The Dyatlov Pass Mystery

In the winter of 1959, at the height of the Cold War, nine keen young Russians set off on a two-week ski-trekking expedition into Siberia’s brutally cold Ural Mountains. They were following a trend among college-age Soviets at the time, much promoted by the Communist regime, to partake in challenging wilderness excursions. Most of the travelers—seven men and two women—were students at the Ural Polytechnical Institute, where they belonged to a sports club.

The group traveled by train to the small mining town of Ivdel, just east of the Urals, in a vast unpopulated area dotted with Gulag prison camps and restricted military facilities. From Ivdel they bused to the town of Vizhai, then suffered through a sub-freezing three-hour ride in the back of a flatbed truck to their trailhead. They distracted themselves along the way by singing songs and having impassioned discussions about love, friendship, and cures for cancer.

We know these last details because the young adventurers dutifully recorded their activities