The Dyatlov Pass Incident

Aiden Walker.

A cold wind batters the search party. As they make their way to the snowy forest edge, they see what appears to be the remains of a campfire. The party then makes a shocking discovery; two of the people from a missing nine person exploration party are found dead, stripped down to their underwear. On January 27th, 1959, 9 Russian students from the Ural Polytechnical Institute began a trek over the Dyatlov Pass. All of these hikers were experienced, and by the end of this trip, they would be able to obtain the highest certification of hiking in the Soviet Union. The destination was the mountain Oroten, with the route categorized as a Category III, which is the most time-intensive category. Only nine people participated in the trek, but while making their way to the starting point, a 37 year old man joined them, who ended up being a local hiking instructor.

On the second day of the expedition, one of the hikers, who suffered from health issues, turned back alone after experiencing pain. By the 31st, the remaining nine hikers made it to the edge of the climbing area. They prepared supplies for the trip back in a wooded valley, and then entered the pass. As they traversed the pass, the weather began to worsen. Because of the poor visibility, they accidentally ended up a mile off the planned path, to the top of the mountain Kholat Syakhl. For some unknown reason, most likely to not lose altitude, they set up camp on the mountain, rather in the safer forested area downhill. This would end up being the mistake that would cost them their lives.

For a couple of weeks, family and colleagues thought they were fine. But when they failed to send a telegram on their scheduled return day, family members began to grow suspicious. They called the University, wondering where their children were. However, the families received the same response, to just be patient because the University couldn’t do anything at that moment. By February 17th, with pressure mounting, the University made a formal inquiry into the situation. They began by asking the destination village where they could be. Once it was revealed that they had not returned, the real search began. One of the main issues before the search was that the route they took was not saved, which made it extremely difficult to know their exact location, especially in the rough Russian climate. On February 20th, the search officially began, and the allocated search crew sent airplanes to look for the possible whereabouts. After 4 days of the unsuccessful search, the efforts began to exponentiate. In the following days, they found signs of camping and even a ski trail.

Exactly one month after the group departed, the first clue of the crew was spotted. The tent they had camped in was spotted, covered in snow. After opening the tent, they found nothing. Following this discovery, multiple search teams arrive in the area. Spurred on from this discovery, the group’s efforts intensified. There were no tracks in the surrounding area, but down the slope, they discovered 9 distinct sets of footprints that had been preserved. They searched, but didn’t find anything. Later that day, two people from the search crew look for a spot to camp for the night, and end up spotting something odd. It appeared to be a campfire, and not one that the locals would create. After inspecting the area, they end up finding a human knee. They then left to report the finding, and after a group was dispatched to the area, they found two of the dead hikers. They were wearing almost nothing, and their clothes were torn up. Another group was searching about a mile from the tent when their dogs began to get anxious. The dogs then led the search party to two people buried underneath snow. Like the other victims, they were missing clothing and had no shoes.

As news of the bodies being found spread, shock began to set in, and people were looking for something to blame. So, people pointed at the University and the locals. At the same time, questions were being asked. Why were the hikers missing clothing? Why was the tent torn open? One explanation for leaving the tent is that the hikers saw an odd light in the sky and got scared. Supposedly, at this time, a large meteorite had flown over the pass, and the light was so intense that it woke up the locals. Things became even stranger when the 5th body was found, about 1000 yards from the tent. What was so odd about the body was that it showed signs that he sustained trauma to the head. After further inquiry, they found more deliberate tears in the tent, showing that the hikers were trying to escape something.

In the proceeding weeks, they continued the search for the hikers and evidence of what happened. After developing the camera photos, everything seemed to be in order, until the last photo. The photo was taken in the last hours of their lives, and was a blurry mess, pointing to what people thought could be the reason for escaping the tent. It wasn’t until May 5th, weeks after they found the last body, that the next body was found. The search crew had been following crumbs of evidence until they found a clothing cache, and cut branches. After probing and digging, they ended up finding the remaining hikers, also missing shoes and clothing. Finally, the bodies had been recovered and the conspiracy theories could begin.

After the autopsies, it was concluded that six had died from hypothermia and three from brutal injuries. One was missing their tongue. The most startling discovery was that the bodies had abnormal amounts of radiation. Theories for this radiation ranged from UFOs to military operations. A father of one of the hikers thought that a missile was launched and ended up exploding about 1000 yards above the tent, which caused the panic to leave the tent. However, because the radiation affected only some of the hikers, this theory is shaky at best. Some people thought that the removed clothes along with the radiation could be evidence of UFO abduction and experimentation, but this has yet to be proved. One possibility is katabatic wind. This is a very rare event of extremely violent winds. In a previous and unrelated incident, another group of nine hikers were battered by these winds, with only 1 surviving with severe injuries. However, these winds would have destroyed the tent, so this theory is very unlikely. Another possibility is infrasound, which is a sound which creates enough physical and mental discomfort to induce panic attacks in people, which could have caused the sudden escape from the tent. Then, after they escaped the sound, the darkness and weather would have made it near impossible to return to the tent. A large avalanche could have also caused their deaths, but there was no evidence of a big avalanche in the area.

Theories like these were thrown around for over 60 years, until in 2020, scientists came to the conclusion that a small avalanche, called a slab avalanche, was the cause of their deaths. They did a huge amount of investigative research and math to show that this was the most likely cause. And with that, one of the most mysterious incidents of the 20th century seemingly came to a close, but there are still unanswered questions. The radiation, the behavior of the hikers, and the missing clothes are still subject to conspiracy, and even the most in-depth science has not solved what happened to these nine hikers on the Dyatlov Pass.

Citations

Eichar, Donnie. Dead Mountain: Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident. Chronicle Books, 2014.