The Dyatlov Incident

Many of us know about the Ural Mountains due to the meteor that exploded over the range recently.

However, there is a very spooky and chilling story about the Ural Mountains from the 1950's. What is assumed to be either 9 to 11 Russian ski-hikers, went missing. Here is the story:


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Nearly 1,000 people were injured in Russia today when a meteor exploded somewhere over the Ural Mountains. But crazy cosmic phenomena are nothing new in the Ural range: 54 years ago this month, the northern part of the Urals played host to one of the most fascinating unsolved mysteries in the modern age.

On the surface, what's become known as the Dyatlov Pass incident seems fairly explicable: Of a party of ten skiiers, nine perished in the middle of a high-difficulty trek in conditions that reached -30 degrees Celsius. But the details, which are mostly based on diaries of those involved as well as records from Soviet investigators, are chilling: On the night of February 2, 1959, members of the party apparently ripped their tent open from the inside, and wandered into the tundra wearing nothing but what they wore to bed.

Three weeks later, five bodies were found, some hundreds of meters down a slope from the original camp. It took two more months for investigators to find the other four bodies, which, curiously, were partially clothed in articles belonging to the earlier-discovered dead. Tests of those clothes found high levels of radiation. Despite that, and heavy internal trauma, including fractured skulls and broken ribs, suffered by some members of the party, Russian investigators reported they could not find evidence of foul play, and quickly shut the case.

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Ok, right off the bat we have some seriously strange stuff going on. The last of the group were all discovered dead wearing articles of clothing from the previously discovered dead? High levels of radiation?? Including the descriptions of heavy internal trauma, fractured skulls, etc. there have been a plethora of theories as to what these hikers experienced. Some say they encountered unfriendly extraterrestrials, some say they encountered a Yeti-like creature. Others believe that there was a government installation in the mountain that was operating during the Cold War which was dealing with something akin to the U.S.S Eldridge and the Philadelphia Experiment. In the movie "Devil's Pass," a group of University students go to explore the area, where the eventually discover a bunker filled with mutated, highly hostile humans. The remaining survivors of the group eventually discover a radiation source, as well as a mysterious cave in the bunker which harbors something best explained as a worm hole used for teleportation (and subsequently, the hideous mutation of humans into zombie like monsters).


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When official investigators arrived, they noted that the tents appeared cut apart from within, and found footprints from eight or nine people leaving the tents and heading off downslope in the direction of the treeline. According to investigators, the group's shoes and gear were left behind, and the footprints suggested some people were barefoot or wearing nothing but socks. In other words, they all shredded their way out of their tent and ran off through waist-deep snow in a huge hurry, despite there being no evidence of other people or foul play within the group.

The first two bodies were found at the treeline, under a giant pine tree. Remember that the treeline was about a mile away; investigators wrote that footprints disappeared about a third of a way there, although that could have been due to weather in the three weeks it took for investigators to arrive. The two bodies found were both wearing only their underwear, and both were barefoot. According to reports, branches were broken high up the tree in question, which suggested someone had tried to climb it. The remains of a fire lay nearby.

Three more bodies, including Dyatlov's, were found at points in between the camp and the big tree, and apparently lay as if they were headed back to the camp. One of them, Rustem Slobodin, had a fractured skull, although doctors declared it non-fatal, and the criminal investigation was closed after doctors ruled the five had died of hypothermia.

Two months passed until the remaining four bodies were found buried under a dozen feet of snow in a gully a few hundred feet downslope from the big tree. The inexplicable behavior of the prior five members of the party aside, it was the discovery of this quartet that was most horrific. All four suffered traumatic deaths, despite there being no outward appearance of trauma. One, Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel, also had a fractured skull. Alexander Zolotariov was found with crushed ribs. Ludmila Dubinina also had broken ribs, and was also missing her tongue.

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So the four that were discovered wearing articles of clothing from the first group of dead, were all found to have severe trauma wounds, even as grotesque as a removed tongue. Clearly something very disturbing happened to these people.


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It is possible that the group was searching for help–despite being in, essentially, the middle of nowhere, while missing gear in sub-zero temperatures–before they fell into a ravine. But that doesn't explain Dubinina's missing tongue. And while some at the time posited that the group had been attacked by Mansi tribesmen, coroners at the time stated that the trauma found required more force than humans could inflict, especially considering there wasn't accompanying outward trauma.

“It was equal to the effect of a car crash,” said Boris Vozrozhdenny, one of the doctors on the case, according to unsealed documents looked at by the Times.

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The level of trauma was akin to that of a car crash?? Wtf happened you may wonder...


