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The Dyatlov Pass Accident refers to a mysterious event that resulted in the death of 9 ski hikers in the northern Ural mountains. The accident happened on the night of February 2 1959 on the east shoulder of the mountain Kholat Syakhl (Холат Сяхл) (the Mansi name which means Mountain of the Dead). The mountain pass (N61°45'17", E59°27'46"), where the accident happened, had been named after the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov (Игорь Дятлов), thus Dyatlov pass (Перевал Дятлова).
The causes of the accident are still unknown. Neither the official inquest nor attempts by unofficial enthusiastic investigations have solved the mystery.
History
A group was formed for the ski-march across the northern Urals, in Sverdlovsk (Свердловск), now Ekaterinburg (Екатеринбург). The group, led by Igor Dyatlov, consisted of eight men and two women. Most were students and graduates of Ural Polytechnical Institute (Уральский Политехнический Институт, УПИ), now Ural State Technical University (Уральский Государственный Технический Университет, УГТУ-УПИ):
- Igor Dyatlov (Игорь Дятлов), the group's leader
- Zinaida Kolmogorova (Зинаида Колмогорова)
- Lyudmila Dubinina (Людмила Дубинина)
- Alexander Kolevatov (Александр Колеватов)
- Rustem Slobodin (Рустем Слободин)
- Georgyi Krivonischenko (Георгий Кривонищенко)
- Yuri Doroshenko (Юрий Дорошенко)
- Nikolai Tibo-Brinyol (Николай Тибо-Бриньоль)
- Alexander Zolotarev (Александр Золотарев)
- Yuri Yudin (Юрий Юдин)
The goal of the expedition was to reach Otorten (Отортен), a mountain 10 kilometers north of the place of the accident. This route, at that season, was estimated as "Category III", the most difficult. All members were experienced in long ski marches and mountain expeditions. For many (including Dyatlov) the march was an opportunity to get a higher degree in sports.
The group arrived by train at Ivdel (Ивдель), a city at the center of the northern province of Sverdlovsk Oblast on January 25. They then took a truck to Vizhai (Вижай) - the last inhabited settlement so far up north. They started their march towards Otorten from Vizhai on January 27. The next day, one of the members (Yuri Yudin) was forced to go back because of health problems. The group now consisted of nine people.
Thanks to diaries and photocameras which had been found around their last camp, it is possible to track the group's way down to the day preceding the accident. On January 31, the group arrived at an edge of a highland area and began to prepare for climbing. In a woody valley they built a storage for extraneous food and equipment which would be used for the way back. On the next day (February 1), the hikers started to move through the Pass. It seems they planned to get over the pass and make the camp for the next night on the opposite side. But because of worsened weather conditions, snowstorms and declined visibility, they lost a direction and deviated on west, upward to the top of Kholat Syakhl. When the mistake became obvious, the group decided to stop moving and arranged a night camp right there, on the slope of the mountain.
The Search
By agreement, Dyatlov would send a telegraph to their sports club as soon as the group returned to Vizhai. It was agreed to do so no later than February 12, but when there was no messages received, nobody got worried. As they explained later, delays for few days were common in such expeditions. Only after the relatives of travelers demanded a rescue operation, the head of the institute sent the first rescue groups of volunteer students and teachers (February 20). Later, the army and police forces got involved, with airplanes and helicopters which were ordered to join the rescue operation.
On February 26, the searchers finally found the abandoned camp on Kholat Syakhl. It was obvious that the camp had been left hastily - the tent had been ripped from within, so it looked like the inhabitants hurried so much so they had no time to open the normal exit. The chain of footsteps leading down to the edge of nearby woods (on the opposite side of the pass, 1.5 km north-east) but after 500 meters they were covered with snow. At the forest edge, under a huge old pine, the searchers found remains of fire and first two dead bodies - shoeless and dressed in their underclothes only (Krivonischenko, Doroshenko). Between the pine and the camp the searchers found yet another three corpses (Dyatlov, Kolmogorova, Slobodin) - they seemed to have died in dynamic poses directed to the camp - as if they had tried to return to it. They were found separately at the distance of 300, 480 and 630 meters from the pinetree.
Searching for the remaining four travelers took more than two months. They were found only on May 4 under 4 meters of snow, in a stream valley farther in the wood from the pinetree.
Investigation
A legal inquest had been started immediately after finding of the first five dead. A medical examination found no damages which might have led to their deaths. It was defined that they had all died of hypothermia. One person had a little crack in his skull, but it was not acknowledged to be a fatal wound.
