On the January 23rd, 1959 ten students from the Ural Polytechnic Institute sport tourism club set off on ski-hiking expedition (a winter sport combing cross-country skiing and climbing). While one student, Yury Yudin turned back early feeling unwell, the others travelled on to the Dyatlov Pass.
The group had been due to return on the 10th February and on the 26th February the rescue party found the group’s abandoned camp. Footprints leading from the site suggested that some had run from the camp without boots or shoes despite the subzero temperatures.
It was two months before all the bodies were found. According to post-mortem reports six had died from hypothermia and three had suffered fatal injuries. One member of the group had lost their tongue.
In the 1990s Anatoly Guschin, a local journalist, gained access to files on the official investigation into the incident. Medical tests showed that some of the victims’ bodies had very high levels of radiation. The files also revealed that chief investigator Lev Ivanov had been asked to close the case file and keep any results secret. Officials appeared to be concerned that people might associate the deaths with the mysterious UFO lights that had been seen in the region for years.
What "compelling unknown force" was responsible?
Numerous theories have been suggested including an attack by the indigenous Mansi people (this was ruled out in the official investigation), that the hikers had been attacked by yetis, that UFOs were somehow involved or that the unfortunate students had found themselves in the midst of some top secret Soviet military experiment.
Whatever happened, the group are memorialised to this day.
Dyatlov Pass is named after the expedition’s leader: Igor Dyatlov.
What do you think happened to the nine hikers?
