Dyatlov Pass
Hello guys and gals. It's been an incredibly long while since our last post, but we figured we'd start up again.
**WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC--PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!**
Lately, I've been hardcore obsessed with the "Dyatlov Pass Incident". It's fascinating, it's creepy, it's suspicious, it's everything you could hope for in an unsolved mystery. The only part that legit sucks about it, is that it is an unsolved mystery, STILL, after 58 years. I think my favorite part about all of it are the theories; ranging from aliens and yetis to military experiments and tribesman. A witness at the funeral of the hikers noted that the bodies had a "strange brown tan and grayed hair." I'm warning you, this shit is wild, y'all.
Background
As the story goes, 9 hikers mysteriously went missing in the Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union sometime between February 1st and February 2nd (my dads birthday..creepy!) in 1959. The area where the incident occurred was named Dyatlov Pass in honor of the groups leader, Igor Dyatlov.
Igor Dyatlov was a 23 year old radio engineering student at the Ural Polytechnical Institute in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Igor assembled a group of nine other students for this particular trip. They were all experienced hikers with plenty of ski tour experience and would receive their Grade III certification upon their return. WELP-- I've got bad news for them! This was the highest certification available in the Soviet Union at the time; the trip required the hikers to traverse 300 kilometers, or 190 miles, and the goal was to reach Otorten, a mountain that was 10 kilometers, or 6.2 miles, north of the site where the incident happened. They were only SIX miles away from their destination. Imagine how much that would suck.
The group consisted of eight men and two women:
-Igor Alekseievich Dyatlov, leader of the group, aged 23, found very lightly dressed, no shoes, he was wearing a knitted vest Yudin left to Doroshenko before going back; cause of death- hypothermia
-Yuri Nikolaievich Doroshenko, aged 21, found wearing underwear, shirt, no shoes; cause of death- hypothermia
-Lyudmila Alexandrovna Dubinina, aged 20, found with her foot wrapped in a piece of Krivonishenko's underpants and she was wearing Krivonishenko's brown sweater that tested positive for traces of radiation; cause of death- major chest fractures, missing her toungue, eyes, parts of her lips, as well as facial tissue and a fragment of skull bone; her tongue was removed while she was still alive.
-Yuri (Georgiy) Alexeyevich Krivonischenko, aged 23, found wearing underwear, shirt, no shoes; Dubinina took his sweater and and tore a flap of his underpants to wrap her foot probably after his death; cause of death- hypothermia
-Alexander Sergeievich Kolevatov, aged 24, the waistband of his sweater and lower part of his trousers tested radioactive; cause of death- hypothermia, exposed skull bones, and a broken nose.
-Zinaida Alekseevna Kolmogorova, aged 22, was found better dressed that the previously found hikers. No footwear; cause of death- hypothermia
-Rustem Vladimirovich Slobodin, aged 23, was found better dressed that the previously found hikers, one felt boot (valenka) on his right foot; cause of death- hypothermia, fractured skull, multiple areas of edema and abrasions on his face and his arms.
-Nicolai Vladimirovich Thibeaux-Brignolles, aged 23, was found better clothed than the rest of the members of the group. On his feet he wore hand-knitted woolen socks a pair of felt boots (valenki; cause of death- major skull damage- multiple fractures to the side of his skull that would have made him immobile.
-Semyon (Alexander) Alekseevich Zolotaryov, aged 38 (y'all, why is he so much older than everyone else? He survived the Great Patriotic War and served from October 1941 to May 1946; the survival rate was a mere 3%. THREE PERCENT, YOU GUYS!! He was also covered in strange tattoos, Г+С+П=Д.) Semyon was found wearing Dubinina's faux fur coat and hat; camera on his neck. Zolotaryov and Thibeaux were almost fully clothed and wearing some kind of footwear; cause of death- major chest fractures (5 broken ribs) and had an eyeball missing.
-Yuri Yefimovich Yudin, aged 21, left the expedition early, January 28th, due to illness; technically the only survivor.
Also, let me just throw out there that there were no EXTERNAL injuries and the injuries that they received were done with the same force of a CAR CRASH! Tell me that's not fishy as hell.
The Expedition
On January 25, the group arrived in Ivdel, a city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, early, early in the morning, then took a truck to Vizhai, where they stayed the night and ate and purchased loaves of bread to keep their energy levels up for the hike. On January 27th, they began their grueling trek toward Otorten from Vizhai and on the following day, one of the members, Yuri Yudin, was forced to head back due to knee and joint pain that made him unable to continue the hike. The remaining members continued onward, sans Yuri.
On January 31st, the group arrived at the edge of a highland area to prepare for the treacherous climb ahead of them. The following day, February 1st, the hikers began to move through the pass, hoping to get over it and make camp for the next night on the opposite side. Lemme tell y'all, the weather had other plans for them. Due to snowstorms and decreasing visibility, they lost their direction and ended up going west towards the top of Kholat Syakhi. Once they realized they screwed up royally, they decided to stop and set up camp on the slope of the mountain. Had they just gone a few more kilometers, they would have made it downhill to a wooded area that could have potentially offered some sort of shelter. Unsolved mystery as to why they didn't. As the great Mr. Owl once said, "the world may never know." Indeed, Mr. Owl, indeed.
