“We’ll Be Back by the Baltic Way”: The Fatal Trek of Seven Estonians in the Caucasus
In August 1989, a torrent of mud and rocks killed all seven members of an Estonian hiking group in North Ossetia. One of the victims had promised his parents they would return by the Baltic Way; instead, five coffins were brought home.
“Don’t worry, we will be back by the Baltic Way,” said Avo Rozentāls as he put on a faded light-green backpack and waved goodbye to his parents standing on the doorstep. Those were the last moments his family saw him alive.
On 15 August 1989, in the Greater Caucasus mountains of North Ossetia, the entire group of seven perished. During their first night in the mountains, a mud and rock flow triggered by heavy rainfall swept over them. It became the worst tragedy in Estonia’s hiking history.
The victims were group leader Jāns Silds, 37; his 12-year-old daughter Kristīna; Helēna Treja, 19; Urmass Reitss, 27; Avo Rozentāls, 27; and the married couple Andruss Pukss, 30, and Ruta Puksa, 23.
The author, a journalist at the time, was invited by Avo’s colleagues to travel to the site of the accident and help bring the victims home. Five zinc coffins were transported back to Estonia; the remains of two hikers were never found.
A year later, the author returned to the Terek River valley in North Ossetia with his parents. A photograph from that visit shows them together with a tourist base employee.
The author writes that his brother’s death and what he experienced at the scene have haunted him all these years. Until now, he had been unable to write about it, but he has come to believe that this tragedy, which claimed seven lives, deserves to be told more widely.
