Translated material
Disaster on the Tien Shan
In August 2025, the 47-year-old climber Natalya Nagovitsina broke her leg when descending from the highest peak of Tien Shan and had been waiting for help for more than a week. When trying to evacuate Nagovicin, her friend died and rescuers were seriously injured. The climber failed to save: the last time she was seen alive on August 20. The Ministry of Emergencies of Kyrgyzstan has already declared her missing. Four years before, in the arms of Nagovicina, her husband Sergey died during the ascent to the top. But this did not stop her: she continued to conquer the peaks. The tragic story of the spouses is in the heading of the "Cold" "Disaster".
Victory Peak (7439 meters)-the highest point in the mountain system Tien Shan ․ This is also one of the most dangerous peaks in the territory of the former USSR. After the first conquest in 1938, more than 100 people were killed in the climbing and descents there. According to statistics, every year two climbers die at the peak of victory.
In August 2025, Russian climber Natalya Nagovitsina ascended to the peak of Victory. On the afternoon of August 12, she reached the top. On the same day, during the descent, she broke her leg at an altitude of about 7200 meters - and remained there to wait for help.
The climbers came to Natalia, with whom she climbed - German Gunter Sigmund and Italian Luke Sinigalya. They went up to her twice : they brought her food and gas with the expectation for four to five days. But on August 15, Sinigali became bad: on the same day he died of frostbite and cerebral edema.
They could not evacuate Natalia in a helicopter - the weather did not allow. Near the top there was poor visibility and a blizzard, so the rescue operation had to be postponed. Natalia remained at an altitude of more than 7000 meters for more than a week. This is deadly: a person lacks oxygen, so there is a feeling of fatigue and lethargy, headache, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, nausea, sleep disturbance and general malaise. On August 20, on her birthday, Natalia stopped by signs of life, wrote telegram channels.
“There are two of us ... There is no more strength ...” Elvira Shataeva was in love with the mountains and climber. She died in the mountains, and her husband buried her at the foot of her vertex, society 23 minutes of readingOn August 25, the Ministry of Emergencies of Kyrgyzstan announced the completion of a rescue operation.
Officially, the death of the climber was not confirmed, but she was declared missing. Attempts to evacuate the body will most likely resume already in the spring of 2026.
Conquered four seven -thousandths
Natalia Nagovitsina was born in 1977 under the city of Lysva of the Perm Territory. She graduated from the Faculty of Geographical of the Perm National Research University. For the past few years, she lived in Moscow and worked in the structure of the Central Election Commission, which has been developing and supporting the state automated election system.
Natalia began to engage in climbing in April 2016. Her card of the Russian climbers of Russia says that she made her first ascent in the Tien Shan in Kyrgyzstan. Each time, the routes that Natalia passed became more difficult. For nine years, she conquered four out of five seven -thousandths - the highest peaks in the territory of the former USSR.
Most often, Natalya Nagovitsina made ascending with her husband Sergey. Their acquaintances recall that the couple trained a lot, ran marathons and lived from one campaign to the mountains to another. The couple has a son Mikhail, who was born in 1998.
“Natasha was a very positive person-I never heard any complaints from her. She loved mountains, adventures, run and loved her son very much. She was looking for an opportunity to live and enjoy this life, ” said a friend Nagovicina, climber Alexei Popov.
In August 2021, the nago-to-the-Tengry peaks went to the peak of 7010 meters in Kyrgyzstan on the border with Kazakhstan and China. This campaign was the last for Sergey.
"I will not leave my husband"
On July 24, 2021, nago-cins flew to Bishkek, from where the next day they went to the climbing camp next to the Han-Tengri Mountain. They went to the route with another climber - Italian Luke Sinigalya. On the third day of ascent, the weather deteriorated, a blizzard began. Then the team went down, and a day after rest went upstairs.
During the crossing of the river between the glaciers, climbers saw what washed away the crossing, which was always in that place. When jumping from an ice floe, Sergei Nagovitsin fell into the water with one foot and wetted his boots. The whole next day the team rested and dried shoes.
Three days later, climbers went to storm the peaks, but realized that they did not have time to rise during the day. The Italian Luke Sinigalya went on, but the nagocers decided not to continue to rise, but simply to transfer the camp higher. After the night, they headed to the top. At some point, Sergei Nagovitsin complained about stomach pain. After the couple drank tea, he became a little better, and they continued the ascent.
After the next halt, Sergey stopped while lifting at an altitude of 6400 meters. Natalia, who followed him, did not understand what happened. Having caught up with her husband, she saw that he could neither turn or sit without support, and his speech was slurred.
