Kazakh rescuers recover body of climber missing for nearly two decades

Foreign tourists earlier found the body in the Talgar district of the Almaty region, near the Severtsov Glacier at an altitude of about 3,400 meters. They immediately notified the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Rescuers evacuated the remains from the remote area with the support of a Kazaviaspas helicopter.

Almaty resident Anastassiya Akhmetova shared photos of the climber’s gear on social media. Shortly afterward, Nellya Mikheeva, who identified herself as the missing man’s daughter, recognized her father’s backpack in the images. She said her father had disappeared in 2007.

“After 19 years, my father’s remains have been found. This morning, a friend sent me a photo of the backpack, which looked so much like ours. Later, my husband forwarded me the same post. I contacted the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which gave me the phone numbers of the rescuer and the investigator. The investigator asked me to send all the photos and documents. Shortly afterward, he called back and confirmed that my father’s ID card was found in the backpack," she explained.

"What a fantastic story: Belarusian tourists found the remains, rescuers quickly recovered them from the glacier, and almost immediately relatives were located - a young woman recognized her father’s backpack in the photos. Her father went missing back in 2007, and the investigator later told her that an ID card had been found in the backpack. Everything was confirmed the same day. Truly remarkable! It means it wasn’t in vain - he was meant to be found," Anastassiya Akhmetova later posted on her Facebook account.

Earlier, it was reported that the bodies of two  Belgian climbers missing since 1992 were found on Trift Glacier in Switzerland.