Romance vs realism. Experts comment on the tragedy on Elbrus

As already reported by Novye Izvestia, five climbers were killed during the ascent to the highest peak of Europe, Elbrus, during the outgoing week, 14 participants of the hike were rescued. The group gave a signal for help, being at an altitude of about 5400 meters, the search and rescue operation lasted more than seven hours. Attention is drawn to the fact that almost all of them were not professionals.

"We're lost. They fell off, flew about 100 meters on the bottle ice, they could not stick an ice ax in any way. Our guy broke his leg. We immediately threw an SOS message and coordinates to the Emergencies Ministry. We waited two hours and carried the guy downstairs. The rescuers arrived only at 23:00, when all the groups called each other through the blizzard”, - said one of the group members Dmitry Parakhin.

The Investigative Committee opened a case under the article on improper provision of services, which inadvertently resulted in the death of two or more persons

This tragedy caused a lot of responses on social networks, and of all kinds. For example, a Moscow official and popular blogger Alexander Yevsin recalled the famous lines of Vysotsky in this regard, "It's better than from vodka or colds...", believing that people themselves consciously took such a risk, and therefore there is no one to blame here:

“Despite the tragedy, one must still understand that all these people made their conscious and respectable choice. The reason for their death was not "violation of the rules for the provision of services". This is not a service in the full commercial sense. This is a serious test of the strength of health, will and character, multiplied by hundreds of factors that have never completely depended on people.

Climbing Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, is a difficult and dangerous event. Those who have been there should judge the behavior and the causes of the problems. I don’t think that this is the question that should be solved by people from warm sofas, for whom all this trouble is just another reason to crack their tongues or, at best, an attack of nonsense in an attempt to look kind. The state should not purposefully look for the guilty, if what the state should do is to help the mountaineering community to thoroughly understand the reasons that led to the trouble in order to minimize this in the future. And not in style: no ascents - no deaths on the ascent.

Despite the fact that Elbrus is widely known, a lot of people visit it as tourists, go skiing and climb, nevertheless it is not an easy walk. Elbrus is a serious and harsh mountain! The dangers there are deadly: cracks, unexpected blizzards, in which even an outstretched hand is not visible, frost, ice on the slope, etc. All this is seasoned with altitude sickness...

But it is for this that people go there - to go this way. Don't just be on the top, but go this way to the top! The views from the top, of course, are excellent, but I assure you, and from a height, where there is much less extreme, where there are ski slopes - the views are already so impressive that for aesthetic pleasure, contemplation is enough. Climbing to the top is a completely different thing. And people need it. Even if a person dies, ascending to the top, then Vysotsky's words are most appropriate here:

"It's better than vodka and colds".

This I mean that safety is safety, but looking for scapegoats, tightening the screws so that people simply cannot go to the mountains is wrong. This is the choice of the people themselves. Voluntary, informed, welcome.

But my good advice. Consider seriously whether you need to go to conquer mountain peaks. If it is necessary to do this, it is not because you want to, it is fashionable and the photos are cool, but because it is impossible not to do it. This is my opinion..."

But the Moscow doctor Pavel Vorobyov adheres to a completely different, not at all romantic opinion:

“My namesake uncle was a famous climber who also walked with Abalakov (who is a backpack, I don’t know which of the two), and he always talked about Elbrus as a very insidious place. First, the miner (mountain sickness, - ed. note). She makes people do terrible things. Demolishing the roof. In an airplane, where the pressure drops to only 2,000 meters, some people start panic attacks. And at 4-5 thousand, not everyone can cope.

What I noticed in the story of the first person who went down: he kept repeating that the pressure had dropped sharply. True or not, but if so, then the miner, who was the reason for his return from one of the tourists, could really aggravate her condition and lead to death. Although this requires verification. Unfortunately, it cannot be ruled out that the guide simply left her to freeze.

Second: division of the group. It turns out - at least three parts. The first two, already mentioned. Then on "slow" and "fast". This, in my opinion, is a gross violation of the rules, which can be regarded not simply as unprofessionalism, but... as manslaughter. It was easier to just leave the women to die - they are weaker. Hard? So the situation is tough there.

You can't share, you have to go all together, drag each other on you. And - do not stop, move.

After all, this is not Everest, where they pass by the freezing ones and the whole road is solid corpses frozen into the ice. It's still lower here.

Watch a few stories about the mass death of tourists in the mountains. Always a violation of elementary rules. Plus - a bestial sense of self-preservation wakes up. A man becomes a wolf in minutes. A story in Dagestan in 1975, where 21 people died on a trifling summer route. What did the tough guys do when they spat on the main group? That's right, they were looting, and that's what they saved. I don’t know how they lived afterwards.

And nearby - a few kilometers away - there was a group that listened to the presenter and followed the rules. All are alive, although they are in a worse situation than the first group.

Just don’t about the Dyatlov pass - there is clearly a completely different story, it will definitely be revealed, since it is man-made.

In general - I do not know ford - do not climb into the water. On kayaks, when passing the threshold, you can knock out an idiot with an oar who is rowing in the wrong place. Save yourself, save the idiot. In the mountains, this is impossible: if a person starts to contradict, he breaks discipline and will most likely lead to the death of everyone.

I am not a climber, although I climbed mountains. Yes, in the same Caucasus at the turn of the 70s. If I knew the rules, I would definitely not do what I did, for example, a rockfall lane. And then the crashed climber was taken out from there, since we climbed very high in cars along the German road from Arkhyz - to the very pass. I was carried along with my parents. I remember all this with a shudder. But not everyone is lucky.

Or in Australia, everyone splashed merrily in the ocean waves. Who will look at the warning signs. And only when a gentle wave threw my head on the sand, I retreated. It’s not even a matter of course: an ocean wave is not in the Black or Aegean Sea, it has a multimeter amplitude and it simply flattens a person unexpectedly on the bottom.

Somehow everything became available to everyone, the feeling of danger disappeared, there is no desire to study the rules and experience (both are covered with corpses). It seems to me that one should beware of such situations. Be carefull…"

"We're lost. They fell off, flew about 100 meters on the bottle ice, they could not stick an ice ax in any way. Our guy broke his leg. We immediately threw an SOS message and coordinates to the Emergencies Ministry. We waited two hours and carried the guy downstairs. The rescuers arrived only at 23:00, when all the groups called each other through the blizzard, ”said one of the group members Dmitry Parakhin.