A group of tourists from Yekaterinburg, Syktyvkar and Perm got into trouble in the Komi Republic the day before – when they tried to get on snowmobiles from the village of Inta to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. The route of the expedition, which began on April 3, ran along the Ural Ridge.
The journey continued uneventfully for two days, but on the third a snowstorm broke out. Visibility approached the zero mark, besides, the equipment began to mess up. “We made a stop to wipe the masks from the snow. A three-minute stop was enough for the snowmobiles to be clogged with snow. There was a failure of equipment. I found myself at a distance of 150 m from the guys. But we couldn’t get to each other because of the strong wind. To keep warm, I had to dig a small cave in the snow, where I took shelter from the snow and wind for several hours,” he told the publication 66.ru The head of the expedition is Konstantin Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov managed to get to the group only when the wind died down a little. Snowmobilers set up a tent and called rescuers. According to the expedition members, the blizzard could last for a long time and continuing the hike was a huge risk. Moreover, two snowmobilers got frostbite. As Konstantin Kuznetsov admitted, at one point he even thought about recording a farewell video – until the battery on his phone ran out.
Rescuers from the Yamalspas organization managed to reach the tourists only the next day, on April 6. It is noteworthy that due to the incessant snowstorm and the almost complete lack of visibility, they covered 28 km from the village of Harp to the place of emergency in 10 hours.
At the end of March, a tragedy occurred in the Yugyd Va National Park in the Polar Urals. A group of three tourists went along the route on two snowmobiles and got caught in an avalanche in the area of Muzhiki Pass. One person managed to escape, two people died, including the famous photographer from Kurgan Sergey Pashnov.
English 
Russian 
German 
Polish