The Dyatlov Pass incident (Russian:
Гибель
тургруппы Дятлова) refers to the deaths of nine
skiers/hikers in the northern Ural Mountains, in the former Soviet Union,
between the 1st and 2nd February 1959, in unclear circumstances. The
experienced trekking group, who were all from the Ural Polytechnical Institute,
had established a camp on the slopes of Kholat Syakhl, in an area now named in
honor of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. During the night, something caused
them to tear their way out of their tents and flee the campsite, all while
inadequately dressed for the heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures.
After the group's bodies were
discovered, an investigation by Soviet Union authorities determined that six
had died from hyperthermia while the other three showed signs of physical
trauma. One victim had a fractured skull; two others had major chest fractures.
Additionally, the body of another team member was missing her tongue and eyes.
The investigation concluded that an "unknown compelling force" had
caused the deaths. Numerous theories have been put forward to account for the
unexplained deaths, including animal attacks, hypothermia, avalanche, katabatic
winds, infrasound-induced panic, military involvement, or some combination of
these.
Background
In 1959, a group was formed for a
skiing expedition across the northern Urals in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union. Igor Dyatlov, a
twenty-three-year-old radio engineering student at the Ural Polytechnical
Institute (Уральский политехнический институт, УПИ; now Ural Federal University
was the leader who assembled a group of nine others for the trip, most of whom
were fellow students and peers at the university. Each member of the group, which consisted of
eight men and two women, were experienced Grade II-hikers with ski tour
experience, and would be receiving Grade III certification upon their return. At the time, this was the highest
certification available in the Soviet Union, and required candidates to
traverse 300 kilometres (190 mi). The goal of the expedition was to reach
Otorten (Отортен), a mountain 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of the site of
the incident. This route, in February, was estimated as Category III, the most
difficult.
Members
of expedition
|
||||||
Name
(English)
|
Russian
name (lit.)
|
Birthdate
|
Age
|
Gender
|
Notes
|
|
Igor Alekseyevich Dyatlov
|
Игорь Алексеевич Дятлов
|
13 January 1936
|
23
|
Male
|
Hypothermia; leader of group
|
|
Yuri Nikolayevich Doroshenko
|
Юрий Николаевич Дорошенко
|
29 January 1938
|
21
|
Male
|
Hypothermia
|
|
Lyudmila Alexandrovna Dubinina
|
Людмила Александровна Дубинина
|
12 May 1938
|
20
|
Female
|
Severe chest trauma, eyes missing,
tongue missing
|
|
Yuri (Georgiy) Alexeyevich
Krivonischenko
|
Юрий (Георгий) Алексеевич
Кривонищенко
|
7 February 1935
|
23
|
Male
|
Hypothermia
|
|
Alexander Sergeyevich Kolevatov
|
Александр Сергеевич Колеватов
|
16 November 1934
|
24
|
Male
|
Hypothermia
|
|
Zinaida Alekseevna Kolmogorova
|
Зинаида Алексеевна Колмогорова
|
12 January 1937
|
22
|
Female
|
Hypothermia
|
|
Rustem Vladimirovich Slobodin
|
Рустем Владимирович Слободин
|
11 January 1936
|
23
|
Male
|
Hypothermia
|
|
Nikolai Vladimirovich
Thibeaux-Brignolles
|
Николай Владимирович Тибо-Бриньоль
|
5 July 1935
|
23
|
Male
|
Fatal skull injury
|
|
Semyon (Alexander) Alekseevich
Zolotaryov
|
Семён (Александр) Алексеевич
Золотарёв
|
2 February 1921
|
38
|
Male
|
Severe chest trauma, eyes missing
|
|
Yuri Yefimovich Yudin
|
Юрий Ефимович Юдин
|
19 July 1937
|
21
|
Male
|
Left expedition on 28 January due
to illness; died 27 April 2013 at the age of 75
|
Expedition
The group arrived by train at Ivdel (Ивдель),
a town at the centre of the northern province of Sverdlovsk Oblast in the early
morning hours of 25 January 1959. They
then took a truck to Vizhai (Вижай) – a lorry village that is the last
inhabited settlement to the north. While
spending the night in Vizhai, the skiers purchased and ate loaves of bread to
keep their energy levels up for the following day's hike.
