If you’ve ever gone onto the internet in search of mysterious stories and conspiracy theories, then odds are that you’ve heard of the Dyatlov Pass Incident. In 1959, a group of nine Russian hikers went on a skiing and mountaineering expedition. After making camp on a seemingly gentle slope, the group settled down for the night. By morning, however, none would still be alive.
The expedition, led by Igor Dyatlov, set out from Sverdlovsk city on January 27th, 1959. The group consisted of ten people, all experienced hikers with a range of expeditions under their belt. The group intended to reach a mountain approximately 300 km north of their starting location in order to attain their level III Hiking Certificates - the highest offered by the nation. Igor Dyatlov was renowned for his leadership skills and ingenuity, and all members of the expedition were competent and well-instructed. How, then, did everything go wrong?
January 31st, 1959: The group, having strayed from their path due to low visibility, find themselves at the top of a gentle slope. Instead of trekking 1.5 km back downhill to the nearby sheltered forest, they decide to camp on the exposed slope instead. Soon afterwards, however, when none of the members reported to their designated check-in point, it became clear that something was off. A group of searchers from the Polytechnic institute was sent out on the 12th of February, and over the course of the following two months, all of the bodies of the expeditioners were to be found, strewn around the area of the forest and slope.
Of these bodies, several were almost entirely naked, while two deceased members were found in only their underwear, huddled near the remains of an extinguished fire. Several had their chests smashed open, others with severe skull injuries, and some were even found with missing eyes. What had happened?
The lack of clarity during this period of time in the Soviet Union meant that the incident was quickly covered up and blamed on an “unknown natural force”. Of course, more plausible theories have been drawn since then, attempting to explain the incident. These include a recent computer simulation run by a man named Gaume. Using simulations that were also utilised in the film Frozen to mimic the movement of snow in real life, they were able to determine the effect that the snow would’ve had on the human body. They learnt that the impact of a very compact and fast-moving section of snow, not too different from a slab, would’ve been needed to have the same effect as the ones found on some of the bodies.
Despite these seemingly rational solutions, however, many doubts still remain about the true fate of the expeditionary group. One of the original ten, Yuri, had pulled out on the 28th of January due to health ailments. This spared him, making him the only survivor of the group. When interviewed many years after the incident, Yuri expressed that the fate of his friends was, in his opinion, due to their stumbling upon of a Soviet military exercise. He said that they would’ve been well equipped for any avalanche, and that some of the items that he had found at the site of the incident hadn’t actually belonged to his group, including a piece of a soldier's coat and some fragments of broken skis.
Unfortunately, the true fate of the Dyatlov group may never be known. The area in the Northern Ural mountains where the incident took place was closed off for almost three years after the incident by the Soviet authorities, and no single theory has been wholly accepted as the truth. Despite this, new theories are constantly being created - for example, ‘Devil’s Pass’, a 2013 film loosely based on the events of the incident, blamed the deaths on supernatural monsters.
Although we cannot ascertain what had happened on that fateful January night, one thing is for sure: it will remain an object of fascination for years to come.
Sources:
Andrews, R. G. (2022, January 26). Has science solved one of history’s greatest adventure mysteries? National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/has-science-solved-history-greatest-adventure-mystery-dyatlov
Hadjiyska, T., Pavlov, I. (2021). Igor Dyatlov. Dyatlov Pass. https://dyatlovpass.com/igor-dyatlov
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