Two tourists went missing in the mountains of Kabardino-Balkaria

Rescuers in Kabardino-Balkaria are searching for two climbers who went missing on Mount Dykhtau. They were not found during the first day of search operations.

The tourists were supposed to complete their route by September 20, but they did not get in touch at the scheduled time. The employees of the Bezenge alpine camp reported the missing persons to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

The last time the tourists were in contact was at an altitude of 3,500 meters above sea level. According to the republican Ministry of Emergency Situations, they may currently be at an altitude of 3,800 meters.

Three rescuers conducted search operations on Mount Dykhtau throughout the day on September 21, but they were unable to find the missing persons before dark. "As of 20:00 Moscow time on September 21, the search operations on Mount Dykhtau have not yielded results," reported the Elbrus high-altitude search and rescue team of the Ministry of Emergency Situations on their social media page.

The rescuers added that an aerial visual inspection of the area where the group may be located is scheduled for the morning of September 22, using a Mi-8 helicopter from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.

The missing tourists from Tolyatti and Nizhny Novgorod were following a route of category 4B – this level of difficulty requires serious preparation, good physical condition, and confident technical skills, according to Interfax-South.

Mount Dykhtau is the second highest mountain in Kabardino-Balkaria and all of Russia after Elbrus. "The temperature in the mountains is rapidly dropping, and the climbers need to be found as soon as possible," notes the Telegram channel SHOT.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that on the evening of September 6, an avalanche descended from Mount Mijirgi on a group of 33 climbers, among whom were employees of the National Guard. Ten members of the group descended on their own, and another six were hospitalized with injuries. Only on September 13 was the operation to search for 17 deceased completed.

The death of climbers in the Bezenge Gorge became the most massive incident in Russian mountainous terrain in a quarter of a century, noted TASS citing its own calculations.