Seven climbers from Zenica were ascending Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe. They walked into a severe storm at an altitude above five thousand metres. Two were brought down alive and received medical care - Kemal Vidimlić and Haris Adilović. For the other five, the rescue teams arrived too late.

Russian authorities said the bodies of two climbers, found at 5,350 metres, have been brought down to the foot of the mountain. Rescuers located three more bodies but could not evacuate them - „strong winds” and conditions that, as they stated, are hampering the entire operation. According to media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the expedition had seven members. The Russian agency RIA Novosti, citing police sources, confirmed their citizenship before the official bodies did.

A mountain that is not to be underestimated

Elbrus stands at 5,642 metres, north of the Georgian border. Among climbers it has a reputation that does not match its status as „the most accessible five-thousander” - tens of thousands of people climb it every year, including well-prepared amateurs, and that is precisely part of the problem. The peak is technically gentler than other five-thousanders, but the weather on it changes within minutes. This is not a mountain that kills with steepness. It kills with change.

This is also the route on which, for years, regional mountaineering clubs from across the Balkans have run expeditions - for many people from this region Elbrus is the first genuinely big summit, a step before the Alps or the Himalayas. Which is why this is not distant news.

The questions that stay open

When a group of seven climbs above five thousand metres and only two come back, the first question is not about courage. The question is about the forecast. What weather forecast did the expedition have before the ascent? Who approved the route, and in what weather window? On Elbrus, a mountain with official rescue services and group registration, did anyone warn them what was coming?

The Russian investigative committee is running the procedure. Judging by experience with Russian investigations in remote mountain regions, the report will arrive, but not soon and not in much detail.

Zenica waits

In the meantime, Zenica waits - three bodies are still on the mountain, and bringing them down depends on the same weather that closed in on them up there. This is the hardest part, the one with no press release: families who know where their people are and cannot bring them home until the wind settles.

The Balkans have a long tradition of mountaineering and an even longer tradition of improvising everything else. The two usually go together, until they meet a mountain that does not accept improvisation.