Dyatlov Pass Mystery- Part 2

In Russia in 1959, 9 hikers didn’t return from their hike. Their bodies would later be found scattered around the mountain they hiked in various stages of undress. This along with their horrific injuries would cause more questions than answers. 61 years later we’re still coming up with theories about what happened to them. While the case is officially closed, true crime enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists will never be satisfied by the final explanation.

For Part one, click here

finding the bodies

Knowing that they were likely looking for bodies, the searchers used ski poles to poke into the snow to locate bodies under the snow. Later, they would transition to “avalanche probes” that were longer and thus went deeper into the snow (they were 10 feet long). According to the notes taken by people in the search party, the search party would stick the poles in the snow about every 50 cm (about 20 inches) and would push it all the way to the ground. In doing this, if they found a body their poles would come out with evidence that it had encountered a body: blood, skin, hair, clothes, etc. would be on the pole. Mikhail Sharavin told Lucy Ash of the BBC, “We approached a cedar tree and when we were 20 meters away, we saw a brown spot – it was towards the right of the trunk. And when we got closer we saw 2 corpses lying there. The hands and the feet were reddish-brown.”

Yuri and Georgiy were found under a tree in a clearing about a mile away from the tent. Their bodies were about 3 feet from a campfire that had reportedly not burned out naturally. It was later determined that the fire had only burned for about an hour and a half before it was put out intentionally. Georgiy was found on his back in only an undershirt, button-up shirt, and a pair of pants that were tattered. He was wearing one sock on his left foot which was actually burned. His body had different areas where skin was missing and bloody. We’ll get more into the injuries later because they are wild and because of how violent and odd they were, it led investigators and conspiracy theorists to speculate about what caused the death of the hikers.

Laying right beside Georgiy was Yuri. Yuri was on his stomach and he was also severely underdressed for the climate. He was only wearing a button-up shirt, shorts, and a pair of torn up pants. He was wearing socks on both feet, but they were also burned. He, too, had bloody injuries to his face and hands that were visible on site. After finding the bodies of Yuri and Georgiy, it was pretty clear to the searchers that they were on a body recovery mission for all 7 remaining hikers.

They followed footprints they found leading away from the clearing where they found Yuri and Georgiy. They found a flashlight on the way that had long since burned out, and then about a half mile from the campsite (which was almost in the exact middle of the path from the campsite to the clearing where Yuri and Georgiy were found), the searchers found the body of Zina buried under about half a foot snow.

Zina had been found lying on her right side and appeared to have been going in the direction of the tent as though trying to return. She was more dressed than the previous bodies, but still not adequately dressed for the climate. She was wearing a pink hat, flannel shirt, coat, leggings, ski pants, underwear, and socks on both feet. Zina had 5 rubles in her pocket. She also had bloody injuries. Most significantly was the large abrasion on her side near her waist.

Igor was found next about halfway between Zina and Yuri and Georgiy – also covered in 6 inches of snow, also seemingly returning to the tent based on his direction. He was on his back with his left arm around a tree branch as though he had been holding onto it. His hands were clenched and up on his chest – his fists were the only thing that could be seen poking up out of the snow at first. Igor was wearing a sweater, flannel button-up shirt, coat, long johns, ski pants, and socks that didn’t match (one was cotton and one was wool). He had a watch on that was stopped at 5:31.

It would be almost a full week before the searchers located the next body. The body of Rustem was found on March 5th, in the path between Zina and Igor in what is described as a “corpse bed.” According to the book, this is created when a person is alive when they fall in the snow so the body heat melts the snow. This refreezes creating a bed of ice. Rustem was the only body found in a “corpse bed.” This suggests that Rustem was the only one that was still alive when they hit the snow, The other bodies seemed to have been placed in the location after they were already dead. However, it could also be that the other bodies were also in these “corpse beds” but it just wasn’t noted because the only mention of it was from one person’s testimony. He didn’t see the other bodies so they may have been in the same situation.

Rustem was found lying on his stomach with his right arm bent and kind of underneath him, but his left arm was straight out – under 6 inches of snow and again, seemingly headed back to the tent. Yet again, he was not appropriately dressed. He was found in a t-shirt, button-up shirt, a sweater, a jacket, long johns, and ski pants with 4 socks on each foot and one boot on (the right – the left had been found in the tent). Rustem had more items on him – his passport, 310 rubles, a penknife, a pencil, a comb, and a box of matches were all found in his pockets. He was also wearing a watch that was stopped at 08:45.

