KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 7

At least five Russian climbers who were on a summit push on Mt Dhaulagiri yesterday remained out of contact till this afternoon, said expedition organiser.

Pemba Jangbu Sherpa, Managing Director at I AM Trekking & Expedition, said that team leader Alexander Dusheyko, Oleg Kruglov, Vladimir Chistikov, Mikhail Nosenko and Dmitrii Shpilevoi had gone out of contact as they left for summit push from the high camp at around 6:00 am on October 6. 'They last contacted the fellow climbers at the base camp at around 11:00 am yesterday,' Sherpa said.

According to Sherpa, this was the second group of climbers from the Russian expedition to head for summit push. 'Valerii Shamalo who was also with the team, however, abandoned his bid from above Camp IV and now at 7,400m,' Sherpa said. Other five climbers have not returned to Camp IV till now and their radio sets are also inactive, he shared.

Denis Aleksenko from Russia as well as Artsiom Tsentsevitski from Belarus had scaled Dhaulagiri on October 5 in an alpine style, Sherpa said. 'They are now at the base camp,' he said.