Italian climber died while trying to rescue Russian Nagovitsina at Victory Peak

Italian climber Luca Sinigaglia, who tried to rescue Russian Natalia Nagovitsina, who was stuck on Victory Peak in Kyrgyzstan, suffered frostbite on his right hand and subsequently died of cerebral edema. This was announced on August 23 by the leader of the first rescue squad, Alexander Semenov, who went in search of a woman on August 16.

Natalia's group consisted of four people, including foreigners. Roman, a mountaineer, as well as Gunther, a German, and Luca, an Italian, went with her to conquer the mountains. Only a German citizen could reach the top.

"Luka turned around. He turned around and stayed in the cave, which is located at an altitude of 6.9 thousand meters, on the ridge, about in the middle. <...> After climbing to the top, Gunther descended and reached the cave, where he met Luke, exhausted. He was resting and recovering," said Semenov.

At the same time, Roman continued to stay with Natalia for some time. He insulated her and gave her painkillers, after which he returned to the cave.

"After returning to the camp, Roman told the guys that his partner had stayed and, in principle, Gunther and Luka had done well, the next day they went up to Natalia with a tent, sleeping bag, food and gas and helped her spend the night. Of course, they didn't have time to return that night, they spent the night with her, but this is their heroic act, which they nevertheless prolonged Natalia's life and helped her in general," the source said.

Semenov clarified that after that, Luka lost a mitten at some point, which led to frostbite on his limb.

"Luka got very frostbitten after that, he lost a mitten, got frostbite on his right hand, very severe. So much so that later it had a very strong effect on his health. Soon, literally, probably within a day, he began to have cerebral edema. This very terrible agony took place before his death. He tried to throw himself off the cliff, off the walls, tried to get rid of his arm, but it's really scary," he said.

The man died at an altitude of about 6.7–6.8 thousand m. At the moment, the exact location of his body has not been established.

"Because the guys dug a cave at night, the grotto in which Luke, unfortunately, remained. After that, there were several series of snowfalls, very large snowfalls, which quite possibly hid the cave site from us. But at the moment, right at the moment, the guys are trying through satellite images, through photographs, they are still trying to determine several locations of Luka's possible location," Semenov concluded.

For more information about how they tried to save Russian climber Natalia Nagovitsyna, watch the Final program with "Peter Marchenko" on August 24 on REN TV.

The fact that 47-year-old Nagovitsina was stuck at Victory Peak was reported on August 19 in the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kyrgyzstan. She broke her leg during the descent and has been at altitude for more than a week. Vera Belikova, the administrator of the Karkyr base camp, said that Nagovitsina is a very strong and calm person. She has already had experience of climbing mountain peaks in the past, and many climbers know her.

On August 23, the head of the mountaineering base camp, Dmitry Grekov, announced that the operation to rescue the climber had been completed to date. He added that not a single person had been evacuated from Victory Peak since 1955.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.