Hypothermia seems the most likely killer. Or perhaps an avalanche. Some have suggested local tribespeople murdered the hikers. A bloodthirsty yeti has been suggested. My favorite theory is that a strange wind whipping around the mountains created a maddening infrasound, a low-frequency noise that can cause people to lose their minds. Whatever it was, something killed nine ski hikers in at Dyatlov Pass in the Soviet Union’s northern Ural Mountains one night in early February 1959. Referred to ever since as the Dyatlov Pass Incident (the pass is named for Igor Dyatlov, leader of the expedition), the events of that night have remained a mystery for the past 60 years. But now the Russian government is reopening the case.
Researching the case is to dive down a rabbit hole of bizarre theories, from the paranormal to the extra-terrestrial.
At a quick read, it seems like a perfectly normal, though tragic expedition gone wrong. 10 college-aged skiers set out for a trek through the Sverdlovsk Oblast region of the Urals in late January 1959. All of the skiers were experienced in long-distance ski touring and were participating on this trip in part to earn certification for advanced ski touring and mountaineering. After a few days of trekking through the snow, they arrived at the pass and prepared for their climb. One of the skiers turned back after suffering health issues; the rest pressed on.
On February 1, the group began ascending toward the pass but became disoriented in a driving snowstorm and soon headed in the wrong direction. Realizing their mistake after a time, Dyatlov decided the group should make camp for the night where they were, though they were quite exposed. At some point that night, all nine hikers perished. To die at altitude in the winter is not particularly uncommon. But when the hikers failed to return, their relatives organized a rescue mission. What the search party found has baffled experts to this day.
Six days after setting out, the search team found the group’s tent. It was a bizarre site. The tent had been abandoned, and, strangely, was cut open from the inside with the inhabitants’ clothing and shoes left behind. As many as nine sets of footprints, some barefoot, some only in socks, one with only one shoe, led away from the tent as if the group had suddenly fled. A mile from the camp, at the edge of the forest beneath a tree, searchers found the bodies of Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonischenko wearing only underwear, next to the remains of a small campfire. Broken branches suggested the tree had been climbed by one of the hikers, maybe in an effort to spot something far away.
Investigators check out the abandoned tent. Photo: Public Domain
Soon after, investigators found the bodies of Rustem Slobodin, Zinaida Kolmogorova, and Dyatlov half buried under snow. It appeared that these hikers had been with the other two at the forest’s edge and died on their way back to the camp, and similarly, weren’t dressed for the weather.
It took another two months to find the bodies of the last four. These hikers died in a ravine even further into the forest. Once winter snows began to melt they were revealed at the bottom of the ravine. Unlike the rest of the group, these four were wearing winter clothing, though not necessarily their own. Even more strange, they had been killed apparently not by exposure to cold, but by extreme blunt force trauma that one investigator likened to the violence of a car crash. Lyudmila Dubinina was missing an eye and her tongue. Nikolai Thibeaux-Brignolles had massive skull trauma, the rest had suffered severe chest fractures, but they had no external injuries. It was as if they’d been crushed by severe pressure that left no marks on their skin.
It’s of no doubt that six of the group—those found with no clothing—died of hypothermia. But there’s little obvious explanation for why’d they flee a tent after cutting it open, then run a mile through the snow with no shoes. Paradoxical undressing, when hypothermia victims start to feel a burning sensation causing them to peel off their clothes would seem to be a possible explanation, but then the hikers were of a sound enough mind to start a small fire nearby to warm themselves. Not to mention climb high into a pine tree to get a better view of the camp.
Soviet authorities concluded the group had died from a “compelling natural force,” and, as was standard practice in the Soviet Union, the files were locked away, adding to an element of mystery.
Group leader Igor Dyatlov. Photo: Public Domain
In the years since theories about what happened to the group continue to multiply. The likelihood of an avalanche has mostly been ruled out, with the assumption that the group was far too experienced to camp in an avalanche zone, and that the mountain they slept under was unlikely to produce avalanche conditions anyway. Some suggested that the Mansi, indigenous people of the region, attacked the hikers, but there was no sign of struggle around the campsite, nor were there extra footprints. The Discovery Channel even sent a film crew to the area in 2014 for a special, Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives, in which the crew talked to locals who swore they’ve seen signs of the mythical beast in the area, and heard strange sounds the night of the killings.
