Dyatlov Pass - the mysterious death of 9 tourists

 I will try to present to you one of the greatest and, at the same time, extremely interesting puzzles in the history of the USSR, which to this day has not been finally solved. It is the tragic death of the team members, who died in the place later called Dyatlov Pass. A lot of myths and various hypotheses have arisen around this story. Some of them seem absurd, others quite plausible. However, after analyzing all the information, the line between the two becomes blurred. I cordially invite you to read this fascinating case!

Nine students and graduates of the Ural Polytechnic University, who are big fans of tourism, especially mountain expeditions, decided at the turn of January and February 1959 to conquer two peaks of the Northern Urals. These were the Ojka-Czakur and Otorten mountains. The first one was 1279 meters above sea level, according to the then measurements, while the height of the second one was then estimated at 1182 meters above sea level. Currently, it is assumed that Otorten is a bit more, i.e. 1234 meters above sea level. However, this does not change the fact that they are not impressive heights. The highest Polish peak, i.e. Rysy, is 2499 meters above sea level for comparison. Nevertheless, the expedition was rated "3", which is the highest possible degree of difficulty by contemporary standards. Why?

Very unfavorable weather conditions prevail in this part of Russia (then the USSR). The temperature in winter drops well below 0 ° C, sometimes reaching -30 ° C. In addition, there is a lot of snowfall, creating high drifts (even 1.5 meters), through which you have to wade through the Ural taiga. Strong gusts of wind cannot be forgotten either. Finally, the Northern Urals are deserted areas, so lovers of mountain expeditions are mostly on their own. I would also like to add that secret military operations were carried out in these areas. For this reason, there were no detailed maps of the Urals available to the public. Thus, tourists had to rely on their own calculations and orientation in the field. All these circumstances made Otorten a summit that had not yet been reached in winter. Dyatlov and his friends wanted to change this and go down in history

It should also be mentioned that the starting date of the mountain expedition was not accidental. The expedition was organized on the occasion of the 21st Congress of the Communist Party, which began in Moscow on January 23, 1959. On the same day, Dyatlov and his companions went on their way. Their trip was to last eighteen days, during which they planned to cover over 300 kilometers.

The group consisted of 10 people (2 women and 8 men). The participants of the expedition were:

• Yuri Doroshenko, born on January 29, 1938 (he was 21 years old). He was a fourth-year student of the Radio Engineering Faculty of the Ural Polytechnic Institute based in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk). The man was the youngest member of the expedition. He was also the ex-boyfriend of Zinaida Kolmogorova.
• Lyudmila Dubinina was born on May 12, 1938 (she was 21 years old). She studied at the fourth year of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Ural University of Technology. Her family was very wealthy, but had to move often due to her father's work. The woman trained in athletics in the past, she was also very fond of various types of trips. During mountain expeditions, she usually acted as a photographer, although she set off on her last journey exceptionally without a camera. Music and singing were also her great passion. Ludmilla shared her father's enthusiasm for the system and communist authorities. Interestingly, after the death of his daughter, Dubinin began to criticize Khrushchev, accusing him of leading to the tragedy. Lyudmila had a very strong bond with her brother, who for many years tried to find out the truth.
• Zinaida Kołmogorowa was born on January 12, 1937 (she was 22) in the village of Czeremchowo. She was a fifth-year student at the Radio Engineering Faculty of the Ural University of Technology. Her father worked in a factory, and her disabled mother looked after the house. Zina was distinguished by beauty, serenity, and energy. For these reasons, many men liked it. However, the woman was associated with Yuri Doroshenko for two years. The couple, however, reportedly broke up shortly before the expedition. Kolmogorov did not do as well at university as the other participants of the expedition. Usually, she had difficulty getting passes and her grade point average was low. It is also worth adding that the woman's fate could have taken a completely different course. She received an offer to take part in another expedition, which started the same day from Swierdłowska. At the last moment, however, she decided to join Dyatlov and his companions.
• Rustem Słobodin was born on January 11, 1936 (he was 23 years old). He obtained the title of engineer at the Faculty of Mechanics of the Ural University of Technology. Like Yuri Krivonishchenko, who was one year older than him, he was employed at the Mayak nuclear plant. The man was considered the strongest among all the participants, therefore he carried a rolled-up tent that weighed about 20 kg and was the heaviest burden.
• Igor Dyatlov was born on January 13, 1936 (he was 23 years old) in Pervouralsk. He was a fifth-year student at the Radio Engineering Faculty of the Ural University of Technology. He chaired the entire expedition, which unfortunately ended tragically. The young man was extremely ambitious and intelligent and therefore enjoyed universal respect. At school, he always distinguished himself with excellent grades. Due to his love of science, Dyatlov wanted to stay at the university after graduation and start a scientific career. Igor and his siblings (two sisters and a brother) inherited from their father, Alexei, a flair for technology. Dyatlov from an early age constructed and transformed various types of devices. It was a big feat for him to construct a tourist radio, which was much smaller than the receivers of that time. They could weigh even over 10 kg. Igor took his own equipment much lighter on numerous trips to the mountains. Significantly, however, the man did not do this in preparation for the last expedition. It is difficult to say what was the cause. This is all the more puzzling that, according to the official plan that Dyatlov had to present before the expedition, there was a radio on the list of items to be taken. It is also worth adding that it was not his only invention. Together with his father, Igor designed and built a special stove that heated the tent with wood. This man took the stove with him on his last trip.
• Georgy Yuriy Krivonishchenko was born on February 7, 1935 (he was 24 years old) in Zuhres in today's Ukraine. He was a graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Ural Polytechnic. He worked at the Majak nuclear plant. There, he assisted in removing the consequences of the Kysztym catastrophe, which was one of the largest nuclear disasters in history and at the same time a closely guarded secret in the USSR. It is also worth mentioning that Georgi's father was a high-ranking party member. He worked as a military engineer and rose to the rank of general in his career. Due to the work of Alexei Konstantinovich Krivonishchenko, his family often moved. One day, a construction site error, which was managed by a man, led to considerable financial losses. For this reason, proceedings, in this case, were initiated. However, the bloody destruction managed to avoid the punishment, which could be really severe. Apparently, Stalin himself stood up for him at that time. Yuri would probably follow in his father's footsteps and probably make a great career, but unfortunately, he was not given it.
• Nikolai Thibeaux-Brignolle was born on July 5, 1935 (he was 24) in Osinniki. Like Krivonishchenko, he graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Ural University of Technology and worked at the Mayak secret nuclear plant. His family history, however, was quite different from that of Georgy Yuri. As the name indicated, Nikolai's ancestors came from France and moved to Russia in the early 19th century. In the 1930s, members of his family who did not support communist ideals experienced severe repression. Some died, while others were arrested by the authorities and sent to labor camps. The boy's mother, along with his older siblings, was thrown out of the house they owned. Eventually, she also ended up in a labor camp where her husband was staying. This is where Nikolai was born. The man hid his tragic past not only from the university authorities or the employer but even from his friends. He was afraid that what would happen to him in the other members of his family. He succeeded largely thanks to the joker mask he wore on a daily basis. Thanks to this, he was also very liked by everyone.
• Alexander Kolevatov was born on October 16, 1934 (he was 25). He was a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Physics and Technology of the Ural University of Technology. He studied individually. He worked at the Institute 3394 in Moscow. In addition, he was very good at firearms - he was a shooting instructor.
• Semyon Zolotaryov was definitely older than the rest of the expedition. He was born on February 2, 1921 (he was 37 years old). He also graduated from a different university than the others, i.e. the Institute of Physical Culture in Minsk, and worked as an instructor for the Kourów tourist base. During World War II, Semyon served in the Soviet Army and obtained the rank of sergeant. He had a wife and a 3-year-old son Aleksander, called Sasha. Despite the fact that he was the oldest, he was the only one who had no experience in climbing the Northern Urals before. As a curiosity, it is worth adding that in 2018 DNA tests showed that some other man was buried in the grave of Semyon Zolotaryov, whose identity has not been established to this day.
• Yuri Yudin was born in 1938 (he was 21 years old). He was the only one who did not study the technical faculty (he chose Economics). Most importantly, he also distinguished himself with one more - only he came back from the expedition alive. However, he was not a witness to the events, because shortly after the beginning of the expedition, he fell ill and decided to return to the base from which they set off, and then home. Throughout his life, the man researched the scenes of the tragedy and tried to solve this mysterious case. Yudin died on April 27, 2013, at the age of 76, and according to his last will, he was buried on May 4 in Yekaterinburg at the Mikhailovsky cemetery, where the bodies of the expedition's participants are buried. It was a symbolic tribute to comrades who died during the expedition.