“He says:“ Let me go the first. ” I replied: "Well, go the first." He crawls two ropes and stops. I was surprised - it seems it was too early to take a break, just sat. Maybe something happened, something needs to be corrected? I go up to him, ask: "What happened?" It turned out that he was paralyzed. I still don’t know what exactly, ”Natalya said in the 2022 documentary.
We put a person in the center of our journalism and talk about people who are faced with injustice, but do not lose their spirit and continue to fight for their rights and freedoms. In order to further cover human stories, we need readers' support - thanks to your donations, we continue to work, despite the pressure of the state.Natalia was able to communicate with the radio with the head of the camp Dmitry Grekov. He caused help, but the next day the rescue group did not come to meet the spouses. Nagovicina recalled that she herself almost did not drink and did not eat, but left everything to her husband. By that time, his speech became more intelligible. And Sergey stopped feeling his fingers - I did not even understand when his glove flew.
“I asked if my head hurts. He answered: “Just a little bit.” I say: "And what about the legs?" He replied: "I can’t stand it, my legs hurt." As I understand it, they were already frostbite. He did not move for several hours. His hands in his elbows bend, and his fingers-no <...> his hands were white-white, and his fingers did not bend in any way, ”Natalya recalled .
The doctor, with whom Natalya contacted the walkie -talkie, asked her to go down so that she would not frostbite. But Natalia refused: her husband needed her help, and she did not want to leave him to die alone. Her dialogue with a doctor is given in the documentary “stay with Han-Tengri”:
- Where exactly are you?
- Under the dome, above 6800.
- What is his condition now?
- He cannot sit, falls to one side, confusing speech.
- Natasha, you need to go down herself. You cannot help him with anything. How did I understand me? Reception.
- I understand everything. But I will not leave him alone.
- Natasha, answer South. You need to go down, Natasha. The weather is spoiled, the night is soon.
- I will not leave my husband. He is completely helpless, I give him drink.
“So your decision to stay with him?”
- Yes.
Natalya and Sergey spent more than a day without sleep - the leader told them that it was impossible to fall asleep at night in this state. Nagovicina recalled that sometimes she knelt down to close her husband from the ground: the weather began to deteriorate, the wind began.
“For some reason, I myself was not afraid to die. I was afraid that I would stay disabled: I would frostble, take my hands and legs. What will I do then? I told the doctor that I would stay with my husband. He told me: “They know better. Once they say, then go.” I replied: “Don’t bring my brain now. I have made such a decision, everything.” After that, my husband hugged me, and I realized that I did everything right, ”Nagovicina recalled .
Soon, Sergey began nonsense. He did not realize where he was, but sometimes he came into consciousness. At these moments, the spouses discussed what they would do when they are confused and made plans. When it dawned, Natalya discovered that her husband had a frostbitten face: it became almost black during the night. In the morning, two climbers came to them, who fought tourist groups. They decided to lower Sergei down.
Natalia began to go down on her own. Sergei shouted after her: "Bring Kvass"Nagovicina went to bed in a tent in a camp that was a little lower. When the climbers returned there, Sergey was not with them.
"I asked:" Where is he? " They replied that they no longer had the strength to lower him together, and they left him at an altitude of 6400. There were no more tents, and he was left in the sleeping bag. The guides said: “We will lower it the next day to 6000 meters, and you go down below.” I replied: “No, I will only go down with him.” I already regretted that I went down earlier, I could spend a few more hours next to him, ” said Nagovicina.
By the second arrival of rescuers, Sergei Nagovitsin was already dead , and the sleeping bag, along with the body, blew into the abyss. Due to weather conditions, they could not evacuate his body.
A year after the tragedy, Natalia climbed this peak alone. On the way, she installed a memorial plate in memory of her husband at the height where he died. Natalia brought a bottle of kvass to the plate.
“I will not say goodbye, because he is always with me,” Natalya said in the 2022 documentary. Four years after her husband’s death, she will repeat his fate.
Crazy mountain
In August 2025, Natalia Nagovitsina decided to climb the peak of Victory-the highest point of Tien Shan. With a successful ascent, she would receive the Snow Bars award. It is assigned to climbers who conquered all five thousandths in the territory of the former USSR: the peak of Khan-Tengri (7010 meters), the peak of Korzhenevskaya (7105 meters), the peak of Lenin (7134 meters), the peak of Ismoil Somoni (7495 meters) and the peak of victory (7439 meters).