On 27 January, they began their trek
toward Otorten from Vizhai. On 28 January, one of the members, Yuri Yudin, who
suffered from several health ailments (including rheumatism and a congenital
heart defect), turned back due to knee and joint pain that made him unable to
continue the hike. The remaining group
of nine people continued the trek.
Diaries and cameras found around
their last campsite made it possible to track the group's route up to the day
preceding the incident. On 31 January,
the group arrived at the edge of a highland area and began to prepare for
climbing. In a wooded valley they cached surplus food and equipment that would
be used for the trip back. The following day (1 February), the hikers started
to move through the pass. It seems they planned to get over the pass and make
camp for the next night on the opposite side, but because of worsening weather
conditions — snowstorms and decreasing visibility — they lost their direction
and deviated west, up towards the top of Kholat Syakhl. When they realised
their mistake, the group decided to stop and set up camp there on the slope of
the mountain, rather than move 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) downhill to a
forested area which would have offered some shelter from the elements. Yudin postulated that "Dyatlov probably
did not want to lose the altitude they had gained, or he decided to practice
camping on the mountain slope."
Search
and discovery
Before leaving, Dyatlov had agreed
he would send a telegram to their sports club as soon as the group returned to
Vizhai. It was expected that this would happen no later than 12 February, but
Dyatlov had told Yudin, before his departure from the group, that he expected
to be longer. When the 12th passed and no messages had been received, there was
no immediate reaction, as delays of a few days were common with such
expeditions. On 20 February the relatives of the travelers demanded a rescue
operation and the head of the institute sent the first rescue groups,
consisting of volunteer students and teachers. Later, the army and militsiva forces became
involved, with planes and helicopters being ordered to join the rescue
operation.
On 26 February, the searchers found
the group's abandoned and badly damaged tent on Kholat Syakhl. The campsite
baffled the search party. 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 said the tent had been cut open
from inside. Eight or nine sets of footprints, left by people who were wearing
only socks or a single shoe or were even barefoot, could be followed, leading
down towards the edge of a nearby woods, on the opposite side of the pass, 1.5
kilometres (0.93 mi) to the north-east. However, after 500 metres (1,600 ft)
these tracks were covered with snow. At the forest's edge, under a large Siberian
pine (in popular parlance it is called "cedar"), the searchers found
the visible remains of a small fire. There were the first two bodies, those of
Krivonischenko and Doroshenko, shoeless and dressed only in their underwear.
The branches on the tree were broken up to five metres high, suggesting that
one of the skiers had climbed up to look for something, perhaps the camp.
Between the pine and the camp the searchers found three more corpses: Dyatlov,
Kolmogorova and Slobodin, who seemed to have died in poses suggesting that they
were attempting to return to the tent. They were found separately at distances of
300, 480 and 630 metres from the tree.
Finding the remaining four travelers
took more than two months. They were
finally found on 4 May under four metres of snow in a ravine 75 metres further
into the woods from the pine tree. Three of those four were better dressed than
the others, and there were signs that those who had died first had their
clothes relinquished to the others. Dubinina was wearing Krivonishenko's
burned, torn trousers and her left foot and shin were wrapped in a torn jacket.
Investigation
A legal inquest started immediately
after the first five bodies were found. A medical examination found no injuries
that might have led to their deaths, and it was eventually concluded that they
had all died of hypothermia. Slobodin had a small crack in his skull, but it
was not thought to be a fatal wound.
An examination of the four bodies
which were found in May shifted the narrative as to what had occurred during
the incident. Three of the ski hikers had fatal injuries: Thibeaux-Brignolles had
major skull damage, and both Dubinina and Zolotaryov had major chest fractures.
