A True Story For Halloween

[4th Horseman]

Horror on the Ural

On January 23, 1959 a group of 9 Russian hikers from the Ural Polytechic University led by Igor Dyatlov went on a hike to the Ural Mountains (7 men and 2 women - Igor Dyatlov, Alexander Kolevatov, Rustem Slobodin, Yuri Krivonischenko, Nikolay Tibo-Briniol, Yuri Doroshenko, Alexander Zolotarev, Ludmila Dubinina, Zina Kolmogorova). They were supposed to return to the base camp on February 12 and then let the University know they were alright by a telegram. On January 31 they reached the upper Auspia river where they planned to leave a part of their stuff and food in a temporary camp, and then on the next day take a trip with light baggage 6 miles north to the Otorten mountain. But due to weather they decided to spend the night on a bare windy slope instead of going to the woods - because they had realized that by the time they would have gotten there it would have been too dark to set up a camp. And it was no big deal to spend a night on a windy slope for such experienced hikers, so they ate some food and then hit the sack.

The University had become concerned because they had not received their telegram on February 12. But concluded that some delay may have happened due to weather. But by February 20 the University determined something must be wrong and sent out the first rescue group, but after few days of no results a bigger rescue operation which included the military and police aircrafts searched the places the Dyatlov's group might have been.

On February 26 their tent on the mountain had finally been located. It had all their stuff inside - equipment, food, clothes. But on the rear of the tent they noticed a long cut made by a knife from the inside out, as if they left the tent in a panic, not wanting to go through the front entrance. There were no signs of a struggle in and around the tent, and no signs either animal or human (other than the teams) near or around the front entrance of the tent. The only footprints in the snow went from their self-made exit at the rear of the tent down the slope to the woods below. Most of the footprints were barefoot and were said to belong to the 9 climbers.

Later on that day, an airplane discovered the first bodies near the woods. They found the remains of a campfire under a big cedar tree. The bodies of two men - Doroshenko and Krivonischenko - were found lying around the campfire, naked. Later an autopsy concluded the cause of their deaths was hypothermia. No any injuries were found aside from a few minor scratches. Several hundred more feet away from these bodies up the mountain and towards the tent, the body of Igor Dyatlov was found. He was lying on his back embracing a small birch stick with one hand. And several feet from his body farther towards the tent the bodies of Rustem Slobodin was found, as was the female member Zina Kolmogorova. Both Rustem and Zina were lying face down in dynamic poses as if they were trying to crawl up to the tent right until the moment they died. There was blood around the head Zina which had apparently come from her mouth. The cause of death for all three - Dyatlov, Slobodin, and Kolmogorova - was found to be hypothermia. Slobodin, however, had a crack in the skull with no apparent skin or tissue damage, although it was concluded that the injury to his skull was not the cause of death.

The search for the rest of the members continued for nearly two months. And on May 4, 200 feet away from the campfire deeper in the woods and under 4 feet of snow they found the bodies of the last 4 members. The Alexander Kolevatov's body had a few head injuries as well but the cause of his death was hypothermia. The other three died from severe internal high impact injuries - Ludmila Dubinina had her ribs crushed on both sides of the chest and the cause of death was bone fragments from her ribs being shoved into her heart from the force of the blow to her body, and yet their were no indications of outside tissue damage on her body. It was also noted that her tongue had also been removed. Alexander Zolotarev also had his ribs shattered and died in the same fashion. Tibo-Briniol on the other hand had his skull badly crushed which was the cause of his death. But none of these victims showed any signs of skin or tissue damage which may have helped explain how the injuries may have occurred ?

There are a number of other things that make this case even more bizarre - like the unusual orange tint to the skin of the final 4 that the forensics team reported, and higher than normal radiation levels on both the bodies and what clothing they were wearing, as well as un-confirmed reports by witnesses of what appeared to be some type of surgical removal of other body parts from these victims.

A lot of different theories and explanations abound. But none to date adequately explain why 9 experienced mountain climbers left the comfort of their warm beds and tent, to run off into the night in -22 F (-30C) temperatures in nothing more than their underwear and bare feet, by cutting through the rear of the tent to escape some unknown force at the front ? It is then further complicated as to why a few tried to build a fire while refusing to go back to the tents staying until they died, and yet 3 others died in an attempt to return ? And the biggest mystery is the final 4 ! Why were they the only ones with traces of radiation on them ? What would able to mutilate their bodies without leaving so much as a foot print , or track in the snow ? Why were their bodies so orange ? And finally, what could impact the body so hard as to shatter human bone causing it to splinter into the heart, and yet leave no trace evidence of an impact on the body ? Well the truth is that fact can be stranger than fiction !!

