Avalanche on Mount Mizhirgi kills 11 climbers in Kabardino-Balkaria

An avalanche came off Mount Mizhirgi in Russia's Kabardino-Balkaria republic at about 5 p.m. local time on Sunday, 6 September, and struck a registered group of 33 climbers in the Bezengi gorge. By Monday morning the regional emergencies ministry had confirmed 11 dead and six injured. Ten climbers walked down on their own. Six were unaccounted for. More than 50 rescuers, including the Elbrus high-mountain team and an Mi-8 helicopter, were on the slope. Terrain and the chance of another slide slowed the search.

First reports on Sunday night spoke of two dead. The count rose overnight as bodies were found and as radio traffic from the route went quiet. TASS, citing the regional EMERCOM office, said 56 people were in the operation by Monday. Kommersant quoted a local source who called the fall of snow and ice unusual for the sector, perhaps a once-in-fifty-years failure after thaw on the face. The Telegram channel Baza described a rock slide first and a snow slide after, with strong wind in the valley.

Mizhirgi sits on the Bezengi Wall, the high central Caucasus ridge that holds peaks above 5,000 metres and forms the Russia-Georgia watershed. The classic alpine camp in the valley has sent parties onto those faces for decades. Sunday's group was registered, which is why the first call reached EMERCOM as a known roster rather than a rumour. That roster is now a casualty list plus a missing list.

Bezengi is not a walk-up. Parties move on glaciers and mixed ground, often far from a road-head. A slide that starts high can run a long line before it stops. Rescuers said they were working with that geometry and with a forecast that did not remove the next-slide risk. Helicopter time in the gorge depends on wind and cloud. Monday's briefings did not claim the missing six had been seen.

Kabardino-Balkaria's mountains draw Russian and foreign climbers through the short late-summer window. Permits, registration and a radio plan are the normal controls. They do not stop a face from shedding. If the Kommersant source is right about thaw, the useful question for the next parties is whether other sectors of the wall are in the same condition. EMERCOM has not issued a general closure notice in the material published on Monday. Individual teams will make that call with the 11 deaths in view.

Names of the dead and missing had not been released in the first official notes. Hospitals in the republic took the six injured. No public update on their conditions had been issued by mid-Monday. Families of the unaccounted six were waiting on the search rather than on a press line.

The facts that can be checked against EMERCOM and the wire reports are short. Time: about 17:00 Sunday. Place: Mizhirgi, Bezengi gorge. Group size: 33, registered. Dead: 11. Injured: 6. Self-rescued: 10. Missing as of 09:00 Monday: 6. Rescuers: more than 50, with an Mi-8. Cause given by a local specialist: collapse of snow and ice after thaw. Those numbers may move if the missing are found alive or dead. Until then they are the record of the night on the wall.