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
After seeing the supposed photo of the Menk half hiding behind the tree it makes me hope that there are Yeti,s out there but never ever has any DNA been taken from anywhere in the world even from footprints..
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
Something spooked them suddenly and must have surrounded them from outside as they cut there tent from inside out to peep and escape. I believe they lit no fire as they were trying to draw no attention to themselves from whatever it was. They probably slept huddled to keep warm body to body for body heat and clothes on in morning for extra heat when moving out. We want yo believe something logical but maybe there is an illogical explanation. We have more advanced technology now, we need to use it. DNA testing could surely tell what removed her eyes and tounge and how, was it human or animal like? Get some drones, infra red cameras and heat detection cameras up there. Get some experienced teams of expedition investigatiors up there with sniffer dogs also and get researching. There have been more than 5000 reporting of yetis worldwide all with similar describing’s. It could be possible this creature exists, think of evolution and think of vast areas of the world that are unhabituated and not explored. Perfect place for these historical eveloutionary yetis to hide. Also I do believe government know more about this and are withholding information. Speak to local mountain people, I bet they could tell some stories.
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.
Your theory makes a lot of sense to me, thanks for posting.
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 .
Why would anyone try to come up with an explanation that does not address the fact that the girl was missing her tongue? Another account stated the girl’s lips and nose were also missing. Hypothermia does drive a person to remove their clothing but has never been associated with missing body parts. Primates commonly bite off lips , tongues, noses and genitalia of their victims, this phenomena is well documented. A yeti would be considered a primate and could cause the blunt force to easily kill humans. 2 plus 2 equals 4. Perhaps the yeti was threatened by the military testing and the students were mistaken as the perpetrators of the weapons testing.
Forgot the name of the creature those people living in a private dwelling called it – similar to the Yeti, Bigfoot and Saquash. When they did search the tent, they found a note left there by one of the hikers – “the snowman exists”! A photo I saw of the woman Dubinna showed both eyes missing as well as tongue.
I believe something or animal did exist there. But with these photos of the Yeti, Bigfoot etc, seems funny cameras on a tree seemingly can’t get a better picture of one…nor with our technology, can we trap (capture) one…wonder why???
A recent airing of the Discovery Channel film on one of the UK “repeat” channels led me to trying to find more objective evidence (the film only really considers evidence that appears to support it’s Yeti hypothesis). To be honest, trying to pick out facts from speculation is quite difficult.
What does appear to have happened is that something disturbed the party and caused them to flee the apparent safety of their tent in haste. It seems likely that they had settled down for the night without consciousness of imminent danger, as they had undressed and taken off their boots. (There is no description of their sleeping bags that I’ve found – but were they adequate for the conditions, and the party seemed well prepared – it could be expected that they would try to avoid moisture of clothing and inside the tent).
After a day hiking in the cold, I think it can be assumed that they fell into a deep sleep. Now, I know from experience that being suddenly woken from deep sleep by the presence of danger can lead to irrational thoughts, but being in a group ought to have balanced the likelihood of acting upon them.
As has been suggested elsewhere, the immanence of an avalanche might have caused a rapid escape. That they appeared to run for the apparent safety of the forest edge, where they attempted to light a fire, suggests they were not being pursued by a forest creature.
As for the missing eyes and tongue, these organs tend to be removed by scavengers – most likely members of the crow family.
Of course we’d love there to be an unknown species of giant primate, known locally as the Menk. (Tales told to scare little children from wandering off into the forest?). If such a creature exists, then it would be most likely a close relative or even the gigantopithecus itself, a known creature, believed extinct, with its closest known living relative being the orang-utan.
From the composite descriptions, such a creature appears to be largely solitary (like orangs), as opposed to social (gorillas and chimps). Gorillas and orangs tend to be herbivorous, but whether a large ape could exist on a vegetarian diet in the taiga seems doubtful, so perhaps we may concede it to be omnivorous or even carnivorous.
Which brings us to signs that such an animal would leave. If they predated, or scavenged meat, there would be evidence of carcasses – most likely with dismemberment, as chimps would carry out. Larger prey would point more to sociability and sharing of meals. As to the rather epicurean theory advanced in the film, that only delicacies such as tongues are taken and eaten – well, that just has no credibility for a creature having to sustain a diet supporting a large body size.
Solitary animals tend to be territorial and prominently mark their territories to avoid unnecessary contact. Orangs defecate quite ostentatiously, leaving their faeces in visible mounds, rather than simply scattered about. A large ape, with a similar lifestyle, could be expected to leave its calling cards for researchers to find and hence take away for DNA analysis, but none have been found. Likewise, to the best of my knowledge, no hair samples supposedly originating from various crypto-primates have yet given positive identification of a new species.
If reports are true and there is an unknown large primate, it would seem to avoid human contact. Again, comparison with the orang-utan is helpful, which despite being powerful and muscular, tend to shy away from humans. However, they (males especially) can be territorial and will attack humans if they feel encroached on or threatened. Unlikely however that a forest creature would leave its habitat in defence of a territory…
…and at night. While there are several species of prosimians that are nocturnal – including tarsiers, lorises, bush-babies, the aye-aye – very few monkeys are active at night and most monkeys and none of the great apes have the adaptations necessary for night vision.
