Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano tragedy: Climbers fall to their deaths

According to most recent reports, nine people died while climbing the Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano in Kamchatka. There were ten tourists and two guides in the group that set off to conquer the peak last week.

Now two groups of rescuers are climbing the volcano. The first one was airlifted to the volcano, while the other one started the journey from the foot of the mountain.

A group of ten tourists and two guides set off on a journey to ascend the Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano on August 30th. On September 3, nine people started climbing the summit, the rest remained in the camp at an altitude of 3,300 meters.

The climbers fell off at around 4,150 meters (the volcano is about 4,750 meters high). At least five were killed in the fall. Afterwards, the number of victims increased to eight due to hypothermia.

The tourists came from different regions of Russia — Altai, Kamchatka, Far Eastern, Vladimir and Novosibirsk regions, as well as from Moscow.

The news about the tragedy was reported on Saturday, September 3, when one of the guides got in touch with rescuers.

The surviving members of the group — four people — are staying at different altitudes: two — at 4,100 meters, and the other two — at 3,300 meters. Three tourists got in touch with relatives and said that they were fine and were waiting for rescuers in the house of volcanologists.

On September 4, rescuers tried to land on the volcano from a helicopter, but they could not because of weather conditions. It was only on the morning of September 5 when the Mi-8 helicopter of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia could take eight people to the mark of 1,663 meters. 

A criminal case was opened under Part 3 of Art. 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Causing death by negligence to two or more persons." The regional department of the Investigative Committee reminded of the need to take precautions when climbing the volcano. The Klyuchevskaya Sopka is one of the most difficult peaks of the peninsula.

The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Novosibirsk region is looking into the activities of Extreme Time travel company that organized the ascent. The company has been operating on the market for about ten years. It was registered in Novosibirsk on May 21, 2012. Company's director Andrey Stepanov was detained on September 5.