[rashore]

Wow, what a weird story. Thanks for sharing it

[4th Horseman]

Ya I heard about it and looked into it and thought it would make a fun blog for Halloween. And your welcome !!

[Sensible Logic]

There are multipkle threads on this subject on UM. Just put Dyatlov in the search box to find them.

For more information go here http://www.aquiziam.com/dyatlov_pass_1.html

[Keel M.]

I thought that's what this story was, Logic.

[Dragan]

Man that is interesting.

[Jello]

This reminds me of another story I heard. This man was in his truck was driving through farmland and called 911. He was parked in a cornfield, screaming at the operator that these men were vandalizing his car and trying to get it. The lady on the other line said she could hear these men as well and sent for help. When the police arrived the driver's throat was slit. There was no graffiti on the truck, the doors were still locked, and no sign of any weapon. It's like there's some invisible force out there hurting people.

[Cryptozological Mascot]

****ing zombies man... just 4 irradiated bad a$$es that went in search of braaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnsssss!

[encouraged]

WOW really weird.

[glorybebe]

WOW really weird.

Very strange. I wonder if they willo ever solve it.

[encouraged]

This was so interesting that I had to check some of your questions out on the Internet.

It seems there are primarily two ways to get yellow-orange skin

1. Vitamin A overdose poisoning--doesn't look promising at all

2. Jaundice--looks like it could lead to something

So, jaundice can come about...

_____________________________________

Jaundice and/or Vitamin A Overdose Poisoning

Jaundice is a condition easily recognized by its symptoms of yellowed skin and sclera (the whites of the eyes), due to an accumulation of bilirubin in the body.

Red blood cells live about 120 days then die and are flushed through the body. In this process, bilirubin is produced when the hemoglobin of red blood cells is broken down in the spleen, then carried to the liver by albumin in the blood. Here most of the bilirubin combines with glucuronide to form conjugated or direct bilirubin, then is absorbed in bile, and excreted in the feces. If a disorder prevents this process from completing itself, the yellow-colored bilirubin builds up in the system until it becomes noticeable in the mucous membranes and skin.

Knowing how bilirubin is processed, causes for accumulation can be narrowed to one of three key possibilities, which create the three basic classes of jaundice:

•Pre-hepatic or hemolytic: Too many red blood cells are broken down.

•Hepatic: Liver does not process the bilirubin correctly.

•Post-hepatic or extrahepatic: Bile is unable to pass properly.

Pre-hepatic (hemolytic) jaundice is caused by any condition or disease that accelerates the breakdown of red blood cells. ... Anemia can create conditions that lead to hemolytic jaundice.

citing: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-jaundice.htm

____________________________

Some Radiation Poisoning Effects

2. ...Blood of the throat, bleeding gums or blood from the rectum are also signs that radiation has impacted the body. The bleeding is caused by the radiation reducing the number of platelets that clot blood in the body.

6. Fatigue and exhaustion: Radiation sickness causes weakness that feels similar to the flu and is often mistaken for "having the flu." Decreasing the number of red blood cells results in anemia and increased risk of fainting.

citing: http://wantsun.blogspot.com/2011/06/8-radiation-sickness-signs.html

Sounds to me that a person can at least say they encountered a dose of radiation sufficient to bring on death. But that does not tell us the rest of what happened. I wonder if someone getting exposed to so much radiation would, as well, been somewhat red with the yellow, and end up feeling as hot as a person with a bad sunburn, but not as red as my brother would get as a lifeguard. LOL

Then you might be the person in the back and the others to the front won't open the tent, so you take matters into your own hand being so very scorching hot?

Did someone put a radioactive source in with their camping gear? Did the Eskie (ice chest--to keeps things from freezing) once carry an experiment that had been used by the school (Polytechnic University); an experiment with radiation and then get re-purposed for this hiking campout? Hummmm....

Edited October 22, 2011 by encouraged

[Comedian03]

I'd heard about this story quite a few times before and it turned out to be one of those stories where some of the "facts" get skewed and parts of the story were made up and added on as the years went by. Some versions of the story say all of the bodies were sunburnt, some versions have all of the members tongues removed, and a few other details change/added depending on the version of the story. I'll try to find a link but it ended up being one of those spooky unexplainable stories that actually wasn't as spooky and had a perfectly normal explanation. Like I said, I'll try to find a link and post it here.