It had been agreed that Igor would send a telegram to their sports club just as soon as the group returned to Vizhai. They expected to hear from him no later than February 12th; Igor expected it would be longer, as he told Yuri before he left the group. The sports club obviously received no word from Dyatlov, but delays of a few days were common, so there was no immediate action. It was only after the relatives of the hikers demanded a search party be sent out did the institute do anything about it. They sent the first rescue party on February 20th; the army and police forces became involved later with planes and helicopters.
Rescue Mission
On February 26th, the rescue party found the abandoned, damaged tent on Kholat Kyakhl. Mikhail Sharavin, the student who found the tent said, "the tent was half torn down and covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group's belongings and shoes had been left behind." Investigators claim the tent had been cut open from the inside and the hikers left in a panic without any shoes or socks. How they could determine which way the tent was cut is beyond me. There were several sets of footprints in the snow that could be followed and led down towards the nearby wooden area.
Yuri Krivoshenko and Yuri Doroshekno were the first two bodies found. They were both found shoe less and dressed only in their underwear. There were tree branches scattered around them, along with the remains of a fire. The branches were broken up to five meters high suggesting that they climbed the tree, possibly looking for something; HOPEFULLY CAMP?! Later forensic tests confirmed that traces of skin embedded in the bark indicated that Yuri squared frantically tried climbing the tree until their hands were nothing but pulpy flesh. Ouch. Clearly something had to have scared them, right? RIGHT?! The medical examiner recorded that some of the corpses had livor mortis on their front. Given that such marks always form on the side of a body that has been pressed against the ground, this indicated that someone had turned them over after death. Uhhhhh, creepy! I guess this could be where the local tribesman theory comes from?
On February 27th, between the cedar and the tent, the searchers found Igor Dyatlov and Zinaida Kolmogorova. Six days later, on March 5th, Rustem Slobodin was found. The three seemed to have died in poses suggesting that they were attempting to return to the tent. Medical examinations found no deathly injuries, thus concluding that they died of hypothermia. Slobodin had a small crack in his skull, but it wasn't fatal. After finding the first five bodies, it took rescuers two months to find the remaining four hikers.
They were finally found on May 5th under four meters of snow in a ravine 75 meters farther into the woods. They were all better dressed than the aforementioned five. There were signs that those who died first, apparently relinquished their clothes to the others. Zolotaryov was wearing Dubinina's faux fur coat and hat, while Dubinina's foot was wrapped in a piece of Krivonishenko's wool pants. An examination of the four bodies found in May changed the course of the whole investigation. Three of them had fatal injuries: the body of Thibeaux-Brignolles had major skull damage, and both Dubinina and Zolotarev had major chest fractures. According to Dr. Boris Vozrozhdenny, the force required to cause such damage would have been extremely high. He compared it to the force of a car crash. Notably, the bodies had no external wounds as if they were crippled by a high level of pressure. Dubinina was found with her tongue missing, as well as parts of her lips and both of her eyes. The group clearly realized their threats and did everything they could to preserve themselves. They had managed to dig out a den in the snow and lay it down with branches in an effort to keep themselves warm. This is where shit gets even weirder. Bodies were found few feet from their shelter, in the deep part of the ravine, on the area of only 4 m2. Some of the hikers clothing, 2 sweaters and pants, were found to be RADIOACTIVE. Also, some of the clothing taken from the bodies underneath the cedar tree were placed on the branches, but apparently were not used.
**WARNING-- GRAPHIC CONTENT!!**
Pretty damn creepy, right? Now we're gonna get to the fun part- THE THEORIES!
THEORIES
Since there is obviously a lack of eyewitness, all we have to go by are the theories. Soviet investigators tried to play it off that a "compelling natural force" caused the deaths. Yeah, uhhh, okay. What kind of natural force could cause such a tragedy? The most common theory is an avalanche. Personally, I believe that's the most ludicrous theory. Had it been an avalanche, their tent would have been found covered in snow, but we can CLEARLY see from the picture above that the lie detector test determined that's complete bullshit. My money is on aliens or a Russian Yeti. Although, the KGB and infrasound are pretty good theories, too.
Theory 1: KGB agents
Alexei Rakitin, author of the book "Dyatlov Pass", introduces the version that Alexander Zolotaryov, Alexander Kolevatov and Yuri Krivonischenko were KGB agents on a mission to uncover a cell of CIA agents. They were to deliver radioactive samples and then take photographs of the Americans, but something went wrong and the CIA agents killed the group.I'm not a fan of this theory but with the KGB, there's really no telling.
Theory 2: Mansi natives
There was Mansi chum North-East from where Dyatlov group pitched their tent on the night of January 30th. A trail leading to the chum was passing 200 feet from where Dyatlov group camped. So they had an opportunity.
