Featured Image Credit: YouTube/ Dmitry Sinitsyn
Topics: World News, Russia, Extreme Sports
Joe Harker
A new rescue mission is being planned for mountain climber Natalia Nagovitsina after previous attempts were abandoned due to poor weather conditions.
The woman has been stuck 22,965 feet up Victory Peak (Jengish Chokusu) in Kyrgyzstan since 12 August after breaking her leg and being unable to continue her descent.
Supplies were previously able to reach the 47-year-old, but Italian climber Luca Sinigaglia died on 15 August after delivering them and being caught in a blizzard. The weather has made further attempts to reach Nagovitsina impossible.
Having spent 13 days stuck on the mountain, various attempts involving helicopters and climbers have been launched to reach her, but one helicopter crashed and another could not see her due to poor visibility.
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She was last seen on 19 August by a drone and believed to be alive, and now officials are hoping that the weather has cleared enough to give them a chance to rescue her.
The Russian Mountaineering Federation is planning to fly another drone up today (25 August) in the hopes that conditions will be clear enough to relocate her.
If this new mission can find her and confirm she is alive then another attempt to save her can be planned, and if they find that she has died they will know it's time to call off the rescue efforts.
The head of the Kyrgyz Mountaineering Federation Eduard Kubatov had said it was 'highly likely' that Nagovitsina has died, with her having been stuck on a mountain and exposed to temperatures well below freezing.
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He explained: "She has been at an altitude of seven thousand meters for more than nine days.
"This is practically incompatible with normal life, because at this altitude the body begins to die by 10 percent daily due to exhaustion and loss of strength."
Nagovitsina previously said she would rather die than become unable to climb mountains in a clip from a documentary which focused on her touching tribute to her husband Sergei, who died while mountain climbing.
He suffered a stroke while climbing Khan-Tengri Peak in 2021 and Natalia was ordered to leave him behind as she was told 'you won't be able to help him in any way'.
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Refusing requests to leave her husband, she remained with him until rescue arrived, but he was in a state of 'delirium' and broke free of attempts to carry him down the mountain and he fell to his death.
A year later she climbed the mountain once again to set up a memorial plaque for her husband and said: "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.
"In fact, this is it. Yes, this is the worst punishment. This is what worried me a lot and that we die - no."