58 years ago, in February 1959, a group of tourists under the leadership of Igor Dyatlov died under unclear circumstances in the mountains of the Northern Urals. The investigation was highly classified. The parents of the deceased did not know the truth. Mysterious and tragic history for decades generates dozens of versions of the death of tourists.

How was it supposed to be?

In the winter of 1959, a group of nine tourists went on a ski trip to the Ural Mountains. The group consisted of skiers from the tour club of the Ural Polytechnic Institute: five students, three graduate engineers and an instructor of the tourist center. The leader of the group was a student of the 5th year Igor Dyatlov.

On February 1, the group climbed the slope of Mount Kholatchahl, where they stayed for the night near the nameless pass (later named Dyatlov Pass). On February 12, the group had to reach the final point of the route, send a telegram to the institute’s sports club, and on February 15 to return home to Sverdlovsk. However, until February 17, the group did not make itself felt and did not return from the march.

What happened?

As it was established later, for some unknown reason, during the night on the slope of the Kholatchakhl mountain, the tourists cut and tore the tent in several places from the inside, came out and went down 1500 meters without warm clothes and shoes and all died in a few hours either from freezing, or from some other reasons.

Four people from the group of tourists had the hardest, practically incompatible with life injuries, one of the girls had no tongue and eyes, and all the tourists had numerous smaller injuries.

At the scene of the tragedy there are signs that students actively fought with the natural forces, wind, snow and frost for their lives. They broke thick branches of a big cedar, burned a fire, dug shelters in the snow.

Three of the group of tourists tried to return to the tent, but could not walk or crawl up these 1500 meters up the slope, and they were found in positions that corresponded to whether they were walking or crawling towards the tent.The tent and all things in it remained in place, intact, even after three weeks, when the place of death of the Dyatlov group was discovered.

“ The lucky one”

In place of the first halt, the village of the North mine, Dyatlov group lost one of its members — a 21y.o. fourth-year student of the Faculty of Engineering and Economics, Yuri Yudin(the middle one on the photo), developed a bad leg (his radiculitis worsened). The young man was then terribly upset by the sudden end of his journey. He did not know that this disease actually saved his life.

Conspiracy theories about the death of the group

Mansi and fireballs

The investigation initially considered the version of the attack and murder of tourists by representatives of the indigenous people of the northern Urals Mansi. At the same time, the autopsy results did not reveal any serious injuries (except for one of the dead) and identified the cause of death as freezing. Therefore, in the end, there were no complaints about Mansi. Mansi, in turn, said that they had seen strange “balls of fire” over the place where tourists were killed. They not only described this phenomenon, but also painted it. However, after the case was transferred to another investigator, the drawings from the case disappeared. At the same time, “fireballs” during the search period were observed by rescuers on the pass, as well as residents of the Northern Urals.

Avalanche

The version assumes that an avalanche has descended on the tent, after which the tent collapsed under a load of snow, the tourists during the evacuation of it cut the wall, making it impossible to remain in it until the morning. Their further actions due to the onset of hypothermia were not quite adequate, which ultimately led to death. It was also suggested that the serious injuries received by part of the tourists were caused by an avalanche.

The attack of fugitive prisoners

The investigation requested the nearby colonies and received an answer that no prisoners were found at the time of interest. In winter, shoots in the Northern Urals region are problematic due to the severity of natural conditions and the inability to move outside permanent roads.

Governmental weapon testings

It was suggested that the tourists were under the blow of some test weapons, the impact of which provoked the flight, and possibly directly contributed to the deaths of people. As the damaging factors were called a pair of rocket fuel components, a sodium cloud from a specially equipped rocket, a blast wave, the effect of which explains the injuries. One of the investigators was voiced version of the impact on the psyche of tourists of some weapons, as a result of which they temporarily lost their mind and crippled each other.

Victims and witnesses of secret trials

It was suggested that the death occurred at the hands of the military, who removed unwanted witnesses of some secret exercises or experienced Allegedly, further death was staged in extreme conditions. The corpses were washed, which explains the lack of blood, as well as being transported in a frozen state, which explains the torn tongue from one of the skiers. A strange light purple shade of clothing – the result of processing reagents for disinfection.

Fight between tourists

One version suggests that the cause of the tragedy could be a domestic quarrel between the participants of the group, which led to violent acts and subsequent tragedy. The investigator noted that, judging from the published photographs, at the very beginning of the journey everyone in the group was in excellent spirits, which makes it impossible to believe that their death could be the result of a sudden internal conflict. In addition, if the cause was a quarrel, this does not explain why all parties of the conflict left the tent. Recently the case of the Dyatlov`s group has been revealed to masses. Investigation starts all over again.