What happened to the Dyatlovites in 1959. Dyatlov Pass: what really happened? Has the mystery of the Dyatlov Pass been revealed? In a snow sarcophagus
The Mystery of the Dyatlov Pass
In 2017, former Gov.Sverdlovsk Region Senator Eduard Rossel said that the tragedy at the Dyatlov Pass in the Urals in 1959 refers tostrictly classifiedinformation federal level.
February 2, 2019 At the annual conference dedicated to the death of the Dyatlov group, researcher Oleg Arkhipov presented to the public an archival document, which, in his opinion, may indicate falsification of the criminal case into the tragedy. Interfax reported this on February 2.
Arkhipov presented a note from the then prosecutor of the city of Ivdel Vasily Tempalov addressed to investigator Korotaev. In it, he reports that he intends to go to Sverdlovsk to investigate the causes of the death of the Dyatlov group. Moreover, the letter is dated February 15, 1959, and the tragedy became known later.
“This suggests that the corpses were found in advance, even before the official search. That this criminal case should be carried out in order to “legalize” the found corpses,” Arkhipov said.
The story of the tragic death of students at the Dyatlov Pass
Vladimir Garmatyuk, 2018.
Many people in Russia, the USSR and far abroad have heard about the tragic death of nine student tourists at the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI) in the northern Urals on February 2, 1959.
In the picture are students of the deceased group of tourists (from left to right) bottom row: Slobodin R.S. , Kolmogorova Z.A., I.A. Dyatlov I.A., Dubinina L.A. Doroshenko Yu.A. Top row: Thibault-Brignolle N.V., Kolevatov A.S., Krivonischenko G.A., Zolotarev A.I.
The event attracted widespread public attention due to the fact that the investigation conducted by the Sverdlovsk prosecutor's office in 1959 did not give a clear answer about the causes of death of the young people.
In the resolution to terminate the criminal case by prosecutor L.N. Ivanov said the following verbatim: “Taking into account the absence of external bodily injuries and signs of struggle on the corpses, the presence of all the values of the group, and also taking into account the conclusion of the forensic medical examination on the causes of death of tourists, it should be considered what caused the deaths of tourists a spontaneous force appeared, which the tourists were unable to overcome.
The uncertainty of the investigation’s conclusion about “natural force” gave rise to a lot of fiction, mysticism and fear. Many different versions have been put forward, from a UFO attack, Bigfoot, to American spies. Over time, additional information appeared in various media sources, which was not included in the criminal case, and therefore the real reasons were not given.
All that remains is to complete the missing “links in the chain” of interconnected events in order to tell about the tragedy that occurred... Let’s leave the details that have already been told and highlight the main thing that was missed.
Start
So, a group of ten UPI students (one got sick on the way and returned back) left the city of Ivdel, Sverdlovsk region, on January 26, 1959. Having passed the villages of Vizhay and Severny, they then set off on their own on skis for a two-week trek to Mount Otorten (1234 m) in the northern Urals. The tourists paved their route along the sledge-deer trail of hunters of the local northern Mansi people.
Along the way, some students kept their diaries. Their observations are interesting. Entry from the diary of the group leader, fifth-year student Igor Dyatlov:
01/28/59… After talking, the two of us crawl into the tent. The suspended stove glows with heat and divides the tent into two compartments.
01/30/59 “Today is the third cold night on the bank of the Auspiya River. We are starting to get involved. The stove is a great thing. Some (Thibault and Krivonischenko) They are thinking of constructing steam heating in the tent. The canopy - hanging sheets are quite justified. Weather: temperature in the morning - 17 ° C, in the afternoon - 13 ° C, in the evening - 26 ° C.
The deer path ended, the rough path began, and then it ended. It was very difficult to walk on virgin soil, the snow was up to 120 cm deep. The forest is gradually thinning out, the height is felt, the birch and pine trees are dwarfed and ugly. It’s impossible to walk along the river - it’s not frozen, but under the snow there is water and ice, right there on the ski track, we go along the shore again. The day is approaching evening, we need to look for a place to bivouac. Here's our stop for the night. The wind is strong from the west, knocking the snow off the cedar and pines, creating the impression of snowfall.”
During the hike, the guys took photographs of themselves and their photographs were preserved. The photo shows students of the deceased ski group on their route.
01/31/59 “We reached the border of the forest. The wind is western, warm, piercing, the wind speed is similar to the air speed when an airplane takes off. Nast, bare places. You don’t even have to think about setting up a lobaz. About 4 hours. You need to choose an overnight stay. We go down to the south - into the river valley. Auspii. This is apparently the snowiest place. Light wind in the snow 1.2-2 m thick. Tired, exhausted, they set about arranging for the night. There is not enough firewood. Weak, raw spruce. The fire was lit on logs; there was no desire to dig a hole. We have dinner right in the tent. Warm. It is difficult to imagine such comfort somewhere on a ridge, with a piercing howl of the wind, hundreds of kilometers from populated areas.
Today was a surprisingly good overnight stay, warm and dry, despite the low temperature (- 18° -24°). Walking today is especially difficult. The trail is not visible, we often stray from it or grope along. Thus, we travel 1.5-2 km per hour.I’m at a great age: the nonsense has already worn off, but I’m still far from insanity... Dyatlov.
On February 1, 1959, at about 5 pm, the students set up their tent for the last time on the gentle slope of Mount Kholatchakhl (1079 m) below 300 meters from its peak. The guys took pictures of the place where and how they set up the tent. The evening was frosty and windy. The photo shows how skiers on the slope dig deep snow to the ground, wearing hoods, and how a strong wind blows snow into the hole.
02/1/59 Combat leaflet No. 1 “Evening Otorten” - written by students before bed: “Is it possible to warm nine tourists with one stove and one blanket? A team of radio technicians consisting of comrade. Doroshenko and Kolmogorova set a new world record in the competition for stove assembly– 1 hour 02 min. 27.4
When setting up the tent, the guys did not expect an avalanche from the top. The hill was not so steep and by the beginning of February the crust was so strong that it could hold a person without skis. The entries from the diary indicate that they had a collapsible stove, and they heated it in a tent. The stove was very hot! When the tent was buried deep in the snow on the mountainside under a “cornice of crust” and the stove was lit, it melted the snow around it. In the cold, the molten snow froze, turning into a solid edge of ice. After dinner, taking off their shoes and warm outerwear, the guys went to bed. But in the early morning of February 2, something happened that soon determined their fate...
Let's go off topic a little
In 1957, in the Arkhangelsk region, at the same latitude of the northern Urals, the (at that time secret) Plesetsk cosmodrome was opened. In February 1959, it was renamed the 3rd Artillery Training Range. From 1957 to 1993, 1,372 ballistic missile launches were carried out from here (This information is from Wikipedia).
Spent stages of ballistic missiles with residual liquid fuel fell, burning over deserted areas of the northern Urals. Therefore, many residents of those places often noticed burning lights (balls) in the night sky.
The falling, burning rocket stage over the mountainside where the students spent the night was photographed at night (or early in the morning) (with aperture delay) by the group instructor Alexander Zolotarev. This was his last photo.
On the left in the photo you can see traces from the falling rocket stage, and in the center of the frame there is a light spot from the camera diaphragm. The event was also witnessed by other people who were far from the group at the time and spoke about this during the investigation.
We must also pay attention to the fact that February 2, 1959 was Monday- the beginning of the working week (for the military too). At night (early morning) on February 2, an explosion occurred in the air not far above Mount Kholatchakhlv.
Whether it was a rocket stage with incompletely burned fuel remaining in it, or whether it was a rocket that deviated from the given flight path and was automatically detonated, or whether the falling rocket (stage) was shot down by another rocket, like a training target, it no longer matters what specifically was the source of the explosion.
The blast wave shook the snow on the mountainside and moved down in some places. On top of the snow was a heavy layer of snow crust (sometimes called a “board”).
The crust is thick and hard and rather resembles not a board, but an icy, multi-layered “plywood sheet”. So strong that people ran on it without shoes without falling through. This can be seen from the footprints going down the mountain from the tent. The photograph of the tracks from the mountain and the abandoned tent (below) was taken later around February 26-27, 1959 by members of the search party.
The guys in the tent slept with their heads towards the top of the mountain. The previous evening, the heat from the stove had melted the edges of the snow around the tent, turning it into solid ice, which hung over them from the mountain side like an “ice cornice.” After the explosion, this ice, pressed down from above by a heavy load of crust and snow, fell onto the tent and onto the heads of the people sleeping in it. Subsequently, a forensic medical examination established that two had broken ribs and two more had cracks (6 cm long) in the skull.
One of the tent posts (the farthest one in the photo) was broken. If the stand broke, then the effort was quite enough to break the bones of people who were not expecting anything, lying relaxed.
The students in the darkness of the tent, of course, could not appreciate the real danger that had arisen. They considered the ice and crust with snow that fell on them to be a general avalanche. Being in a state of shock, under the fear of being buried alive under the snow, In a panic, they instantly cut the tent from the inside and, being without shoes (in only socks), and without warm outerwear, jumped out and rushed to run away from the snow avalanche down the mountainside.
No other danger would have forced the guys to do this. On the contrary, they would hide in a tent from another external threat. The photo of the tent shows that the entrance to it is blocked, and there is snow in the middle.
Having run 1.5 km down to the forest, only there the guys were able to soberly assess the situation and the real threat of death - from hypothermia. They had 1-2 hours to live without shoes and outerwear in the cold and wind. The air temperature in the early morning of February 2 was about -28°C.
The students lit a fire under the cedar tree and tried to warm themselves. Having figured out that there was no avalanche, the three ran back up the mountain to the tent for warm clothes and shoes; they no longer had enough to wear. On the way up the mountain, all three fell from fatal hypothermia and froze there.
Subsequently, the two were found frozen under a cedar tree near an extinguished fire. Another four (three of them with fractures received earlier in the tent), who felt worse than others due to their injuries, tried to wait for those who had gone to get clothes, hiding from the cold wind in a ravine. They also froze. This ravine was then covered with snow by a snowstorm, and the boys were found later than the others on May 4, 1959.
Radiation was found on the clothes of people covered in snow.
In the USSR, according to the chronology of thermonuclear bomb tests, in the period from September 30, 1958 to October 25, 1958, 19 explosions were carried out in the atmosphere at the Dry Nose test site on Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Ocean (opposite the Ural Mountains). This radiation fell with snow on the ground in the winter of 1958-1959 (including in the northern Urals). The photo below shows the location of the discovery of four bodies, covered with snow, in a ravine.
Returning to the materials of the criminal case.
Witness Krivonischenko A.K. testified during the investigation : “After the burial of my son on March 9, 1959, students, participants in the search for nine tourists, were at my apartment for lunch. Among them were those tourists who at the end of January - beginning of February were on a hike in the north, somewhat south of Mount Otorten. There were apparently at least two such groups, at least the participants of two groups said that on the evening of February 1, 1959, they were observed by a light phenomenon north of the location of these groups: an extremely bright glow of some kind of rocket or projectile.
The glow was constantly strong, so that one of the groups, being already in the tent and getting ready to sleep, was alarmed by this glow, came out of the tent and observed this phenomenon. After some time they heard a sound effect similar to strong thunder from afar.
Testimony of investigator L.N. Ivanov, who finished the case: "... a similar ball was seen on the night the guys died, that is, from the first to the second of February, student tourists of the Geography Faculty of the Pedagogical Institute."
Here, for example, is what Lyudmila Dubinina’s father, in those years a senior official at the Sverdlovsk Economic Council, said during interrogation in March 1959: “... I heard conversations among students of the Ural Polytechnic University (UPI) that the flight of undressed people from the tent was caused by an explosion and large radiation..., Light from a shell February 2 around seven o'clock in the morning seen in the city of Serov... I am surprised why tourist routes from the city of Ivdel were not closed...