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It gets weirder. The final four were better outfitted than the other five, and apparently had taken clothes off the dead as they continued their aimless trek. Zolotariov, for example, was found wearing Dubinina's coat and hat, while she in turn had wrapped around her foot a piece of the wool pants that one of the two found at the pine tree had been wearing. To add to the mystery, the clothes found on the final group were tested and found to be radioactive.

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There are numerous plausible explanations for pieces of this story, but nothing is conclusive, especially describing the high radiation found on the bodies and elsewhere.


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But the radioactivity found is truly odd, as is the treatment of the investigation itself. Documents related to the case were sealed after it was closed, and weren't opened until sometime in the 1990s. [...] The cause of the incident is still speculative, but interviews given by the lead investigator, Lev Ivanov, around the time the records were unsealed shine light on just how strange the case is.

Ivanov was the one who first noticed that the bodies and gear found were all radioactive, and said that a Geiger counter he'd brought with him went nuts all around the campsite. He also has said that Soviet officials told him at the time to clamp the case shut, despite reports that "bright flying spheres" had been reported in the area in February and March of 1959.

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Continued...

So now we have reports of UFO's in the area at the time, and the Soviet military telling he lead investigator the same exact things that the U.S. and U.K. did to those at Rendelsham forest: Keep your mouth shut and forget this ever happened.


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Another group of students camped out around 30 miles from the other group reported similar sightings at that time. In written testimony, one said that he saw “a shining circular body fly over the village from the south-west to the north-east. The shining disc was practically the size of a full moon, a blue-white light surrounded by a blue halo. The halo brightly flashed like the flashes of distant lightning. When the body disappeared behind the horizon, the sky lit up in that place for a few more minutes.”

The leading theory, considering the secrecy, radioactivity, and the appearance of some of the bodies, which were reported as being "deeply tanned" by a young boy attending some of their funerals, is that the group somehow came across a Soviet military testing ground. But, assuming reports are true, what caused the trauma to some members of the group is unknown.

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Did this group really stumble upon a Soviet nuclear site? Was it an E.T. encounter? Could it even be more disturbing than this?? Deeply tanned bodies observed at the funerals of these people?? What the bloody hell?


***

The fact that remains of a fire were found suggests some members of the group had control of their mental faculties, and psychosis isn't a reported effect of acute exposure to radiation, but that doesn't explain why the group appeared to have run for their lives without bringing any of their gear. So was it an accident or a cover-up? The simple story is probably best: The team was buried in an avalanche, and in a state of hypothermia-induced delirium, rushed off in search of help. Avalanches are incredibly powerful, and being caught in one could likely result in the types of blunt trauma some of the group received.

Still, the lack of closure from the original investigation has left the incident as a favorite target of conspiracy theorists and alien hunters, and really, it's a pretty weird tale. Ivanov, the investigator, has since passed away, and unless more military records are discovered and unsealed–which some advocates still call for–the records on hand aren't enough to prove otherwise, and the mystery of what's now known as the Dyatlov Pass is likely to endure.

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For more information please research. This is about as good as it gets for all you folk here. Also, for anyone that likes a spooky movie, check out Devil's Pass, a movie about this very incident.



Russia's Dyatlov Pass Incident

reply to post by 1Providence1


AGAIN

Unless there is any new evidence, then in my own opinion it`s a dead discussion.

Sorry.

reply to post by fenian8


I'm sorry you feel that way, but in my opinion it's never dead until it's truly solved. That is the purpose of this forum after all. To discuss this very thing.

reply to post by 1Providence1


I think what the poster meant is that there are two or three threads done on this in the last couple months.

I must say though, this is well put together.

reply to post by 1Providence1


Yeah, I wasn`t being demeaning in anyway. It`s a mystery I would love to see solved, it really does intrigue me, but, at the same time, especially since the film there is so much talk of the incident IMHO.

Unless there is a new angle on the 1000 theories out there, asking any one to add anything new is just flogging a dead horse!

Every 2 or 3 weeks or so this topic comes up, theres a ton of threads on this already.
Surely you can contribute to one of those threads instead of starting up yet another one on it.
Like was said above im not demeaning the OP, but its a well worn road with no new evidence

Just finished reading the book "Dead Mountain" dead mountainand was disappointed. No aliens, no MIB, just regular ole' infrasound caused by high winds whipping through the area creating an intense fear and anxiety response in the poor people in the tent which caused them to flee the safety of their tent. Fight or flight response, they had no idea what was going on. Actually was a decent read, just took way too long to get to the point, could have been half as long. I say skip the book and read this blog: Infrasonic intrusion

In related news, Devil's Pass is streaming on Netflix and is a pretty interesting found footage film.