On January 23, 1959, the participants of the expedition boarded the train and left Sverdlovsk. The next day they reached the cities of Serow and Iwdel, which were located in the Sverdlovsk region at the foot of the Urals. On January 25, the participants of the expedition got into a truck that stopped in Wiżaj. It was the northernmost town in this area. The next day, the adventurous tourists jumped on an uncovered truck trailer and reached a settlement inhabited by lumberjacks and geologists. The participants of the expedition spent their last night there in relatively civilized conditions, and on January 27 they set off towards Mount Otorten. The next day, Yuri Yudin felt unwell and decided to return to Vizaji. The rest of his companions continued the expedition. As it turned out later, this incident saved Yudin's life.

We know the fate of the team on the basis of the journal that has been found. On January 28, they walked along the Lozva River, and for two consecutive days, they followed the current of the Auspia River. On January 31, the members of the expedition reached the edge of the forest. Then they built a hiding place where they left food supplies for the way back and continued their journey. It is assumed that they reached Mount Cholatczachl in the evening hours on February 1. Initially, they were supposed to bypass it and cross a nearby pass. Due to the worsening weather conditions, however, they changed their route and ended up on the slope of "Martwa Góra". Finally, Dyatowców decided to set up a camp, hoping to improve the aura.

The leader of the expedition, Igor Dyatlov, was to send a telegram to his loved ones after reaching the Otorten summit with information about the success. In accordance with the earlier assumptions, the entire team was to return to Wiżaju on February 12 at the latest and return home on February 14 or 15. After that date, when the participants' families did not receive any sign of life from them, not everyone began to worry. The Soviet post office was often delayed, especially in those desolate regions. Many relatives hoped that the members of the expedition would return before the telegram arrived. But as the days went by, friends and families became more and more anxious. Finally, the search began. However, it happened quite late, on February 23, that is three weeks after the tragedy. There were at least a few reasons (apart from those mentioned earlier): a ban on flights over the Ural military zone, lack of knowledge about the exact route that the expedition was supposed to cover, and finally the attitude of local rulers and university authorities, which initially downplayed the whole situation.

The tent of the members of the expedition was found on the eastern slope of the mountain, which had no official name, but was only marked with the number "1079". It was commonly called Cholatczachl or Wierchuspija. In the language of the Mansi, the people inhabiting these areas, "Cholatczachl" means: "place without life" or "dead mountain". It sounds scary, but the name comes from the fact that not only people but also wild animals did not travel to these areas.

The campsite was set up some 300 meters from the top. Snow drifts in the vicinity ranged from several dozen centimeters to 1.5 meters. The members of the expedition put up a tent in a hole they had dug earlier in the snow. The bottom of the cavity was covered with empty backpacks, skis, and several jackets, which were a kind of thermal insulation. The mountain camps were prepared in a similar way at that time.

Upon inspection, it was found that the entrance to the tent was closed and that the roof on which Igor's flashlight lay was covered with a layer of snow blown by the wind. There was supposedly snow under the flashlight and on its sides, but oddly enough, it was not on the object itself from the top. The tent was cut open from the inside in two places. Even stranger, ten holes were found on the side of the wall. An unidentified sharp tool was used to make them, the diameter of which did not exceed 3 centimeters. At the entrance, Rustem Słobodzin's jacket was found, in the pocket of which money belonging to the members of the expedition was hidden. It was about 800 rubles, which is the equivalent of a few salaries at the time. Inside, an ax and two saws in their covers and provisions were also found. However, none of the expedition participants were inside the tent.

