The Mystery of Dyatlov Pass
The incident that the Dyaltov hiking group were victim to is one that I find completely baffling. A bunch of bodies left in odd states, bizarre evidence and no conclusive ending to the story. No one knows the true story of what happened at this place and it is for this reason that the case remains unsolved.
So let me give you the backstory. A group of 9 Russian hikers set out on a journey to Kholat Syakhl, Northern Urals, Russia in Febuary 1959. By about 4 days into the trek, the harsh weather forced them to camp on the nearby mountain. Side note, the mountain was named ‘The Mountain of the Dead’. I really hope this term was coined after these events. If not WHO CAMPS ON A MOUNTAIN NAMED THE MOUNTAIN OF THE DEAD?! ARE YOU JUST ASKING FOR IT?!
...anyway….moving along.
10 days later, the day they were scheduled to arrive at their destination, there’s no sign of any of them. A search team that even included the military was tasked with finding the hikers, or at least their bodies. They eventually discover the campsite on February 26th, and it’s in a horrific state. Two of the hikers bodies are found near the surrounding tree line which was a little over 1.5km from the campsite. The temperatures around this time were negative 30 degrees Celsius, but the bodies were wearing nothing but underwear. Another 3 bodies were discovered between the camp and the trees, 1 of which had a fractured skull. Official cause of death for these bodies? Hypothermia.
Here’s something I found which can MAYBE explain the bodies being undressed. There's a phenomena called paradoxical undressing. Because of the disorientation that hypothermia causes, the victims feel as if they are burning and thus may remove their clothes.
As for the other 4 bodies of the remaining hikers, they weren’t found until 2 months later. Let me summarise the details of the condition these bodies were in;
- 1 body had a fractured skull
- 1 had crushed ribs which had even pierced the heart
- 1 of the women had crushed ribs and a missing tongue
- The bodies were wearing the clothes of the other hikers (Kind of cancels out the paradoxical undressing thing...perhaps the others died first due to exposure and the remaining hikers took their clothes for warmth. Probably not sinister reasons.)
- The bodies were found to be radioactive
- None of them had eyes
- They were discovered with orange skin
- Their organs were shriveled up
- Grey hair was found on the bodies (the hikers were aged 20-37)
However, no external traumas were found on the bodies. So for those with crushed ribs…how the hell did they get it?
My research could not find out what type of radiation was found on the bodies. It is worth noting that just saying something is radioactive does not conclusively mean it's bad or life-threatening. But anyway, this ‘radiation’ was found all over the camp site. (That's Russia for you I guess)
Here’s another thing which may seem creepy but I find it questionable. So the tent was found to be slashed open with a knife. Many sources, however, discuss there being no evidence of an outsider entering the tent. They even mention that the tent was ripped from the inside. Now this is where I’m kind of like - “hold on”. How does one discern a tent was ripped from the inside? I mean sure you can determine that for a glass window, it’s dependent on the side the glass lays. But a tent? The slashed fabric would be flapping around in the cold winds and if any fragments fell to the ground those could have moved too. But whatever, that’s what people are saying. Regardless, slashing open a tent means something dire was happening. To me it means they needed to get out quickly (if it was truly cut from the inside). If it was cut from the outside, that’s equally indicative of there being something bad happening. There were no footprints discovered anywhere, but again I’d credit that to the weather.
I’d like to make note of how decayed these bodies looked. If you’ve ever watched any true crime show, you may be aware of how cold weather, even that experienced in the US (which is not at all comparable to the harsh Russian weather), can preserve a corpse. Because of the cold weather, bodies will decay at a much slower rate. So these guys were essentially in a massive cold storage freezer. Why do they look so badly decayed? Why do they have orange skin? They were estimated to have died on the 2nd of Feb, and were discovered on the 26th. That time period doesn’t really account for their state. With that, I’m going to post pictures of the bodies. I’m warning you it is pretty graphic. For obvious reasons, viewer discretion is advised.
Officially the cause of death for all was ruled as hypothermia. The chief investigator absolutely refused to sign off on hypothermia being the cause of death on the report and instead resigned. One of the investigators was even taken out of the case because he was providing alternative reasoning. The case was then changed from death by exposure to a murder case and remains like this.
Side note: On the night of the hikers deaths locals remembered seeing bright orange lights in the sky, flying around. (UFO’s? I’m not even going to go there since I don’t want people knocking at my door)
Side note: On the night of the hikers deaths locals remembered seeing bright orange lights in the sky, flying around. (UFO’s? I’m not even going to go there since I don’t want people knocking at my door)
As for the other theories, I’ll quickly sum it up:
- Avalanche
- Yeti
- Russian missile
The area was barred off later for 3 years.
This case is tragic and will unfortunately, probably remain unsolved.
I urge you to research these theories further as they are very interesting!
Bronte Tomaino 44914784
Sources and Further Reading:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQpNdevrtiM BuzzFeed Unsolved: Dyatlov Pass
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8RigxxiilI The Dyaltov Pass Incident
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