A helicopter search has located the bodies of five Russian climbers who went silent while attempting to summit Dhaulagiri. The group was found at 7,100 meters.
The climbers who died were expedition leader Alexander Dusheyko, Oleg Kruglov, Vladimir Chistikov, Mikhail Nosenko, and Dmitry Shpilevoy. They began their summit push on October 6 but failed to check in after that. With no updates, authorities launched an aerial search at 6 a.m. today, Nepal time.
The helicopter also retrieved Denis Aleksenko, who had reached the summit on October 5 and was waiting at Base Camp, to assist with the search. The bodies were located during the flight.
Joint Fall
Early reports suggest that the climbers may have fallen from around 7,600 meters while crossing a long section below the summit ridge. It’s still unclear if an avalanche caused the fall, or if they were all connected by the same rope, and one slip caused a chain reaction.
A sixth climber, Valery Shamalo, had turned back above Camp 4 during the summit push. He was flown from Camp 1 to a hospital in Kathmandu. Shamalo had previously lost all his toes and parts of his fingers after a close call on Lhotse in 2017.
Tragedy Strikes Again
This is the second year in a row that a Russian expedition on Dhaulagiri has ended in tragedy. In 2023, a smaller team tried to climb the mountain without oxygen or sherpa support, but the expedition ended in sorrow when climber Nadya Oleneva died in a fall.
Like last year, the 2024 expedition was also self-sufficient. The 15 climbers did not use oxygen or any sherpa help beyond Base Camp, making the climb entirely on their own.
Read this: “Tragedy Strikes: Helicopter Crash Claims Lives of Six Near Mount Everest”
