The Frightening, Unsolved and Disturbing Incident of Nine Dead Skiers

I get that this happended in 1959...But you're telling me there was no technology back then that would've noticed an avalanche? Or that the people who showed up later (even months.) wouldn't notice something as large as an avalanche? Seriously wouldn't alot of snow have moved around and trees been knockdown?

Here's a photo of the aftermath of an avalanche from google





Seriously it's hard for me to belive that even in 1959 that would go unoticed.

No. Because an avalance can vary is size and is usually classed based on it's size, mass and destructive potential. Category 1 being the weakest, 5 being the strongest.

A Category 2 avalanche was most likely what they experienced. One that is strong enough to injure or bury a person but not damage the surrounding forest. Category 3 is usually strong enough to destroy a car or break a few trees. Category 4 is strong enough to clear up to 4 hectares of forest and destroy a building. Category 5 is the largest known avalanche, capable of destroying a village and clearing up to 40 hectares of forest.

When a small slide of snow buried a portion of the party in that ravine, all of the buried victims would have been dead within approximately 30 minutes without rescue from a combination of severe injury and suffocation. All those left on the surface would have been dead within the next 2 hours of hypothermia, statistically.

Hm, has anyone ever thought of getting on Google Earth and trying to pinpoint exactly where the camp was set up and exactly where the bodies were found? That might give us an idea if an avalanche there was really a possibility.

They stumbled on to a military testing ground got caught in what ever and two of them decided to sit under a tree near by and try to start a fire

Running around in the cold with little clothes on sounds like hyperthermia

en.wikipedia.org...

For the avalanche theorists:
could you sum up the timeline of the events in your opinion?

Sure. Based on the recovered diaries and report, I'd say this is how it went down:

January 23, 1959 - The group reaches the village of Yuri Yudin.

January 27 - The group departs from Yuri Yudin, minus one ill party member.

January 31 - The group reaches the headwaters of the river Auspii and spend the day stashing most of their supplies to lighten their packs before attempting to climb the mountain Otorten, 10 kilometers to the North. By 3pm, they are finished and begin the journey through what would become Dyatlov Pass, located between two mountain peaks.

February 1 - at approximately 5pm, the tent was erected on the slope of Kholat Syakhl.
At approximately 8:14pm, an avalanche struck, killing three members of the party and injuring a fourth.
Presumably, they were in the woods nearby to collect firewood.

February 12 - The group does not return as scheduled.

February 26 - The tent was found. Followed by the discovery of the first group of bodies.
The search continued for 2 months.

May 4 - The remaining bodies are discovered under 12 feet of snow in the woods.

reply to post by Charizard


read the thread , there are photos of the area ,

Originally posted by gambon
reply to post by Charizard

 

read the thread , there are photos of the area ,

I read the thread but I never saw any satellite photos of the area. That's what I wanted to see.

This was the planned path by the hikers. They gathered at Idvel. Stashed supplies and changed direction at the river. And planned to pass through what would become Dyatlov pass in order to climb Mount Ortorten.




This is where they stashed the supplies and headed for Dyatlov pass.



And this is the pass itself.

Originally posted by allenidaho
No. Because an avalance can vary is size and is usually classed based on it's size, mass and destructive potential. Category 1 being the weakest, 5 being the strongest.

A Category 2 avalanche was most likely what they experienced. One that is strong enough to injure or bury a person but not damage the surrounding forest. Category 3 is usually strong enough to destroy a car or break a few trees. Category 4 is strong enough to clear up to 4 hectares of forest and destroy a building. Category 5 is the largest known avalanche, capable of destroying a village and clearing up to 40 hectares of forest.

When a small slide of snow buried a portion of the party in that ravine, all of the buried victims would have been dead within approximately 30 minutes without rescue from a combination of severe injury and suffocation. All those left on the surface would have been dead within the next 2 hours of hypothermia, statistically.

Sorry for disappearing for awhile but again if it was an avalanche wouldn't the snow have shifted? Sure it'd be small but it'd still be noticeable to the investigators. I find it hard to believe that the investigators wouldn't just have said it was an avalanche if they had proof of it being so. What's the point in letting this mystery continued to be debated for them?