According to Dr. Boris Vozrozhdenny, the
force required to cause such damage would have been extremely high, comparable
to the force of a car crash. Notably, the bodies had no external wounds
associated with the bone fractures, as if they had been subjected to a high
level of pressure. However, major external injuries were found on Dubinina, who
was missing her tongue, eyes, part of the lips, as well as facial tissue and a
fragment of skullbone; she also had extensive skin maceration on the hands. It
was claimed that Dubinina was found lying face down in a small stream that ran
under the snow and that her external injuries were in line with putrefaction in
a wet environment, and were unlikely to be associated with her death.
There was initial speculation that
the indigenous Mansi people had attacked and murdered the group for encroaching
upon their lands, but investigation indicated that the nature of their deaths
did not support this hypothesis; only the hikers' footprints were visible, and
they showed no sign of hand-to-hand struggle.
Although the temperature was very
low, around −25 to −30 °C (−13 to −22 °F) with a storm blowing, the
dead were only partially dressed. Some of them had only one shoe, while others
had no shoes or wore only socks. Some
were found wrapped in snips of ripped clothes that seemed to have been cut from
those who were already dead.
Journalists reporting on the
available parts of the inquest files claim that it states:
- Six of the group members died of hypothermia and three of fatal injuries.
- There were no indications of other people nearby on Kholat Syakhl apart from the nine travelers.
- The tent had been ripped open from within.
- The victims had died 6 to 8 hours after their last meal.
- Traces from the camp showed that all group members left the campsite of their own accord, on foot.
- High levels of radiation were found on only one victim's clothing.
- To dispel the theory of an attack by the indigenous Mansi people, Vozrozhdenny stated that the fatal injuries of the three bodies could not have been caused by another human being, "because the force of the blows had been too strong and no soft tissue had been damaged".
- Released documents contained no information about the condition of the skiers' internal organs.
- There were no survivors of the incident.
At the time the verdict was that the
group members had all died because of a compelling natural force. The inquest officially ceased in May 1959 as a
result of the absence of a guilty party. The files were sent to a secret
archive.
On 12 April 2018, the remains of
Zolotarev were exhumed upon the initiative of journalists of the Russian
tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravada. Contradictory results were obtained: one of the
experts stated that the character of the injuries resembled a person knocked
down by a car, and the DNA analysis did not reveal any similarity to the DNA of
living relatives. In addition, it turned out that the name Semyon Zolotarev is
not on the list of buried at the Ivanovskoye cemetery. Nevertheless, the
reconstruction of the face from the exhumed skull agrees with the post-war photographs
of Semyon, although journalists express suspicions that another person was
hiding under the name of Semyon Zolotarev after the war.
The region was closed to expeditions
and hikers for three years after the incident, but is currently accessible.
In February 2019, CNN announced that
the Russian authorities were reopening the investigation, although only three
possible explanations were being considered: an avalanche, a "snow
slab" avalanche, or a hurricane. The possibility of a crime has been
completely discounted.
Related
reports
- 12-year-old Yury Kuntsevich, who later became the head of the Yekaterinburg-based Dyatlov Foundation, attended five of the hikers' funerals. He recalled that their skin had a "deep brown tan".
- Another group of hikers (about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of the incident) reported that they saw strange orange spheres in the sky to the north on the night of the incident. Similar spheres were observed in Ivdel and adjacent areas continually during the period from February to March 1959, by various independent witnesses (including the meteorology service and the military). However, these sightings were not noted in the initial investigation in 1959, and these various independent witnesses only came forward years later.
Aftermath
In 1967, Sverdlovsk writer and
journalist Yuri Yarovoi (Russian: Юрий Яровой)
published the novel Of the Highest Degree of Complexity, inspired by the
incident. Yarovoi had been involved in the search for Dyatlov's group and at
the inquest as an official photographer during both the search and the initial
stage of the investigation, and so had insight into the events. The book was
written during the Soviet era when details of the accident were kept secret and
Yarovoi avoided revealing anything beyond the official position and well-known
facts. The book romanticized the accident and had a much more optimistic end
than the real events – only the group leader was found deceased. Yarovoi's
colleagues say that he had alternative versions of the novel, but both were declined
because of censorship. Since Yarovoi's death in 1980, all his archives,
including photos, diaries and manuscripts, have been lost.
