2 Polish Fatalities in Crevasse on Mount Ushba

Itar-Tass reports rescuers have abandoned their attempts to rescue two Polish climbers who fell in a crevasse on Mount Ushba in Russia’s Kabardin-Balkar republic near Elbrus.

Their bodies cannot be hoisted up because of high risks for rescuers. The Ushba glacier is very unstable at present, with ice movements occurring every ten to ten minutes. Marta Rugalskaja, 28, from Warsaw and Miroslaw Sawickij, 30, from the town of Sokolow-Podlaski, fell into an ice crevasse at an altitude of some 4,000 meters in the upper part of Ushba on August 17.