RESCUERS have ditched last hopes to reach a woman mountaineer who has been “left to die” with a broken leg on a snowy 24,000ft peak.
After twelve agonising days and the death of a rescuer, Natalia Nagovitsyna, 47, is still stuck on the Victory Peak in Kyrgyzstan.
Multiple rescue efforts have failed to bring back the female mountaineer who broke her leg while scaling the summit on August 12.
Pal and fellow climber Luca Sinigaglia, 49, tragically died on his second attempt to save her.
Authorities called off the search on Friday due to the impossible weather conditions.
But they planned on resuming one last search effort today to find the Russian climber after facing criticism for “leaving her to die”.
Rescuers hoped to get a window in the bad weather to enable a new drone flight to the “death zone” where she was trapped.
They wanted to check if, by a miracle, she was still alive despite temperatures of minus 30 °C over the weekend.
But agonisingly, there was no break in the cloud covering Victory Peak, part of the Tian Shan range.
A special light helicopter, along with its Italian crew—prepared to fly today if any signs of life appeared—has now departed the isolated region.
With them gone, the last hopes of rescuing her are understood to have been crushed now.
A Russian mountaineering portal said: “The rescue mission on Mount Pobeda was officially brought to an end.
“The Italian pilots have departed. Weather conditions remain poor.”
Adil Chargynov, a representative of Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, said: “Today the helicopter was returned to its permanent base.
“Italian pilots, brought in for their high-altitude experience, are now returning home.”
The recovery of the well-known mountaineer’s body would be possible only “in the spring”, officials added.
Natalia was known to have endured for over a week, yet rescuers have expressed skepticism about her ability to survive so long under these harsh conditions.
Last week, drone footage showed that the female climber was alive.
The clip showed her clearly moving and waving at the drone sent up to monitor her on August 19.
It also showed her tent torn by the ferocious winds in the spot where she was seeking shelter at 22,965 ft under a large rock called the “Bird”.
Meanwhile, footage from a 2022 documentary captured Nagovitsyna saying she was “not afraid to die” during a past summit.