An examination of four bodies which were found in May changed the picture. Three of them had horrible fatal injuries - one had copious skull wrecking (Tibo-Brinyol) and other two had the whole chest fractures (Dubunina, Zolotarev). The power which caused those damages would have been extremely strong - an expert compared it with power of a car crash. Notably, the bodies had no external wounds - it looked like they were crippled by very powerful pressure.
There was evidence that the people were forced to leave the camp during the night, when they were sleeping. Though the temperature was very low (around -25° to -30°C) with a storm blowing, all dead were dressed only partially and inadequately. Some of them had only one shoe, while others were shoeless or wore socks only. Some people were found wrapped in snips of ripped clothes which seems to be cut from those who were already dead.
The available parts of the inquest files include the following facts:
- Six of the group members died of hypothermia and three of fatal injuries.
- There were no traces of presence of another people except for nine travelers on Kholat Syakhl and in adjacent area.
- The tent had been ripped from within.
- The victims had died 6 to 8 hours after their last meal.
- Traces from the camp showed that all group members (including those who were found crippled) left the camp by their own feet. This implies that the crippled persons were injured after they left the camp.
- Fatal injuries of three bodies could not be caused by another human being.
- A radiologic expertise had shown high dosages of radioactive contamination on clothes of few victims (but the results of probing was not included into a final verdict).
Official suggestions on events which forced the people to awake suddenly, leave the camp undressed and run into the winter night towards their deaths are unknown.
The final verdict was that the group members all died because of an "unknown compelling force". The inquest had been ceased officially in May 1959 by reason of absence of a guilty party. The files were sent to a secret archive. The photocopies of the case became available only in the 1990s, with some parts missing. The content of these parts is a matter of controversy.
Facts ignored by official inquest
Some researchers pointed out the facts which were missed, perhaps ignored, by the officials:
- After the funerals, relatives of the deceased claimed that the skin of the victims had a strange orange tan. They also claimed that the dead were completely grey-haired.
- A former investigating officer said, in a private interview, that his dosimeter had shown a high radiation level on Kholat Syakhl. It was the reason for the radiological expertise of the bodies. But there was no answer as to the source of the contamination (or leak?).
- Another group of hikers (about 50 kilometers south of the accident) reported that they saw strange orange spheres in the night sky to the north (likely the direction of in Kholat Syakhl) at the same date as the accident happened. Similar "spheres" were observed in Ivdel and adjacent country continually during February-March of 1959, by various independent witnesses (including meteorology service and military). The searchers of the bodies reported that they had observed the same spheres above Kholat Syakhl March 31.
- Some reconstructions of the victims behavior suggest that they were blinded. As the searchers said, the victims broke damp and thick pine branches for the fire, though there was good dry brushwood around.
- Some objects found near the camp were not identified as properties of any of the group members.
- One victim (Dubunina) had no tongue.
Aftermath
Death of the Dyatlov's group had significant public resonance in Sverdlovsk city. To mitigate the situation and stop the rumors, regional officials (Sverdlovsk regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) was forced to make a public announcement claiming that all group members died of hypothermia because of their own mistakes and poor organization of the march by the sports club. The head of the sports club was discharged and few other people from the institute staff got severe reprimands.
Neither fatal injures of three members, nor other details of the incident had been disclosed. All searchers were warned that they must keep the details of their work in silence. Though there were no evidence of direct KGB involvement, everyone believed that the secrecy of this case was under their supervision.
The region north of Ivdel was closed for tourists during following two years. Only after could friends of the dead visit the Pass to mount a memorial plaque there.
In 1967, Sverdlovsk writer and journalist Yuri Yarovoi (Юрий Яровой) published the fiction novel "Of the highest rank of complexity" ("Высшей категории трудности"), highly inspired by this accident. Yarovoi was known to be involved into the search of Dyatlov's group and inquest. Without doubts, he knew a lot and had unique materials on the subject. Particularly, it is known fact that he acted as an official photographer of the search campaign and of the investigation on its early stage. However, the book was written in soviet era when the details of the accident were in secrecy. So Yarovoi avoided uncovering anything beyond the official position and well-known facts. The book romanticized the accident and had a much more optimistic end than the real events (only a group leader was deceased). Yarovoi's colleagues told that he had two alternative variants of the novel (except for the published one), but they were declined by censorship. Unfortunately, after Yarovoi's death in 1980, all his archives including photos, diaries and manuscripts have been lost.
Some details of the tragedy became publicly available in 1990 due to the publications and discussions in Sverdlovsk regional press. One of the first authors was Sverdlovsk journalist Anatoly Guschin (Анатолий Гущин). Guschin reported that the police officials gave him a special permission to study the original files of the inquest and use these materials in his publications. He noticed, however, that a number of pages were excluded from the case, as well as the mysterious "envelope" mentioned in the case materials list, but missing in fact. At the same time, unofficial photocopies of the case parts started to circulate among other enthusiastic researchers.
