Avalanche on Mount Mizhirgi kills 11 climbers; six still missing

An avalanche broke off Mount Mizhirgi at about 5 p.m. local time on Sunday, 6 September, and ran through a climbing party in the Bezengi gorge of Kabardino-Balkaria. Russia's regional emergency service first said 15 people had been caught. By Monday morning the group size was 33. Eleven were dead. Six were injured and taken to hospital. Ten had made their own way down. Six had not been found.

Fifty-six rescuers were on the slope by Monday, including specialists from the Elbrus high-altitude search-and-rescue unit. Two extra helicopters were being readied. The terrain is steep and another slide remains likely, the Ministry of Emergency Situations told TASS. That risk is why the search is slow.

Mizhirgi stands near 5,000 metres in the Bezengi wall, a line of high Caucasus peaks that Russian and visiting climbers treat as a serious range rather than a trekking destination. Approaches run through a narrow gorge. An afternoon release after a warm spell is a known pattern on these faces. What is not yet public is the party's planned route, its experience mix, or whether a local guide was leading.

Numbers moved through the night. Early reports spoke of more than ten dead. Izvestia recorded an intermediate count of seven before the official figure settled at 11. The missing six are the variable that will decide whether Monday's toll is the final one. In avalanche debris at that altitude, survival after a night is uncommon but not unknown if an air pocket holds.

Kabardino-Balkaria's rescue service is built around Elbrus traffic. Mizhirgi is less crowded and less instrumented. Mobile coverage in the gorge is poor. The first accurate headcount came only after climbers who walked out gave names to responders. That is why the group size jumped from 15 to 33.

Climbing in the Bezengi region is legal and routine in September, which is late summer on the north side of the Caucasus. The season is chosen because snow bridges are thinner and rock routes are drier. The same warmth that opens rock also loosens afternoon snow. Sunday's slide arrived at 17:00, inside that window.

Families of the missing were still waiting on Monday for a list. The emergency ministry has not released nationalities. Until the six are found, the only hard figures are 11 dead, six in hospital, ten off the mountain, and 56 people walking toward the debris under a slope that can still run.