Based on the traces, it was established that the tourists left the camp in panic and then traveled about 1.5 km down the slope. They stopped near a large Siberian pine (also called cedar), next to which they lit a fire. The search team found the bodies of two men in this place. Bodies deprived not only of warm clothing protecting against the Uralic winter but also shoes, lay side by side, covered with a sheet. It was Yuri Krivonishchenko and Yuri Doroshenko.

The cedar mentioned above was devoid of branches to a height of about 3-4 meters. Traces of blood and human tissue were found on the tree trunk. In addition, some twenty small Christmas trees that grew around the fire were cut. What was even more peculiar was that the pines were dragged along the ground for about 75 meters into the forest, and then laid side by side evenly at the bottom of the ravine so that they formed a rectangle.

At the bottom of this unusual grave, the bodies of Ludmila Dubinina, Semyon Zolotaryov, Nikolai Thibeaux-Brignolle and Alexander Kolevatov were discovered. Several items that belonged to the dead were found in the snow nearby. She was among them, among others a metal spoon or items of clothing cut with a knife that belonged to Yuri Krivonishchenko. The bodies of the remaining members of the expedition were in a straight line between the fire and the place where the camp was set up.

Most of the victims had changes that were a natural consequence of the condition of their bodies. These were frostbite, fingers, cancer and legs, scratches, cuts, bruises, and hematomas. In addition, however, several people had serious injuries that were established to occur during their lifetime.

• Yuri Doroshenko - he was diagnosed with swelling of the meninges and a gray, foamy liquid was discovered in the lungs and upper respiratory tract, which also leaked from the throat and nose.
• Lyudmila Dubinina had a hemorrhage in the right ventricle, a punctured heart muscle, and numerous rib fractures. The woman also had 1.5 liters of blood in the pleura and ischemia of the meninges.
• Rustem Słobodzin's skull was fractured at the level of the frontal bone. A liter of bloody liquid was found in his pleura, along with traces of foamy liquid in the lungs and swelling of the meninges.
• In Nikolai Thibeaux-Brignolle, multiple fractures of the temporal bone, and trauma to the right cerebral hemisphere and the base of the skull were found.
• Yuri Krivonishchenko had severe burns on his lower leg, up to the skin charred, and traces of burns on his fingers and toes. In addition, extensive hemorrhage of the temporal muscle and swelling of the meninges.
• Semyon Zolotaryov had numerous rib fractures, accompanied by severe intercostal muscle hemorrhage, a liter of blood in the pleura, and meningeal ischemia.

As a result of decomposition, the faces of Zolotaryov, Kolewatov, and Dubinina were deprived of soft tissues. In addition, Semyon and Ludmila did not have eyeballs, and the woman did not have a tongue. Often these details are mentioned when describing the case, but it is not always emphasized that these macabre-looking changes resulted from natural processes. It is worth adding that the cause of death of almost all participants was (at least according to the autopsy) hypothermia. According to the autopsy, none of the victims had drunk alcohol before they died.

In the forest next to the ravine, the tops and highest branches of some trees were scorched. Their clusters occurred in a dozen or so places and were arranged randomly. Therefore, the hypothesis that the fire broke out in one place and spread to nearby trees was rejected. It was peculiar that the traces of fire could be seen only on the highest of them, towering above the forest. Ultimately, it was not possible to find the source of the fire and explain the cause of this phenomenon. On the western side of the mountain slope, funnels and depressions in the ground were discovered, the origin of which has also not been established.

