The Dyatlov Pass Incident
Nine experienced hikers cut their way out of their own tent in the dark, half-dressed, and never came back.
Briefing
On 23 January 1959, ten hikers, most of them students and graduates of the Ural Polytechnic Institute, set out on a long ski route in the northern Urals, led by 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov. One turned back for medical reasons; on the night of 1 February the other nine pitched their tent on the slope of Kholat Saykhl, in temperatures below −25 °C. On 26 February a search party found the tent collapsed under the snow. None of the nine came back, and their bodies were recovered at different places on the slope over the following weeks and months.
Nine hikers, most of them students and graduates, died on this slope in February 1959. This case uses only the public record and accuses no one.
What drove the nine hikers out of their tent?
Evidence board
- E126 February 1959
Cut from the inside
A search party found the tent collapsed and covered in snow, the group's belongings largely undisturbed, and a cut in the canvas that had been made from the inside.
Source: The Moscow Times - E2February to May 1959
Sealed. Question a witness to open it.
- E31959 inquest
Six from cold, three from injuries
The inquest recorded six deaths from hypothermia and three from major external injuries. The closing report gave the cause of death as a spontaneous force the hikers were unable to overcome, without saying what that force was.
Source: The Moscow Times - E4The ravine, May 1959
Soft-tissue loss
The bodies recovered from the ravine had been under snow for roughly three months and showed soft-tissue loss. Retellings treat that as proof somebody attacked the group; the 1959 investigation found no trace of anybody else at the site.
Source: Communications Earth & Environment - E5Clothing tests
Traces of radiation
Traces of radiation were detected on some of the clothing. When the case was reopened in 2019, prosecutors said that finding would be re-examined.
Source: ABC News - E628 January 2021
Sealed. Question a witness to open it.
- E711 July 2020
The prosecutors' answer
Prosecutors concluded that an avalanche pushed the group out of the tent. They fell back about 50 metres to a stone ridge, could not find their way back with visibility around 16 metres, and the temperature was about −30 °C.
Source: TASS - E8The model's limits
What the model leaves out
The 2021 authors state that they do not explain the traces of radioactivity on the victims' garments, the behaviour of the hikers after leaving the tent, or the locations and states of the bodies. The 1959 searchers recorded no avalanche debris at the site.
Source: Communications Earth & Environment
Witnesses
The search volunteer
Composite characterMember of the 1959 search party (composite)
I was with the search party that found the tent on 26 February.
The snow scientist
Composite characterAvalanche researcher on a later expedition to the pass (composite)
I've studied the slope above that tent. I can tell you what the snow can explain, and what it can't.