Evgeniy Glazunov of Russia, missing on 5,355m Ak-Su in Kyrgyzstan’s Pamir-Alai range since last Friday, has been found dead.
Details of the discovery are unclear, but searchers reported the sad news to Anna Piunova of Mountain.ru, who was coordinating the rescue. “He was almost down, only one-pitch-and-a-half above the base of the face,” they said. This suggests he might have been hit by falling rock.
Racing against the clock, delays, bureaucracy, and equipment lost between flights, the three climbers traveled non-stop by plane, road, and on foot until they reached the base of the face yesterday.
Unfortunately, clouds enveloped the mountain, and all they could do was yell Glazunov’s name, but received no answer. Today, conditions must have improved enough to explore the face or fly a drone, as planned.
Glazunov had just soloed the Chaplinsky route up the 1,000m+ north face of Ak-Su. He was descending via de same route, in bad weather, when he last contacted home. The highly skilled climber had soloed a significant number of long routes, including several first ascents, mainly in Central Asia.