One of the theories that seem the most logical and probable is that the Dyat Hunters were caught by an avalanche. This could explain it, so they tried to get out of the tent at all costs and in a hurry, leaving in it absolutely necessary warm shoes and clothes. First, however, what about the openings on the outside of the tent? All right - it is explainable. Some of the team that got out at the beginning might have wanted to make the task easier for their fellow men. But why did they not completely open the tent, but only left small holes? Secondly - the skis that were stuck in front of the tent did not change their position. If an avalanche did indeed pass there, she would probably take them with her. Thirdly - the Mansi people, who live in the regions of the Northern Urals, do not have the term "snow avalanche" in their language, because such a phenomenon does not occur in them. This is because the temperature drops sharply at night and the snow quickly turns into thick ice shells. The mountain, on the slope of which the tourists camped, was only 1096 m above sea level, and the slope was only 15 °. These are not favorable conditions for an avalanche.

It is worth mentioning (and refuting) a very similar hypothesis, the so-called "Snowboard". It would be more likely, taking into account the specificity of the local mountains and weather conditions. The compact ice mass could break away and move down the slope. In fact, this theory was created just a few years ago and quickly gained publicity. You can find many articles whose titles say that the solution to the mystery has finally been discovered. However, many experts have ruled out this possibility for the same reasons as the avalanche - such phenomena in the vicinity of the Northern Urals simply do not occur. There are also assumptions that the death of tourists may have occurred as a result of a meteorite fall, although it is rather unlikely.

Some fans of paranormal phenomena believe that the members of the expedition may have been attacked by Bigfoot. It sounds a bit absurd and probably not many of you believe in the existence of Yeti. Interesting, however, is one of the photos that was taken by Nikolai. In the distance you can see a figure that looks a bit like a legendary creature. It might as well have been another participant in the expedition, although it is puzzling that the face of the captured figure is not completely visible. There is also something disturbing about this photo - judge for yourself. Equally controversial is the theory that UFO interference took place. It shows up in most, if not all, of the really strange and unsolved mysteries.

There are also several theories, the main denominator of which is the connection of the tragedy with the then political situation and the military. In fact, the North Ural Mountains was (as I have already mentioned) an area where the military carried out various covert operations. Probably only a handful of the highest-ranking politicians and military knew about the details of these actions. According to one of the hypotheses, the members of the team were in the wrong place and time. They may have come across something they should not have seen, and then they were killed for fear of divulging this information. Another scenario is that the Dyatniks have died as a result of a failed test of some new weapon or a hardware failure (e.g. a rocket). It is also worth mentioning that the skin of the victims, according to their relatives, had a strange orange shade, and their clothes were irradiated. It was combined with testing weapons or military equipment. However, it is assumed that the color of the skin resulted from sunburn (the corpse was exposed to UV rays for many days) and/or processes related to decomposition. Several Dyatlovs also worked in nuclear plants.

Finally, the theory related to the influence of infrasound seems very interesting. What are they? Infrasounds are simply sounded that the human ear cannot hear (the frequency of the waves is below the threshold recorded by us). However, this is a generalization and individual units can pick up such sounds. In any case, infrasound is used by some animals (e.g. elephants or whales) for communication. This is due to the fact that such sound waves propagate over long distances (over several meters). Although we do not know the exact impact of infrasound on the human body, it can be assumed that exposure to their high level may lead to discomfort and even impairment of psychomotor performance and physiological functions. Importantly, the sources of sounds of such low frequency can be atmospheric phenomena (e.g. very strong wind or avalanche) and those related to human activities (e.g. explosions, nuclear/nuclear explosions or rocket engines). Interestingly, the above-mentioned factors are also the ones I wrote about earlier that could have been the cause of the tragedy alone.

There are at least a few more potential explanations, but to this day no one that could be considered appropriate has been found.

Finally, I recommend the obligatory book, which is a real compendium of knowledge about the tragedy that befell Dyatlov and his companions. I mean the book Tragedia na Przełęcz Dyatłowa. Endless History ”. The author is a Polish journalist who hides her true identity behind the pseudonym Alice Lugen. I recommend it with a clear conscience and leave links for those willing:

Link to the paper version (Allegro)

Link to the audiobook (Cheap book)