A father and his 17-year-old son from Krasnodar were rescued by helicopter after getting injured and stranded on Mount Fisht in southern Russia.
The father suffered a broken arm when he fell during the climb, having lost sight of his son on the mountain. Rescuers later located the teenager higher up the peak inside a glacier crevasse.
Emergency services launched a search operation after receiving reports of the missing hikers, according to the local Telegram channel CHP Sochi. Teams from Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations dispatched ground rescuers and an emergency helicopter to the area.
Rescuers found the injured father on the Great Fisht Glacier at an altitude of 2,200 metres. The search team subsequently located his 17-year-old son further up the same glacier inside a fissure at an elevation of roughly 2,500 metres.
Both hikers were hoisted on board the helicopter, where emergency crews administered first aid. Official reports noted that the father and son had not registered their hiking trip with authorities before embarking on the ascent.
Glacier search and mountain rescue
Mount Fisht is a prominent mountain peak located in the Republic of Adygea, a federal subject of Russia in the Western Caucasus. Rising to an altitude of nearly 2,900 metres, the peak features steep slopes and permanent glaciers that attract mountain climbers throughout the region.
The city of Krasnodar, where the two tourists are from, lies north of Adygea in southern Russia. Emergency officials in Russia frequently remind mountain tourists to register planned routes prior to departing, enabling search teams to deploy rapidly when accidents occur in remote terrain.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations operates specialized search and rescue units across Russia, utilizing aviation assets to perform high-altitude evacuations in mountainous regions like the Caucasus.
The rescue follows an earlier mountain discovery reported in the region, where Belarusian tourists uncovered the remains of a climber who went missing 19 years ago in the mountains of Kazakhstan. The victim's daughter identified his remains after recognizing his Soviet-era backpack.
