What did cause the death of mountaineers on the Mount Tfan ?

The main fault in the death of three mountaineers in December last year on Mount Tfan lies with those who destroyed the security system in the mountains, ignoring the rules of mountain ascents, without presenting possible consequences said in an interview with Turan, Eldar Jafarov, the former vice-president of the Mountaineering Federation of Azerbaijan, the candidate for master of sports in mountaineering.

Question: Five months have passed since the death of three alpinists on Mount Tfan. However, no analysis has been carried out so far. What do you think about it?

Answer: The main task is to find out the reasons for what happened, and their analysis for the prevention of such in the future. But first of all I would like to express my deep condolences to the relatives and friends of these children. To all climbers of our country.

To find out why this happened, we should simply recall the laws and rules of mountaineering, which are mandatory in the mountains, and which have been observed for decades in Azerbaijan, but have been violated in the last few years.

Any accident with climbers must necessarily be investigated by the Federation of Mountaineering Commission. As a result of the analysis of the incident, a number of questions should be clarified: Who participated in the ascent? Which route? Who issued the permission to climb? Were the necessary security measures provided for? etc.

We do not observe anything like this.

Only the Ministry of Emergency Situations publishes in the media information relating to prospecting. Other ministries and federations are silent.

Today, a vicious situation has developed when the title of a climber is devalued. It is enough to be a member of one of the Fierex clubs (Federation of extreme sports), climb a mountain and call yourself an alpinist.

I want to remind you that getting a badge of a climber means, first of all, a mandatory training course in the mountains from experienced instructors who have licenses. At the same time, participants' safety, their medical control and their insurance are ensured.

After the training, which lasted no less than 3 weeks, the instructor gave an opinion that this person is ready for the title of climber in terms of his physical, technical and moral qualities.

I do not think that most of those who went to the mountains until recently in Azerbaijan, including the dead children, met these requirements.

The second question: winter ascent is an extraordinary event. Did the group have the right to climb this category of complexity, and who issued them on the route? What kind of climb was it: training or sports?

That is, did they train, go to school or was it an ascension to get a discharge? Who advised them before climbing Tfan in winter conditions?

The first thing I would say to such a group is not to climb into the couloir! This is the most avalanche place. And anyone who visited Tfan will say this.

Removing people with experience and knowledge, young people pushed to act at their own peril and risk. Another important point. A weakened group emerged into the remote mountainous region. Weakened, because in the composition was a girl, even if she is an athlete and physically healthy. And now the weakened group goes to a remote area without observers!

The presence of observers with a more or less serious ascent is a mandatory requirement of mountaineering. If the group had observers, they would report a minute later about the descent of the avalanche and the threat to the lives of climbers. They would have pointed out exactly where the avalanche had gone, where the group was and where to look. In this case, they could be saved.

But there were no observers, and there were also rescuers. Why? That's the main question. I absolutely agree with those who believe that all this is not just someone's mistake, but the consequences of a system failure.

Question: Could you specify?

Answer: A few years ago the process of erosion of the rules of mountaineering began. When the clubs appeared unknown from where they themselves decided to whom and where to issue. For this reason, in recent years many small-scale emergencies have occurred, without sacrifices, but no one has been punished for this, but on the contrary, it was presented as heroism. And earlier for the violation of the rules, the instructor was deprived of the sporting title.

The Mountaineering Federation of Azerbaijan had a set of rules that were strictly observed and any emergency was seriously analyzed, the guilty were punished and nothing like the tragedy of Tfan could occur. Therefore, mountaineering in Azerbaijan was safe.

Question: What happened then when the changes occurred?

Answer: It was a bad day when the Minister of Sport Azad Rahimov told us: Mountaineering will be financed only through the Federation of Fireex.

And Fireex, apparently, decided this: mountain climbing is an extreme sport, so there you can do whatever you want. That is, the exact opposite of our position.

Here I want to make a digression and recall something. After the Second World War, samurai, as an institution of youth education in Japan, was banned, as anti-human. Then the government of the country began to question how to educate the youth?

It was decided to make mountaineering a state sport. The government has taken over the financing of this sport. For the education of youth through mountaineering is not just the management of youth in the mountains. How can you love your country if you do not know its nature? What kind of a citizen are you if you are not brought up in the spirit of love for comrades, mutual help and mutual assistance?

All of the above - the main thing in mountaineering! It is these qualities, and not climb the mountain.

Mountaineering is a collective sport, it is a philosophy, not just an extreme.

Summarizing, we can make the main conclusion - the efforts of some state officials were destroyed by the security system in mountaineering. The security system is not only a readiness to eliminate the consequences of an accident, but the prevention of such incidents. But now the situation is brought to the point that there is practically no one to teach young people skillfully and wild alpinism is thriving here.

Question: What can you say about this particular case on Tfan?

