Kyrgyzstan may cancel climbing tours
Tour operators used helicopters belonging to the country's General Staff for rescue operations. However, in April it became known that helicopters would not be provided.
About five thousand high-altitude tours booked for 2018 by Kyrgyz tour operators may be canceled due to the government's lack of rescue helicopters, reported Elena Kalashnikova, a representative of the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators.
Kyrgyzstan, where over 90% of the territory is occupied by mountains, attracts climbers from all over the world. The country is home to several dozen mountain peaks over 7,000 meters high. One of them, Lenin Peak, is located on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Its height is 7,134 meters above sea level. The peak Khan Tengri (6,695 meters), favored by climbers worldwide, is considered one of the most difficult and dangerous peaks on the planet. Every year, dozens of accidents occur in the mountains of the republic, requiring the emergency evacuation of climbers and mountain tourists.
"Tour operators used helicopters belonging to the country's General Staff for rescue operations. However, in April we were informed that helicopters would not be provided," Kalashnikova said.
According to her, the reason for the authorities' refusal was the malfunction of the helicopters that are under the control of the security forces. Tour operators also failed to negotiate the rental of rescue helicopters with the authorities of neighboring countries. Several mountain peaks are located in the border zone of the republic, and the flight of foreign military aircraft to these areas requires lengthy special approvals from border and other agencies.
"The absence of helicopters means that the Kyrgyz side cannot ensure the safety of incoming tourists. We have to completely close Khan Tengri Peak," the representative of the tour operators reported. She added that if a solution to the problem is not found, the cancellation of already booked tours will impact the image of the entire tourism industry in the republic. According to her, applications for mountain tours in Kyrgyzstan have already been received from five thousand people from 18 countries around the world.
Vladimir Komissarov, chairman of the public foundation "Rescue in the Mountains," noted that if the booked routes are canceled, the country's tour operators will incur huge losses.
"The average turnover for adventure tourism of one tour company is about $250,000 a year. Even if half of the tourists cancel their trips, the losses will be colossal," he said. According to him, one rescue operation in the mountains can cost up to $30,000 and is covered by tourists' insurance.
Evacuating climbers from high-altitude sites requires Kyrgyz pilots to have the highest level of professional training and skills. Two years ago, during a rescue operation for a Russian climber on the North Enylchek Glacier of the Khan Tengri mountain range at an altitude of over five thousand meters, a Mi-8MTV helicopter of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Defense crashed while approaching for landing, and it took several days to evacuate the injured crew members.