Excerpt from the protocol of interrogation of Slobodin Vladimir Mikhailovich - father of Rustem Slobodin: “From him (Chairman of the Ivdel City Council A.I. Delyagin) I first heard that around the time when the group suffered a catastrophe, some residents (local hunters) observed the appearance of some kind of fireball in the sky. E.P. Maslennikov told me that the fireball was observed by other tourists - students.
Diagram of the location of the tent on the mountainside and the discovered bodies of tourists. 
The individual characteristics of the injuries to the bodies of some of the victims do not change the overall picture of what happened. The damage only served to fuel incorrect speculation.
For example, the frozen foam at the mouth of one is attributed to vomiting, which was caused by inhaling vapors (or carbon monoxide from rocket fuel) dispersed in the air above the mountain. This is also the reason for the unusual red-orange color of the skin on the surfaces of corpses exposed to the sun. Damage to the already dead body (nose, eyes and tongue) in others was caused by mice or birds of prey.
The investigation did not dare to name the real cause of the death of the students on the night of February 2, 1959 - from a missile test, from an explosion in the air that served to move the crust and snow on Mount Kholatchakhl.
Investigator of the Sverdlovsk Prosecutor's Office V. Korotaev, who first began to conduct the case (later during the years of glasnost) said: “... the first secretary of the (Sverdlovsk) city party committee, Prodanov, invites me and transparently hints: there is, they say, a proposal to stop the matter. Clearly, not his personal, nothing more than an order from above. At my request, the secretary then called Andrei Kirilenko (first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional party committee). And he heard the same thing: stop the matter!
Literally a day later, investigator Lev Ivanov took it into his hands, who quickly turned it down...” – With the above formulation about “irresistible elemental force”.
All secrets (military or otherwise), one way or another, harm people. Secrets are called secrets; it is a shame to tell people openly about them because of their immoral essence. As the wise Chinese thinker Lao Tzu noted: “Even the best weapons do not bode well.”
“Winter 1959. A group of Sverdlovsk student skiers goes to the Northern Urals on a hike to Mount Otorten. Young, cheerful, carefree, they did not know that they would never return. After several months of searching, the boys were found dead. Their death was terrible and cruel. Until now, the circumstances of this mysterious and mystical tragedy are a mystery.
Modern photos of the Dyatlov Pass area
Why was the death of the Dyatlov group hidden from journalists? How can we explain that they were buried hastily, trying not to attract attention? There are many versions - no one knows the truth...” This is a quote from the cover of Anna Matveeva’s book “Dyatlov Pass”. The mystery of the death of 9 tourists from the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI) has haunted people's minds for more than half a century. Many publications in the media, films and books are dedicated to it - for example, the story by Yu. Yarovoy “The Highest Category of Difficulty”, the book by O. Arkhipov “Death Under the Secret Classification”, the above-mentioned novel by A. Matveeva, etc. In them, the tragedy is also associated with accidents missiles, and UFOs, and natural anomalies, and crime, and secret tests of new weapons, after which they carried out a “cleansing” of unwanted witnesses...
On the cover of A. Matveeva’s novel it says: “A story that is unlikely to ever be fully explained.” St. Petersburg resident, longtime author of “VV” E. Buyanov and his comrades tried to find an explanation.
The history and results of their 6-year investigation with the involvement of specialists and the study of all available evidence and documents (including the once classified criminal case) are set out in the large book by E. Buyanov and B. Slobtsov, “The Mystery of the Death of the Dyatlov Group,” which was published in Yekaterinburg in August 2011 (We send it across Russia to subscribers for 360 rubles, to everyone else for 390). The editors asked Evgeniy to briefly outline the conclusions the authors came to.
February 1, 1959 Igor Dyatlov’s group (UPI students I. Dyatlov, L. Dubinin, Z. Kolmogorov, Y. Doroshenko, N. Thibault-Brignolles, UPI graduate engineers A. Kolevatov, G. Krivonischenko, R. Slobodin and instructor of the Kourovsky camp site S. Zolotarev) built a storage shed in the taiga wilderness near the Auspiya River, left some of the products and things in it, and then went to Mount Otorten (1189 m).
The skiers emerged from the forest onto a pass open to the wind towards the Lozva River near Mount 1096 (on the maps of those years 1079, now Kholatchakhl - “mountain of the dead”). There we camped for the night on the slope of a spur of the mountain, leveling the area for a long tent, sewn from two tents of the houses. To set up the tent, we dug up a snow slope with a steepness of 20–23° and a thickness of up to 2 m and placed it on inverted skis.
Backpacks, padded jackets and two blankets were placed at the bottom. We also covered ourselves with blankets at night (there were no sleeping bags). On the night of February 1–2, all members of the group died. When the tourists did not return on time (February 15), their parents sounded the alarm, and the UPI began organizing a search. On February 20, rescuers were assembled, and from the 22nd they were deployed to the hiking area.
The detachments of B. Slobtsov, O. Grebennik, captain Chernyshov, M. Axelrod, a detachment of Mansi hunters came out, preparing the group of V. Karelin. Back on February 17 at 6.57, members of the latter saw a UFO on their hike - the flight of a “star with a tail” with the light of the “full moon”. At the call of the attendants, everyone came out of the tent to look at the “star”.
Others saw her flight - meteorologist Tokareva near the city of Ivdel described it in detail. This is how the legend of “fireballs” and their connection with tragedy was born. For more than 2 months, until the beginning of May, search teams, planes and helicopters searched for the Dyatlovites over a huge area of more than 300 sq. km, and then at the site of the accident. 11 rescuers from Slobtsov’s detachment landed on February 23 from a helicopter east of Mount Otorten.
They found a barely visible remnant of a ski trail in the taiga near the Auspiya River and followed it to a pass near Mount 1096 between the sources of Lozva and Auspiya. On February 26, from the pass, Sharavin saw a black spot through binoculars - the protrusion of the corner of the tent above its standing post. Slobtsov and Sharavin examined the fallen tent, covered with snow.
The outer slope of the tent was badly torn, and there was no one inside. Later they found out: three cuts in the roof were made with a knife from the inside, and pieces of fabric were torn off. One jacket was forced from the inside into the gap in the tent and into the snowy slope. 15 m below, 8 pairs of tracks went down to the forest. They were visible for 60 m, then they were covered with snow.
In the tent, and then in the storehouse, they found food, clothes, shoes, equipment and documents from the Dyatlov group. On the evening of February 26, Slobtsov, to whose camp during the day radio operator geologist E. Nevolin came with a walkie-talkie, reported the findings to the search headquarters. On the afternoon of February 27, helicopters landed the main force of rescuers and the prosecutor of Ivdel Tempalov on the pass near Mount 1096.
On the morning of February 27, Sharavin and Koptelov, in the forest 1.5 km from the tent, found frozen Doroshenko and Krivonischenko near a large cedar tree next to the remains of a fire. The victims, stripped to their underwear, had burns on their arms and legs. On the same day, under a layer of snow (10–50 cm) on the tent-cedar line, the bodies of Dyatlov, Kolmogorova, and later (March 5) Slobodin were found.
They also died from freezing in ski suits and sweaters - “what they slept in.” All five were without shoes and wearing socks. Only Slobodin had one felt boot on his foot. (Later, doctors found a hidden crack in the crown of Slobodin’s skull measuring 1 x 60 mm.) The investigation collected evidence. From March 3 to March 8, tourist experts from Moscow Bardin, Baskin and Shuleshko worked at the scene of the tragedy.
Further searches continued for a long time without success. On the night of March 31 at 4.00, more than 30 searchers from the camp on Auspiya observed the flight of a “fireball” in the southeastern part of the sky for 20 minutes, which was reported to headquarters. The phenomenon gave rise to many rumors. The investigation collected a number of evidence about the flight of the “fireball” on February 17, which complemented the description of Karelin’s group.
Four more dead were found on May 5 under a 3-meter thickness of snow in the bed of a stream on a flooring of fir trunks, 70 m from a cedar tree. Some objects and scraps of clothing were found both in their place and in the forest. Doctors determined that the three dead had severe intravital injuries - blood in the wall of the heart and fractures of 10 ribs in Dubinina (6 on the left and 4 double on the right) and 5 double fractures of the ribs in Zolotarev.
Thibault-Brignolle was diagnosed with a temporal fracture and a 17-centimeter fracture of the base of the skull. The mystery was the absence of external injuries to the body over injuries and their causes. All four died from freezing and injuries. The investigation revealed a strange fact: three items of clothing had traces of weak beta radiation. But no traces of radiation or poisoning were found in the tissues of the dead.
Why did they cut and tear the tent, why did the group urgently go into the forest? How did these traumas arise within? Where do the radiation spots come from? Both investigators and researchers could not answer all these questions for many years. The official investigation was closed on May 28, 1959, with a vague conclusion about the impact of an “irresistible elemental force,” and the case was classified.
This gave rise to rumors about the connection of the tragedy with “fireballs” and with the testing of missiles, radiation or other weapons. And even with the murder of tourists to preserve state secrets. Over the years, such hypotheses have turned into beliefs among some people. However, no hypotheses provided a clear picture of what happened and led to contradictions that made it difficult to connect the elements of the tragedy together.
We conducted an investigation with the help of specialists from different fields of knowledge: tourists, geographers, meteorologists, physicists, rocket scientists, doctors... The search was divided into “lines” to answer individual questions, these answers made it possible to build the whole picture of the accident. What, for example, were “fireballs”? According to ufologist M. Gershtein (“It’s only a rocket!”) and according to witnesses, they chose the right search path.
The mystery was helped to uncover by rocketry historian A. Zheleznyakov, who reported that on February 17, 1959, at 6.46 Sverdlovsk time, an R-7 combat missile was launched from Baikonur (Tyuratam) to the Kura test site in Kamchatka. This time coincided exactly with the observations of Tokareva and Karelin’s group. To reach the line-of-sight zone from the northern Urals (at a distance of 1700 km), calculations gave a rocket lifting altitude of about 220 km.
The R-7 passed this altitude in the active section, and the apogee was more than 1000 km. We checked Strauch's story about the flight of the “fireball” 20 years after the tragedy on February 16, 1979. At 20.15 in the northwestern part of the sky. It turned out to be an emergency launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome at 15.00 GMT (20.00 Sverdlovsk time) of a Soyuz-U rocket with a Zenit-2M photo reconnaissance device (the Plesetsk cosmodrome had not yet been built in 1959).
They did not immediately understand what happened on March 31, 1959 - there seemed to be no launches on that day. But an accurate check detected a launch from Baikonur on March 30 at 22.56 GMT (or at 3.56 on March 31 Sverdlovsk time). This is the time of the “fireball” flying over the camp on Auspiya at 4.00. The launch was accompanied by an accident and a rocket falling into the Ust-Nera region (Yakutia).
This is how the mystery of the “fireballs” was solved. Moonless nights and clear mountain air increased visibility. We were surprised to understand: people had seen the flight of R-7 missiles both earlier and later in the dark from a distance of more than 2000 km. But no data was found about the “fireballs” on the night of the accident on February 1–2, 1959.
There were no launches these days, and there are no traces of a rocket crash at the site of the tragedy. When checking the witness statements, it turned out that they were all based on the same observations on February 17 or March 31. And the fact that “someone saw something” on February 1–2 is just a rumor. We found out that some of the rumors about “fireballs” arose due to the observation by tourists of Shumkov’s group from Mount Chistop of a brief flight of a signal flare on the night of March 5-6 – after the death of Dyatlov’s group. We also sorted out the “radiation” issue.
It turned out that the most decay was on the dirtiest parts of the clothing - most likely from radioactive fallout that fell on the soil (carried by north-west winds from Novaya Zemlya). And in the washed areas the radiation was 10–15 times less. We rejected both “fireballs” and radiation, and the “technical” versions of the accident based on them as unreliable.