Answer: Now these opinions are heard: these guys are to blame for themselves, and nobody is to blame for their deaths, as they themselves got to the wrong place.

It is not true. When they went out to the area, the club's management had to know exactly where they were going and surely allowed this exit. Therefore, at least, the club management must bear moral responsibility. But here another question arises: how could such a dangerous event be solved?

Question: Who now generally decides questions of mountaineering: Fireex, the clubs themselves, the Ministry of Transport or who else?

Answer: In due time, in accordance with the law, we developed and approved rules for conducting mountaineering events, which are still in the Ministry of Youth and Sports. These rules say that when a group leaves for Shahdag, there must be a group of rescuers, for this is a remote region. There must also be the head of the rescue team, issuing the trainer and so on. But there was nothing of the kind. Therefore, it is necessary to talk about the full professional unfitness of Fireex, who assumed the function of the organizer of mountaineering events. This federation was headed and headed by people who do not understand anything in mountaineering (the Ministry of Ecology).

In the process of destruction of the mountaineering security system, not only these people were involved, but also the leadership of the Ministry of Sport and Youth, which indulged Fireex, gave them the right to lead mountaineering and contributed to the collapse of the Mountaineering Federation.

Our federation, established back in the early 1960s, with levers controlling clubs, cadres of instructors, rescuers and active athletes, suddenly became a hindrance to Huseyn Bagirov's personal ambitious plans. Therefore, he created Fireex, and the head of the Ministry of Transport Rahimov gave him all the powers.

After that the Ministry of Ecology has extremely complicated access to the mountains for the members of our federation, periodically trying to entice us into the composition of Fireex.

Therefore, it became easier for us to climb abroad than at home.

A few words about this Fireex. What kind of extreme and air sports? How and on what grounds does the Ministry of Sport approve this federation as sporting, without specifying what kind of sport it represents?

Creator Fireex that it will be mountaineering, saying that he is dealing with these issues, on behalf of the president of the country ..

I want to remind you that there is a law on sport in the country, according to which only one federation can deal with each sport.

Question: Why did the authorities allow such lawlessness?

Answer: I am sure that the head of state did not penetrate into all this, and this is not his level. The president could instruct to pick up this or that kind of sports, and all. Therefore, the responsibility for the current situation is borne by the ministers of ecology and sport.

We should also add to the Minister of Justice, which allowed that in violation of all laws the documents of the alternative federation of mountaineering were approved, and our powers were terminated.

Question: How do you assess the overall situation in the country's mountaineering after this accident?

Answer: The first reaction is quite predictable - to prohibit all ascendancy. Who made this decision? Forbid forever? For a month? What kind of events should be held so that our athletes again appeared in our mountains, and did not go abroad for ascents?

There are no answers to these questions, however it is not clear who should respond with complete paralysis of mountaineering control in the republic.

How long this process will last and what decisions will be made, I do not know. However, if you do not make the most serious conclusions and do not return professionals to this sphere, accidents will repeat. And after all, 5 years ago we made statements and called not to violate the security system, and that this would lead to the death of people in the mountains.

Mountaineering - perhaps the only sport that provides in its structure a service of rescuers

It is necessary to train professional rescuers, instructors and trainers. The situation showed that it is necessary to involve the Ministry of Emergency Situations in this process, which proved to be exceptionally professionally under such a situation.

In addition, the Ministry of Emergency Situations is inherently close to mountaineering. Life has shown that the Rescue Service must be in their composition or actively cooperate with this department. That's the way things are in Russia, where the rescue service in the mountains is one of the best.

Question: What would you like to say to those state officials who brought mountaineering to such a state?

Answer: I just want to say that their trouble is that they did not represent the consequences of their wrongful and rash actions.

I also want to ask: where are their condolences on this tragedy? It's not just an accident, it's the most massive death of Azerbaijani athletes in its history.

Where are the condolences of Fireex, where are the results of the analysis, where is the position of the Ministry of Sport? Where did they all hide? In the end, athletes, participants in the sport event died, and not passers-by as a result of the crash. I would like to end the conversation by stating that accidents are possible in any country, and they happen. Whatever the difference, what will be the consequences, what conclusions are drawn and what decisions are made. The findings in this case are necessary for one simple reason that the source of the tragedy is not only the wrong actions of some official or minister, but these are consequences of systemic violations and systemic errors.

Reference: Federation of Mountaineering in Azerbaijan was established in 1963.

Federation Fireex (Air and extreme sports federation) was established in 2005.

In February 2016, the Federation of Alpinism Report and Election Conference was held. However, the Ministry of Justice did not approve its results, as well as the elected leadership of the federation.

Instead, in June of the same year, the Ministry of Justice, with the active support and participation of the leadership of the Ministry of Sports, registered a group of Feireex members as leaders of the Mountaineering Federation. --0--