The last trace of Russian climber Natalia Nagovitsyna is a video recorded by a drone at 7,150 meters, where she is estimated to be stranded and unable to move.
The camera focuses on a tiny orange tent surrounded by snow, sheltered by a huge rock. The drone approaches, showing an arm waving from the tent entrance as a sign of life.
This was recorded on August 19, seven days after Natalia fell and broke her leg while descending from Peak Pobeda (7,439 meters), the highest summit in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Tien Shan range. The last successful rescue from Pobeda was in 1955, as the base camp chief warned of the challenge of bringing Nagovitsyna down.
The Kirgizstan Ministry of Emergency Situations definitively closed the door on any miracle last Wednesday, deciding to suspend the search and officially declare the climber as "missing", as it was uncertain if she had succumbed to her injuries, lack of food, and temperatures as low as -30 degrees.
The previous day, a thermal camera drone was flown to her location. If signs of life were detected, an Airbus H145 helicopter was planned to be dispatched, the same type that landed on the summit of Aconcagua in 2019 at 6,962 meters, about 200 meters below Nagovitsyna's position.
An earlier attempt to evacuate her by air on August 17 ended with the Russian Defense Ministry Mi-8 helicopter crashing at 4,600 meters in an emergency landing due to adverse weather and turbulence. The rescuers had to be rescued themselves, as several suffered fractures.
During these two weeks of agony, the video of Nagovitsyna waving her hand has circulated widely, along with excerpts from the documentary Stay with Khan Tengri. Tragedy in the Mountain (2022), recounting the dramatic expedition Natalia and her husband, Sergey Nagovitsyn, undertook in 2021 to Khan Tengri, a neighboring peak of Pobeda.
The couple successfully reached the summit but shortly after, Sergey began to have difficulty speaking and standing. "I won't leave my husband. He is completely defenseless," Natalia replied when advised by the team below to save herself, start descending, and help would be sent later.
"I wasn't afraid to die. I was afraid of being disabled, of frostbite, of losing my arms and legs," she revealed in the documentary as her greatest fear at that moment.
Sergey was still alive when rescuers reached the 6,800-meter mark the next day. They began the descent but had to leave the injured man behind and continue for more help. Due to a stroke he was experiencing, it is believed that in a delirium, he untied himself from the rope. His body was never found. The following year, Natalia made the ascent again and left a tribute plaque to her husband at the summit.
Khan Tengri is the fourth of the five peaks Natalia needed to conquer to achieve the Snow Leopard, an accolade given to those who reach the five highest peaks of the former Soviet Union. She had yet to conquer Peak Pobeda, which she did on August 12. During the descent, she fell, hitting a ridge and fracturing her leg.
Russian climber Roman Mokrinsky, who was with her on the expedition, provided first aid and descended a few meters to seek other companions. The next day - August 13 - Italian Luca Sinigiglia and German Gunther Siegmund brought her a sleeping bag, food, and a gas cylinder to sustain her while they sought more help.
The weather was harsh during the descent. Luca's hands froze first, and then, like Natalia's husband, he began to feel disoriented. He suffered a cerebral edema and died on August 15. His body, like almost all who have not managed to descend from Pobeda, remains on the mountain at around 6,800 meters.
"In the video I received, it is clear that seven days after losing contact, she actively waves her hand, full of strength. I am convinced that my mother is still alive," pleaded 27-year-old Mikhail, Natalia's son, that her rescue not be interrupted on August 26.