Technological progress means that we humans possess night vision through special cameras and binoculars. We have remote and trail cameras and thermal imaging, that have opened up our understanding of rare and secretive species. Has such technology not been tried in the Urals, or elsewhere where reports of unknown primates have been gathered?
So, with regret, I think we must discount the ravening Yeti hypothesis.
Long before the final sinking of the Continent of Atlantis more than 1100 thousand years ago, before the time of Adam an Eve on Atlantis, the development of a sub-race of primitive beings slightly above the animal level to the full stature of bodies not fashioned in Gods image.. These humanoids or mutants feature extensively in the Atlantean records as a primitive form of antediluvian life, which echoes of centaurs , and Minotaur and such of Greek mythology. A subrace of speechless beings not unlike the apes of our present day, where as the Atlanteans had only sought to create a helpmate and companion to serve personal wants as a fleshed robot, which had been used for slave labor by the Atlanteans, and the purpose of the Temples and Pyramids of Egypt was to hasten their evolution by corrective surgery. This involved the use of the laser, followed by ritual purification in the name of the one God. Ascribing karmic consequences for the human race because of our ancient role in begetting these lost creatures devoid of reason. The story of Big foot and these lost creatures tells of bestiality and simian like off-spring, but also of innocent intent.. Perhaps the most compelling versions are to be found in Hindu- Mythology where they are called by name. Read my book Hide-out Planet Earth, Who is Big Foot, coming out late Jan, 2020 in a few weeks. There you will get a pretty good idea just what your up against and be-leave me the Atlantean epoch had set the precede for bringing the so called thing into existence a mistake in retrospect with tragic consequences , yet the Atlanteans had only sought to create a help mate and companion as a fleshed robot.
The Snowman exists…
Ok so I’m watching a movie made in 1957 called “Abominable Snowman/Himalayas. Some that struck me as odd is that one of the hikers wrote “now we know, the snowmen exists” in the journal and what got me thinking, why would a movie made in 1957 call it the snowman and not Bigfoot, yeti, Sasquatch or even the ape man. Where did the “snowman” name come from? Is it because of the area? So the 9 hikers disappeared in 1959 and two years earlier there’s a movie about the snowman. I guess I’m a little baffled by the name itself. I watched the documentary and some of the trauma some of the hikers had could not be done by a human and where this happened, no vehicles could reach that area. As far as the females tongue missing, an animal could account for that but even if that were the case, why didn’t the animals eat more of the body? We’ve all seen nature shows where animals always go back to their kill and finish it but that didn’t happen in this case. Further, humans are the only living thing that kills for reasons other than food. I believe people are seeing Bigfoot no mater what these creatures are called elsewhere. My Native American great grandparents knew of this creature but said it was a shape shifter and one could be standing right in front of you and you wouldn’t see it. Why would they write “now we know the snowmen exists”? Maybe they were part of the whole Russian government looking for the snowmen and actually found them. Something was stalking them which hasn’t been disputed because of the tents having lookout holes and it hasn’t been disputed that the hikers didn’t run out of the opening in the tents. I believe the Russian government and the US government knows exactly what happened to those hikers. As for the only hikers who turned around to go back, maybe he was a Russian intelligent whose sole job was to abandon the group once they got close enough. This is just my theory.
I did with Brenda on Jan 15th see comments. See my Book Hide out Planet Earth, Who is Big Foot. Soon to be released Feb- March hopefully.
Building a solid foundation is paramount to your success in the capture of these curious beasts, do not take any short cuts for what is known as the supernatural.
This yeti and others are being controlled by higher forces, animal mutilations in Canada and the United States UFO highways to traumatized a third-generation rancher. A handful of cows could be seen, they were clustered together in a small section of their feed area as close to the barn as they could go. Pictures showing remains of dead cows and skeletons of remains of them and dead horses, no sighs of predators or any sort of defensive resistance no deep hoof prints, obviously died suddenly. Both horses had been stripped to the bone in various places. Over the past decade, they had seen this many times, even more terrifying incidents like this had been going on for more than fifty years this exact same scene had been witnessed and documented on ranches all over Colorado, as well as in new Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Canada and many other places. Horrifying as it was-more than ten thousand individual incidents, in a half dozen states, all of them completely unexplained some ten thousand incidents.
A handful of UFO sightings within a twenty four hour period. One witness, a superior court judge named Charles Bennett, had claimed to have seen three reddish-orange rings in the sky that had main-tainted a triangular formation and had moved at incredible speeds. Those reports had galvanized popular interest. No foot-prints- tire tracks, or signs of violence. Who is Big Foot? Many people in India may also look upon the abominable snow man of he Himalayas called yeti in much the same compassionate light, ascribing karmic consequences for the human race because of our ancient role in begetting these lost creatures devoid of reason. My book tells of who Big foot really is, do not miss out on this book coming soon . James R Elliott Windsor Ontario Canada [email protected].