9 Dead Hikers and a Yeti walk into a bar...
From Russia with love
Conspirators!
This week’s Nibble takes us to the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1959 where nine students set out on a winter hiking trip together and never came back. Search parties eventually found their frozen bodies riddled with unexplainable injuries - and I mean, pretty gruesome here...fractured skulls, missing eyes, a missing tongue. Dozens of explanations for the deaths have been put forth, but no one knows what killed them (or who? Or why?? OR WHERE?- wait, no we know that one).
The information below comes from a combination of accounts from the rescue team and families of the students, as well as the hikers’ journals, letters, and pictures (all found by the rescue team).
Oh dear reader, I can see you now, creeped out but eager to know more! So let’s zip up our parkas, strap on our cross country skis, and hike the mysterious Dyatlov Pass together.
9 Little Hikers Jumpin’ on the Sled
(^Yeah I already do NOT trust Kolevatov on the top right there. What’s he up to?!)
So let’s start with the hikers and their original plan. There were originally 10 students on the trip but one stopped just before the incident, going back due to a sciatic nerve flare up in his back (...real ‘spicious buddy. What did that guy know?!). There were eight men and two women, most in the early 20s (with one 38 year-old).
All of them were skilled mountain hikers, and the leader of the expedition was Igor Dyatlov (already ‘spicious here - THANKS CHERNOBYL) who was the most experienced athlete of the group. Most of them were economics or engineering students/faculty except for one of the men who was studying nuclear physics (...keep this one in mind for later as radiation was found on the bodies…).
On January 23 1959, the ten students boarded a train in Sverdlovsk. Vizhay was their last brush with real civilization - one diary noted it was their “last chance to sleep in a real bed.” They continued toward their destination, Mount Ortorten, but stopped due to weather near the top of Kholat Syakhl. Rather than climb down the mountain for better shelter, on February 1, they pitched the tent there for unknown reasons (it was speculated that they didn’t want to “lose altitude” hiking back down). This was their last night alive.
Check out their mapped route below:
This is the exact reason I don’t winter hike in Russia anymore
First, the search party found the tent, dug in a shallow pit to shelter from the wind. Inside, they discovered:
untouched but sliced up dinner
a pile of boots
the map routes
the hikers’ money and diaries
a flask of alcohol.
These items, along with a huge slash from the inside the tent, suggest a quick escape...
The first two corpses were found near a tree, their hands and feet reddish brown. They were wearing only underwear, and one had bitten off his own knuckle.
Igor Dyatlov was found next. He was dressed but wore no shoes and was “hugging a birch branch.” Near him, another body was found. Her position suggested she died trying to scramble back toward the tent. She had a large bruise on the right side, as if hit by “a baton.”
Another body was found fully clothed except one missing boot...oh and he also had a fractured skull.
The last four bodies weren’t found until months later after the snow melted. They were in a ravine with odd injuries as well: a fractured skull, an oddly twisted neck and weird ear wound, plus a head wound that exposed the skull. It was these final four bodies that included the missing eyes and a missing tongue.
Aliens, Spies, and Yetis. Oh My!
Authorities apparently told the families, “You will never know the truth, so stop asking questions.” (For Mother Russia!). But you know how ‘spicious folks can be...so questions were asked and many theories were put forth (some logical, some fantastical, some conspiratorial)...
Katabatic wind, which is basically sudden, insane wind that can be violent.
Simple hypothermia. There is a known behavior hypothermia can induce, known as “paradoxical undressing.” Since the final cause of death for 6 of the hikers was deemed to be hypothermia, boring people have put this one forth as their explanation.
Infrasound created by wind spiraling through the pass that could cause panic attacks in humans. (Aka they went nuts, ran, and died from running around a mountain in the dead of night. Meh.)
Military explosion testing, specifically parachute mines. Explosions caused a panic and the hikers booked it out of the tent. (Look, I didn’t know what parachute mines were until five minutes ago but this one seems wrong to me.)
Military radiological weapons testing. Some of the bodies, once in their open caskets, were described by family members as having orange skin with grey hair. And radioactivity was discovered on the clothing of some of them as well. This, coupled with authorities’ secretive nature and suppression of case files, led some to believe the hikers stumbled onto a testing site. (Could be, especially coupled with the CIA theory a few bullets below.)
Murder. There was initial speculation that the Mansi tribe could have been responsible but that has basically been debunked.
Spy games gone wrong. This one alleges that the hikers were actually undercover CIA agents looking to spy on Russia military operations but were found out and killed, then scattered throughout the mountain. (Kinda fun one. I’m in.)
Alien abduction. (Always our first thought) Apparently there were reports of a fireball in the sky that wasn’t the moon that night. (Could also lend credence to those weird parachute mines but aliens are more fun. Always.)
Russian Yeti. (Hell yes. Plus, see the photo below from one of the hikers cameras…)
(^I mean COME ON, right???)
So, comrade, go check the Kremlin files for your deep dive
There are some great deep dives on this one. Here are a few:
Obviously a 60+ year mystery means there’s a TON of theories. Any of them catch your eye? Have another explanation you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!
And as always, stay ‘spicious.
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