The investigation and search engines did not find any traces or criminal offense. Lawyer G. Petrov and I, after studying all the materials of the criminal case and analyzing the evidence at the scene of the tragedy, came to the same conclusion. The presence of things and traces was explained by their leaving either by members of the Dyatlov group or by search engines. No traces of the presence of unauthorized persons were found.
All criminal versions were not supported by any facts and were also discarded. An analysis of the toponymy of the names showed that all the ominous names of Mount 1096 arose after the tragedy. And the mountain with the “calm” names “Auspi-Tump” (“bald mountain of Auspiya”) and “Khol-Chahl” (“middle mountain of the sources of Lozva”) became the “mountain of the dead” Kholatchakhl.
The translation of the name of Mount Otorten as “don’t go there” is also incorrect. The name “Otorten” comes from “mountain blowing by the wind” - the mountain “Vot-Tarkhan-Syakhyl” (Ot-Tarkhan), located several kilometers away. And the Mansi call Otorten “Lunt-Khusap-Syakhyl” - “mountain of the lake of the goose’s nest”, since there is a lake near the mountain.
Nowadays, dozens of groups of tourists calmly pass along the trails through the Dyatlov Pass past the Kholatchakhl and Otorten mountains and to the “stone blocks” of the outcrops on the Malpupuner plateau. And the whole mysticism of names is a set of inventions. Therefore, the conclusion is justified that the tragedy occurred due to a natural disaster or the group’s mistakes. Experienced tourists did not find the latter when analyzing the situation.
Although some suspicions arose, no direct connection with the accident was found. We studied the statistics of various factors leading to accidents in ski tourism over a period of 30–35 years. The two main reasons that kill up to 90% of ski tourists are avalanches (63–80% of cases) and freezing from cold and wind (12–26%).
The remaining “statistical” accident factors were excluded - the Dyatlovites clearly did not die from falls on the slopes (up to 7%) or from diseases (up to 3–4%). The version of the avalanche was checked by doctors from the point of view of the possibility of such injuries; Avalanche workers found out the possibility of avalanches forming on such a slope (in the conditions of the winter of 1959) and based on known similar accidents with other tourist groups.
M. Kornev, a forensic medical expert and professor at the Military Medical Academy, helped in analyzing the injuries. It turned out that explosions or falls on the slope could not have caused such injuries. They were explained only by the distributed compression of bodies by a large mass moving at low speed against a rigid obstacle (compression), while clothing protected them from external damage.
Such loads could arise from an avalanche that pinned tourists to the floor of the tent. It became clear that the residual weight of the snow along with the broken ribs caused bleeding in the wall of Dubinina’s heart - before being removed from the rubble, her heart experienced enormous stress. We found similar cases from Kornev’s practice, and in similar accidents with tourists.
The possibility of an avalanche was checked by avalanche scientists. Associate Professor of Moscow State University N. Volodicheva pointed out a formation avalanche from a snow board (slab) as the most likely for a slope of low steepness in the conditions of the Northern Urals and the winter of 1959. After a thorough analysis of photos and documents, we found traces of an avalanche at the accident site.
The condition of the tent and the snow on it indicated an avalanche - the crushed tent was not covered with snow from the inside, nor was it torn to shreds by the hurricane. The jacket, pressed into the gap in the tent and into the snow of the slope, clearly indicated a struggle inside the tent in cramped conditions. The tourists obviously made the cuts and tears in the tent out of necessity in order to get out and extract the wounded.
One of the ski poles of the tent was not in place - it had been lifted and stuck in the snow after it was knocked down by a landslide. And the stand at the entrance of the tent stood in the wind on weakened guy ropes only because it was held by the fabric of the tent, tightly pressed with snow. There was a layer of snow under the lantern lying on top of the tent, that is, it was already on the tent at the time it was cut.
A rear pole broken in two places, a gap in the roof and torn guy ropes of the tent also indicated the impact of a snowfall. There were also indirect factors indicating an increase in the danger of avalanches on the night of the tragedy and the possibility of an avalanche: avalanche danger in the area, a slope steepness of 20°, a sharp change in weather conditions (pressure surges and increased frost from -4 to -28°C).
When searching for similar accidents, three similar cases were found with the death due to avalanches of 5 and 13 people in the south of the Polar Urals and 5 people in the Khibiny Mountains. We also found analogous accidents on similar slopes with a smaller number of deaths, accidents with the death of tourists from the cold, as well as several tragedies that had other similarities to the Dyatlov group’s tragedy.
The study of photographs from the sites of tragedies and the analysis of accidents with avalanches on non-steep slopes made it possible to see the main reasons for the avalanche: the presence of a heavy layer of “snow board” on a soft substrate and cutting the retaining shaft of this layer to a depth of 1 m (when leveling the place for the tent, its deepening into snowy slope).
A piece of dense “snow board” came off, slid down and crushed part of the tent. The heaviest blow hit where the edge of the snow slab had previously reached the support, and the tourists lying there were severely injured. A small amount of wasps—displacement along the snow slope—occurred without the concentration of snow in the alluvial cone.
This outflow was partly blown away, and partly it became compacted and settled. Therefore, none of the search engines noticed the remains of the small avalanche. They didn’t find it for one more reason: tourists, craftsmen and climbers arrived at the scene of the accident when the tent had already been dug out, and the avalanche had been carried away by both the wind and people. Now we have found a photo of the search work in March, which shows both the excavation site of the tent and the trace of an avalanche-wasp, swept by snow.
Analysis of meteorological data on the night of the tragedy by engineer Moshiashvili from St. Petersburg State Hydrometeorological University revealed the second main cause of the accident. It turned out that that night a cyclone front from the Arctic passed through, causing the temperature to drop to -28°C and the wind to sharply increase. The cyclone hit the group that left the crushed tent with the wounded in their hands in the dark with frost and hurricane winds.
The tourists were pressured by the danger of quick death from cold and wind and the danger of a second avalanche. The uncertainty of the unknown causes of the avalanche and the danger of injury weighed heavily on me. Loss of incapacity by the wounded threatened to quickly kill both them and the entire group near the tent from the wind and cold. The Dyatlovites retrieved some of the things through the gaps in the tent and dressed the wounded.
But it turned out to be very difficult and time-consuming to get the rest of my things, crushed by the snow, blankets and tent fabric, with my bare hands, and to put on frozen shoes. In the most difficult conditions at night, under terrible pressure from the wind and cold, they decided to take the wounded down and then return to the tent to get their things. The group was unable to complete the second part of this plan - without warm clothing, the body’s thermal reserves were insufficient.
They could not climb back up the slope towards the hurricane without shoes, and a small fire, lit with great difficulty, could not warm anyone. The snow gap (niche, cave) with a flooring in the bed of the stream, where they sheltered the wounded from the wind, did not help either (later, due to the melting of the snow, the dead slid lower into the stream, where they were found). Without an axe, they could not get enough firewood.
Cold, hurricane, darkness, loss of clothing and equipment - all these factors caused the disaster. The reasons for the group’s retreat into the forest are clear: shock from injuries and fright, and the need to urgently protect the wounded from the cold and wind. The skiers realized the dangers of the exposed area they were in due to the force of the wind and avalanches.
A retreat to the forest in that situation was necessary, but he was not prepared. The pressure of the elements turned out to be very powerful, and the group was weakened by injuries and loss of equipment. A desperate struggle for life in the forest, attempts to stay warm and attempts to return to the tent led to death from freezing. Despite self-sacrifice, tourists could not overcome the cold.
They died in the fight against him, saving their wounded comrades. The Dyatlov group disaster was an accident. The situation is humanly and technically clear: all the tourists’ actions took place under terrible and unexpected impacts of the elements. Correct knowledge of the causes of this and other similar accidents will allow us to avoid at least some of them in the future.
Now all unreliable “versions” of the tragedy, not supported by facts, have failed. Therefore, it is necessary to stop speculation about its connection with all sorts of “entities” (“infrasound”, “ball lightning”, “cold plasma”, “UFO”, “special forces”, etc.), the existence of which is not confirmed by anything.
False “versions” only describe phenomena, trying to explain events with them, but the connection of these phenomena with the tragedy has not been proven. Such are the unreliable works of Rakitin, Yaroslavtsev, Kizilov. A set of false hypotheses are the books by A. Gushchin “Murder at the Mountain of the Dead” and “The Price of a State Secret is Nine Lives” and the mystical novel by A. Kiryanova “The Weed-Nay Hunt”.
Films and publications on this topic are characterized by a selection of different “versions” of the tragedy, which does not provide specific answers to its causes. The avalanche version allows us to explain and describe in detail all the episodes of the death of the Dyatlov group.
February 1, 2019. /TASS/. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office intends to establish the true cause of the death of Igor Dyatlov's tourist group in February 1959 in the Northern Urals in the vicinity of Mount Otorten. As official representative of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation Alexander Kurennoy said on the Internet channel of the Prosecutor General's Office "Efir", three versions are most likely, crime is completely excluded.
He explained that the prosecutor's office of the Sverdlovsk region in September last year again began checking the causes of the death of a group of students in the mountains. “The prosecutor’s office took up this case simply because relatives, the press, and social activists, and there are a large number of them, turn to prosecutors with a request to establish the truth,” Kurennoy noted, emphasizing that the criminal case was classified until the 70s.
“According to the resolution to terminate the criminal case dated May 28, 1959, the official cause of death is a natural force that the tourist group could not overcome. And that’s all (how the investigation ended - TASS note),” Kurennoy noted. “But here are the number of versions , which are put forward today by both experts and simply interested people, reaches 75. And they contain even the most odious ones - such as alien intervention or otherworldly things.”
The prosecutor's office intends to establish the true cause of death of the tourists. “Out of 75 versions, we intend to check the three most probable ones with the involvement of experts. All of them are in one way or another connected with natural phenomena,” Kurennoy noted. “Crime [the criminal version of the causes of death] is completely excluded; there is not a single piece of evidence, even indirect, that would speak in favor of this version,” noted a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
He named the three most likely versions. “It could be an avalanche, it could be a so-called snow board or a hurricane,” he noted, recalling that local residents know that winds in this area reach very strong strength.
According to him, according to the current legislation, only prosecutors can conduct a new inspection - the deadlines for inspections by investigators have long expired, but the statute of limitations does not apply to prosecutorial inspections. In addition, Kurennoy added, “a legislative novelty has come into force, which gives the prosecutor’s office the authority to appoint special examinations as part of verification activities.” “This is exactly what our colleagues from the Sverdlovsk region are doing now in order to finally establish the truth,” Kurennoy said. Experts in the field of geodesy and meteorology, as well as employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, were involved in the inspection.
Nine examinations
In addition, the prosecutor's office of the Sverdlovsk region will conduct nine examinations to establish the circumstances and causes of the death of Dyatlov's group, said Andrei Kuryakov, who heads the group to verify the causes of death of the tourist group of the prosecutor's office of the Sverdlovsk region.
“The prosecutor’s office will appoint and conduct nine different examinations, after which we will be able to tell in more detail and in more detail,” he said.
“The most important examination will be a situational one, which will tell you how it is possible and whether it is even possible to leave the tent by cutting it with a knife, everyone at the same time or in turn, whether it is possible to go down the mountain, whether it is possible to go back up to the tent, and so on. Answers to these questions can be answered after a trip to the pass in winter,” Kuryakov noted. During the expedition, prosecutors, together with experts, will determine the place where the tent was located, assess the situation there and take measurements.
A forensic medical examination will also be carried out, since, as Kuryakov noted, there are understatements in those examinations that were previously carried out in the criminal case, and a repeat examination will be able to cover a number of blind spots. In addition, they will conduct a psychological examination, collecting data on each of the expedition participants. During it, the behavioral reactions of group members will be studied - during a normal hike and in extreme situations. “We are collecting a psychological profile for each of them, relying on information from the media, private researchers, since there are many references to interviews of people who knew the dead guys, and when we collect this, we will be able to ask questions to the psychologist,” explained a representative of the prosecutor’s office.
