Now, it should be mentioned, all these guys and gals were experienced “Class ll” hikers, that all have been involved in other expeditions and skiing adventures in the past, so no one on the team was even close to an amateur to say the least. After weeks of planning and mapping the trip, they finally decided to make the trip. On January 25th, 1959, the group boarded a train and arrived in the town of Ivdel, and then took a truck to the remote town of Vizhay, which would serve as the starting point for the expedition. After group ate, talked, and gathered plans for the next days trip through the Ural Mountains. Let’s talk now about the Ural Mountains themselves real quick:
*The Ural Mountains stretch from north to south through Russia. It is a natural boundary that’s separates Europe and Asia. There has been mining done throughout many centuries, due to the rich ore, minerals and coal found in the area. During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Ural Mountains became a key element in Nazi planning. Due to this, Tank factories were set up where the Soviets could build and prep for the Nazi invasion. After the war, Mayak was set-up that was the center for the Soviet nuclear industry. There are also a few mysteries and/or legends involved with the Ural Mountains. It is said that there was an ancient civilization that once inhabited the area, leaving behind impossible stone maps, and fossilized advanced technology. The local Mansi people have also called the Ural region, “The dead mountains” …. that’s kind of fun I guess. Fun Fact: Mayak is located just under 190 miles from the town of Vizhay, where the Dyatlov group left from…. Remember that.
So on January 26th, they set out for the expedition. One member of the group turned around on the first day, due to Rheumatism and a congenial heart defect that gave him shortness of breath, as well as his joints in dire pain. This member was the 21-yr. old Yuri Yudin. He would remain back at the camp and at the end of the ordeal, he would be the only one alive out of the entire group. The following accounts were gathered from not only their camera, but a group diary found at the site of where the ordeal occurred. So, on the 31st, the group got to the edge of a highland bluff area, before continuing into a wooded valley and through the pass. The next day, they started their trek through the pass, but due to severe snowstorms and inclement weather, they somewhat lost their sense of direction, and headed west towards the top of Kholat Syakhi. Instead of going back down the slopes a little under two miles to make camp, which would of gave them more shelter and better stable ground, they decided to hunker down and make camp there on the side of the slopes.
Flash forward to the 12th of February. The leader of the group, Igor Dyatlov, had said to all the members in the very beginning of the trip, that he would send a telegram to the sports club when they returned to the village of Vizhay on that day. The 12th came and went, and by the 20th, parents of the group decided to send in the Russian Calvary to perform a search. Starting with volunteers and teachers from their school, it upscaled soon into including the military which also included helicopters and planes to help aid in what was going on…. What they found was weird beyond belief. On the 26th of Feb, they found their camp and remnants of what was left of the tents and gear. One tent had looked like it was literally ripped into, or as if something from the inside tore it open to get out. Covered in snow, that would be one of the first strange articles and situations that would continue to unravel. Most of their belongings were left behind, including snow gear and shoes. The investigators followed a set of various footprints out of the camp and down the mountain slope to a wooded area, where there, it was discovered the first of the gruesome scenes. Frozen around remnants of a fire, were the first two of the bodies, Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonischenko, found frozen and only in their underwear. The atmospheric conditions on that night, or time of the incident was suggested to be between -13 and -22 F. The tree they were huddled around had broken branches roughly six ft up. Theories on this has been either: they climbed the tree to get away from something, or they climbed up to get a better view or perhaps bearings, so they could see where they were at and maybe where the camp was. As the searchers continued to look, they found three other bodies in between the 1st area and the camp. Igor Dyatlov, Zinaida Kolmogorova, and Rustem Slobodin. The corpses were found as if they were trying to return to the camp, and they were spread out from each other. All roughly 200 meters apart. So far, this accounted for five of the nine bodies recovered. It wouldn’t be until fuckin May, when the other members of the group would be discovered. The last entry in the Diary was as follows:
“Wind is not strong. Snow cover is 1.22m. tired and exhausted we started the preparations for the night. Not enough firewood. Frail damp firs. We started fire with logs. Too tired to dig a fire with logs. Too tired to dig a pit. We had supper right in the tent. Its warm. It is hard to imagine such a comfort somewhere on the ridge. With a piercing wind, hundreds of kilometers away from human settlements”.
On the 4th of May, the remaining four were found under almost 5 meters of snow, and in a ravine almost 75 meters from where the first two were initially discovered by the fire and the pine tree. Now, these other bodies, Lyudmila Dubinina, Alexander Kolevatov, Nikola Brignolles, and Semyon Zolotaryov, were a little more dressed than just their underwear, and it was found that they were wearing other members clothing, as if as the first members died, their cloths were taken and worn by the others to try and survive. When the first five were found, an immediate inquest was opened way before the other four were found in May. For the initial five, the autopsy determined that death was caused by hypothermia. It was found that there was a fracture in Rustem Slobodins skull, but it was determined that it was not life threatening, and he too, passed from Hypothermia. Now, the story changed somewhat when the other four bodies were found months later and autopsied. Three of the four members had fatal injuries. Nikolai Brignolles was found with a major skull damage, and both Semyon Zolotaryov and Lyudmila Dubinina had chest fractures. The leading doctor of the examinations, Dr. Boris Vozrozhdenny, stated that it would have to have been major blows or force, like a car crash, that could achieve these kinds of injuries. And to add to this, the one member that had the chest fracture, Lyudmila Dubinina, was missing:.wait for it….Her tongue, both eyes, part of here upper and lower lips, and part of here face including a piece of her skull. That lays out the deaths and the conditions that each group member was found. Of course, with all of that, especially the condition that the last four were discovered, is a little bit of a fucking head scratcher to say the least. Now let’s get into the WTF facts of all this.