Anatoly Gushchin (Russian: Анатолий Гущин) summarized his research in the book The Price of State
Secrets Is Nine Lives (Цена гостайны – девять жизней, Sverdlovsk,
1990). Some researchers criticized the work for its concentration on the
speculative theory of a Soviet secret weapon experiment, but its publication
led to public discussion, stimulated by interest in the paranormal. Indeed,
many of those who had remained silent for thirty years reported new facts about
the accident. One of them was the former police officer, Lev Ivanov (Лев
Иванов), who led the official inquest in 1959. In 1990, he published an article
which included his admission that the investigation team had no rational
explanation for the incident. He also stated that, after his team reported that
they had seen flying spheres, he then received direct orders from high-ranking
regional officials to dismiss this claim.
In 2000, a regional television
company produced the documentary film The Mystery of Dyatlov Pass (Тайна
перевала Дятлова). With the help of the film crew, a Yekaterinburg writer,
Anna Matveyeva (Russian: Анна Матвеева),
published a fiction/documentary novella of the same name. A large part of the book includes broad
quotations from the official case, diaries of victims, interviews with
searchers and other documentaries collected by the film-makers. The narrative
line of the book details the everyday life and thoughts of a modern woman (an alter
ego of the author herself) who attempts to resolve the case.
Despite its fictional narrative,
Matveyeva's book remains the largest source of documentary materials ever made
available to the public regarding the incident. In addition, the pages of the
case files and other documentaries (in photocopies and transcripts) are
gradually being published on a web forum for enthusiastic researchers.
A Dyatlov Foundation was
founded in 1999 at Yekaterinburg, with the help of Ural State Technical
University, led by Yuri Kuntsevitch (Юрий Кунцевич). The foundation's stated aim
is to continue investigation of the case and to maintain the Dyatlov Museum to
preserve the memory of the dead hikers. On 1 July 2016, a memorial plaque was
inaugurated in Solikamsk in Ural's Perm Region, dedicated to Yuri Yudin (the
sole survivor of the expedition group) who died in 2013.
Theories
Avalanche
The theory that an avalanche caused
the hikers' deaths, while initially popular, has since been questioned.
Reviewing the sensationalist "Yeti" hypothesis, American skeptic author
Benjamin Radford suggests as more plausible:
"that the group woke up in a
panic (...) and cut their way out the tent either because an avalanche had
covered the entrance to their tent or because they were scared that an
avalanche was imminent (...) (better to have a potentially repairable slit in a
tent than risk being buried alive in it under tons of snow). They were poorly
clothed because they had been sleeping, and ran to the safety of the nearby
woods where trees would help slow oncoming snow. In the darkness of night they
got separated into two or three groups; one group made a fire (hence the burned
hands) while the others tried to return to the tent to recover their clothing,
since the danger had apparently passed. But it was too cold, and they all froze
to death before they could locate their tent in the darkness. At some point
some of the clothes may have been recovered or swapped from the dead, but at
any rate the group of four whose bodies were most severely damaged were caught
in an avalanche and buried under 4 metres (13 ft) of snow (more than enough to
account for the 'compelling natural force' the medical examiner described).
Dubinina's tongue was likely removed by scavengers and ordinary
predation."
Evidence contradicting the avalanche
theory includes:
- The location of the incident did not have any obvious signs of an avalanche having taken place. An avalanche would have left certain patterns and debris distributed over a wide area. The bodies found within a month of the event were covered with a very shallow layer of snow and, had there been an avalanche of sufficient strength to sweep away the second party, these bodies would have been swept away as well; this would have caused more serious and different injuries in the process and would have damaged the tree line.
- Over 100 expeditions to the region were held since the incident, and none of them ever reported conditions that might create an avalanche. A study of the area using up-to-date terrain-related physics revealed that the location was entirely unlikely for such an avalanche to have occurred. The "dangerous conditions" found in another nearby area (which had significantly steeper slopes and cornices) were observed in April and May when the snowfalls of winter were melting. During February, when the incident occurred, there were no such conditions.