“If we don’t answer [what happened at the mountain pass in the winter of 1959], it will remain not a point that we want to put, but an ellipsis. And we set ourselves the goal of understanding everything completely, cutting off all versions, which are not supported by any evidence or which contradict them, and leave one version, which is not contradicted by any evidence. We are following this path,” Kuryakov noted.
Adygya, Crimea. Mountains, waterfalls, herbs of alpine meadows, healing mountain air, absolute silence, snowfields in the middle of summer, the murmuring of mountain streams and rivers, stunning landscapes, songs around the fires, the spirit of romance and adventure, the wind of freedom await you! And at the end of the route are the gentle waves of the Black Sea.
Contributing to the release of the book. This, of course, is only a small part of the entire book. But this is convenient for those who do not want or do not have the opportunity to order the entire book in printed form. In addition to the fact that you will contribute to the publication of the book and do a good deed to develop the history of your region, you will also receive a block of photographs from tourists’ films for the version. The first pages of the version were provided by the author to our portal.
Reconstruction version of the death of the Dyatlov group based on the materials of the investigation in a criminal case, after studying the main versions of the death of the group, as well as studying other factual data that are significant and are direct or indirect confirmation of the version.
In 1959, a group of students and graduates of the Sverdlovsk UPI went on a hike of the highest category of difficulty in the mountains of the Northern Urals. Their route is completely unknown. Tourists walk along it for the first time. The leader of the campaign, Igor Dyatlov, planned to complete the campaign in 20 days, but no one else was destined to return from the campaign alive. Except for one, who left the group citing poor health. Having decided to spend the night on the mountain with mark 1079, tourists find themselves in conditions that stop their last trip. However, according to the route sheet for the hike, the group should not have stopped at this mountain at all. The search will be long and difficult. The findings will puzzle everyone. It is no coincidence that the local Mansi people nicknamed this mountain Khalatchakhl or “Mountain of the Dead”. But is everything as mysterious and inexplicable as some people imagine? After studying the materials of the criminal case and other factual data relevant to the essence of the tragedy, the author creates a version-reconstruction of the death of tourists, which he presents to readers, based on the facts, captivating the reader and inviting him to become a participant in the search and study of this difficult story.
1. Hike to Otorten
A hike to the Ural Mountains, to one of the peaks of the Poyasovaya Kamen ridge of the Northern Urals, to Mount Otorten was conceived by tourists from the tourism section of the sports club of the Ural Polytechnic Institute named after Sergei Kirov in the city of Sverdlovsk back in the fall of 1958. From the very beginning, Lyuda Dubinina, a 3rd year student, and several other guys were determined to go on a hike. But nothing worked until an experienced tourist, 5th year student Igor Dyatlov, who already had experience leading groups, took on the task of organizing the trip.
Initially the group was formed with 13 people. In this form, the composition of the group ended up in the draft route, which Dyatlov presented to the route commission:
But subsequently Vishnevsky, Popov, Bienko and Verkhoturov dropped out. However, shortly before the hike, the instructor of the Kourovo camp site on the Chusovaya River, Alexander Zolotarev, known almost only to Igor Dyatlov, was included in the group. He introduced himself to the guys as Alexander.
The tourists intended to take with them personal equipment and some equipment from the UPI sports club. The hike was timed to coincide with the beginning of the 21st Congress of the CPSU, for which they even received a permit from the UPI trade union committee. She subsequently helped to advance to the starting point of the route - the village of Vizhay and beyond, giving official status to tourists as participants in an organized event, and not a wild hike, when the group appeared in any public place where overnight accommodation or passing transport was required.
The route that Igor Dyatlov and his group were going to take was new, and none of the tourists from UPI or even the whole of Sverdlovsk had ever walked. Being the pioneers of the route, tourists intended to get to the village of Vizhay by train and by road, from the village of Vizhay to get to the village of Second Northern, then go northwest along the valley of the Auspiya River and along the tributaries of the Lozva River to Mount Otorten. After climbing this peak, it was planned to turn south and along the Belt Stone ridge along the upper reaches of the sources of the Unya, Vishera and Niols rivers to Mount Oiko-Chakur (Oykachakhl). From Oiko-Chakur in an easterly direction along the valleys of the Malaya Toshemka or Bolshaya Toshemka rivers, until they merge into Northern Toshemka, then to the highway and again to the village of Vizhay.
According to the Project of the hike, which was approved by the Chairman of the Route Commission Korolev and member of the March Commission Novikov, Dyatlov expected to spend 20 or 21 days on the hike.
This hike was assigned the highest third category of difficulty according to the then existing system for determining the categories of hikes in sports tourism. According to the instructions in force at that time, a “troika” was awarded if the trip lasted at least 16 days, at least 350 km would be covered, of which 8 days would be in sparsely populated areas, and if at least 6 overnight stays would be made in the field. Dyatlov planned twice as many such overnight stays.
The release was scheduled for January 23, 1959. Igor Dyatlov intended to return with the group to Sverdlovsk on February 12-13. And before, from the village of Vizhay, the UPI sports club and the city sports club of Sverdlovsk should have received a telegram from him stating that the route had been successfully completed. This was a common practice of hiking and a requirement of the instructions to report to the sports club. Initially it was planned to return to Vizhay and give a telegram about the return on February 10. However, Igor Dyatlov postponed the return date to Vizhay to February 12. Igor Dyatlov's precise engineering calculations underwent a change in schedule due to one extraordinary circumstance, which became the first failure in the group event. At the first stage of the hike, Yuri Yudin left the route.
The Dyatlov group began the hike to Otorten on January 23, 1959 from the railway station in Sverdlovsk, consisting of 10 people: Igor Dyatlov, Zina Kolmogorova, Rustem Slobodin, Yuri Doroshenko, Yuri Krivonischenko, Nikolai Thibault-Brignolles, Lyudmila Dubinina, Alexander Zolotarev, Alexander Kolevatov and Yuri Yudin. However, on the 5th day of the hike, January 28, Yuri Yudin left the group for health reasons. He left with a group from the last settlement on the route - the village of 41st quarter and walked to the non-residential village of Second North, when he had a problem with his legs. He would obviously have delayed the group, as he moved slowly even without a backpack. He was lagging behind. Lost formation. However, in that transition between these villages, 41st quarter-Second Northern, tourists were unlucky. In the village, tourists going on a hike to meet the 21st Congress of the CPSU were given a horse. The backpacks of tourists from the village of 41 quarters to the village of Second Northern were carried by a horse and driver on a sleigh. Ill Yuri Yudin returns to Sverdlovsk.
The equipment at that time of tourism development was very heavy and imperfect. Very heavy backpacks of an old design, a bulky tent made of heavy tarpaulin, a stove weighing about 4 kilograms, several axes, a saw. An additional increase in the load in the form of the mass of backpacks and the very departure of Yuri Yudin from the group prompted us to postpone the control time of the group’s arrival back to Vizhay by two days. Dyatlov asked Yudin to warn the UPI sports club about postponing the return telegram from February 10 to February 12.
The description of this reconstruction version contains a possible presumption of responsibility and the seriousness of the intentions of the participants in the campaign to return safe and sound. Speculation regarding the unsportsmanlike behavior of the hike participants, which caused the death of the group, is excluded.
- Dyatlov Igor Alekseevich born 01/13/36 I recently turned 23 years old
- Kolmogorova Zinaida Alekseevna born January 12, 1937, recently turned 22 years old,
- Doroshenko Yuri Nikolaevich born 01/29/38, on the 6th day of the campaign he turns 21 years old
- Krivonischenko Georgy (Yura) Alekseevich born 02/07/1935, 23 years old, he should have turned 24 years old during the campaign,
- Dubinina Lyudmila Aleksandrovna born May 12, 1938 20 years,
- Kolevatov Alexander Sergeevich born November 16, 1934 24 years,
- Slobodin Rustem Vladimirovich born 01/11/1936, recently turned 23 years old,
- Thibault-Brignolle Nikolai Vasilievich born 06/05/1935 23 years old
- Zolotarev Alexander Alekseevich born 02/02/1921 37 years.
There is no connection with tourists. Nobody in Sverdlovsk knows how the campaign proceeds. Tourists do not have walkie-talkies. There are no intermediate points on the route from where tourists would connect with the city. On February 12, the UPI sports club did not receive the agreed upon telegram about the end of the hike. Tourists do not return to Sverdlovsk on February 12, February 15, or February 16. But the chairman of the UPI sports club, Lev Gordo, sees no reason for concern. Then the relatives of the tourists sounded the alarm. At that time, there were no structures of the Ministry of Emergency Situations; the search for missing tourists was carried out by sports committees, trade union committees, city committees with the support of internal troops and the armed forces. The search began on February 20, 1959. UPI students, the sports community of Sverdlovsk, and military personnel took a great part in the search. In total, several groups of search engines were recruited. The search teams always included UPI students. The groups were delivered to the areas that Dyatlov's group must pass along their route. The accident and its consequences should have been discovered by Dyatlov’s classmates. The organizers of the search hardly doubted that something irreparable had happened. But the search was widespread. Military and civil aviation from Ivdel airport were involved. The search for students was given a lot of attention due to the fact that two participants in the campaign, UPI graduates, Rustem Slobodin and Yura Krivonischenko, were engineers from secret defense mailboxes. Slobodin worked at a research institute. Krivonischenko at the production facility where the first atomic weapon was created. Nowadays this production association “Mayak” is located in the city of Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region.
Several search groups looked for tourists from the Dyatlov group at various supposed points along the route. After the discovery of the first corpses of tourists, the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case, which began to be investigated by the prosecutor of the city of Ivdel closest to the site of the tragedy, junior counselor of justice V.I. Tempalov. Then the preliminary investigation was continued and completed by the prosecutor-criminologist of the prosecutor's office of the Sverdlovsk region, junior counselor of justice L.N. Ivanov.
The first to find the Dyatlov camp were search engines Boris Slobtsov and Misha Sharavin, UPI students. It turned out to be installed on the eastern slope of peak 1096. Otherwise, this peak was called – Mount Khalatchakhl. Halatchakhl – this is a Mansi name. Several legends are associated with this mountain. The indigenous Mansi people preferred not to go to this mountain. There was a belief that on this mountain a certain spirit killed 9 Mansi hunters, and since then everyone who climbs the mountain will face the curse of the shamans. Halatchakhl in the Mansi language sounds like this - the Mountain of the Dead.
On April 15, 1959, Boris Slobtsov told Prosecutor Ivanov how the tent was found:
“I flew to the scene of the incident by helicopter on February 23, 1959. I led the search party. The tent of the Dyatlov group was discovered by our group on the afternoon of February 26, 1959.
When we approached the tent, we discovered that the entrance of the tent protruded from under the snow, and the rest of the tent was under the snow. Around the tent in the snow there were ski poles and spare skis - 1 pair. The snow on the tent was 15-20 cm thick, it was clear that the snow was inflated on the tent, it was hard.
Near the tent, near the entrance, an ice ax was stuck in the snow; on the tent, in the snow, lay a Chinese pocket lantern, which, as was later established, belonged to Dyatlov. What was not clear was that under the lantern there was snow about 5-10 cm thick, there was no snow above the lantern, there was a little snow on the sides.”
Below you will often find extracts from interrogation reports and other materials of the criminal case, often the only factual documents that shed light on the tragedy. During the investigation, search engines and other witnesses were interrogated, who provided the investigation with certain factual data. It should be noted that the lines of the protocols in this case were not always “dry” or “clerical”; sometimes the protocols even contained lengthy discussions about the state of tourism and the level of organization of searches for tourists. But sometimes some data later surfaced in the memories of searchers or eyewitnesses of the search.