Guschin summarized his studies in the book entitled "The price of state secrets is nine lives" ("Цена гостайны - девять жизней"). Some researchers criticized it to be subjective because of concentration on a speculative and then hot "Soviet secret weapon" version. However, this publication arose mass interest to this theme, stimulated by post-soviet openness and freedom from fear of KGB. Many of those who remained silent for 40 years, reported new facts about that accident. One of them was the former police officer Lev Ivanov (Лев Иванов), who led the official inquest in 1959. In 1990 he published an article with confession that his investigation crew had no rational explanation of the accident. He reported also that he got a direct order from high-ranking regional officials to dismiss the inquest and keep its materials in secret after reporting on seeing "flying spheres". Ivanov personally believes in paranormal nature of the disaster (UFO).
In 2000, a regional TV company produced the documentary film "Dyatlov Pass" ("Перевал Дятлова"). In the aftermath of the film, an Ekaterinburg writer Anna Matveyeva (Анна Матвеева) with help of the film makers published the fiction/documentary novella of the same name. The large part of the book includes broad quotations from the official case, diaries of victims, interviews with searchers and other documentaries previously used for the film. Facultative fiction line is everyday life and thoughts of the woman (an alter ego of the author herself) who attempts to resolve this enigma.
At moment, the Dyatlov Foundation is functioning in Ekaterinburg city. It has been founded with help of Ural State Technical University and it is led by Yuri Kuntsevitch (Юрий Кунцевич), close friend of Igor Dyatlov and a member of the search campaign. The foundation is aimed to convince modern Russian officials to renew interrupted investigation of the "Dyatlov's case" and put it to finish. Another goal of the foundation is keeping "the Dyatlov museum" to perpetuate the memory of the dead hikers.
Explanations
It is needless to say that there is no consensus on explanations of this accident. Different researchers, including historians, journalists, former members of the search campaign and others, advocate different versions and points of view. All suggested variants of explanation have their own flaws and thus, debatable.
The Paranormal
Reported UFO activity in the region along with radioactivity and strange tan on skin of the victims has led some people to think that contact with a UFO caused their deaths. This version is advocated and has been popularized, particularly, by Vadim Chernobrov (known UFO investigation enthusiast) and his Kosmopoisk organization. Lev Ivanov, former police officer and official investigator in 1959 is also a supporter of this version. As all paranormal phenomena kept in silence in USSR (official ideology ignored them as being incompatible with the materialistic science), the advocates of UFO-version consider official secrecy of "the Dyatlov's case" as another proof for their beliefs.
Some try to explain the disaster via the local myths and legends of Mansi, the indigenous people of that area. Indeed, the surrounding is full of strange stories and even the local toponymics seems mystical. Otorten, the goal of expedition, translates from the Mansi language to "Do Not Go There". Kholat Syakhl, the place of disaster, translates in the same language to "The Mountain of Dead". There is an old Mansi-legend, that Kholat Syakhl had been named so after nine Mansi men died on top of the mountain seeking salvation from the Flood in ancient times. This territory is acknowledged by local Mansi as "damned". They avoid visiting it when they go hunting or when they travel follow their deer herds. Though, it is known that there are not any explicit taboo visiting this place (against the version that the travelers were punished by local people for pervasion into a sacral zone).
The fantastic explanations inspired by Mansi legends tell about magical evil spirit which had been evoked by travelers. Another think that a Yeti caused the accident.
Murder
All explanations that the group had been attacked by other human beings face strong counter-evidence - there are no traces of any other people. There are only a couple of questionable things here; the empty sheath of a knife and a piece of cloth like that of a soldiers greatcoat, found near the tent and near the bodies in the stream valley. Yuri Yudin, who "survived" the accident (the one who had left the team at the start, out of bad health) had identified the owner of every other object and piece of clothing found around there, but not of those two.
There are several arguments about who the murderers may be:
- Mansi shamans, who killed the hikers because of taboo violation, or for another ritual purpose. It seems to be completely wrong though it initially was the first surmise tested by the official inquest. As it was already said, despite of the dark legends neither Otorten nor Kholat Syakhl were sacred or tabooed places. The peaceful Mansi people are very friendly towards Russians and many of them helped to find the group (they are excellent hunters and pathfinders). And their beliefs are not related with ritual murders by any means (though they preserve some traditional ceremonies and cults, they are Christians).
