A search team made up of volunteers Alex Stone, Albert Kovacs, and Peter Vitez were dropped early today by helicopter at the location on Pobeda Peak where Mehri Jafari was last seen.
The Iranian-British solo climber went missing last Wednesday at about 6,000m on the 7,439m mountain, the highest in Kyrgyzstan. One report stated that she fell, but this was unconfirmed.
Albert Kovacs has just posted on Instagram that they were unable to find her. It is now night in Kyrgyzstan.
A Soviet team first climbed Pobeda in 1943. Since then, many have perished on its slopes. Even Ak-Sai Travel, the local tour company that guides climbers on Pobeda, and which provided base camp logistics for Jafari, describes the climb as “exhausting and dangerous”.
Climbers pass a crevasse on Pobeda Peak. Photo: Albert Kovacs