Though they were being as diligent and thorough as possible, the searchers found nothing for the rest of March or all of April. They switched to the avalanche probes at this time so they could prod deeper into the snow.

Finally, in May the weather started to warm up and snow started to melt. This helped the searchers by showing them new clues. They found things all over – Aleksander’s knife sheath (the knife had been found back at the tent in February), coins, Georgiy’s knife, Sasha’s compass, black cotton sweatpants with one leg cut off – that leg of the pants was not with the pants, and a sweater that belonged to Luda that had been cut in half – the other half was not found with this half. The melting snow also revealed a trail of broken tree tops, branches and other smaller broken trees.

The broken branches and trees led in a path so the searchers followed it for another 200-ish feet from the area where Yuri and Georgiy had been found. This is where they found what’s called a “snow den” in the official documents. Basically this was an area where there were tree branches and the broken off tree tops were laid out in a square to create a “floor” of sorts. This snow den was a 10 ft square and in the corners of the square were the missing leg of the sweatpants and the other half of Luda’s cut up sweater. Other items of clothing were in the other 2 corners.

This snow den was found on May 5th. Later that day, the team would find the remaining hikers. In a large hole about 20 feet from the snow den they found a stream and about 14 feet under the snow and in the stream, they found Luda. After carefully moving Luda’s body, they found Nicholas, Sasha, and Aleksander. The searchers had been forced to move Luda in order to get to the men because of how they were all positioned.

Luda had been found face down in the stream laying over a small waterfall. It appeared that she had scavenged the previously found bodies for their clothes. She was wearing 2 sweaters, a button-up shirt and stockings, but she was also wearing a pair of pants that were burned and torn up that turned out to belong to Georgiy and had been cut off of him. She was also only wearing socks on her feet.

On the top part of the stream laying perpendicular to Luda with their upper bodies in the water were the remaining 3 hikers. They were laying side-by-side, but were almost on top of each other. Nicholas was the first body near Luda. He was wearing 2 hats, a t-shirt, a beat up sweater, a coat, sweatpants, wool pants, and, unlike his friends, he was wearing socks and boots on both feet. He also had 2 watches on his left wrist.

Next was Sasha. He also had on 2 hats, a t-shirt, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a sweater, a fleece jacket, a coat, long johns, 2 pairs of ski pants, a pair of canvas pants, 2 socks on his left foot and 1 on the right, and he was also wearing boots on both feet. Oddly, he was also clutching a pencil in his right hand and a notebook in his left and a camera around his neck. However, his camera had previously been found in the tent along with Igor’s, Rustem’s, and Georgiy’s. It was and is unknown who this camera belonged to or if Sasha had 2 cameras and the film was destroyed after being in the stream for months.

Finally, Aleksander was found wearing a t-shirt, a button-up, a sweater, a fleece jacket, and a coat with a burned sleeve, shorts, 2 pairs of pants, a pair of wool socks with one more sock on his right foot and 3 more on his left.

Injuries and Their Implications

Now that all the hikers were accounted for, the next job was to figure out what happened to them. How did all nine of these capable, strong, experienced hikers end up dead in all different locations and how did these crazy injuries happen? Autopsies were conducted on all 9 hikers revealing injuries that only furthered the confusion and mystery in this case. We’re going to go through the injuries suffered by the group and what could have caused them.

On March 4th, the autopsies were conducted on Georgiy, Yuri, Zina, and Igor. March 8th was Rustem’s. And Luda, Nicholas, Sasha, and Aleksander’s were all performed on May 9th.

Georgiy, who had been found on his back, had lividity or livor mortis to match. Georgiy, Igor, Aleksander, Nicholas, and Sasha had lividity (livor mortis) that matched the position in which they were found. However, Zina, Rustem, Yuri, and Luda all had lividity in places that were not consistent to the position they were eventually found in. Zina was found on her right side, but lividity was on her back. Rustem and Yuri were found on their stomachs, but had lividity on their backs. Luda was found on her stomach kind of, but her lividity was on her back as well. This inconsistency with what the book calls “cadaver spots” suggest that at least those 4 bodies were moved after they were already dead.

However, in a 1953 book written by M.I. Rayski, “Forensic Medicine”, (apparently the “forensic bible at the time”) he discusses that in frozen cadavers, livor mortis changes color when the body is warmed. It can change from purple to light red and then darken again. He writes that the same thing happened with frostbite erythema when a body is frozen and then taken to a warm room. Rayski says, “It is not surprising that the medical examiner Vozrozhdenny thought that he sees livor mortis spots.”

