Rescue teams from the Emergency Situations Ministry evacuated two Russian female climbers who were injured while climbing in the Zailiysky Alatau mountains, according to the website infohub.kz.
The Ministry's press service said the request for the urgent evacuation of the two Russian nationals came from sport climbing groups. The women were climbing routes of varying difficulty on two peaks in the Zailiysky Alatau.
"The first climber, born in 2002, suffered an open leg fracture while ascending Oktyabryonok Peak in the Karassay district of the Almaty region. The second, born in 1992, was injured while climbing Mayakovsky Peak in the Talgar district," the Ministry said.
Rescuers from the Barys republican rescue squad, emergency services from the Almaty Department of Emergency Situations, and doctors from the Ministry's Disaster Medicine Center were immediately dispatched aboard an Mi-8 helicopter. The helicopter first evacuated the 34-year-old climber from Mayakovsky Peak, which stands 4,208 meters above sea level. It then flew to Oktyabryonok Peak at an altitude of 3,480 meters, where the 24-year-old woman with an open leg fracture was picked up.
"After the operation, the helicopter landed on the helipad of City Clinical Hospital No. 4 in Almaty. The injured women were handed over to doctors for medical care. The rescue was carried out in extremely difficult high-altitude conditions. The helicopter crew made precise calculations and successfully landed on limited landing zones amid steep rocky slopes, allowing the safe evacuation of the casualties," rescuers added.