Mysterious story happened in Russia in 1959

reply to post by Vanitas


Interesting story. I know a little about the Russian style of mountain climbing and hiking as I spent a month there hiking and climbing with the Russians, not in the Urals as in this story but the Pamirs (higher and to the east). I was part of an Alaskan team but a hundred climbers of all nationality were involved. We referred to Russian climbing style as "siege tactics". Almost a military assult on the mountain. They were a lot more lightly equiped than the Americans and Europeans. They often all slept in one tent together sometimes more or less bunched up and not everyone had a sleeping bag. They took chances that we never would have taken in terms of exposure to weather, altitude and temperature. I note in this case the climb was in Febuary which would have been extremely cold conditions. Hypothermia could easily be involved. Altitude sickness (sorry I don't recall how high this was but it's possible above 10,000 ft.) could cause drunken like behavior. I saw several sick Russians acting very drunken from altitude sickness.
Durring that month of climbing more than a half dozen Russians died of falling, altitude sickness and hypothermia. There were only one or 2 deaths of European and American climbers.

So this story, though bizarre, sounds more possible done by Russian climbers!

reply to post by plumranch


Thanks, Plumranch!
That's fascinating insight.

(Because I come from a family with a relatively long mountain climbing "tradition" - not professionally - I have noticed that climbers often observe things that others don't... This may sound "mysterious", but it means just what I said. And it figures: there's more to climbing that just gripping onto rocks. )

reply to post by Vanitas

I'll just add that I noticed this story happened in Febuary 1959. My mountain adventure with the Russians in the Pamirs was August 1985. In 1959 Russian climbing would have been more crude and basic. In 1985 the Russians tended to be the poorest equiped groups. In 1959 they were probably equiped mainly with old military gear including tents.

The missing tongues in a couple of individuals intrigued me. I wonder if there was any comment in the autopsy report about how they were removed? Surgically? Clean cuts/ incisions or ripped out as if by a wild animal?

reply to post by plumranch


I can see your point.

On the other hand, I gather from my own family's stories - and some of them were mountaineers in the 1920s and even before (there is a family tradition that they were climbing the big rocks as early as the 1790s) - that many poorly equipped climbers were the hardiest and the most skilled, in terms of personal climbing "style".
(Totally OT, but I can't resist sharing this: I once met a man who seriously tried to climb the Mont Blanc in sneakers - and this was in 1988... )

As to the tongues... I have no idea. I don't even want to think about it too much. But I must say, I am rather surprised at the very modest response this thread seems to have had in the past, considering that it is a genuine story - and it IS genuinely "mysterious".
Go figure...





[edit on 6-5-2008 by Vanitas]

First of all deee, very interesting story, thank you for bringing it to our attention

I think others have covered all the possibilities pretty well. While searching for information on military testing in the Urals, I came across information that there was a massive nuclear test in 1954 (purposely) exposing thousands of soldiers and civilians to radiaiton. That could explain the radiation, and a similiar test may have led to the hikers fleeing into the night. Although you would imagine with a massive air search, somebody would have noticed the damage from a recent nuclear test. So comment and question-

1. The injuries sound consistent with some kind of shockwave. Blindness and internal injuries for sure from an explosion. The head injuries could be from falling down the side of the mountain and striking a rock while running at night or from a shockwave, or from tripping after beign partially blinded. The girl missing her tongue could have accidentally bitten it off from a sudden shock.


2. Are there any other types of military testing, aside from detonating atomci bombs, that could lead to radiaiton exposure? If not, I imagine the radiation is leftover from previous tests and ths was a conventional explosion.

reply to post by Esoterica



I am grateful to Deee, too - but apparently s/he hasn't been around for a very, very long time. (:

I hope somebody else can (re)discuss this at length with you and PlumRanch, because it surely IS an interesting story.

Oh wow, I didn't even notice the date on the OP

reply to post by Esoterica


Hi Eso,

Thanks for the post!

My problem with the explosion and shock wave is that the tent was still standing with slashes in the back. Tents do not withstand large explosions. They're gone!?

My various thoughts include: Intragroup sabatoge, one or 2 in the group went bisserk. An outside person or person scared the heck out of them and assulted them. The military arrived and attacked them although this seems very unlikely. A wild animal scared them then attacked some of them. And of course the possibility of an alien attack somewhat cattle mutilation style. The possibilities would tend toward the former rather than the latter! Just my analytical mind at work!

[edit on 7/5/08 by plumranch]

Just heard about this yesterday - did quick search and sure enough it was covered on ATS! Interesting! Some like me might have missed this one.

Just heard about this yesterday - did quick search and sure enough it was covered on ATS!

reply to post by BlackProjects


What did you hear? Anything new?

What is your assessment/ opinion about what might have been the cause of the tradegy?

simple realy, it was a......................small avalanche
deposits the bodys down the hill, had to cut their way out of tent because entrance was obstructed , died of exposure

Well the altitude sickness is a possibility. On History channel they were talking about a experimental community that was testing a biosphere for application on Mars. Turned out the concrete used was absorbing oxygen plants could not make enough oxygen. People started acting strange.

It was a Nuclear bomb test , They were woken up by the blast seen the Mushroom cloud started running and the shock wave got them Case solved .

The area was known for Nuclear testing .