Rescuers Resume Search for Avalanche Victims in Siberia’s Remote Mountains

Search operations have restarted in the rugged mountains of Buryatia for tourists caught in a deadly avalanche, Russian emergency officials announced Thursday morning.

A team of 15 rescue workers has set out for the site of the snow slide on the 26th Party Congress Pass, located on Mount Munku-Sardyk. The mission is to find three remaining members of an unregistered climbing party that was hit by the avalanche earlier this week.

According to a statement from the Buryatia branch of the Russian Emergency Ministry, the group of seven climbers was making its way toward Constitution Peak when the avalanche swept down on them at the high-altitude pass. The team had not registered their route with authorities, a common but risky practice in this remote region near the Mongolian border.

Earlier, rescuers located three of the climbers who had been caught in the avalanche, along with the body of a fourth member of the group. The fate of the other three remains unknown, prompting the renewed search effort.

The area around Mount Munku-Sardyk, the highest peak in the Eastern Sayan mountain range, is known for sudden weather shifts and unstable snow conditions, especially in spring. Officials have not yet released the identities of the victims or survivors.