The Unsolved Mystery Of The Dyatlov Pass Incident

By | August 10, 2019

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THIS PHOTO DEVELOPED FROM A FOUND ROLL OF FILM SHOWS THE GROUP SETTING OUT BEFORE THEIR FINAL CAMP ON FEBRUARY 2, 1959. Source: (theunknownbutnothidden.com)

On January 31, 1959, a group of nine students from the Ural Polytechnical Institute, led by twenty-three-year-old Igor Dyatlov, hiked into the Ural Mountains, intent on reaching the peak of Mount Otorten. They never made it out. Three months passed before all nine bodies were found and the cause of death remains a mystery to this day.

Based on evidence collected from their diaries and cameras, investigators surmised that the group began hiking through the pass to Otorten on February 1. They encountered snowstorms which reduced their visibility and caused them to deviate from the path. Instead of progressing toward Otorten, they ended up on the slope of the nearby Mount Kholat Syakhl. For reasons known only to them, they chose to make camp on this mountain, whose name meant “Dead Mountain” in the language of the Mansi tribe which was indigenous to that region. The mountain lived up to its name as the hikers never made it off alive.

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Photo taken from a roll of film found at the camp of the Dyatlov Pass incident. Source: (atlasobscura.com)

On February 20, a search party was launched after the hikers failed to return from their hike. The bodies were found six miles from their destination. The search party arrived at the campsite first and discovered that the tent had been cut open from the inside and the majority of the hikers’ belongings, including their shoes and other gear which might have kept them alive in the below zero temperatures, had been left behind. The search party then noticed eight or nine sets of footprints, made by people walking completely barefoot, leading away from the campsite. The tracks led almost a mile away to a large cedar tree, where the bodies of Yuri Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko were found barefoot and wearing only their underwear. Three more bodies, those of Dyatlov, Zinaida Kolmogorova, and Rustem Slobodin, were found on the way back to the camp. At this time, it was concluded that the hikers had all died of hypothermia, though it was a mystery why they would leave their camp the way they did.