Mansi knew the area and definitely had the skills to hide their ski tracks and hunt the hikers into the woods. The MO (method of operation) is so unusual that it can be easily attributed to somebody very used to hunt down and kill animals.
Mansi are proud an secluded people. They consider these mountains their hunting grounds. If the Mansi told them that they shouldn't be there, and the hikers took it the wrong way, a verbal confrontation could have easily escalated into something physical.
Ethnographers knew of Mansi holy places scattered across the Northern Urals - mysterious stones and pagan prayer houses. In general, the mysticism and unknown made Soviet atheist prosecutors suspicious and fueled their desire to blame the crime on the Mansi. Common belief was that nothing not endorsed by the official law enforcement can lead to something good. It doesn't come as a surprise that the first and only coherent hypothesis in the course of the formal investigation is the involvement of Mansi hunters in the hikers' death.
Rumors were circulating of a woman geologist that was tied and thrown in the lake in the 30's. The motive was desecration of Mansi shrines. We don't know if this is fiction and/or what exactly happened. There are no documents introduced to backup this story.
Personally not a fan of this theory either. There aren't any scared places in the surroundings of the Kholat Kyakhl.
Theory 3: Shrooms
I'm not even going to comment on this asinine theory.
Theory 4: Avalanche
I've already given my thoughts on the avalanche theory. Though, they were common in that region, the Kholat Syakhl mountain isn't very tall nor is it very steep. The diaries found from the hikers report a fairly thin cover of snow.
Theory 5: UFOs
Pictures of glowing spheres were found on Krivonischenko's camera. Occasionally some of the conspiracy theorists claim that UFO scared the group away. Although seemingly incredible, this claim might have some base to it. About the same time, Soviet armed forces did launch several rockets from Baykanur base. Although military claimed the rockets landed in the north Ural mountains, several geologists 70 km from the mountains saw some glowing and pulsating orbits flying in the direction of the Kholat Syakhl on a day of tragedy (evening of Febrauary 1st).
Theory 6: Secret launches
The celestial phenomena that accompanied the Incident almost convinced everybody that the skiers’ lives had been sacrificed to the new Soviet idol – the rocket. In the criminal case, there is a radnote of particular interest, sent to the headquarters of the search party:
RADIOGRAM TO SULMAN 3/2-59 yr. — 18:30 […] the main mystery of the tragedy remains the exit of the entire group out of the tent […] The reason could be any extraordinary natural phenomenon, such as the flight of a meteorological rocket, OBSERVED ON THE 1st OF FEBRUARY IN IVDEL and by Karelin’s group [stop] Tomorrow we will continue the search [end]
Theory 7: Infrasound
This one I can actually get behind. Infrasound is sound that is lower in frequency than 20 Hz or cycles per second, the "normal" limit of human hearing. Hearing becomes gradually less sensitive as frequency decreases, so for humans to perceive infrasound, the sound pressure must be sufficiently high. As part of technological theory, there have been suggestions that an infrasound might have been responsible for sudden unpleasant feelings among the hikers. New research into rare weather phenomena has suggested that a 'perfect storm' could have struck the campers in the night, panicking them so much that they would have fled the tent, and fallen victim to the brutal cold before they came to their senses. A succession of studies has shown that it can have marked effects on the human body, including loss of sleep, shortness of breath, and extreme dread. Could be why they fled the tent in such a panic.
Theory 8: Paradoxical undressing
Paradoxical undressing is a term for a phenomenon frequently seen in cases of fatal hypothermia. Shortly before death, the person will remove all their clothes, as if they were burning up, when in fact they are freezing. This would make sense, but most of the hikers were found with their clothes still on.
Theory 9: Russian Yeti (my personal favorite theory)
Found on Thibeaux-Brignolles camera was a supposed picture of a Russian Yeti. Whether it be faked or real, I'll let you decide. In 2014, Discovery Channel produced a documentary titled Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives, a two-hour program presenting evidence that not aliens but the Yeti was responsible for the deaths of Dyatlov and his hiking crew. Quoth the channel of discovery: “Following the trail of evidence, [Director] Mike [Lebecki] finds proof that the hikers were not alone—a photograph, taken by one of the hikers a day before they died that suggests that they encountered a Yeti. But just how far will they go to find the answers?” A Yeti could explain the super human, powerful ass injuries most sustained! It's also been suggested that one of the hikers was just playing a prank and this is not a Yeti.
Conclusion
As I've mentioned throughout this entire blog post, I believe the Yeti and Infrasound theories the most. I'm currently reading a book titled "The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident" by Donnie Eichar, where he gives the most compelling theory thus far; Infrasound. It would explain them leaving their tent in a panic and leaving behind their belongings.
I'm not sure if we'll ever truly know what happened on Dyatlov Pass, but it's one of the greatest unsolved mysteries out there. Do your own research and make your own conclusions. There is TONS of information out there that I couldn't even touch because this blog post would be a mile long and no one would read it.