The peak of Victory is one of the most difficult peaks in the territory of the former USSR. In addition, on the ridges of the top there are very low temperatures even in summer, and winds can reach 40-50 meters per second. Due to the height and features of the relief, it is very difficult to evacuate the victims from there. According to the climber Alla Mishina, no more than 30 people a year go to the peak of victory. Climbing this peak takes five days, the same is the descent. The climbing season at this top lasts a maximum of a month.
“Every year there are incidents. Crazy mountain. The avalanches go constantly. The weather changes several times a day, real storms happen. It is located in a place where the most powerful cyclones are formed and joined, ” says climber Alexei Bukinich.
Nagovicina was already trying to rise to the peak of victory in 2024, but then the guide unfolded the group and said that climbers need to prepare. “All year she raved up with a campaign, it was her dream - to conquer the fifth seven -thousandth to get the Snow Bars icon. For climbers, this is very prestigious, ”a friend of Komsomolskaya Pravda told Nagovicina Liya Popova.
Popova also recalled that six months before the ascent, Natalia was injured. In one of the campaigns, she broke her leg, but in a few months she managed to recover and by August 2025 she was in excellent physical shape.
Natalya Nagovitsina was not one on the route: in the team with her was Russian Roman Mokrinsky, German climber Gunter Sigmund and Italian Luke Sinigalya, whom Nagovicina met during the ascent of Khan Tengri in 2021. Initially, an American named Paul was also with them (the surname is unknown), but he turned back, not even reaching the first camp. The remaining four reached the storm of the peaks on August 12, 2025.
Gunter Sigmund was ahead of everyone. Luke Sinigalya decided to return to the camp below the top due to frostbitten fingers. Natalia Nagovitsina broke away from Roman Mokrinsky, but soon he caught up with her, and they went upstairs in one bunch. By that time, Gunter Sigmund had already managed to conquer the top and return to the Luke of Sinigaly.
On the afternoon of August 12, Nagovicin and Mokrinsky reached the top of the Victory peak. During the descent, Mokrinsky said that they slipped from the crest. The rope saved them from death, but Natalya fell from a height and broke her leg. After consulting with the base, Mokrinsky pulled out a sink to the crest, recorded and insulated. All night he walked to the cave, where Sigmund and Sinigalya spent the night.
The climbers abandoned further descent and went up to Nagovicina with a tent, a sleeping bag, a gas burner and food. A few hours later, the weather at the peak deteriorated. After the night, Sigmund and Sinigaly took the walkie -talkie and began the descent to the cave. At the base, Nagovicin was asked to tune in to five days of waiting. On the same day, visibility worsened, and Sigmund and Sinigalya went down to the cave, where Roman Mokrinsky was waiting for them.
The next day, visibility became better, but Sinigalia became bad. His coordination was disturbed, and speech was incoherent. The doctor suggested that he had cerebral edema, and advised him to make an injection - but the syringes remained in the backpack next to Nagovicina.
“He shouted at us. He was worried about his hand. He thought we wanted to amputate it. Half an hour of descent passed, and he died. He died on my hands, ” said the German climber Gunter Sigmund.
Luke Sinigalya died on the evening of August 15. Gunter Sigmund and Roman Mokrinsky left his body in the cave and continued the descent, during which it turned out that they had no tent. They had to spend the night in sleeping bags in the cold.
The last chance
On August 16, a helicopter of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Defense flew out for Natalia Nagovicina - but at an altitude of 4600 meters, he crashed . Everyone survived, but four crew members were injured. Several rescuers got to the climbers. Help needed only Sigmund.
All this time, Natalya Nagovitsina was at an altitude of more than 7000 meters, but was alive. On the afternoon of August 19, she hit the video during the flying of the territory of the drone. Natalia waved her hand. It was evident that her tent was torn by the wind. According to the climbers, no one was still able to save the victim at the peak of Victory, lowering it from a height of more than 7100 meters.
“Until that time, no one was lowered from such heights at all. This was not in history. Not a season anymore: helicopters do not fly to such a height. There is already eight people lies. Now there are arctic conditions. Who will get there? For the sake of the deceased, will they climb alive? " - Said MSK1 climber Alexei Bukinich.
August 20-on the day when Natalia Nagovicina turned 48 years old-the Mi-17 helicopter, which evacuated the novel by Mokrinsky and Gunter Sigmund, flew to the peak of Victory. They were taken to the hospital in Bishkek. Sigmund was in serious condition.
For Natalya Nagovicina and the body, Luke Sinigalya planned to send a helicopter with an Italian crew. The departure was scheduled for August 22. But the weather at the peak of Victory deteriorated again, and rescue work was postponed for three days.