I just saw the ancient aliens episode about this and this was the first thread that popped up in search. I've read every post and I think this story is a genuine mystery which hasn't been adequately explained.

I'm curious about one aspect of the incident. It was reported that the tents were torn open from the inside. I'm just curious how the cut can be determined coming from inside the tent as opposed to the outside? It would seem that somebody could have cut the tent from the outside with a knife and there wouldn't be a way to tell the difference. Oh well, it's a shot in the dark but I'm hoping somebody with more information may answer that question. Thanks for the great thread, and I hope you're still around

reply to post by Enlightenme1111


Just thinking about it, I guess it would be noticeable on the point where the fabric is first cut, as it will show in which direction the threads were pushed.

Originally posted by ArMaP
reply to post by Enlightenme1111

 

Just thinking about it, I guess it would be noticeable on the point where the fabric is first cut, as it will show in which direction the threads were pushed.

That makes some sense to me. I find that detail the most intriguing in the case. It makes no sense that somebody would do this even if something or somebody is blocking the normal exit. It would just seem so futile. I guess the flight reaction took over and somebody, or something, was trying to enter the tent slowly. They must've been terrified to do that and run into the snow with little clothing.

Only read the 1st 4 pages so far & have to go out now.

It might seem trivial, but how come the two whose bodies were recovered by the tree had managed to try starting a fire - they were in their undies!?! Why would they grab matches or a lighter, and not grab their clothes.

& to whomever said the other person must have bitten their own tongue off - surely that would have been found in the autopsy.

reply to post by OzWeatherman


To clear up a few things.
As to my knowledge it was not a skiing expedition most of them were students but i forget what the expedition was.

They camped in the open because they did not want to lose time going back to the woods.

The name Otorten means (something like) "do not go there".

Some of the dead had orange skin and white hair as well as have been aged by years.

No other tracks have been found near the camp including animal tracks. (there was no animal attack)

Whatever aged them and gave them orange skin as well as radiation did not afect anything (trees) around them.

They are (as to my knowledge) the 2end pair of 9 dead on that mountain.

The spot they pick for a camp was call um.....hilll of the dead??? No.... something with dead or death in the name.


The photos i seen looked a lot like cattle mutilations to me. Nasty looking bodies i tell ya.

Originally posted by GunzCoty
reply to post by OzWeatherman

 

Some of the dead had orange skin and white hair as well as have been aged by years.

As far as this part of the story is concerned, we may consider this being the result of several days of direct exposure to the sun in a snowy environment in the Ural mountains.

My personal view on this whole story is that we are too often forced into the realm of speculation when looking closer at the terrible outcome of this expedition. I don't think there'll ever be conclusive evidence for any of the theories out there, not even for the avalanche explanation (or a thin layer of hard snow slowly pressing into the tent from above). However, this remains an intriguing story in every way. And I, too, wish we had the chance someday to unravel the secrets of what happened that night ...

The stuff about orange skin, white hair, or even radioactivity found on the body is all fiction. It was not in the original reports when the bodies were recovered. It was not in the medical examinations of the bodies when they were recovered. It was all urban legend material added on to the story by conspiracy theorists many years after the incident.

a meteorite exploding in mid air ....seems Russia is prone to those

sad story

reply to post by sitchin


im familiar with this story, but i hardly think theres any supernatural element in here

the elements itself are harsh enough for survival and all theoris aside, the harsh weather there can kill easy even to most experienced trekker.

i remember deaths also occured on experienced SAS soldiers on their usual training ground brecon beacons because of weather. these soldiers are very fit and very familiar with the area and carry survival kits, yet they die in their campsite. also the highest cause of training death in SAS is river crossing.. now who would thought spec ops soldiers drown on a simple river?

nature by itself do not respect anyone, its humans who need to prepare for nature, and then some freak things of nature still can kill.. a chilly strong wind pulling out their camp, change of weather, massive snowfall... sudden rain and flood...

Originally posted by sitchin
a meteorite exploding in mid air ....seems Russia is prone to those

It's the largest country in the world, so it's the country more likely to be affected by that type of event.