This was just the beginning of the strange findings and the lists of injuries to each hiker was extensive. Many of the injuries could be explained by being exposed to the elements (cuts and scrapes to noses, bloody noses, swollen and bloody lips, cuts and scrapes to other parts of the body, and small bruises).

But there were injuries that were more inexplicable.

Chunks of skin missing from Zina, Rustem, Georgiy, Aleksander, and Luda.
- Georgiy had a 1 inch long ⅕ inch wide strip of skin missing from his right middle finger that was later found in his mouth. – It was suggested that this could either be because he was trying not to scream OR because he was trying to keep himself awake OR that he was trying to “wake up” his hands that were dead cold.
- Aleksander and Luda had bone exposed in the places their skin was missing on their heads it was so deep
Fingernail shaped cuts to the back of Zina’s hands.
- This would indicate that she was trying to possibly free herself from restraints? Or she was digging her nails into her hands?
Skull fractures on Rustem and Nicholas – both to the temple as though they had been hit in the temples with a blunt object
- Rustem’s skull fracture was noted to have probably caused him to become disoriented and probably lose coordination
Bleeding on the brain in Rustem, Georgiy, and Nicholas
- Rustem and Nicholas had to skull fractures to explain this, but Georgiy’s bleeding was probably caused by a blow to the head that didn’t fracture his skull
Blood around Rustem’s right kidney – this could be caused by being kicked or hit really hard in the side
The restraint like indents around Igor’s ankles.
Georgiy had 3rd degree burns on all the fingers of his left hand and entire left leg – 3rd degree burns don’t happen quickly and generally a person will retreat from whatever is burning them (if possible) long before this degree of burn is obtained. 3rd degree goes down to the muscle and chars the skin
Aleksander’s broken nose
Aleksander, Sasha, and Luda’s nostrils were described as pinched shut as though someone was holding them closed or they had a clothespin pinching them shut
Luda and Aleksander both had their Hyoid bone crushed
- Luda’s showed no signs of bleeding – indicating that she was dead before this bone was broken
Sasha and Luda’s ribs were broken in multiple places – this would be noted as related to their main cause of death
- 4 of Luda’s ribs were broken in 2 places each on the right side of her rib cage and 6 ribs were broken once on the left side. – bleeding indicated that she was alive when this happened
- Luda’s broken ribs would puncture her heart creating a 1” hole – this also occurred while she was alive.
- 5 of Sasha’s ribs on the right side of his rib cage were broken in 2 places each and caused internal bleeding – there were indications that his rib were broken while he was alive
Georgiy, Yuri and Igor all had “U” shaped bruises that look as though they were hit with the butt of a rifle or something of a similar shape and size.
Everyone except Zina had pulmonary edema – fluid in their lungs that is frequently caused by being strangled or serious pressure being placed on the chest while they’re alive.
Rustem, Aleksander, Yuri, Sasha, and Luda all had hemothoraces – blood in their chest cavities.
- Luda had 1.5 quarts of blood in her chest
- Sasha and Yuri had a quart
- It wasn’t noted how much was in Rustem’s chest or Aleksander’s.
Nicholas’ autopsy noted that he had a dry heart which was explained as “a sudden deprivation of circulating blood” – blood flow to the heart cut off abruptly which caused damage to the heart
Luda’s tongue and the “diaphragm of her mouth” were missing
- The “diaphragm of the mouth” is also the mylohyoid muscle or that muscle under your tongue
Nicholas had an open wound on the left side of his mouth that was deep enough and open enough to expose his teeth and gums – microscoping examination would conclude that this was done while he was alive
Nicholas also had a bruise in front and under his right shoulder – it was noted that this is an “unusual injury that’s often caused by the arm being forcefully twisted up and behind the back” as when being restrained (not that that’s what happened, but that’s an example of what could cause that injury).
Sasha and Luda were also missing their eyes – not from an animal feeding either.
- In the microscopic examination of both Sasha’s and Luda’s wounds, it was discovered that there was bleeding in the wounds in the eye sockets meaning that they were alive when their eyes were removed.

During the autopsies, all of the hikers were checked for alcohol in their systems and sexual assault. None of them exhibited either. It was noted that the injuries to the last 4 hikers (Luda, Nicholas, Sasha, and Aleksander) were like ones that would be obtained if a person was hit by a car. It was noted that Luda could have been alive for 10-20 minutes after she was injured and Nicholas could have lived for 2-3 hours with his injuries.

