MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. Angolan, Russian and Tajik troops will compete at a ski mountaineering contest in the Sayan Mountains at the 2019 International Army Games, the Russian Defense Ministry told reporters.
The Sayan March contest kicked off at a training center in the Ergaki national park in the East Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk on Sunday.
Winter competitions for mountaineering units were added to the International Army Games for the first time this year.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the contestants will have to fulfil eleven assignments in a span of five days.
"The teams of Russia, Angola and Tajikistan will have to search for an avalanche victim and transport them, to climb steep slopes and descend them with the help of ropes and crampons, to navigate in the highlands and to shoot and hurl grenades to hit. A total distance of the competition tracks is more than 25 kilometers, with a climb of up to 3,000 meters," the ministry said.
"Kazakhstan’s representatives will attend the contest as observers," it added.