I left Ukraine to the Czech Republic for my freedom, I gave several thousand dollars. I am mastering in a new place and would like to ever come to relatives in Russia society 9 minutes of reading“The last chance. Tomorrow, August 25, they promise a clear day. They will try to make another circle of a drone, and if Natalya Nagovicina is alive, an attempt will be made to remove her by the European Copter with the Italian pilot, ”Anna Pyunova, a climber and acquaintance of Natalia Nagovicina, wrote on her page.
But on August 25, visibility did not improve: the helicopter could not fly out again, and the rescuers who worked at the top announced the completion of the operation. All climbers left the base camp.
On the same day, the son of Natalia Nagovicina Mikhail published a post on his page, in which he turned to the Russian authorities and submission of the Russian Federation in Kyrgyzstan with a request to conduct a new shooting from the drone and organize a rescue operation.
On August 27, the Ministry of Emergencies of the Republic recognized Natalya Nagovicin by the missing. The Iranian climbers of Hassan Mashchadioglu and Maryam Pilekhwari were declared the dead at the peak of victories. They conquered the peak on August 11 and crossed on the descent with Natalia Nagovicina, who at that moment rose to meet them. Then the connection with the climbers was interrupted: the rescuers found their tracks, things and equipment, but the people themselves could not be found.
"Leave a living person to die"
After the incident in social networks, an emotional discussion unfolded on the topic whether to continue the operation. Some friends of Natalia Nagovicina wrote that they believe that rescuers in Kyrgyzstan did not make everything possible.
“Leaving a living person to die is at least strange. They say that people have not yet been removed from such a height. But it is clear, if it concerns the corpses. But here a person is in full consciousness, just with a fracture. And do not provide resources? This is terrible, ” said the familiar publication“ Moscow Online ”
However, there is another opinion among climbers. Some are sure that Natalia Nagovicin is no longer possible to save - and condemn people who collect money to try to evacuate it.
“I don’t understand why to remove a piece of ice cream meat at the cost of the life of other people. I am categorically against collecting money to take risks to take off other people's corpses. This is a difficult place at the peak of victory. And you want to send people there so that they with 80 kilograms in their hands go down from where she could not go down? " — спорит с оппонентами альпинист и автор блога про горы Болт Закиров.
В МВД Кыргызстана пообещал возбудить уголовное дело против турфирмы Ak-Sai Travel, с которой альпинистка отправилась в горы. В самой компании заявили , что, «несмотря на героизм и самоотверженность участников, экстремальные погодные условия позволили спасти лишь немногих».
“Orsk Chikatilo” and the Miller-Monets are the most wanted criminals of Russia, who have not been able to catch crime for more than 10 years 18 minutes of readingТелеграм-канал Mash заявлял , что перед восхождением Наталья Наговицина выбрала базовую страховку, которая покрывает затраты в 35 тысяч долларов (2,8 миллиона рублей). Операция по спасению, по информации канала, стоила 58,8 тысяч долларов (4,7 миллиона рублей). Mash сообщил, что если Наговицина не выжила, то на эвакуацию тела придется тратить деньги ее сыну.
«Только участие в этой группе стоит около 400 тысяч рублей. Она в прошлом году мне говорила, что брала гида индивидуального за пять тысяч долларов, чтобы он зашел с ней на Победу. Но незадолго до восхождения он попал в больницу. Она его зашла проведать, он ей вернул деньги. Я в прошлом году за страховку, включая вертолет, платил около 22 тысяч рублей, которая покрывает до 30–50 тысяч долларов. Насколько я понял, на Победе такого не было», — заявил изданию MSK1 знакомый Наговициной.
Подруга Натальи альпинистка Лия Попова написала на своей странице в инстаграме прощальный пост про нее.
«Она любила горы всей душой и не могла отказаться от них даже после трагической гибели ее мужа в горах. Весь год она готовилась к восхождениям — бегала, участвовала в марафонах, занимала призовые места, ездила на альпсборы, тренировалась и закрыла второй разряд по альпинизму. Она была очень сильная и выносливая, за ее плечами четыре семитысячника. Поэтому те, кто пишут, что она была не готова к горе, — лицемеры! Она была готова, и гора пустила ее на вершину, но, к сожалению, не захотела ее отпускать», — говорится в посте.
Тела Натальи Наговициной и Луки Синигальи, скорее всего, останутся на пике Победы до следующего года. В МЧС Кыргызстана заявили , что до весны никаких спасательных операций не будет.
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X We put a person in the center of our journalism and talk about people who are faced with injustice, but do not lose their spirit and continue to fight for their rights and freedoms. In order to further cover human stories, we need readers' support - thanks to your donations, we continue to work, despite the pressure of the state.