Another strange thing was the presence of radiation. The clothes of the last 4 were all tested and despite having been partly submerged in water for the past few months, items of their clothing still tested positive. The waistband of Aleksander’s sweater and the bottom part of his ski pants, the bottom of Nicholas’ wool pants, Sasha’s sheepskin fur-lined vest, Luda’s jacket that was wrapped around her leg, her torn pants, and both of her sweaters all tested positive for beta particles that were double the normal range of radiation. All the clothing items were placed under running water for 3 hours and their radiation measurements dropped by half. It’s important to remember that these 4 hikers had been in water for weeks or months already so it’s unknown what the original levels were. This finding would end up causing numerous conspiracy theories, but it could also be that, since these items belonged to Aleksander and Nicholas originally, they could have been exposed to radiation at their jobs.

While the causes of death for Zina, Rustem, Igor, Georgiy, Yuri and Aleksander were listed as “Freezing. Violent – an accident,” the causes of death for Nicholas, Sasha, and Luda were all more horrific.

Nicholas’ cause of death was listed as, “Crushed fracture in the region of the chest and base of skull with profuse hemorrhage to the brain membranes and on the brain. Violent.” Sasha’s cause of death was noted as, “Multiple rib fractures and internal bleeding into the pleural cavity. Violent.” And Luda’s was, “Extensive hemorrhage, multiple bilateral fractures of the ribs pierced the heart, and internal bleeding into the thoracic cavity. Violent.” Instead of revealing what happened to the hikers, their autopsies created more confusion and more speculation.

theories

The death of the Dyatlov group is mind boggling to this day. Again, these were 9 young, fit, athletic, experienced, responsible hikers. They weren’t drinking or doing drugs. They did hikes like this all the time and yet all 9 abandoned their tent in negative temperatures, in FEET of snow with barely any clothes and most without shoes.

Knowing what we know about the hikers and the conditions in which they were found, people began to come up with theories to explain what could have possibly happened. And boy have people come up with theories. There are almost 100 different theories about what happened, but obviously, we don’t have that kind of time to address all the theories. Plus, some don’t make sense so we’re only going to talk about some of the main theories.

Some thoughts are that either Sasha or Nicholas were the one(s) to step out of the tent to urinate since they were the better dressed of the crew. There’s also a thought that maybe these 2 went to build the storage and were on their way back to the tent when whatever happened happened. Again explaining why they were better dressed.

Theory 1: The Mansi

The first suspects became the Mansi people simply because of their proximity. Valery Anyamov lives there now and his dad was part of the search team looking for the Dyatlov group. Valery told the BBC writer, “Soviet investigators were convinced the Mansi must have killed them. So many people around here were arrested and a woman from another village, who is no longer with us, used to say that the secret police tortured them. I don’t know if that is true, but they were certainly interrogated for weeks.”

But the investigators didn’t go down this path for long because as we said, the Mansi were not known to hurt hikers and were generally peaceful people. Plus, investigators were still looking for the final four hikers at the time and were like, “Actually…can you help us find the rest of the hikers?”

The BBC article mentions a 2015 book that still thinks the Mansi had something to do with the hikers’ deaths. It suggests that there were some Mansi hunters who were trippin’ balls on the mushrooms they use in rituals when they ran into the hikers on Mansi land. But this land was not sacred and Valery told the journalist that Mount Ortorten doesn’t actually mean “Don’t Go There.” Unlike everyone else, he says it means “Mountain with Swirling Winds.”

The Mansi people knew the area and were absolutely capable of inflicting these injuries, but they never had before and the ground the group was on wasn’t sacred. But also, if the Mansi were to kill these hikers, wouldn’t they then take their supplies? They live in SIBERIA and things are rough there. Wouldn’t they want to utilize the things the hikers had? Valery and his now 80-something-year-old mother, Sanka suggest that there is a “technological explanation.”

Theory 2: Fireballs in the Sky Scare the Bejesus out of the Hikers and They Peace TF Out.

Sanka tells the journalist about what she saw one night in February 1959 “We were coming back from the forest and we could see the village ahead of us. This bright, burning object appeared. It was wider at the front, and narrower at the back, with a tail, and there were sparks flying off it.” This is actually a popular theory with many people who claimed to have witnessed this. The other hiking group, Blinov, also reported seeing fireballs in the sky while they were out hiking at the same time.

