Climber Who Broke Her Leg Atop Mountain Believed Dead

UPDATE Aug 27, 2025 8:57 AM CDT

An experienced Russian climber who broke her leg while descending a mountain in Kyrgyzstan more than two weeks ago is now presumed dead. CBS News reports Kyrgyzstan officials on Wednesday said they had detected no signs of life at the location where Natalia Nagovitsyna was believed to be. The 47-year-old had last been sighted alive by a drone on Aug. 19 around 23,000 feet up the 24,406-foot Victory Peak, a week after her injury. Officials said a new thermal-imaging drone survey of the area returned no indication she was alive. Experts previously said there has never been a successful evacuation that high up the mountain.

Aug 24, 2025 12:40 PM CDT

Attempts to reach a climber who has been stranded for 12 days on a mountain in Kyrgyzstan have been halted after weather conditions worsened and one of the rescuers was killed. Natalia Nagovitsyna, an experienced mountaineer from Moscow, broke her leg on Aug. 12 while descending from the top of Jengish Chokusu—Victory Peak—on the border with China. A team got close enough to give her supplies but couldn't evacuate her because of the conditions, CNN reports. Luca Sinigaglia, an Italian mountaineer, died on the mountain on Aug. 15, the Italian government said. Crews have not been able to recover his body.

Sinigaglia, 49, of Milan, died of prolonged exposure to low oxygen levels and hypothermia, per the Sunday Times. He had scaled the summit twice to deliver supplies to his friend, including a tent, sleeping bag, water, food, and a small gas cooker. A drone flight spotted Nagovitsyna, alive, on Tuesday, but another one Thursday saw no signs of life. It appeared that winds had shattered her tent. Temperatures have fallen, and a heavy snowfall hit the area.

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"It will be almost impossible to save her," warned an official with the Russian Mountaineering Federation. "There's a three-kilometre-long ridge, and it takes at least 30 people in such a situation to rescue a person from there," Alexander Pyatnitsyn said. Nagovitsyna's husband, Sergei Nagovitsyn, died of a stroke in 2021 during a descent from another of the five Snow Leopard peaks. His wife reportedly refused to leave him until rescuers arrived.