Man whatever happened to the poor people at the end of the day it makes for a wicked camping story!

reply to post by 1Providence1


Ill agree with the other posters here. We've discussed this incident over and over and there are movies, documentaries and evidence in abundance already presented here on-forum.

Unless there's something new to add...its an old issue to most of us. In this case, searching it first on ATS would have been helpful.

PS I just searched myself and there are tons of discussions and threads on this at ATS and elsewhere!

Just tryin to help for the next time!!!

Oh heck yeah! Another DI thread.

Of course there have been 5001 threads on this but why not another? Great arguments...er...discussions always. It's a great mystery and I am not sure if we will ever get to the bottom of it. Except of course for those who are sure their pet theory is concrete fact.

Thanks for posting

If you stop and think about it the Dyatlov Pass story can be explained.
First the clothing found on the bodies belonged to the other camper as in they owned the clothing. It wasn't the same exact clothing the others were found in. This can be explained by a mad rush out of the tent in the middle of the night. Scrambling in the dark grabbing clothing as they ran so they could have easily gotten the clothing confused. Most likely they awoke thinking an Avalanche was happening. There could have been one near by and they thought they were in the middle of it. If you've ever awoke in the middle of the night in an emergency you'll know how confused you can be. The low was -25 with blowing snow. At -40 the skin freezes instantly so it wouldn't have taken long for them to perish at -25.

Running for their lives, lost and confused a few of them could have ran into the path of the Avalanche and this is why they weren't located until later.

The missing tongue and part of the face was from one of the campers who was found later. Her tongue was most likely eaten from animals as she thawed.

The radiation could be explain by who they were. Most of them graduated or went to Ural Polytechnical Institute. From wiki you'll see that it was an industrial school.

The school has rapidly expanded due to the industrialization program of the Soviet Government, which created a high demand for engineering positions. The USTU was key in providing local industrial enterprises with technical and engineering staff.

Wiki
It's not hard to imagine their jobs or schooling may have involved items that had radiation. Especially in those days.

reply to post by 1Providence1


I agree this has been covered to death and there is not much in the way of new information. That being said I gave this a flag because I thought the OP has done a very good job with his description and laying out his evidence. I like the way it was done.

reply to post by kimish


Ok, that is what I was thinking as well. Cheers mate, appreciate it.

TheLieWeLive
If you stop and think about it the Dyatlov Pass story can be explained.
First the clothing found on the bodies belonged to the other camper as in they owned the clothing. It wasn't the same exact clothing the others were found in. This can be explained by a mad rush out of the tent in the middle of the night. Scrambling in the dark grabbing clothing as they ran so they could have easily gotten the clothing confused. Most likely they awoke thinking an Avalanche was happening. There could have been one near by and they thought they were in the middle of it. If you've ever awoke in the middle of the night in an emergency you'll know how confused you can be. The low was -25 with blowing snow. At -40 the skin freezes instantly so it wouldn't have taken long for them to perish at -25.

Running for their lives, lost and confused a few of them could have ran into the path of the Avalanche and this is why they weren't located until later.

The missing tongue and part of the face was from one of the campers who was found later. Her tongue was most likely eaten from animals as she thawed.

The radiation could be explain by who they were. Most of them graduated or went to Ural Polytechnical Institute. From wiki you'll see that it was an industrial school.

The school has rapidly expanded due to the industrialization program of the Soviet Government, which created a high demand for engineering positions. The USTU was key in providing local industrial enterprises with technical and engineering staff.

Wiki
It's not hard to imagine their jobs or schooling may have involved items that had radiation. Especially in those days.

edit on 27-2-2014 by TheLieWeLive because: (no reason given)

Interesting information, thank you for bringing this up.

Marid Audran
In related news, Devil's Pass is streaming on Netflix and is a pretty interesting found footage film.

Yea, that's a great movie. Just watched it an I must say, it's certainly the most incredible theory to this lol.

TheLieWeLive
If you stop and think about it the Dyatlov Pass story can be explained.
First the clothing found on the bodies belonged to the other camper as in they owned the clothing. It wasn't the same exact clothing the others were found in. This can be explained by a mad rush out of the tent in the middle of the night. Scrambling in the dark grabbing clothing as they ran so they could have easily gotten the clothing confused. Most likely they awoke thinking an Avalanche was happening. There could have been one near by and they thought they were in the middle of it. If you've ever awoke in the middle of the night in an emergency you'll know how confused you can be. The low was -25 with blowing snow. At -40 the skin freezes instantly so it wouldn't have taken long for them to perish at -25.