Boris Slobtsov, who discovered the tent, later specified the details of the discovery of the tent in one of his articles in the All-Russian magazine of extreme travel and adventures:
“Our path with Sharavin and the hunter Ivan lay to a pass in the valley of the Lozva River and further to a ridge from which we hoped to view Mount Otorten with binoculars. At the Sharavin pass, looking through binoculars at the eastern slope of the ridge, I saw something in the snow that looked like a littered tent. We decided to go up there, but without Ivan. He said that he wasn’t feeling well and would wait for us at the pass (we realized that he just got cold feet). As we approached the tent, the slope became steeper and the crust thicker, and we had to leave our skis and walk the last tens of meters without skis, but with poles.
Finally, we came up against a tent, we stood there in silence and didn’t know what to do: the tent slope in the center was torn, there was snow inside, some things were sticking out, skis were sticking out, an ice ax was stuck in the snow at the entrance, no people were visible, it was scary, it was creepy! ."
(“Rescue work in the Northern Urals, February 1959, Dyatlov Pass”, EKS magazine, No. 46, 2007).
On February 26, 1959, a tent was discovered. After the tent was discovered, a search for tourists was organized.
The Ivdel prosecutor was called to the scene. The inspection of the tent by prosecutor Tempalov was dated February 28, 1959. But the first investigative action was an examination of the first discovered corpses, which was carried out on February 27, 1959. The corpse of Yura Krivonischenko and the corpse of Yura Doroshenko (at first he was mistaken for the corpse of A. Zolotarev) were found down in the ravine, between Mount Khalatchakhl and height 880, where there was a bed of a stream flowing into the fourth tributary of the Lozva. Their bodies lay near a tall cedar tree, at a distance of about 1,500 meters from the tent, on a hillock at the base of height 880, at the base of the pass, which would later be called in their memory “The Dyatlov Group Pass.” A fire pit was discovered next to the cedar tree. The corpses of two Yuras were found in their underwear without shoes.
Then, with the help of dogs, under a thin layer of snow of 10 cm on the line from the tent to the cedar tree, the corpses of Igor Dyatlov and Zina Kolmogorova were discovered. They also had no outerwear and no shoes, but they were still better dressed. Igor Dyatlov was at a distance of approximately 1200 meters from the tent and approximately 300 meters from the cedar, and Zina Kolmogorova was at a distance of approximately 750 meters from the tent and approximately 750 meters from the cedar. Igor Dyatlov’s hand peeked out from under the snow, leaning on a birch tree. He froze in such a position, as if ready to get up and go in search of his comrades again.
With the protocol of the inspection of the first corpses found, which became the protocol of the inspection of the scene of the incident, the active phase of the investigation of the criminal case into the death of tourists from the Dyatlov group began. After the discovery of the first corpses, and the discovery of a tent torn in several places, the corpse of Rustem Slobodin will soon be found under the snow. He was under a layer of snow of 15-20 centimeters on a slope between the corpses of Dyatlov and Kolmogorova, about 1000 meters from the tent and about 500 meters from the cedar. Slobodina also had no better clothes; one foot was shod in felt boots. As the forensic examination later showed, all the tourists found died from frostbite. An autopsy of Rustem Slobodin will reveal a 6 cm long skull fracture, which he received during his lifetime. Rustem Slobodin was found by searchers in the classic “corpse bed”, which is observed in frozen people if the body cooled directly on the snow. Then began a long search for the remaining tourists Nikolai Thibault-Brignolles, Lyudmila Dubinina, Alexander Kolevatov, Alexander Zolotarev. The snow cover of the slope, the open forest zones and the forest area around the cedar were combed by search engines with dogs, and probed with avalanche probes. They no longer believed in the salvation of the Dyatlovites. The search continued throughout February, March and April. And on May 5, after grueling, long and difficult search work, while excavating snow in a ravine, they found the flooring.
Next to the decking, 6 meters from it, in the bed of a stream flowing along the bottom of the ravine, the last four corpses of tourists were found. The decking and tourists were dug out from under a large layer of snow. The excavation site was pointed out in May by fir branches that had just melted from under the snow and parts of the clothes of the Dyatlovites. On May 6, the corpses in the ravine and the flooring were examined.
The location of the discovery of the flooring and corpses “in the ravine” can be authentically determined from the materials of the criminal case.
In the protocol of the inspection of the scene of the incident dated May 6, 1959, carried out by prosecutor Tempalov, the location of the last corpses is described as follows:
“On the slope of the western side of height 880 from the famous cedar, 50 meters in the stream, 4 corpses were found, three of them were men and one woman. The woman's corpse has been identified as Lyudmila Dubinina. The corpses of the men cannot be identified without lifting them.
All corpses are in the water. They were excavated from under the snow with a depth of 2.5 meters to 2 meters. Two men and a third lie with their heads facing north along the stream. Dubinina’s corpse lay in the opposite direction with its head against the flow of the stream.”(from the criminal case materials)
In the Resolution to terminate the criminal case, issued by the prosecutor-criminologist Ivanov on May 28, 1959, the location of the flooring and corpses is more precisely determined:
“75 meters from the fire, towards the valley of the fourth tributary of the Lozva, i.e. perpendicular to the path of tourists from the tent, under a layer of snow 4-4.5 meters away, the corpses of Dubinina, Zolotarev, Thibault-Brignolle and Kolevatov were discovered.”
(from the criminal case materials)
This perpendicular can be seen in the diagram from the criminal case.
(from the criminal case materials)
70 meters from the cedar. “To the Lozva River” - this means from the cedar to the northwest. The stream past the cedar flows from south to north towards Lozva. It flows into the 4th tributary of the Lozva.
The location of the flooring and the last four corpses can be schematically depicted as follows:
Location of the ravine on the area map:
The ravine was covered with snow in February and from March to April until May 6, 1959. The ravine was also covered with snow in April 2001, when M. Sharavin was there as part of the Popov-Nazarov expedition...
Between the tent and the cedar there was a ravine, along the bottom of which a stream flows. The ravine stretches from south to north in the direction of the stream flowing along its bottom to the 4th tributary of the Lozva. But by February 26, the ravine was already covered with snow. It’s not even noticeable that just recently there was a ravine here. Only the slope is visible, the right eastern bank of the stream, which rose to a height of approximately 5-7 meters. Search engine Yuri Koptelov showed this.
“At the edge (further the slope was steeper) we saw several pairs of pairs of footprints, deep, on the firn snow. They walked perpendicular to the slope of the tent into the valley of the tributary of the river. Lozva. We crossed from the left bank of the valley to the right and after about 1.5 km we came up against a wall, 5-7 meters high, where the stream made a turn to the left. In front of us was height 880, and on the right there was a pass, which was later called the lane. Dyatlova. We climbed up the ladder (head-on) to this wall. I'm on the left, Mikhail is to the right of me. In front of us were rare low birch trees and fir trees, and then a large cedar tree rose.”
(from the criminal case materials)
It seems quite reliable that Yuri Koptelov described the place of the supposed fall of tourists Zolotarev, Dubinina and Thibault-Brignolle. It can be reliably assumed that the place from which the fir and birch trees were cut for flooring are those same “rare low birches and fir trees” from Koptelov’s description. And Yuri Koptelov climbed with Misha Sharavin a little to the right of the wall, where the wall is not so high and more flat, which makes climbing the ladder on skis head-on more possible. This is just about opposite the cedar.
The corpses of the last 4 tourists were found in a ravine under a layer of snow 2-2.5 meters thick.
Considering that the bottom of the ravine on February 1 was not yet covered with snow, because... It was after February 1 that witnesses noted heavy snowfalls and blizzards in the area of the Poyasovyi Kamen ridge (their testimony is below), then a fall onto the rocky bottom from a steep slope 5-7 meters high seems very dangerous. But more on that below.
“January 31, 1959 Today the weather is a little worse - wind (westerly), snow (apparently from the fir trees) because the sky is completely clear. We left relatively early (around 10 am). We follow the well-trodden Mansi ski trail. (Until now we were walking along the Mansi trail, along which a hunter rode on deer not very long ago.) Yesterday we apparently met his camp for the night, the deer did not go any further, the hunter himself did not follow the notches of the old trail, we are following his trail now . Today was a surprisingly good overnight stay, warm and dry, despite the low temperature (- 18° -24°). Walking today is especially difficult. The trail is not visible, we often lose track of it or go groping our way. Thus we travel 1.5-2 km per hour. We are developing new methods of more productive walking. The first one drops his backpack and walks for 5 minutes, after which he returns, rests for 10-15 minutes, and then catches up with the rest of the group. This is how the non-stop method of laying ski tracks was born. This is especially difficult for the second one, who walks along the track groomed by the first one, with a backpack. We gradually separate from Auspiya, the climb is continuous, but quite smooth. And then the spruce trees ran out, a rare birch forest began to grow. We reached the border of the forest. The wind is western, warm, piercing, the wind speed is similar to the air speed when an airplane takes off. Nast, bare places. You don’t even have to think about setting up a lobaz. About 4 hours. You need to choose an overnight stay. We go down to the south - into the Auspiya valley. This is apparently the snowiest place. Light wind on snow 1.2-2 m thick. Tired, exhausted, they set about arranging for the night. There is not enough firewood. Weak, raw spruce. The fire was lit on logs; there was no desire to dig a hole. We have dinner right in the tent. Warm. It’s hard to imagine such comfort somewhere on a ridge, with a piercing howl of the wind, hundreds of kilometers from populated areas.”
(from the criminal case materials)
There are no more entries in the general diary; no entries have yet been found for other dates after January 31 in the personal diaries of the group members. The date of the last overnight stay is determined in the known Resolution on the termination of the criminal case, signed by the criminal prosecutor Ivanov as follows:
“One of the cameras preserved a frame (taken last), which depicts the moment of digging up snow to set up a tent. Considering that this frame was shot at a shutter speed of 1/25 sec., with an aperture of 5.6 and a film sensitivity of 65 units. GOST, and also taking into account the frame density, we can assume that the tourists began setting up the tent at about 5 o’clock in the evening on January 1st, 201959. A similar photograph was taken with another camera. After this time, not a single record or photograph was found..."
(from the criminal case materials)
Until now, no one has seen these photographs of the installation of a tent in a criminal case. And this is the biggest mystery of the matter...
Stanislav Ivlev
The continuation can be found in Stanislav Ivlev’s book “The Campaign of the Dyatlov Group. In the Footsteps of the Atomic Project.” The entire book, or separately the full text of the reconstruction, can be ordered on Planet by making your contribution to the publication of the book.
On the night of February 1–2, 1959, a tragedy occurred on the slopes of Mount Otorten in the Northern Urals: a group of tourists led by Igor Dyatlov died under mysterious circumstances.
More than 50 years have passed since the death of the group, but the reason why the tourists, among whom were quite experienced people, died, is still unknown. A variety of assumptions have been put forward on this score. We decided to talk about ten secrets related to the death of Dyatlov’s tourist group.
Mysterious names
A group of students from the Ural Polytechnic Institute, led by an experienced leader Igor Dyatlov, went on a hike through the Northern Urals. Why did tourists go to the top of Otorten? Perhaps they were attracted by its mystery, which followed from the stories of hunters, and even by the name itself. According to some assumptions, it means “don’t go there.”
Dyatlov found himself in unfavorable overnight conditions and decided to pitch a tent on the slope of height 1079, so that in the morning of the next day, without losing altitude, he could go to Mount Otorten, which was 10 kilometers away in a straight line.
For the last night, the students settled down at the foot of Mount Kholatchakhl (translated as “mountain of the dead”). According to Vogul legend, the name was given long before the death of Dyatlov’s group because of the Mansi group that died here, which also included nine people.