Then there’s the conspiratorial.
Military weapons testing is a popular theory. There were reports of glowing orange spheres the night the group died, which some point to as evidence that the Soviet army was testing “parachute mines,” an explosive that detonates in the sky. Some suggest the hikers wandered into a testing ground and were shellshocked by the explosions, with some running from the tent, then freezing to death outside, with the rest tumbling to their deaths in the ravine. Low-intensity nuclear weapons testing has also been suggested. Some of the victims had unexplainable traces of radiation on their clothes.
For 60 years, speculation has run rampant. Dozens of theories have been floated, which, after a while, all start to seem plausible.
Yuri Yudin, the survivor, embraces Lyudmila Dubinina before he leaves the camp.
But finally, the Russian government is re-opening the case.
“Relatives, the media and the public still ask prosecutors to determine the truth and don’t hide their suspicions that something was hidden from them,” Alexander Kurennoi, Russia’s Prosecutor General said.
Authorities at the Sverdlovsk Oblast reportedly have a 400-page volume filled with materials related to the incident and will send investigators to the area in March. They plan to conduct forensic tests in an attempt to finally piece together what happened. So far, the only cause they’ve ruled out to explain the Dyatlov Pass incident is crime. Everything else related to a “compelling natural force” is on the table.
We covered the Dyatlov mystery in Adventure Journal 02. For a deeper dive and lots more pictures, pick it up here.
there’s a cool book about this called Dead Mountain. pretty crazy story
What happened to these nine kids please keep looking it had to of been a few not one could of killed all nine had to been more than 2 !!! Please help the Families find the truth of there children !!!
The most logical explanation is murder. Either one of the hikers or an outsider of the group killed them.
When the bodies were discovered a few of them showed physical trauma that could only be caused by a car, which is strange being that there aren’t any cars in that area.
I believe that there could of been yetis. Only half the cameras and diaries found. The government was trying to catch one.
Yeah the Dead Mountain summary seemed to make the most sense to me. Odd that you write it off as a paranormal unlikelihood?
Journalism is dead, It was 9 hikers, and the female missing a tongue was not missing an eye goodness, if your going to tell the story tell it RIGHT……
We do say there were 9 hikers and many reports indicate one (some suggest both) of Dubinina’s eyes were missing.
Interesting!
I agree
I think it was a fellow named Jimmy Weiner from New Jersey who traveled back in time and landed on their tent…. very hard. The hikers were so scared that they ran away and froze to death. The ones with blunt trauma were the ones in the tent that Jimmy landed on.
okay maybe this is not funny..from NJ
Something is telling me the gouverment knows.. that would explain why they kept the investagion. Secret
government
Well the kids took a picture of and ape looking thing.a big foot maybe.I really hope they reopen this case. The technology we have in the world today it shouldn’t be a problem finding the truth.did someone write a book called crying mountain.
All reports in u.s. about big foot sittings that it never attacked humans maybe throwing rocks at people.but these nine hikers took a picture of it.looking at them.maybe just maybe this big foot did attack the nine hikers.it could happen.
I don’t follow mysteries/conspiracies all that much but I must admit that Josh Gates two-part “Expedition Unknown” investigation left me genuinely intrigued.
Perhaps I’m off base here but I question the state of mind/body these individuals were in before they exited their tent and met their inexplicable end. it is notable that for all their supposed experience, they set up camp in an open vs. sheltered location. (The woods would have provided some shelter from the wind and fuel for their stove to heat the tent.) Similarly, it was mentioned that they did *not* make any use of their wood burning stove to keep warm in the tent for at least that night (and maybe more). Why not?
The fact that they chose to set up camp in an overly-exposed location and yet deemed it warm enough inside their tent to remove their socks and apparently sleep without much in the way of added clothing seems to be the the foremost — and most overlooked — clue into what may have happened. For one thing, there is the phenomena of paradoxical hypothermia (you feel hot when you’re actually freezing). Could they have chosen this odd location and lack of sufficient efforts to warm themselves inside the tent, despite the windchill, because they were already suffering from paradoxical hypothermia?
