One of our favorite unsolved mysteries is the so-called Dyatlov Pass Incident. Although I always had curiosity why it was called that way in English. Dyatlov was the leader of the group and Kholat Syakhl the name of the place where it happened, so it would be more correct to talk about the Dyatlov Group Incident or the Kholat Syakhl Pass Incident.
It all happened in the Soviet Union in 1959, when a group of ten young people from the Polytechnic University of the Urals, went on a cross-country ski trip through the Urals, with the aim of reaching Mount Otorten (Гора Отортен).
Here is a timeline of the events:
23/01/1959 21:05 The group boards a train from Sverdlovsk to Serov
24/01/1959 07:39 Serov. They arrive to Serov. They spend the time with children at School #41
24/01/1959 They take a train from Serov to Ivdel, arriving around midnight
25/01/1959 06:00 Ivdel. They take a bus to Vizhay
25/01/1959 14:00 Vizhay. They arrive to Vizhay where they spend the night
26/01/1959 Vizhay.
26/01/1959 Sector 41. They travel by truck to a woodcutting settlement in Sector 41, arriving at 16:30.
26/01/1959 Sector 41. The group spends the night in the workers’ dormitory, singing songs and reciting poetry until early the next morning.
27/01/1959 16:00 Lozva river. A man with a horse and cart takes them to another northern settlement, an abandoned geological site.
27/01/1959 Lozva river. The hikers travel late into the night up the frozen Lozva River on their way to the site.
28/01/1959 Lozva river. After a difficult trek up the frozen Lovza River, the Dyatlov hikers arrive in good spirits at the abandoned geological site in the dark early morning hours.
28/01/1959 Lozva river - Vtoroy Severniy. The hikers find an empty house and sleep until daylight. Later that day, Yuri Yudin says his final farewell to his friends and returns back home due to poor health.
28/01/1959 Lozva river. The rest of the group continues skiing north along the Lozva River.
29/01/1959 Lozva river-Auspiya river. The Dyatlov continue along the Lozva River and set up camp near the frozen Auspiya River.
30/01/1959 Auspiya river. The hikers continue along the Auspiya River and find some Mansi symbols on the trees. Deep snow begins to make skiing more difficult.
31/01/1959 Auspiya river. The hikers continue upstream on the Auspiya River and set up camp for the night.
01/02/1959 The group builds a a temporary storage shelter to leave some supplies inside and lighten their packs for the trip up Otorten Mountain.
01/02/1959 Holatchal mountain. The group then skis all afternoon, arriving at what would become known as Dyatlov Pass at 3:00 pm. The sun sets at 4:58 pm.
01/02/1959 Holatchal mountain. Due to the weather conditions they had deviated from their path, so Dyatlov decides to spend the night on the place, on the mountain called Kholat Syakhl (or "Holatchahl" in Mansi language, usually translated as "Dead Mountain"). They decide to camp to spend the night. They will never be seen alive again. They set the tent on the eastern slope of Holatchal mountain at an altitude of 1,079 meters (3,540 feet).
When rescue crews arrive at the place where they camped several days later, they find that the tents are torn from the inside, as if those who slept there had run away from them without time or to open the zippers.
The first corpses found are stripped (only in underwear) a few meters from the tents. They have died of hypothermia due to temperatures of 30 degrees (celsius) below zero.
And here are some of the photos taken by the rescue teams.
It all happened in the Soviet Union in 1959, when a group of ten young people from the Polytechnic University of the Urals, went on a cross-country ski trip through the Urals, with the aim of reaching Mount Otorten (Гора Отортен).
Here is a timeline of the events:
23/01/1959 21:05 The group boards a train from Sverdlovsk to Serov
24/01/1959 07:39 Serov. They arrive to Serov. They spend the time with children at School #41
24/01/1959 They take a train from Serov to Ivdel, arriving around midnight
25/01/1959 06:00 Ivdel. They take a bus to Vizhay
25/01/1959 14:00 Vizhay. They arrive to Vizhay where they spend the night
26/01/1959 Vizhay.
26/01/1959 Sector 41. They travel by truck to a woodcutting settlement in Sector 41, arriving at 16:30.