Suddenly abandoned tent
The location and presence of objects in the tent (almost all shoes, all outerwear, personal belongings and diaries) indicated that the tent was abandoned suddenly and simultaneously by all tourists.
Moreover, as was subsequently established by forensic examination, the leeward side of the tent, where the tourists placed their heads, turned out to be cut from the inside in two places, in areas that provided free exit for a person through these cuts.
Below the tent, for up to 500 meters in the snow, traces of people walking from the tent into the valley and into the forest were preserved... Examination of the traces showed that some of them were left by almost bare feet (for example, in one cotton sock), others had a typical display of felt boots , feet shod in a soft sock, etc.
The trails of tracks were located close to one another, converged and diverged again not far from one another. Closer to the forest border, the tracks were covered with snow. No signs of a struggle or the presence of other people were found either in the tent or near it.
Mysterious circumstances of death
1.5 kilometers from the tent, in the river valley, near an old cedar tree, the tourists, after escaping from the tent, lit a fire and here they began to die one by one. One man came out with his shoes off and wearing woolen socks. This trail of bare feet is then traced down into the valley. There was every reason to build a version that it was this man who gave the alarm and he himself no longer had time to put on his shoes. This means that there was some terrible force that scared not only him, but also everyone else. Something forced them to urgently leave the tent and seek refuge below, in the taiga.
On February 26, 1959, below, at the edge of the taiga, the remains of a small fire were discovered and the bodies of tourists Doroshenko and Krivonischenko, stripped to their underwear, were also found here. Then, in the direction of the tent, the body of Igor Dyatlov was discovered, not far from him two more - Slobodin and Kolmogorova. The last three were the strongest and most strong-willed individuals; they crawled from the fire to the tent for clothes - this is quite obvious from their poses.
A subsequent autopsy showed that these three died from hypothermia - they were frozen, although they were better dressed than others. Already in May, near a fire, under a five-meter layer of snow, experts discovered the dead Dubinina, Zolotarev, Thibault-Brignolle and Kolevatov. Upon external examination, there were no injuries on their bodies.
Unexplained injuries
During the autopsies of the corpses, surprising facts were discovered. Dubinina, Thibault-Brignolle and Zolotarev had extensive internal injuries incompatible with life. Lyudmila Dubinina had ten broken ribs, one fragment of a rib penetrated her heart.
Zolotarev had six broken ribs. Such injuries usually occur when a person is subjected to a large directed force, such as a car at high speed. But such damage cannot be caused by falling from your own height. In the vicinity of the mountain there were snow-covered boulders and stones of various configurations, but they were not in the path of tourists, and, naturally, no one threw these stones.
There are also no external bruises. Therefore, there was a directed force that acted selectively on individuals. The nature of the injuries to all members of the Dyatlov group suggests that these injuries were caused by exposure to an extremely powerful air blast wave. Indeed, at the moment of exposure to the force that caused the injury, all members of Dyatlov’s group were in different places, at a fairly considerable distance from each other.
Unusual skin color of the dead
On open areas of the skin of the face, neck and hands of people from the Dyatlov group, a “sunburn-tan” formed, which puzzled many researchers.
This effect can be explained if we assume that the tragedy is associated with the fall of a meteorite. According to the theory of electric discharge explosion of Alexander Nevsky, at the moment of formation of a pillar of electric discharge explosion, powerful ultraviolet, infrared, X-ray and neutron radiation appears.
The tent of Dyatlov’s group turned out to be very close to the epicenter of the explosion, as a result of which people were exposed to a stronger impact of the electric discharge explosion, as evidenced by burns to the face, neck and hands, as well as severe injuries possibly received from exposure to the blast wave.
Methane explosion
According to another version, the cause of the tragedy could have been a methane explosion. Methane is formed during biological processes in swamps (anaerobic fermentation). Since processes in the depths of the swamp stop much later than on the surface, it is likely that methane accumulates under a layer of ice or dense snow.
The fire destroyed the cap covering the air-methane mixture and provoked an explosion of this mixture. You can simulate this effect by throwing a two-thirds or three-quarters spent lighter into a fire, and then imagine a much larger explosion. This version also explains the scorched branches.
Yuri Yudin, the only survivor, hugs goodbye to Lyudmila Dubinina. Behind is Igor Dyatlov, on the right is Nikolai Thibault-Brignolle. January 28, 1959, village of the 2nd Northern mine.
Extinguished fire
Researchers are wondering why the fire went out. Most likely, it went out not from a lack of fuel, but from the fact that the people who were at the fire did not see what to do, or were blinded. A few meters from the fire there was a dry tree, and under it there was dead wood that had not been used. If you have a fire, not using ready-made fuel is more than strange. The stored fuel remained intact.
Investigators noted the presence of burn marks on single trees. In order for the trunks to receive thermal burns, the temperature on their surface had to be about 500 degrees. The temperature of the electric discharge explosion column is at least 1500-2000 degrees. Some of the members of Dyatlov's group could have received light burns to their eyes from the bright flash of the explosion. Thus, the extinguished fire rather confirms the version of the electric discharge explosion, which led to the extinction of the fire and to the burns of the trees.
Secret tests
It is also interesting that former prosecutor Evgeny Okishev talks about a case when one of the military observed some flashes in the area where the tragedy occurred.
According to the former prosecutor, the regional prosecutor's office turned to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to establish whether any tests were carried out at the place where the tourists died. After this, the Deputy Prosecutor General arrived at the scene and took the case. He instructed the regional prosecutor's office to explain the tragedy of the Dyatlov group as an accident.
According to some observers, a senior official in the prosecutor's office knew something that local prosecutors did not. He may have known about secret military tests being conducted in the area.
The group sets up a tent on the Kholatchakhl slope. Among the photographs released, this is considered one of the last, taken on February 1, 1959. According to investigators, it was done around five o'clock in the afternoon.
Northern lights
Some researchers believe that the deaths of tourists could be caused by the northern lights. It is known that when the aurora appears, some people go into a strange state. They completely detach themselves from the world around them, talk excitedly with an invisible interlocutor, and sway to the beat of imaginary music. They often move like sleepwalkers, leaving home for the tundra.
After this, people vaguely remember that they heard sounds of fabulous beauty and obeyed the North Star, calling them to their true habitat - the ancient land of their ancestors. The phenomenon was called “the call of the ancestors.” Scientists attribute this effect to low-frequency electromagnetic waves produced by the aurora.
In addition, such a natural phenomenon as the aurora is accompanied by infrasound. It is indistinguishable by ear, but biologically active. Under its influence, people experience incomprehensible fear and even horror, in panic they begin to behave in a completely unreasonable manner and ultimately abandon the ship. Perhaps something similar happened to tourists in the Northern Urals in 1959.
Unusual celestial phenomenon
On February 18, 1959, a note entitled “An Unusual Celestial Phenomenon” appeared in the Tagilsky Rabochiy newspaper. It told about a luminous ball that appeared in the area where Dyatlov’s group died: “At 6:55 a.m. local time yesterday, a luminous ball the size of the visible diameter of the moon appeared in the east-southeast at an altitude of 20 degrees from the horizon.
The ball moved in the east-northeast direction. The highest altitude above the horizon - 30 degrees - was reached at approximately 7:05 am. Continuing to move, this unusual celestial phenomenon weakened and blurred. Thinking that it was somehow connected with the satellite, they turned on the receiver, but there was no signal reception.”
Forty years after the closure of the case about the Dyatlov group, former prosecutor Ivanov gave his “testimony” to journalists: “In May 1959, we examined the area around the scene of the incident and discovered that some young fir trees on the border of the forest seemed to be burned - these traces were not concentric or there was no other form, there was no epicenter. This was also confirmed by the direction of the beam or strong, but completely unknown, at least to us, energy, acting selectively: the snow was not melted, the trees were not damaged.”
This information led many to believe that the expedition could have died due to the intervention of unusual natural phenomena (for example, ball lightning) or even aliens.
Almost everyone has heard about the Dyatlov Pass. Many films have been made and even more articles have been written about the terrible tragedy that happened in the Northern Urals in 1959 with a group of tourists led by Igor Dyatlov.
There are many versions of the death of the Dyatlov group. They talk about unusual natural phenomena, secret tests and even UFOs... Unfortunately, as often happens, most of those who made films and wrote these same newspaper articles have never seen either the investigation materials or the results of examinations of this case. We will try to talk about the death of the group without prejudice, based solely on investigative materials.
Tent under the snow
On February 1, 1959, a group of tourist skiers (mostly students from Sverdlovsk) began climbing the mountain marked on their map as No. 1079. These were Igor Dyatlov (23 years old), Zinaida Kolmogorova (22 years old), Yuri Doroshenko (21 years old), Yuri Krivonischenko (23 years old), Lyudmila Dubinina (20 years old), Alexander Kolevatov (24 years old), Rustem Slobodin (23 years old) , Thibault-Brignolle Nikolay (23 years old), Zolotarev Alexander (37 years old).
On February 12, the group was supposed to arrive in the village of Vizhay and send a telegram to the sports club about the completion of the route. They have not come. A search operation was launched in the mountains. On February 26, an abandoned tent was found on the eastern slope of that same mountain. She was cut from the inside.
The Dyatlov group's tent was found by search engines Boris Slobtsov and Mikhail Sharavin, UPI students. Examining the eastern slope of the ridge with binoculars, Sharavin noticed a mound in the snow that looked like a littered tent. When the searchers came closer, they saw that the entire tent was covered with snow, from under which only the entrance was visible. Only the skis stuck into the snow stuck above the surface. The tent itself was covered with a hard layer of snow 20 cm thick. Footprints in the snow, going into the forest, indicated that the tourists had hastily left their accommodation for the night, cutting the tarpaulin of the tent. After the tent was discovered, a search for tourists was organized.
Stripped corpses
The frozen and mutilated bodies of all nine members of the group were found within a radius of one and a half kilometers from the tent.
So, at the very border of the forest, near the remains of a fire pit, the corpses of Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonischenko were found. The boys' arms and legs were burned and cut. Moreover, both corpses were found in their underwear without shoes. The boys' clothes were cut off with a knife. These clothes were subsequently found on other members of the group. This indicated that both Yuri were practically the first to freeze...
The examination found traces of leather and other tissues on the tree trunk. The guys climbed the tree to the last to break branches for the fire, while peeling their already frostbitten hands to the flesh.
With all my might
Soon, with the help of dogs, under a thin layer of snow, on the line from the tent to the cedar, they discovered the corpses of Igor Dyatlov and Zina Kolmogorova.
Igor Dyatlov was approximately 300 meters from the cedar, and Zina Kolmogorova was approximately 750 meters from the tree. Igor Dyatlov's hand peeked out from under the snow. He froze in such a position, as if he wanted to get up and go in search of his comrades again.
180 meters from Dyatlov’s corpse, towards the tent, the corpse of Rustem Slobodin was found. He was under a layer of snow on a slope: conditionally, between the corpses of Dyatlov and Kolmogorova. One of his feet was shod in felt boots. Rustem Slobodin was found by search engines in the classic “dead body”, which is observed in people frozen directly in the snow.
A later forensic medical examination established that Dyatlov, Doroshenko, Krivonischenko and Kolmogorova died from exposure to low temperatures - no damage was found on their bodies, with the exception of minor scratches and abrasions.
An autopsy of Rustem Slobodin revealed a 6 cm long skull fracture, which he received during his lifetime. However, experts found that his death, like everyone else’s, was due to hypothermia.
Mangled bodies
On May 4, in the forest, 75 meters from the fire, under a four-meter layer of snow, the remaining corpses were found - Lyudmila Dubinina, Alexander Zolotarev, Nikolai Thibault-Brignolle and Alexander Kolevatov.
There were no injuries on the body of Alexander Kolevatov; death was due to hypothermia.
Alexander Zolotarev had broken ribs on the right. Nikolai Thibault-Brignolles had extensive hemorrhage in the right temporal muscle and a depressed fracture of the skull.