Edited October 22, 2011 by Comedian03

[Comedian03]

K after a really quick search I found some more information on this story from an article that used actual transcripts from the case and personal diaries belonging to the hikers, and like I said, it becomes a lot less compelling and you can easily see how the story has been twisted and changed over the years.

Here's a quote from one of the actual rescuers:

“We discovered that the tent was half torn down and covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group’s belongings and shoes had been left behind,” Mikhail Sharavin, the student who found the tent, said by telephone from Yekaterinburg.

Now it does say the tents were cut from the inside and there were no signs of struggle, but nothing about all of their stuff left behind.

"Sharavin found the first two bodies at the edge of the forest, under a towering pine tree. The two — Georgy Krivonischenko, 24, and Yury Doroshenko, 21, were barefoot and dressed in their underclothes.

Charred remains of a fire lay nearby. The branches on the tree were broken up to five meters high, suggesting that a skier had climbed up to look for something, perhaps the camp, Sharavin said. Broken branches also were scattered on the snow."

Now this part, and the wrecked camp, leads me to believe there was most likely an avalanche that destroyed the camp and explains the trauma and injuries the victims experienced.

Here's a link to the article I was referencing: http://sptimes.ru/story/25093

The missing tongue is easy to explain as well, when you have a corpse laying out in the open like that, the first thing a scavenging animal is going to head for is the soft tissue inside of a mouth, especially if the mouth smells like recently digested food. The weird color, also easily explained, the bodies were laying out in the bright white snow in the sun for days, kind of obvious lol.

Now as for why they were almost completely naked, personally I think it's one of two things. Either they experienced the avalanche at night time, while most of them were sleeping and in which case not fully dressed, but I've never done any kind of cold weather camping so I don't really know the attire to wear while sleeping lol. Or of course there's "paradoxical undressing", anyone who knows anything about hypothermia knows about this, it's something that's common in people suffering from hypothermia experience when their brains start to freeze and start malfunctioning.

And lastly,there's the radioactivity, and in some versions of the story, bright orange lights and spheres. Well in a lot of the more serious articles you can find out there on this subject, the orange spheres and radioactivity don't actual appear in any of the original case files, and were simply things that got added to the story over the years to add to the creep factor. Some even say the colored skin also wasn't in the original files.

....Well that was a long reply lol, but like I said, it sounds like a great story, until you start digging down deeper and doing some research and then it quickly looses the spook factor and just becomes one of the many many tragic hiking accidents. But again, this is my own personal opinion on what happened.

Edited October 22, 2011 by Comedian03

[encouraged]

....Well that was a long reply lol, but like I said, it sounds like a great story, until you start digging down deeper and doing some research and then it quickly looses the spook factor and just becomes one of the many many tragic hiking accidents. But again, this is my own personal opinion on what happened.

Thanks for putting so much time in on it. It is a good holloween story, lol. The kind of stuff my dad would tell! Good to know the real experience, too.

[Comedian03]

Thanks for putting so much time in on it. It is a good holloween story, lol. The kind of stuff my dad would tell! Good to know the real experience, too.

It's definitely still a good story. Kind of makes ya wonder how many other popular stories and myths out there like this get overly diluted with false facts and the easy explanations over-looked.

[Paracelse]

Seems like the story has a significant trail, it's on wiki and several other blogs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident

It's still a fascinating story and would have deserved more research on the part of the Russians.

[Comedian03]

Seems like the story has a significant trail, it's on wiki and several other blogs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident

It's still a fascinating story and would have deserved more research on the part of the Russians.

I agree it deserved a lot more attention but one thing people have to take into consideration with this myth and ones like it is they didn't a lot of the same technologies, techniques, and deep knowledge of mental conditions and all kind of things that would have aided in finding out the truth. If something like this were to happen today, it would only be a short matter of time before the truth came out.

[Paracelse]

I agree it deserved a lot more attention but one thing people have to take into consideration with this myth and ones like it is they didn't a lot of the same technologies, techniques, and deep knowledge of mental conditions and all kind of things that would have aided in finding out the truth. If something like this were to happen today, it would only be a short matter of time before the truth came out.

It would have made a better movie than the blair witch project though