26/01/1959 Sector 41. The group spends the night in the workers’ dormitory, singing songs and reciting poetry until early the next morning.
27/01/1959 16:00 Lozva river. A man with a horse and cart takes them to another northern settlement, an abandoned geological site.
27/01/1959 Lozva river. The hikers travel late into the night up the frozen Lozva River on their way to the site.
28/01/1959 Lozva river. After a difficult trek up the frozen Lovza River, the Dyatlov hikers arrive in good spirits at the abandoned geological site in the dark early morning hours.
28/01/1959 Lozva river - Vtoroy Severniy. The hikers find an empty house and sleep until daylight. Later that day, Yuri Yudin says his final farewell to his friends and returns back home due to poor health.
28/01/1959 Lozva river. The rest of the group continues skiing north along the Lozva River.
29/01/1959 Lozva river-Auspiya river. The Dyatlov continue along the Lozva River and set up camp near the frozen Auspiya River.
30/01/1959 Auspiya river. The hikers continue along the Auspiya River and find some Mansi symbols on the trees. Deep snow begins to make skiing more difficult.
31/01/1959 Auspiya river. The hikers continue upstream on the Auspiya River and set up camp for the night.
01/02/1959 The group builds a a temporary storage shelter to leave some supplies inside and lighten their packs for the trip up Otorten Mountain.
01/02/1959 Holatchal mountain. The group then skis all afternoon, arriving at what would become known as Dyatlov Pass at 3:00 pm. The sun sets at 4:58 pm.
01/02/1959 Holatchal mountain. Due to the weather conditions they had deviated from their path, so Dyatlov decides to spend the night on the place, on the mountain called Kholat Syakhl (or "Holatchahl" in Mansi language, usually translated as "Dead Mountain"). They decide to camp to spend the night. They will never be seen alive again. They set the tent on the eastern slope of Holatchal mountain at an altitude of 1,079 meters (3,540 feet).
When rescue crews arrive at the place where they camped several days later, they find that the tents are torn from the inside, as if those who slept there had run away from them without time or to open the zippers.
The first corpses found are stripped (only in underwear) a few meters from the tents. They have died of hypothermia due to temperatures of 30 degrees (celsius) below zero.
And here are some of the photos taken by the rescue teams.
Another group of corpses was found months later, at a depth of 5 m under the ice, with a little more clothing but not enough for the weather, but showing very unsettling wounds. One of the men is missing both eyes, while one of the girls, was missing the tongue. Some of them died of hypothermia but some of trauma
There have been many hypothesis regarding what happened that night, what made them go out of the tents with insufficient clothes, what attacked them... Strange metereological phenomena, nuclear test, an attack from the native Mansi people, the Yeti...
The members of the expedition were:
Igor Dyatlov ( Игорь Дятлов ), the leader of the expedition, which ended up naming the incident,
Zinaida Kolmogorova ( Зинаида Колмогорова ),
Lyudmila Dubinina ( Людмила Дубинина ),
Alexander Kolevatov (Александр) Колеватов),
Rustem Slobodin (Рустем Слободин),
Georgyi Krivonischenko (Георгий Кривонищенко),
Yuri Doroshenko (Юрий Дороше),
Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel (Николай Тибо-Бриньоль),
Alexander Zolotarev (Александр Золотарев) and
Yuri Yudin (Юрий Юдин) - Survivor
Sources:
Timeline: 'Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident', by Donnie Eichar
Photos: dyatlovpass.com
The members of the expedition were:
Igor Dyatlov ( Игорь Дятлов ), the leader of the expedition, which ended up naming the incident,
Zinaida Kolmogorova ( Зинаида Колмогорова ),
Lyudmila Dubinina ( Людмила Дубинина ),
Alexander Kolevatov (Александр) Колеватов),
Rustem Slobodin (Рустем Слободин),
Georgyi Krivonischenko (Георгий Кривонищенко),
Yuri Doroshenko (Юрий Дороше),
Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel (Николай Тибо-Бриньоль),
Alexander Zolotarev (Александр Золотарев) and
Yuri Yudin (Юрий Юдин) - Survivor
Sources:
Timeline: 'Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident', by Donnie Eichar
Photos: dyatlovpass.com
Хороший репортаж!
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