Choppers to evacuate rescuers & dead Alpine climbers in NCaucasus

According to the press service chief, a sudden fog in the evening of January 9 prevented helicopters from returning to the slope of Mt. Gidan-Tau where 29 rescuers who worked on the avalanche as well as four surviving Alpine climbers and the bodies of their five comrades, remained in a hut at an altitude of 3,100 metres.

An avalanche had buried five people on January 8 who as members of a nine-people group of novice climbers set out to mountains for a training ascent, despite a warning of a high avalanche danger. Four sportsmen could get out from under snow independently. They extricated from snow the body of the group chief, Muscovite Andrei Liukkonen, 40, found a walkie-talkie on him and reported the tragedy to the basic camp.

The first group of the Elbrus search and rescue detachment and rescuers from the camp ascended to them at night. A large-scale search and rescue operation, involving 90 people, sniff dogs and two helicopters was launched on January 9. Rescuers believe that the avalanche was triggered off by sharply rising temperatures after a heavy snowfall. Besides, the chief of the group was wrong in assessing the avalanche danger of the local terrain, Kazinform cites Itar-Tass. See www.itar-tass.com for full version.