Revisiting The 1959 Dyatlov Pass/Ural Mountain Incident

January 1959, Igor Dyatlov and his group of 9 fellow ski-hikers set off on a challenging trek across the Ural Mountains; their one goal to traverse one of the most dangerous stretches of terrain in country. Just a few days later on February 2nd all but one of the group would perish in what has become one of the most chilling and mysterious tales ever told. Even now, just days after the 55th anniversary of the incident, the cause for these deaths is unknown with the only official line stating that "a compelling natural force" was responsible for the group's death.

It had been arranged that the group would send a telegram on February 12th to ensure that their loved ones and officials were notified of their progress. When no word was received from the group, Soviet officials sent a search party along the hiking route, eventually discovering that the hiker's camp had been completely abandoned with the tents destroyed and all of the group's belongings left behind. The investigators discovered a series of footprints leading from the camp into nearby woodland, but it soon became clear that these footprints were left by men wearing just socks or barefeet, a disturbing fact when one considers that the temperature was approximately -30c (-22f). This trail of footprints soon led to the harrowing discovery of the first few bodies, which were found shoeless and dressed only in their underwear near the remnants of a fire.

It wouldn't be until May 4th that all of the bodies were found, but the investigation into the mysterious deaths had already begun. The investigation found many of the bodies had suffered a bizarre set of injuries, 3 of which were found to be fatal. However, Doctors were baffled upon discovering that some of the bodies had suffered major bone fractures to the chest and skull, but showed no external signs of their injuries. These baffling inexplicable injuries have baffled researchers for decades and have, as yet, evaded reasonable explanations.

The lack of conclusive evidence has led to an incredibly wild array of theories being put forward. These hypotheses range from avalanche to an attack by indigenous mountain-dwelling people known as Mansi. Of course, whenever there is mystery around an incident such as this, many explanations align themselves with paranormal or extraterrestrial factors, but is a lack of evidence enough to suggest such things? It's true that the victim's injuries were so bizarre that they could not have been caused by any conventional projectile weapon or bludgeoning tool, but this was Soviet Russia in the 50's so surely there were all sorts of strange weapons being tested in remote areas?

As usual, Ancient Aliens does its best job to convince us that this was a case of aggressive extraterrestrial contact, but the truth of the matter is that the possibilities are endless, which is exactly what makes this tragic tale one of THE classic mysteries of our time.