- Escaped prisoners. IvdelLag in the northern Urals, was a large part of the soviet Gulag-system. Although Gulag population had been reduced more than twice as a result of Khruschev's political amnesty campaigns ("the Thaw"), the numerous labour camps still functioned in Ivdel region, mainly because of its vast forest resources. The nearest camp was in Vizhai, from where the group started its march. This version, however, seems to be quite wrong too - no one will run away from the prison towards uninhabited land in sub-polar winter and without the basic equipment (skis). The skis of victims were untouched, as well as their food, money and the bottle of alcohol.
- The security guard of a secret experiment. There is a version that the hikers accidentally entered a zone where testing of secret weapons was happening, when the security forces of that zone found and killed the hikers.
- Wild animals seems to be quite naive. Not one of them would have run 1,5 kilometers, out in the middle of the night in their underwear, because of an animal. Dyatlov's friends remembered that in another expedition he faced a bear, which they successfully chased away.
Soviet secret weapon
Another popular version is that the group had entered the range of experiments with a secret weapon or by chance got in an unscheduled accident with new weapon or spacecraft. Advocates of this version point to the known facts: strange light effects in the night sky, radioactive contamination, orange skin colour (which might come as a result of rocket fuel intoxication) and a level of secrecy around the accident. A few years ago, researchers found a ring of metal nearby. It looks like a rocket component, but some experts believe it is does not date back to 1959.
Suspicion of military interests in that area has also been provoked by building a secret object nearby. It was, supposedly, a radar station, erected few years after the accident and in existance until late 1980's. It, however, could be a part of regional anti-aircraft defense system, massively reinforced after Gary Powers flight in 1960.
It is also suspicious that the military searchers inexplicably and flatly refused to evacuate the dead bodies in their helicopters. This fact is known from radiograms sent by a head of the rescue operation with angry complaints about the behavior of the military. The bodies were finally evacuated by a civilian helicopter. The reasons why the army pilots refused to carry the corpses even packed into impermeable bags are unknown and look strange. The supporters of the weapon theory think the pilots knew, or at least suspected, the causes of the disaster and of radioactivity.
The opponents of this theory note that there were no traces of explosions or fire near Kholat Syakhl. There were also no records of Soviet rocket launchings at that time. Moreover, there were no launching sites from which a rocket could reach the northern Urals (Plesetsk spaceport was ready to launch the rockets only at the end of 1959). It is also doubtful that the weapon experiments had been planned in a public place, instead of a special safe ground (like Semipalatinsk) complete with all infrastructure necessary for observing and registering the effects of the weapon.
Natural disasters
The experienced climbers suggested an avalanche as an explanation of the accident with the Dyatlov's group. They criticize Dyatlov for picking a dangerous place for the last camp. They say that the slope of the mountainside where the tent had been raised was steep enough to be in danger of an avalanche. By this version, snow on the slope above the camp was affected by the mounting of the camp. In a few hours it had slid down and closed the entrance to the tent. This explains why the people inside were forced to rip the tent to exit. The snow may have also had the power to cripple the bodies, but the rescuers mentioned nothing about traces of an avalanche near the camp. Moreover, it is unlikely that after the avalanche, three heavily crippled persons were able to travel 1,5 kilometers to their deaths.
It was suggested also that the relief configuration and the winds might cause an infrasound effect which led the people to panic. Running down the mountain slope, some of them fell over the rocks and got damaged.
Publications
- Яровой Юрий: "Высшей категории трудности", Средне-Уральское Кн.Изд-во, Свердловск, 1967 (Yarovoi, Yuri: "Of the highest rank of complexity", Sredneuralskoye knizhnoye izdatelstvo, Sverdlovsk, 1967)
- Гущин Анатолий: "Цена гостайны - девять жизней", изд-во "Уральский рабочий", Свердловск, 1990 (Gushchin Anatoly: "The price of state secrets is nine lives", Izdatelstvo "Uralskyi Rabochyi", Sverdlovsk, 1990)
- Иванов Лев: "Тайна огненных шаров", "Ленинский путь", Кустанай, 22-24 ноября 1990 г. (Ivanov, Lev: "Enigma of the fire balls", "Leninskyi Put'", Kustanai, Nov 22-24 1990)
- Матвеева Анна: "Перевал Дятлова", "Урал" N12-2000, Екатеринбург (Matveyeva Anna: "Dyatlov pass", "Ural"#12-2000, Ekaterinburg)
Films
- Dyatlov pass (Перевал Дятлова): 2000, TAU (Ural Television Agency) (ТАУ - Телевизионное Агентство Урала, 2000г.)
External links
- (In Russian.)
- The photo gallery
- The photo gallery (includes photos from cameras of victims, photos taken by searchers and others)
- Online version of the novella by Anna Matveieva (in Russian)
- Some photos and text (in Russian)
- "The Deadly Case of 9 Fleeing Skiers", Moscow News, Feb 02, 2008 (in English)