On the night of February 1, 1959, a team of nine experienced cross-country skiers abandoned their tent in the Russian Ural Mountains and fled to a nearby forest. They were in such a hurry that they were only partially clothed and cut through the sides of their tent to save time. The temperature outside was minus 15 degrees. Within hours, they were all dead. Rescuers recovered their bodies at two separate times and discovered that while some had frozen to death, others had sustained injuries. Reports have made claims of high levels of radiation, strange lights in the sky, missing body parts, strange orange skin tones, and even the possibility of UFO involvement. Now Aquiziam seeks to understand the truth about what really happened.
Key Points
-
An Overview
In brief, the rescuers and later investigators discovered that during the night, and for an unknown reason, the ski-team had apparently ripped or cut open their tent from the inside and fled from it into the snow in temperatures of approximately -15 to -18 degrees Celsius where there was a cross wind of approximately 10–15 kilometres per hour (20–30 knots). While not as cold as the -30 degrees often reported, these were still very harsh conditions and survival would be limited to between three and eight hours depending on whether those involved could keep moving. At least five members of the team had fewer clothes on than would have been expected, and some may even have been barefooted. Within six to eight hours, every member of the ski team was dead.
The corpses were discovered at various distances from the camp site and showed little immediate outward sign of injury, but on investigation it was discovered that two victims had fractured skulls (one severe), two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue. In addition, two of the victims’ clothes were discovered to contain trace levels of radiation. Russian investigators finally closed the case, stating only that “a compelling unknown force” had caused the deaths. Again, this is a mistranslation that has added to the misunderstanding. In reality, the correct term is “Force Majeure,” and it is simply an expression used to describe something significant that cannot be easily explained.It is also often reported that after the event, the area, now loosely known as Dyatlov Pass, was immediately sealed off by the authorities and access was forbidden for at least three years. Again, this implies much more than what actually happened. The area was restricted for safety reasons, but only to amateur ski-sports enthusiasts.
This is a little-known mystery and truly deserves much more attention as it is well documented and was formally investigated. After much of the “exaggeration” and “journalistic hype” has been explained, it is possible to see that there is only one truly incredible mystery, and that is this.Why did nine people flee from their tent in conditions that were almost certain to result in their deaths?
Later in this review, we will examine the allegedly bizarre evidence and accusations and provide some answers. With the assistance of some of the actual original investigators, the Aquiziam team has done its best to piece together the storey from the information available – some of it in Russian. This is what seems to have happened:
-
The trip’s objective
According to Dr. Vladimir B., group ski activities of this type were fairly common, although each had their own somewhat different purpose. In his experience of Russia at the time, the usual reasons were sports, sightseeing (aesthetic appreciation), social, and exploratory. The various teams would be made up of people with varying degrees of appreciation for these interests. In the case of the Dyatlov team, their focus was on the sporting challenge of the trip, and in particular, they aspired to undertake an excursion of the highest level of difficulty (complexity).
It is often stated that the purpose of this particular trip was to reach the mountain “Gora Otorten,” but, in fact, the proposed route was much further. After Otorten, the team planned to travel 100 kilometres southwards along the main ridge of the Ural Mountains up to Ojkachahl Peak. From this point, they intended to follow the (northern) Toshemka river, thus passing 100 miles east of the town of Vishay (Vizhaj). Today, with the availability of advanced equipment, such a route would only be considered “average” in difficulty, but in 1959 it was one of the hardest that could be undertaken. As more becomes clear, it seems that Igor Dyatlov had intended this trip as “training” for a future expedition, possibly to the sub-polar or even polar/Artic regions. According to B. E. Slobtsova, formal training did not exist at this time for such ventures and depended on experience gained during trips such as the Dyatlov team were undertaking.
-
The ski team
The Dyatlov ski team was made up of eight men and two women who, except for Alexander Zolotarev, were mostly students or graduates of the Ural Polytechnic Institute located in Ekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, and now renamed the Yeltsin Ural State Technical University. Georgyi Krivonischenko, Rustem Slobodin, and Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel were engineers. Igor Dyatlov and Zinaida Kolmogorova were Radio Faculty students, while Lyudmila Dubinina and Yuri Yudin studied Economics, Yuri Doroshenko studied Power Economics, and Alexander Kolevatov was a Geo-Technical Faculty student.
Alexander Zolotarev was a ski and tour instructor (a professional travel guide) and wanted to go together with Dyatlov’s team to add performance points to his degree and so achieve promotion to the rank of “Master” or Expert instructor. This was, and still is, the practise in Russia.
Zolotarev did not know the other team members but was recommended by friends of the team from the sports club. He was accepted into the team and, according to the diaries, he cooperated and worked well with all of them. It is worth noting that sports associations were common at this time, as was the willingness for people who shared an interest, such as skiing, to cooperate with each other where possible. The original mystery was reported in Russian. By looking at these and comparing them to the English versions, we have identified quite a number of components that seem to have been lost in translation. These “facts” may or may not be true, but are as follows:
1. Yuri Yarovoi (a Sverdlovsk writer and journalist who was the photographer for the original rescue mission and later involved in the inquest) wrote a fictional book entitled “of the highest rank of complexity” (a strange title). Although he clearly had knowledge and insights not available to the average person, his book was a romanticised version of the event with a significantly happier ending. He was allegedly made to rewrite it twice before the authorities permitted its publication. In this version, only the team leader dies. Now this is the interesting part: Yuri and his wife were killed in a car crash in the mid 1980’s, a few short years before the partial declassification of the Dyatlov papers. According to this source, all his papers, records, and private notes on the Dyatlov Pass Incident have gone missing.
2. Some details of the tragedy became publicly available in 1990 due to publications and discussions in Sverdlovsk’s regional press. One of the first authors was Sverdlovsk journalist Anatoly Guschin (натоли уин). Guschin reported that police officials gave him special permission to study the original files of the inquest and use these materials in his publications. He noticed, however, that a number of pages were excluded from the files, as was a mysterious “envelope” mentioned in the case materials list. At the same time, unofficial photocopies of the case parts started to circulate among other enthusiastic researchers. (Wikipedia 2008).
3. A chance meeting on a train with a medical assistant at the accident site, Maria Ivanovna, revealed that she recalled 11 bodies being discovered and not nine. Two were hurriedly removed to a destination unknown to her.
4. Apparently, the Dyatlov Foundation has been established in Ekaterinburg with the help of Ural State Technical University and is led by Yuri Kuntsevitch (ри уневи), a close friend of Igor Dyatlov and a member of the search team. We would very much like to make contact with them and would appreciate any address available.
5. Evidence of metal fragments and rocket parts indicates that the area had once been used for weapon trials. However, this may predate or postdate the Dyatlov Pass Incident.