The main thinking with this “fireball in the sky” theory is that these fireballs, comets, whatever scared the crap out of the hikers or that they thought they were going to get hit so they evacuated their tent in a rush and ran to the woods. Then they froze to death. However, if this fireball hit the Earth, wouldn’t there be melted snow, marks, or something to suggest this had been the thing that caused the hikers to abort mission from their tent and take off into the woods half-clothed? And why wouldn’t the hikers return to their tent once they were like, “Shit. Y’all it’s just a comet. Let’s get some sleep.” Also, this doesn’t explain the death of the hikers and their injuries. Sure, they froze, but Luda’s eyes and tongue were missing, Sasha’s eyes were missing, both of them had ribs that had been crushed enough to cause them to die…how do injuries like this occur from fleeing from fireballs in the sky?

Theory 3: Yeti Attack RETURN TO THE THEORIES PAGE

Yeti.

The Discovery Channel released a documentary in 2014 called Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives that goes into this theory. It’s a 2 hour special that basically says that the hikers came upon a Yeti that they even caught on camera and it attacked them.

Ok..

Theory 4: Avalanche

One of the other theories is that the group heard an avalanche coming so they busted out of the tent OR that the tent collapsed under the snow so they had to cut their way out and in their haste to get free, they didn’t take the time to dress appropriately. This led to them being stranded in the mountains without enough clothes and without supplies. One problem with this theory is that nothing in the tent was crushed even easily crushable things like crackers were still intact. It’s also difficult to reconcile that the group of hikers knew they had a storage spot and they didn’t go there. Nothing had been touched in the storage area as far as we know. Another problem with this theory is that there was no evidence of an avalanche having occurred. In fact, according to some sources, there had never been an avalanche recorded in this area at all.

Theory 5: Infrasound and a Karman Vortex Street

Infrasound is a vibration in the air so low we can’t hear it, but we can feel the effects. According to studies, this can cause sleeplessness, shortness of breath and extreme dread. Karman vortex street is a weather phenomenon that is very rare, but does happen. It’s when a wind vortex or many vortices go over islands or mountains or objects and in smaller instances it’s what causes that noise or “singing” when air whips a car antenna or another small example would be like that noise when phone lines/power lines are whipping in the wind?

This theory suggests that the Karman vortex street was caused by the viscous winds in the mountain coming down into the inverted dome of the Mt. Ortorten and caused a bunch of tornado-type winds that were insanely loud and created the infrasound culminating in a “perfect storm.” This phenomenon made the hikers claustrophobic and irrational. It would have made them feel horrible and they would try to escape it thus ending up half-dressed in the Siberian woods and dying.

Theory 6: Military

Theories about the KGB,CIA, and other military involvement have stated that Sasha, Aleksander, and Georgiy were in the KGB and were on a mission to find undercover CIA agents, deliver some radioactive samples and get pictures of the American CIA agents. OR that at least one of the 9 hikers were hired by the KGB to deliver radioactive material or phony radioactive material. Basically, this theory suggests that one or more members of the hike were on some kind of secret mission and something went wrong and the CIA agents discovered that the hikers were KGB. Then the CIA agents attack the group, brutally beating, torturing and killing them.

Some of the evidence that backs up this theory would be the radiation readings on some of the hikers’ clothing, Sasha’s extra camera, and Sasha also had a military background and tattoos that have never been translated successfully. “DAERMMUAZUAYA” Also, some of the members actually worked at plants. Rustem, Aleksander, and Georgiy had all worked at laboratories before attending UPI. This could work for or against the theory. “For” would be that they had easy access to radioactive materials. “Against” would be that they worked in these plants and laboratories and thus they were exposed to radioactive material that got on their clothes just in the day to day grind. Under this theory is the idea that the group stumbled upon military testing and the Soviet soldier tortured and killed them to keep them silent.

final information and one last theory

In the end, however the group died, they were gone and their families were all grieving.

Yuri and Zina were buried in Mikhailovskoe cemetery on March 9th. Georgiy was also buried on March 9th in Ivanovskoe cemetery. Igor and Rustem were buried the next day at Mikhailovskoe cemetery as well. And on May 12th, Luda’s 21st birthday, she was buried at Mikhailovskoe cemetery along with Aleksander and Nicholas. Sasha was buried the same day at Ivanovskoe. By May 28th, Russain officials closed the case of the 9 hikers. Lead investigator, Len Ivanov (also titled – Junior Counselor of Justice and Criminal Prosecutor of Sverdlovsk region) stated:

The deaths of the expedition members were due to a series of mistakes by Dyatlov. On 1 February he began the ascent to the summit at 3 PM, even though he knew about the difficulty of the terrain. Furthermore – and this was Dyatlov’s next mistake – he chose a line 500 m to the left of the planned pass that lies between Peak 1079 and Peak 880. So the group found themselves on the eastern slope of Peak 1079. They used what was left of the daylight to ascend to the summit in strong winds (which are typical for this area) and low temperatures of minus 25 degrees centigrade. Dyatlov found himself in bad conditions for the night, so he decided to pitch his tent on the slope of 1079 so as to start in the morning without adding the distance from the forest (~1 km) to the remaining trek of about 10 km to the summit.