Lyudmila Dubinina had a symmetrical fracture of several ribs; death occurred from extensive hemorrhage in the heart within 15-20 minutes after receiving the injury. The corpse had no tongue. On the bodies found and next to them were the trousers and sweaters of Yuri Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko who remained at the fire. This clothing had even traces of cuts...
The criminal case into the death of the Dyatlov group was discontinued with the following wording: “Taking into account the absence of external bodily injuries and signs of struggle on the corpses, the presence of all the group’s valuables, and also taking into account the conclusion of the forensic medical examination on the causes of death of tourists, it should be considered that the cause the death of tourists was a natural force that the tourists were unable to overcome.”
Over the following years, numerous attempts were made to understand what happened on the slope of that ill-fated mountain. A wide variety of versions have been put forward - from completely plausible to unlikely, and even delusional. At the same time, they often forgot about the existing facts...
The events of that tragic night when Dyatlov’s group died were reconstructed solely based on the materials of the investigation and subsequent criminal examinations. So those who are expecting aliens, fantastic anomalies and secret tests need not read further. Here there will only be fatal mistakes, hopelessness and the life-sucking bitter cold of the Northern Urals...
Warnings and Errors
From the testimony of the forester of the Vizhaysky forestry I.D. Rempel: “On January 25, 1959, a group of tourists approached me, showed me their route and asked for advice. I told them that in winter it is dangerous to walk along the Ural ridge, since there are large gorges there that you can fall into, and strong winds rage there. To which they replied: “For us this will be considered first class difficulty.” Then I told them: “First we need to go through it...”
From the materials of the criminal case: “...knowing about the difficult terrain conditions of height “1079”, where the ascent was supposed to be, Dyatlov, as the leader of the group, made a gross mistake, which resulted in the fact that the group began the ascent only at 15.00.”
Literally an hour later it began to get dark. Twilight was brought closer by the onset of snowfall, which found the group on the mountainside. Before sunset there was only time to set up the tent.
Those who have gone on winter hikes know that a cold overnight stay at minus twenty-five is a serious test. Moreover, this was their first overnight stop when they decided not to light the stove.
"At random"
The tourists set up the tent “in a branded way”: they pulled guy ropes onto ski poles. The Dyatlovites had a small tin stove with them, but it was not installed that day, since the roof of the tent sagged and a fire could occur. There were no problems with installation in the forest - the guys are attached to trees, but there are no trees on the mountain. The central part of the tent could have been additionally secured with guy ropes on the skis, but this was not done.
It would be reasonable to try to secure the center of the tent, not even in order to hang the stove, but in order to avoid sagging the tent slopes under the mass of snow. But they didn’t do that either. Already frozen.
What was the ridge on which the tourists found themselves? Moving to the top, Dyatlov’s group reached one of the main ridges of the Northern Urals - the so-called watershed. This is where the heaviest snowfall in winter occurs and powerful winds blow.
In a snow sarcophagus
By nightfall, everyone got rid of their wet outerwear and took off their shoes. All except Thibault-Brignolle and Zolotarev. These two remained dressed and shod. Zolotarev, apparently as an experienced tourist and instructor, did not relax. And Thibault-Brignolle was on duty.
With sunset the weather changed a lot. The wind picked up and snow began to fall. Heavy snow stuck to the slopes, stuck around and practically cemented the tent dug into the snow, making a sarcophagus out of it. Due to the lack of a central stretch, the tent sagged under a thick layer of snow. The tent was old, sewn in many places. The accident did not have to wait long. The fragile slopes burst in several places, and under the weight of the snow, the tent collapsed right on top of the tourists. Everything happened quickly, in complete darkness. It became dangerous to be in the tent. The tourists lay covered with an awning under a thick layer of snow. The cold, torn tent did not warm, did not provide warmth. It turned into a source of obvious danger - it threatened to become a common grave. Dyatlov and Krivonischenko, who were at the end of the tent, began to cut the slopes.
Hoping for salvation
Outside, new troubles awaited the tourists. Having got out of the tent, the guys were faced with snowfall of incredible force and density, with wind knocking them down. The emergency situation required a quick decision. The squall literally knocked people off their feet, the tent was overwhelmed, and digging through the snow with bare hands under the icy wind was suicide.
Dyatlov decided to seek salvation in the forest below. We insulated ourselves as best we could. We somehow distributed the things we had taken from the tent. They didn’t get the shoes, they couldn’t. Wind, snow and cold interfered. Rustem Slobodin managed to put on only felt boots.
The wind almost itself drove the Dyatlovites down. The guys tried to walk side by side. However, it is unlikely that in such a situation everyone was able to stay within sight. A terrible cold pierced the tourists, it was difficult to breathe, and even more difficult to think. Most likely, the group broke up. Testimony from one of the search engines, Boris Slobtsov: “...the tracks at first were in a cluster, next to each other, and then they diverged.”
First victim
On the way to the forest, tourists had to overcome several stone ridges. At the third ridge, misfortune befell the most athletic one. It was not possible to walk confidently in the snow - with one foot bare and the other shod with felt boots - especially through the icy stones of the kurumnik. The felt boot slid violently on the smooth surface. Rustem Slobodin lost his balance and fell extremely unsuccessfully, hitting his head hard on a stone. Most likely, the rest of the Dyatlovites, busy overcoming the ridge, did not pay attention to his lag at first. They realized it later, a little later: they started looking for him, screaming, calling.
Having woken up, Rustem Slobodin crawled some distance down before losing consciousness. The injury was very serious - a crack in the skull... He died first, frozen in an unconscious state.
Falls and injuries
Having reached the forest, the Dyatlov group lit a fire near a tall cedar tree, in the only place found in the dark where there was little snow underfoot. However, a fire in the wind is not salvation. It was necessary to find a place to hide. Dyatlov sent the most well-equipped members of the group - Zolotarev, Thibault-Brignolle and Lyuda Dubinina - to search for shelter. The three of them wandered to the edge of the forest, avoiding a ravine at the bottom of which a stream flowed. In the darkness, the guys did not notice how they came to a steep seven-meter cliff and found themselves on a small snow ledge. Such “overhanging banks” near the tributaries of the North Ural rivers are a common occurrence. One has only to step on them in the darkness of the night, and tragedy is inevitable...
The fall from a seven-meter height onto the rocky bottom of the stream did not pass without a trace for all three; they all received multiple injuries, which were later described by a forensic expert: Thibault-Brignolles - a severe head injury, Zolotarev and Dubinina - chest injuries, multiple rib fractures. The boys could no longer move.
Fight for life
Now it is difficult to establish whether Sasha Kolevatov went with them to the place where they fell, or whether he and Igor Dyatlov found the guys later in a helpless state. Be that as it may, he did not abandon his comrades, he helped drag his friends higher along the stream, closer to the fire. Then Dyatlov, Kolevatov and Kolmogorov built a flooring of fir trees in a natural depression. It was very hard work. Everything was done with practically frozen hands, without mittens, without shoes, without warm outerwear. Ideally, it was necessary to move the wounded to the cedar, to the fire. But this was impossible. Between the wounded and the cedar there was a high steep ravine. The only way Sasha Kolevatov, Igor Dyatlov and Zina Kolmogorova could help their comrades was to make a second fire and maintain it. The group split up again. Walking between the fire and the decking was difficult. They were separated by a high snow wall. From the cedar to the flooring there were 70 endless meters.
Yura Doroshenko and Yura Krivonischenko remained to support the fire near the cedar.
Stress Sel e
On a windy hillock, near the edge of the forest, where the cedar was located, it was not easy to build a fire. Peeling the skin down to the meat, the guys broke the only material that is flammable in winter - the paws of cedar. The fire was their salvation. However, the fire and the first signs of warmth played a cruel joke on the Yuri. They began to feel sleepy. Anyone who goes on a winter hike knows that sleeping in the cold is death. The guys began to deliberately injure themselves so that the pain would return consciousness, so as not to freeze in unconsciousness. The traces of these injuries will later be described by a forensic expert: burns, bites of the palms, scratches.
Alas, the guys lost in this battle... In psychology there is such a thing as Selye stress. As soon as a freezing person feels the first signs of warmth, he relaxes, and in extreme conditions this is fatal. Especially if there is no one to help. Both Yuri died before everyone else did.
Clothes on corpses
The condition of the wounded on the deck quickly deteriorated. It was difficult to determine who was still alive. Apparently, Dyatlov instructed Kolevatov to maintain the fire near the deck, and he himself decided to go to the first fire. He found Doroshenko and Krivonischenko there already frozen. Apparently, believing that it was necessary to warm the wounded, Dyatlov cut off some of their clothing. Alas, their comrades never came to their senses. Their death left a depressing impression on those who remained.
The last push
Now it is difficult to say who was the first to go again to look for the lagging behind Slobodin - Igor Dyatlov or Zinaida Kolmogorova. Be that as it may, they went in search of him, not wanting to get used to the idea that finding something in this situation was completely unrealistic...
That’s how they were found later – frozen on the slope: Slobodin, Kolmogorova and Dyatlov. Dyatlov froze in a volitional position, not curled up in the fetal position in which frozen people are usually found. Until his last breath, he tried to go forward in search of his comrades.
White Silence
Perhaps, without waiting for Dyatlov, Kolevatov went to the first fire, but found there only an extinguished fire and the dead bodies of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko. Probably at that moment the guy realized that Dyatlov and Zina were also already dead...
Kolevatov wandered back to the flooring where his dead friends lay. He understood perfectly well that there was no longer any chance of survival. It is difficult to imagine the degree of despair of this man.
Subsequently, on May 4, searchers found four corpses eaten by mice at this place. Some had missing eyes, some had missing tongues, some had eaten away cheeks.
P.S.
Before leaving the tent, Dyatlov stuck his skis into the snow as a guide. He hoped to return, but led the group to their deaths. Everything was predetermined in advance: fatigue, an old rotten tent erected at random, lack of firewood and the harsh climate of the Northern Urals. Even now, tourists go to Otorten along the riverbeds of the Lozva tributaries, and not along the dangerous Ural ridge, where only wild cold reigns.
More versions :
1. A UFO in the Dyatlov Pass area awaits researchers:
2. There could have been a big fight at the Dyatlov Pass:
3. The mystery of the Dyatlov Pass has been solved:
The Dyatlov Pass Incident
The terrible mystery of the death of the Dyatlov group
The tragic story of a tourist group of students from the Ural Polytechnic Institute in February 1959 in the Northern Urals, called the Dyatlov group, is one of the most mysterious tragedies in history. The case was partially declassified only in 1989. According to researchers, some of the materials from the case were seized and are still classified. Due to a huge number of strange and inexplicable circumstances back in 1959, investigators were unable to solve this mystery. Until now, for many years, proactive volunteers have been trying to investigate and somehow explain the incredibly strange and terrible history of the group. However, there is still no completely harmonious version that would explain all the mysteries of this case.
(18+ Attention! This article is intended for people over 18 years old. If you are under 18 years old, please leave the page immediately!)
1. Dyatlov group.
On January 23, 1959, a group of 9 skiers from the tourist club went on a ski trip in the north of the Sverdlovsk region.
The group was led by experienced tourist Igor Dyatlov.
The goal of the hike is to go through the forests and mountains of the Northern Urals on a ski trip of the 3rd (highest) category of difficulty.
On February 1, 1959, the group stopped for the night on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl (translated from Mansi - Mountain of the Dead), not far from an unnamed pass (later called the Dyatlov Pass).
There were no signs of trouble.
These photographs of the group were later found in the cameras of the participants in the hike and developed by the investigation.
The group sets up a tent on the mountainside, time is about 17:00.
These are the most recent photographs that have been discovered.