Running for their lives, lost and confused a few of them could have ran into the path of the Avalanche and this is why they weren't located until later.

The missing tongue and part of the face was from one of the campers who was found later. Her tongue was most likely eaten from animals as she thawed.

The radiation could be explain by who they were. Most of them graduated or went to Ural Polytechnical Institute. From wiki you'll see that it was an industrial school.

The school has rapidly expanded due to the industrialization program of the Soviet Government, which created a high demand for engineering positions. The USTU was key in providing local industrial enterprises with technical and engineering staff.

Wiki
It's not hard to imagine their jobs or schooling may have involved items that had radiation. Especially in those days.

edit on 27-2-2014 by TheLieWeLive because: (no reason given)

An excellent and entirely plausible explanation, enjoyable and stimulating to consider. Thank you.

I have had an interest in this case for quite a long time, and I've learned that no matter which avenue one takes regarding what could have happened, there are still questions left unanswered, or answers that don't make that much sense. Still, the conclusion I have drawn is the same as the Russian research team who investigated the incident...the government of the USSR was somehow involved.

There is a point of contention that could dramatically shift the ideas regarding what occurred. Some have claimed that the "radiation" story was just a fabrication, and that no radiation was ever detected. If this is true, then the case becomes a bit easier to solve. But it radiation was truly present in amounts over background levels, then there are not many explanations to account for this.

We do know that the tent was cut from the inside. So they were likely sleeping when they were awoken in a fright...enough of a fright that they didn't bother filing out the door of the tent, and instead just gashed the side with a blade. I have heard some claim "avalanche," but if this were true, then why was their tent still found above the snow, staked into the ground, where it was initially set up? So I don't think this is what they were trying to escape from.

And another important clue is that they felt they only needed to flee a couple of hundred yards or so. Obviously whatever they were afraid of was not chasing them, since they likely would have gone farther before stopping. The wounds on some of the bodies is also unexplainable imo. The only normal possibility is that there was an accident, like a fall, but with some of the wounds the person wouldn't have been likely to get up from such a fall. Yet they were not found in a place where they could have fallen, if I remember correctly.

There are just so many details to this case, and most of the theories can be discounted. Personally I believe that they unfortunately saw something they shouldn't have, or somehow were involved with the USSR's government in some capacity, maybe accidentally, and so the military took them out. All the military would need to do is quickly drive them from their camp in a fright, and prevent them from returning.

And we know that the military were the first on the scenes, and could have quarantined the area to remove any traces of evidence left behind. Another important detail is the fact that one of the individuals climbed a tree, as if to get a better vantage point of their camp. Everyone didn't climb the tree, as if they were trying to escape from something on the ground. So this leads me to believe "something" was at their camp.

The last theory I will comment on is the "yeti" idea. Some of you may know that bigfoot and the yeti are one in the same. The animals exist, and bigfoots likely migrated over the Bering Land Bridge at the same time as the Native Americans, during the last glacial maximum. In fact, the Native Americans, or at least some tribes, claim as much, which they know from information that has been passed down through the generations. The animals then spread out across the US, sticking mostly to the habitats where survival would be easiest...the forests. Some of you may also know that I have had my own sasquatch encounter in east Tx not all that long ago. So this is how I know the animals exist, aside from the evidence that is available...which most people know nothing about it often seems.

Anyway, knowing that such animals are out there, especially in Russia, I have wondered if one of these animals could have approached the camp that night, started fumbling around with the tent, when someone looked to see what was going on, saw the animal, and panicked, along with everyone else. So they cut the tent and fled away from their camp. The animal either fled in the opposite direction, scared, which is usually what happens upon human-bigfoot contact, or it remained in the camp. It may have fled and then came back to their camp some time later.

It was very likely looking for food. And these animals will go through stuff looking for food, just like bears, except that they have actual hands and fingers to work with. So if the animal was still hanging around, they might not have wanted to go back to their camp. But, although one of these animals is powerful enough to cause the injuries seen on some of the bodies, such injuries would have to have been inflicted at the campsite, before everyone fled. This is because it would not be likely for the animal to chase the people down. As a population, they are not vicious animals towards humans, although they can be, just like any other animal.

So it is an interesting hypothesis, but there are still problems with it, just like all the other hypotheses. I highly doubt that this case will ever be solved, and that is a shame. So many mysteries throughout the world, many of which likely have been solved, but remain classified, and we know nothing about their truths.