- An analysis of the terrain, the slope and the incline indicates that even if there could have been a very specific avalanche that circumvents the other criticisms, its trajectory would have bypassed the tent. It had collapsed laterally but not horizontally.
- Dyatlov was an experienced skier and the much older Semyon Zolotaryov was studying for his Masters Certificate in ski instruction and mountain hiking. Neither of these two men would have been likely to camp anywhere in the path of a potential avalanche.
- Footprint patterns leading away from the tent were inconsistent with someone, let alone a group of 9 people, running in panic from either real or imagined danger. In fact, all the footprints leading away from the tent and towards the woods were consistent with individuals who were walking at a normal pace.
Repeated
2015 investigation
A review of the 1959 investigation's
evidence completed in 2015–2019 by experienced investigators from the Investigative
Committee of Russian Federation (ICRF) on request of the families confirmed the
avalanche with a number of important details added. First of all, the ICRF
investigators (one of them an experienced alpinist) confirmed that the weather
on the night of the tragedy was very harsh, with snow storm and temperature falling
below −40 °C, which wasn't really considered by the 1959 investigators who
arrived at the scene of the accident a week later, when weather had much
improved and any remains of the snow slide settled down and had been covered
with fresh snowfall. The harsh weather at the same time played critical role in
the events of the tragic night, which has been reconstructed as follows:
- On 1 February the group arrives at the Kholat Syakhl Mountain and erects a large, 9-person tent on an open slope, without any natural barriers, such as forests. On the day and a few preceding days a heavy snowfall continued, with strong wind and frost.
- The group, traversing through the slope and digging in the tent into the snow weakens the snow base. During the night the snow field above the tent starts to slide down, pushing on the tent fabric. The group wakes up and starts evacuation in panic. Some of the attendees were able to put on warm clothes, while some didn't. All escape through a hole in the tent fabric. The whole group goes down the slope and finds a place perceived as safe from the avalanche only 1500 m down, at the forest border.
- Four of the group, only in their underwear and pyjamas, camp at a small fireplace they started at the forest border. Their bodies were found first and confirmed to die from hypothermia.
- Three alpinists, including Dyatlov, attempted to climb back to the tent, possibly to get sleeping bags. They had better clothes than those at the fireplace, but still quite light and their footwear was incomplete. Their bodies were found at various places ranging 300–600 m from the campfire, in poses suggesting they fell down of exhaustion while trying to climb in deep snow in extremely cold weather.
- Remaining four, equipped with warm clothes and footwear, were apparently trying to find or build a better camping place in the forest further down the slope. Their bodies were found only 70 m from the fireplace, under several meters thick layer of snow and with traumas indicating they fell into a snow hole formed above a stream. These bodies were only found after two months.
According to the ICRF investigators,
the factors contributing to the tragedy were extremely bad weather and lack of
experience of the group leader in such conditions, which led to selection of a
dangerous camping place. After the snow slide, another mistake of the group was
to split up, rather than building a temporary camping place down in the forest
and trying to survive through the night. Negligence of the 1959 investigators
contributed to their report creating more questions than answers and inspiring
numerous conspiracy theories.
Katabatic
wind
In 2019, a Swedish-Russian
expedition was made to the site, and after investigations they proposed that a
violent katabatic wind is a likely explanation for the incident. Katabatic winds are somewhat rare events and
can be extremely violent and was implicated in a similar case in Sweden, the
accident at Anaris, where 8 hikers perished in 1978 in the aftermath of a
katabatic wind. The topography of these locations were noted to be very similar
according to the expedition.
A sudden katabatic wind would have
made it impossible to remain in the tent, and the most rational course of
action would be for the hikers to cover the tent with snow and seek shelter among
the treeline. There was also a flashlight left turned on top of the tent,
possibly left there intentionally so the hikers could find their way back to
the tent once the winds subsided. The expedition proposed that the group of
hikers constructed two bivouac shelters, one of which collapsed, leaving four
of the hikers buried with the violent injuries observed.