On February 12, the group was supposed to reach the final point of the route - the village of Vizhay, send a telegram to the institute sports club, and return to Sverdlovsk on February 15. But neither on the appointed days nor later did the group appear at the final point of the route. It was decided to start searching.
2. Beginning of search and rescue operations.
Search and rescue operations began on February 22, and a detachment was sent along the route. There is not a single populated area for hundreds of kilometers around, completely deserted places.
On February 26, a tent covered with snow was discovered on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl. The wall of the tent facing down the slope was cut.
The tent was later excavated and examined. The entrance to the tent was open, but the slope of the tent facing the slope was torn in several places. A fur jacket was sticking out of one of the holes.
Moreover, as the examination showed, the tent was cut from the inside. Here is a diagram of the cuts
At the entrance inside the tent there was a stove, buckets, and a little further on there were cameras. In the far corner of the tent there is a bag with maps and documents, Dyatlov’s camera, Kolmogorova’s diary, a jar of money. To the right of the entrance were food items. To the right, next to the entrance, lay two pairs of boots. The remaining six pairs of shoes lay against the wall opposite. The backpacks are laid out at the bottom, with quilted jackets and blankets on them. Some of the blankets were not laid out; there were warm clothes on top of the blankets. An ice ax was found near the entrance, and a flashlight was thrown on the slope of the tent. The tent turned out to be completely empty; there were no people in it.
Traces around the tent indicated that the entire Dyatlov group suddenly, for some unknown reason, left the tent, presumably not through the exit, but through the cuts. Moreover, people ran out of the tent into 30-degree frost, even without shoes and partially dressed. The group ran about 20 meters in the direction opposite to the entrance to the tent. Then the Dyatlovites, in a dense group, almost in a line, walked down the slope in their socks in the snow and frost. The tracks indicate that they walked side by side without losing sight of each other. Moreover, they did not run away, but walked away down the slope at the usual pace.
These protruding mounds of snow are their traces; this happens when a strong snowstorm passes through the area.
After about 500 meters along the slope, the tracks were lost under the thickness of the snow.
The next day, February 27, one and a half kilometers from the tent and 280 m down the slope, near a cedar tree, the bodies of Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonischenko were discovered. At the same time, it was recorded: Doroshenko’s foot and hair on his right temple were burned, Krivonischenko had a burn on his left shin and a burn on his left foot. A fire was discovered next to the corpses, which had sunk into the snow.
The rescuers were struck by the fact that both bodies were stripped down to their underwear. Doroshenko was lying on his stomach. Below him is a tree branch broken into pieces, on which he apparently fell. Krivonischenko was lying on his back. All sorts of small things were scattered around the bodies. There were numerous injuries on his hands (bruises and abrasions), his internal organs were filled with blood, and Krivonischenko had the tip of his nose missing.
On the cedar itself, at a height of up to 5 meters, branches were broken off (some of them lay around the bodies). Moreover, branches up to 5 cm thick, at a height, were first sawn with a knife, and then broken off with force, as if they were hanging on them with their whole body. There were traces of blood on the bark.
Nearby they found knife cuts with broken young fir trees and cuts on birch trees. The cut tops of the fir trees and the knife were not found. However, there was no suggestion that they were used for heating. Firstly, they do not burn well, and secondly, there was a relatively large amount of dry material around.
Almost simultaneously with them, 300 meters from the cedar tree up the slope in the direction of the tent, the body of Igor Dyatlov was found.
He was slightly covered with snow, reclining on his back, with his head towards the tent, his hand wrapped around the trunk of a birch tree. Dyatlov was wearing ski trousers, long johns, a sweater, a cowboy jacket, and a fur vest. On the right foot there is a woolen sock, on the left - a cotton sock. The watch on my wrist showed 5 hours 31 minutes. There was an icy growth on his face, which meant that before his death he had breathed into the snow.
Numerous abrasions, scratches, and bruises were revealed on the body; a superficial wound from the second to fifth fingers was recorded on the palm of the left hand; internal organs are filled with blood.
About 330 meters from Dyatlov, higher up the slope, under a 10 cm layer of dense snow, the body of Zina Kolmogorova was discovered.
She was dressed warmly, but without shoes. There were signs of nosebleeds on the face. There are numerous abrasions on the hands and palms; a wound with a scalped flap of skin on the right hand; skin encircling the right side, extending to the back; swelling of the meninges.
A few days later, on March 5, 180 meters from the place where Dyatlov’s body was found and 150 meters from the location of Kolmogorova’s body, the corpse of Rustem Slobodin was found under a layer of snow of 15-20 cm. He was also dressed quite warmly, with a felt boot on his right foot, worn over 4 pairs of socks (the second felt boot was found in the tent). A watch was found on Slobodin’s left hand that showed 8 hours 45 minutes. There was an icy build-up on the face and there were signs of nosebleeds.
A characteristic feature of the last three tourists found was their skin color: according to the recollections of rescuers - orange-red, in the documents of the forensic examination - reddish-purple.
4. New scary finds.
The search for the remaining tourists took place in several stages from February to May. And only after the snow began to melt did objects begin to be discovered that pointed the rescuers in the right direction to search. Exposed branches and scraps of clothing led to a creek hollow about 70 m from the cedar, which was heavily covered with snow.
The excavation made it possible to find at a depth of more than 2.5 m a flooring of 14 trunks of small fir trees and one birch tree up to 2 m long. On the flooring lay spruce branches and several items of clothing. The position of these objects revealed four spots on the flooring, designed as “seats” for four people.
The bodies were found under a four-meter layer of snow, in the bed of a stream that had already begun to melt, below and slightly to the side of the flooring. First they found Lyudmila Dubinina - she froze, kneeling with her face facing the slope near the waterfall of the stream.
The other three were found a little lower. Kolevatov and Zolotarev lay in an embrace “chest to back” at the edge of the stream, apparently warming each other to the end. Thibault Brignoles was the lowest, in the water of the stream.
Clothes of Krivonischenko and Doroshenko - trousers, sweaters - were found on the corpses, as well as a few meters from them. All the clothes had traces of even cuts, as they had already been removed from the corpses of Krivonischenko and Doroshenko. The dead Thibault-Brignolles and Zolotarev were found well dressed, Dubinina was worse dressed - her faux fur jacket and hat were on Zolotarev, Dubinina's bare leg was wrapped in Krivonischenko's woolen trousers. Near the corpses, a Krivonischenko knife was found, which was used to cut young fir trees around the fires. Two watches were found on Thibault-Brignolle's hand - one showed 8 hours 14 minutes, the second - 8 hours 39 minutes.
Moreover, all the bodies had terrible injuries received while still alive. Dubinina and Zolotarev had fractures of 12 ribs, Dubinina - on both the right and left sides, Zolotarev - only on the right.
Later, an examination determined that such injuries could only be caused by a strong impact, such as being hit by a car moving at high speed or falling from a great height. It is impossible to cause such injuries with a stone in a person’s hand.
In addition, Dubinina and Zolotarev are missing eyeballs - squeezed out or removed. And Dubinina’s tongue and part of her upper lip were torn out. Thibault-Brignolle has a depressed fracture of the temporal bone.
It is very strange, but during the examination it was discovered that the clothes (sweater, trousers) contained radioactive substances with beta radiation.
5. Inexplicable.
Here is a schematic picture of all the bodies discovered. Most of the group's bodies were found in a "head-to-tent" position, and all were located in a straight line from the cut side of the tent, for more than 1.5 kilometers. Kolmogorova, Slobodin and Dyatlov did not die while leaving the tent, but, on the contrary, on the way back to the tent.
The whole picture of the tragedy points to numerous mysteries and oddities in the behavior of the Dyatlovites, most of which are practically inexplicable.
- Why didn’t they run away from the tent, but walked away in a line, at a normal pace?
– Why did they need to light a fire near a tall cedar tree on a windy area?
– Why did they break cedar branches at a height of up to 5 meters, when there were many small trees around for a fire?
– How could they get such terrible injuries on level ground?
– Why didn’t those who reached the stream and built sun loungers there survive, because even in the cold they could hold out there until the morning?
- And finally, the most important thing - what made the group leave the tent at the same time and in such a hurry with practically no clothes, no shoes and no equipment?
There are still a lot of questions, no answers.
6. Mount Kholatchakhl – mountain of the dead.
Initially, the local population of the northern Urals, the Mansi, was suspected of the murder. Mansi Anyamov, Sanbindalov, Kurikov and their relatives came under suspicion. But none of them took the blame.
They were rather scared themselves. Mansi said they saw strange “balls of fire” above the place where the tourists died. They not only described this phenomenon, but also drew it. Subsequently, the drawings from the case disappeared or are still classified. “Fireballs” were observed during the search period by the rescuers themselves, as well as other residents of the Northern Urals. As a result, suspicion against Mansi was lifted.
The very last frame was discovered on the film of the dead tourists, which is still causing controversy. Some claim that this shot was taken when the film was removed from the camera. Others claim that this shot was taken by someone from Dyatlov’s group from a tent when danger began to approach.
Mansi legends say that during the global flood on Mount Kholat-Syakhyl, 9 hunters previously disappeared - “died of hunger,” “cooked in boiling water,” “disappeared in an eerie radiance.” Hence the name of this mountain - Kholatchakhl, translated - Mountain of the Dead. The mountain is not a sacred place for the Mansi; rather, on the contrary, they have always avoided this peak.
Be that as it may, the mystery of the death of the Dyatlov group has not yet been solved.
7. Versions.
There are 9 main versions of the death of the Dyatlov group:
– avalanche
– destruction of a group by the military or intelligence services
– exposure to sound
– attack by escaped prisoners
- death at the hands of Mansi
– quarrel between tourists
– a version about the impact of a certain weapon being tested
– version of “controlled delivery”
– paranormal versions
I will not describe them in detail; all these versions can be easily found on the Internet. I can only say that none of these versions can still fully explain all the circumstances of the death of the Dyatlov group.
8. In memory of the victims.
After the tragedy, the pass was named Dyatlov Pass. In memory of the dead tourists, a memorial was erected there.
Igor Dyatlov, Zina Kolmogorova, Semyon Zolotarev. 
In preparing this article, materials from several sources, forums and investigative reports were used:
– https://pereval1959.forum24.ru
– https://aenforum.org/index.php?showtopic=1338&st=0
– https://www.murders.ru/Dyatloff_group_1.html
– https://perdyat.livejournal.com/4768.html
– https://pereval1959.forum24.ru/?1-9-0-00000028-000-0-0-1283515314 (case)
– Wikipedia materials
Materials dedicated to the death of Dyatlov's tourist group on the night of February 2, 1959 in the Northern Urals are collected in our magazine under the label.
Publications on the topic of the death of Dyatlov’s tourist group:
– a detailed review publication on the topic of the death of the Dyatlov group.
– 30 chapters of a most interesting investigation into the mystery of the death of the Dyatlov group: the “controlled delivery” version.
- The Sobesednik publication, together with colleagues from Komsomolskaya Pravda and Channel One, took part in an expedition to the Northern Urals.
– Why is it easier to believe in the incredible, what kind of secret document are the participants in the conflict waiting for from Bastrykin and when will they come face to face - in the material “URA.Ru”.
- version of the death of students on the night of February 2, 1959 from a missile test, from an explosion in the air, which caused the movement of crust and snow on Mount Kholatchakhl.
- feature film directed by Renny Harlin “The Mystery of the Dyatlov Pass” ( The Dyatlov Pass Incident), released in 2013, shows a group of American students trying to unravel the mystery of the death of Dyatlov's tourist group in Russia's Northern Urals in 1959.
- rocket fragments fell near the group, and in order to avoid the discovery of any evidence proving the involvement of the government and military in this matter, the Dyatlovites were maimed and killed.
- a film examining and arguing the version of the involvement of the government and the military in the death of Dyatlov’s tourist group.
Electronic media "Interesting World". 07/30/2012
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