Ivanov also said, “The cause of death was an unknown compelling force which the hikers were unable to overcome.”

Here’s a theory that was proposed in the Unsolved Mysteries: The Dyatlov Pass Case, and that as I have researched I have come to kind of believe:

The group had settled in for the night and they were getting comfortable and ready for dinner. They had the stove on for warmth and had removed some of their outer clothing and shoes. Perhaps Sasha and Nicholas went off to set up the storage site so they were still wearing their shoes and were still more thoroughly dressed. Explaining their shoes and more heavy clothing. Then, something causes the stove to start smoking or even cause a fire. Georgiy was the one closest to the stove or messing with the stove and an ember or possibly a burst of flames caught his clothes on fire and burned him. Probably they put him out, but the stove was still smoking.

The tent is filled with smoke making it more and more impossible to breathe or see. They try to vent the tent by poking holes, but that doesn’t work so they cut their way out in a panic. (This would explain the 3rd degree burns and burned clothing as well as why they had small marks and then the big cut in the tent.) Once they are out, they can take a breath and calm down. Perhaps the tent is still smoking and they think it’s on fire, so they decide to try to find shelter or a village or something nearby. (Explaining why the footprints seem more calm than scrambling.)

They head toward the forest and when they get to the clearing in the cedar, they decide to attempt to make a campfire, but the trees and branches are too wet. (Explaining the missing branches on the trees.) It’s at this point that they realize that there is no way they can keep this up much longer. Perhaps Zina, Rustem, and Igor head back to the tent to see if they can salvage anything that could help the whole team. However, it’s too cold and they are barely dressed. They collapse one at a time, each trying to get a little further.

Their friends have been gone a while and Yuri and Georgiy eventually succumb to the cold. The remaining 4 take the clothes from them and decide they have to try to find something or someone. They set off and possibly created the snow den in an attempt to take a break (by now they would be seriously struggling and would probably need a break sooner than usual). Possibly while walking or creating their snow den, the final 4 trigger a small avalanche that either takes them out or collapses under their feet. They fall the 3 meters to the ravine causing them to have severe injuries from the fall and hitting the rocks. It’s possible that Luda and Sasha’s heads hit hard enough to knock their eyes out. It’s called “exophthalmos” and “globe luxation.”

Because they are in running water for an extended period, their eyes detach and float away. Luda was found with her mouth open, perhaps her tongue being gone was actually just from decomposition?

update

On August 31, 2018, the court decided that they would not reopen the Dyatlov Pass case stating:

The study of the case materials revealed that the most likely reason for the death of the hikers could be a confluence of adverse circumstances and the violation of safety rules in difficult conditions of mountainous terrain (temperatures ranging from -30 to -35* C, a snowstorm with a wind speed of 25-25 m/sec., darkness and the location of the tent on a steep slope). Panic among the people could have occurred due to an avalanche and snow falling on the tent. The death of all nine people occured from frostbite and injuries caused by falling from height. There is no data supporting the presence of man-made factors associated with the death of the hikers in the case. The case materials indicate that the death of the people from an attack by unknown persons, animals or conflicts within the group were ruled out.

Given the above, there are no grounds for resuming the preliminary investigation.

On February 4, 2019 (40 years after the hikers disappeared), it was announced that the case was being reopened. On March 15, 2019, the prosecutor’s office went on the same expedition in order to test the only 3 theories that they were willing to consider: avalanche, snow slab, or hurricane. On July 11, 2020, it was officially announced by Andrey Kuryakov that the hikers all died as the result of an avalanche.

However, in August, the new Prosecutor General in Russia, Igor Krasnov ”reprimanded” Kuryakov saying that the “investigation was warned of incomplete official compliance.” The dyatlovpass.com site says that this is the “maximum possible punishment before dismissal.”

This case may never be satisfactorily solved, but Russia has officially closed the case for good and we’re left with theories.