Infrasound
Another hypothesis popularized by Donnie
Eichar's 2013 book Dead Mountain is that wind going around Kholatsyakal
Mountain created a Karman Vortex street, which can produce infrasound capable
of inducing panic attacks in humans. According to Eichar's theory, the infrasound
generated by the wind as it passed over the top of the Holatchahl mountain was
responsible for causing physical discomfort and mental distress in the hikers. Eichar claims that, because of their panic,
the hikers were driven to leave the tent by whatever means necessary, and fled
down the slope. By the time they were further down the hill, they would have
been out of the infrasound's path and would have regained their composure, but
in the darkness would be unable to return to their shelter. The traumatic injuries suffered by three of
the victims were the result of their stumbling over the ledge of a ravine in
the darkness and landing on the rocks at the bottom.
Military
tests
Speculation exists that the campsite
fell within the path of a Soviet parachute mine exercise. This theory alleges
that the hikers, woken by loud explosions, fled the tent in a shoeless, shell
shocked panic and found themselves unable to return for supply retrieval. After
some members froze to death attempting to endure the bombardment, others
commandeered their clothing only to be fatally injured by subsequent parachute
mine concussions. There are indeed records of parachute mines being tested by
the Soviet military in the area around the time the hikers were there.
Parachute mines detonate while still in the air rather than upon striking the
Earth's surface and produce signature injuries similar to those experienced by
the hikers: Heavy internal damage with comparably less external trauma. The
theory coincides with reported sightings of glowing, orange orbs floating or
falling in the sky within the general vicinity of the hikers, potentially military
aircraft or descending parachute mines. This theory (among others) uses
scavenging animals to explain Dubinina's injuries. Some speculate the bodies were unnaturally
manipulated due to characteristic livor mortis markings discovered during
autopsy, as well as burns to hair and skin. Photographs of the tent allegedly
show that it was apparently erected incorrectly, something the experienced
hikers were unlikely to have done.
A similar theory alleges the testing
of radiological weapons, and is partly based on the discovery of radioactivity
on some of the clothing as well as the bodies being described by relatives as
having orange skin and grey hair. However, radioactive dispersal would have
affected all of the hikers and equipment instead of just some of it, and the
skin and hair discoloration can be explained by a natural process of mummification
after three months of exposure to the cold and winds. Furthermore, the initial
suppression of files regarding the group's disappearance by Soviet authorities
is sometimes mentioned as evidence of a cover-up, but the concealment of
information regarding domestic incidents was standard procedure in the USSR and
therefore far from peculiar. And by the late 1980s, all Dyatlov files had been
released in some manner.
Paradoxical
undressing
International Science Times posited that the hikers' deaths were caused by hypothermia,
which can induce a behaviour known as paradoxical undressing in which
hypothermic subjects remove their clothes in response to perceived feelings of
burning warmth. It is undisputed that
six of the nine hikers died of hypothermia. However, others in the group appear
to have acquired additional clothing (from those who had already died) which
suggests that they were of a sound enough mind to try to add layers.
Pseudoscientific
theories
The 2014 Discovery Channel special Russian
Yeti: The Killer Lives explored the theory that the Dyatlov group was
killed by a menk or Russian Yeti. The show begins with the premise that the
skiers' injuries were such that only a creature with superhuman strength could
have caused them. The episode concluded
with there being no solid evidence for its claims; however, in the interview
with the two members of a search party who got on to the scene first, they
claim that they saw footprints larger than those of a human and that those
footprints were never included in an official Soviet government report, and
additionally that after months of trying to gain access, a Russian documentary
narrator Maria finally got access to a classified Soviet military document
regarding the investigation of the missing hikers in which the start date of
the investigation is 6 February, but the hikers were reported missing almost 10
days later on 15–16 February, which could indicate a Soviet military cover-up
operation. The documentary also claims that the howling sound they've recorded
during their cave and forest expedition does not belong to any known animal
species.
