tragedies.

Anna Piunova, deputy head of the Russian Mountaineering Federation, has criticised the rescue attempts. But she also criticised the climber for not having an experienced local guide with her team on the mountain. The 24,406ft peak is known as one of the most difficult and dangerous on the planet.