A leading theory is that military was testing weapons in the area and that testing either contaminated the group or startled them into fleeing their tent, at which point they became lost in the dark and/or injured. My variation on the military hypothesis, however, is a bit different: What if the Soviet government was attempting to find a way to enhance physiological performance to withstand temperatures that would normally give people frostbite, if not kill them outright?
In the Cold War context of the time, any physiological advantage would be a boon to the battlefield — i.e. a military force that could function for longer in conditions others could not. As wild as this sounds, is it possible that some or all of the members of the expedition were consuming some type of substance that attempted to increase blood-flow and/or raise body temperature to delay or reduce hypothermia risk — which, in turn, would explain why their clothing was so sparse (inside the tent), they weren’t running a stove despite the ultra-low temperatures, etc? If so, could the side effect of too much of this “experiment” been a case of delirium (similar to the delirium of high fever), at which point some lost their minds, busted out of the tent and/or fought off other members’ attempts to return them to safety?
IMHO, there is more to go on with respect to an experiment-induced tragedy if only because it appears the date they died has been fudged. Official investigative records suggests the bodies were found on or near February 26, whereas a government investigator apparently knew that they were dead on Feb. 6 per a document discussed at the conclusion of the two-part Expedition Unknown “Dyatlove Pass” episode.
The date discrepancy begs a question: Why would the Soviet government know anything specific about the condition of the skiers if they were simply ordinary civilians on a voluntary “Wilderness Club” expedition for which they were not yet overdue for return from their journey on Feb. 6 (as opposed to Feb. 26, when they were supposedly 10 days overdue)? It seems odd that the government would misrepresent the date that they allegedly were found dead unless they were already participants in a government experiment and, during the period between Feb. 6 and Feb. 26, there was an attempt to recover belongings (and diaries) in such a way to ensure that family members who received their personal affects would not be tipped off to the experiment. (This could explain why only some of the diaries were found, while others were said to have been missing — they may have referred to the experiment and therefore confiscated.)
As an casual observer/American, I don’t know if an extreme-weather performance enhancing experiment ever took place in the USSR. If it did, however, it would help make sense of one of the most salient oddities of the entire story: How these ostensibly experienced hiker/skiers would have imagined it appropriate to make camp where they did, wear relatively little clothing inside their tent despite double-digit sub-freezing temperatures and, on top of everything else they did wrong, to forego the stove on successive nights in conditions that obviously would have required the heat.
In summary, I don’t think anybody can rule out that at least some members of the expedition members saw or heard something that terrified them into busting out of their tent. Bear in mind, however, that seeing or hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations) could be consistent with their deteriorating mental/medical state — whether it was brought about by paradoxical hypothermia, a drug experiment or some combination of both. (In turn, thinking that they needed to snap photos of what they hallucinated could have been a byproduct of a drug delirium.)
As far as I know, I am the only one to have floated a “performance enhancement” experiment hypothesis. Participation in some type of experiment could explain one last aspect of the group’s behavior — the copious amount of photos and diary entries — which, whether they completed their journey or not, would allow medical/military researchers to evaluate the success of the experiment. As members of a “Wilderness Club” that had at least one member who was allegedly in the KGB — and young adults in the prime of life — this group of college students would have been a logical group on which to test a (hypothetical) performance enhancing drug. Is it a wild theory? Yes. But in view of the Cold War tensions and the bizarre things our own military did in the name of medical research — i.e. with LSD — it probably can’t be ruled out.
I never believed in the yeti until I saw it. It was noted that the USA was involved with the USSR to catch it alive. There is no way that a hiker was dressed as the yeti. I believe that they knew they were being followed.
Some of the blunt trauma that was found on the bodies was said to have about the same impact as if they were hit by a car.
Did the bodies get tested for LSD? It took place in the time many governments were experimenting in the affects of lsd. They tested on army personal, college students and on prison inmates . Possibly contaminated food from the prison they went trough .