Other
Keith McCloskey, who has researched
the incident for many years and has appeared in several TV documentaries on the
subject, travelled to the Dyatlov Pass in 2015 with Yury Kuntsevich of the
Dyatlov Foundation and a group. At the Dyatlov Pass he noted:
- There were wide discrepancies in distances quoted between the two possible locations of the snow shelter where Dubinina, Kolevatov, Zolotarev and Thibault-Brignolles were found. One location was approximately 80 to 100 metres from the pine tree where the bodies of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko were found and the other suggested location was so close to the tree that anyone in the snow shelter could have spoken to those at the tree without raising their voices to be heard. This second location also has a rock in the stream where Dubinina's body was found and is the more likely location of the two. However, the second suggested location of the two has a topography that is closer to the photos taken at the time of the search in 1959.
- The location of the tent near the ridge was found to be too close to the spur of the ridge for any significant build-up of snow to cause an avalanche. Furthermore, the prevailing wind blowing over the ridge had the effect of blowing snow away from the edge of the ridge on the side where the tent was. This further reduced any build-up of snow to cause an avalanche. This aspect of the lack of snow on the top and near the top of the ridge was pointed out by Sergey Sogrin in 2010
McCloskey also noted:
- Lev Ivanov's boss, Evgeny Okishev (Deputy Head of the Investigative Department of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Prosecution Office), was still alive in 2015 and had given an interview to former Kemerovo prosecutor Leonid Proshkin in which Okishev stated that he was arranging another trip to the Pass to fully investigate the strange deaths of the last four bodies when Deputy Prosecutor General Urakov arrived from Moscow and ordered the case shut down.
- Evgeny Okishev also stated in his interview with Leonid Proshkin that Klinov, head of the Sverdlovsk Prosecutor's Office, was present at the first post mortems in the morgue and spent three days there, something Okishev regarded as highly unusual and the only time, in his experience, it had happened.
Donnie Eichar, who investigated and
made a documentary about the incident, evaluated several other theories that
are deemed unlikely or have been discredited:
- They were attacked by Mansi or other local tribesmen.
The local tribesmen were known to be peaceful and there was
no track evidence of anyone approaching the tent.
- They were attacked and chased by animal wildlife.
There were no animal tracks and the group would not have
abandoned the relative security of the tent.
- High winds blew one member away, and the others attempted to rescue the person.
A large experienced group would not have behaved like that,
and winds strong enough to blow away people with such force would have also
blown away the tent.
- An argument, possibly related to a romantic encounter that left some of them only partially clothed, led to a violent dispute.
About this, Eichar states that it is "highly
implausible. By all indications, the group was largely harmonious and sexual
tension was confined to platonic flirtation and crushes. There were no drugs
present and the only alcohol was a small flask of medicinal alcohol, found
intact at the scene. The group had even sworn off cigarettes for the
expedition." Furthermore, a fight could not have left the massive injuries
that one body had suffered.
In
popular culture
Popular interest in Russia was
revived in the 1990s in the wake of Gushchin's 1990 novel, The Price of
State Secrets Is Nine Lives. In 2000, a regional television company
produced the documentary film, with a follow-up novella by Anna Matveyeva. Anna
Kiryanova wrote a journal-style novel based on a fictionalized account of the
incident in 2005.
In 2015 Russian band Kauan released
the album Sorni Nai which attempts to reconstruct the events that led up
to the incident.
The incident came to wider attention
in popular media outside of Russia in the 2010s.
- Anatoly Gushchin (Анатолий Гущин), The Price of State Secrets Is Nine Lives (Цена гостайны – девять жизней), 1990.
- The Dyatlov Pass Incident (aka Devil’s Pass), a film directed by Renny Harlin, was released on 28 February 2013 in Russia and 23 August 2013 in the USA. It follows five American students retracing the steps of the victims, but, being a work of fiction, makes several changes in describing the initial events, e.g. inverting names of victims.
- The incident figures prominently in the 2012 novel City of Exiles by Alec Nevala-Lee.
- Russia's Mystery Files: Episode 2 – The Dyatlov Pass Incident, 28 November 2014, National Geographic.
- The 2015 Polish horror video game Kholat is inspired by the Dead Mountain incident, in which the player goes to Dyatlov Pass in order to trace the steps of the lost expedition, and begins to uncover "the true cause" of the hikers' deaths.
No comments:
Post a Comment