In the Perm Territory, on Mount Oslyanka, the search for 13 snowmobile tourists who did not arrive at the meeting point in the village of Srednyaya Usva at the scheduled time continued for the second day. The Investigative Committee has begun investigating the incident. Tourist, meteorologist, Doctor of Geographical Sciences Andrei Shikhov, who has been to Mount Oslyanka more than ten times, told MK about the terrain and what can happen to tourists.
“By the standards of the Middle Urals,” says Andrey Shikhov, “this is a rather remote and inaccessible place. — The nearest settlement in the southeast is the village of Srednyaya Usva, about 30 km away. The altitude of Oslyanka is 1119 meters above sea level. But if we take into account the relative altitude above the nearest area, the height of the mountain is about 400 meters. The slopes there cannot be called steep, dark slopes about 30 degrees. It's basically a big hill rising above the woods and swamps.
As our interlocutor said, the peculiarity of this region today is that there is a lot of snow there compared to the rest of the Perm Territory.
— Snow cover in the Oslyanka Mountain region reaches 70-80 cm, in some places up to a meter. There was a fair amount of snow accumulated there and it was very loose. There are a large number of streams and wetlands that are still unfrozen under snow. This can significantly complicate the movement of both the group and those who will search for them.
According to Andrei Shikhov, logging roads had large ruts filled with water.
“It's very possible that the water there hasn't frozen yet.” There have been cases of snowmobilers in lower temperatures falling into these water holes, having trouble and then waiting for help because they were unable to get out on their own. There is a high possibility that this group may have encountered similar problems with technology. Even so, it's possible there was no emergency situation at all, and they simply got lost in bad weather.
– Is there mobile communication in that area?
— Somewhere you can occasionally catch a signal on the western slopes of Oslyanka. In some places, individual operators fish there. Someone in the group communicates periodically until a certain time. There is mobile communication in Srednyaya Usva, but as I said, the village is about 30 km away. The main feature is that in that area there is currently thick, soft snow and water barriers.
As the meteorologist said, the so-called Great Ural Trail passes through the Oslyanka Mountain area. There are signs on the tree.
“It is very likely that they are following these instructions.” At the foot of the mountain there is an uninhabited village of Bolshaya Oslyanka. The group can take shelter in one of the abandoned houses to wait out bad weather.
(In the village of Bolshaya Oslyanka there was a Kisellag camp, where after the war former policemen were detained along with criminals. The prisoners were engaged in logging. In the 70s-90s, a special regime zone was placed here. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, prisoners were brought from a remote village. The colony was closed. In the fall of 2001, the population dispersed. Until 2011, he lives in Bolshaya Oslyanka alone, who calls himself Vova and lives by hunting and fishing).
As our interlocutor said, it's one thing when one tourist wanders off, but in this case a whole group disappeared.
– And they're still not pedestrians. And I wouldn't assume that some serious emergency happened there. They are currently being sought. However, the search encountered many difficulties due to unfavorable weather conditions. Rainfall will continue there until Tuesday morning.
Employees of the Regional Ministry of Emergency Situations, rescue services, volunteers, as well as investigators and police are working at the scene. Due to snowfall, strong winds and poor visibility, helicopters and drones cannot take off yet.
