In the early hours of the 2nd of February 1959 an expedition consisting
of nine hikers and led by twenty-three year old Igor Dyatlov ended in
disaster. The group had been camping overnight on a snowy hillside when
something compelled them to flee from their tents into lethal blizzard
conditions, several of them in only a single layer of clothes. To this day the
exact reason for the flight which led to their death is unknown. The group were
students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute. All of them were experienced
hikers and had camped together in challenging conditions before. For this
expedition they traveled by train to Ivdel, a small town in the province of
Sverdlovsk Oblast before journeying yet further north by truck. The starting
point for their hike was one of the least populated settlements in northern
Russia: the village of Vishai. The trek began in earnest on the 27th of January.
The group of friends were in good spirits as they set out into the
wilderness, although they almost immediately encountered difficulties
when one of their number, Yuri Yudin, was forced to turn back due to joint pain - a
result of his chronic rheumatism. The remaining group of nine trekked for four
days through the highlands before arriving at the pass that would one day
be named in honor of their leader. On the 1st of February 1959 they attempted to
cross the pass but poor weather conditions and worsening visibility meant
that they veered off course, ending up halfway up the side of a mountain.
Realizing that they had deviated from their intended route they stopped where
they were and set up camp for the night. It would be their last night on earth.
Exactly what happened next is unknown. The group did not return from their
expedition and a search party was soon formed. After more than a week of combing
the snows nine bodies were discovered. The hikers were scattered across the
mountain slope, most of them only partially clothed and without shoes or
socks. Some were huddled around the remains of a fire. Some were wearing
clothes taken from other hikers in the group. The faces of some of the bodies
were terribly disfigured, missing eyes and tongues. The tents were found to have
been slashed open from the inside as though in a desperate bid to escape. Some
nearby trees had broken branches, indicating that someone had attempted to
climb them. While the investigation that followed the incident uncovered these
facts no official narrative was ever settled upon. It was briefly theorized
that the group had been attacked by indigenous native people, but this was
not consistent with their injuries, and the ultimate cause of death in each case
was, in any event, hypothermia. Lurid rumours of secret weapons testing in the
region, infrasound-induced panic, and an attack by a Yeti were trotted out and
quickly discredited. In the end the most credible explanation was a mundane one:
an avalanche, or a panic about the possibility of an avalanche, had driven the hikers to
flee their tents, some of them barely dressed. Having
escaped to the perceived safety of the trees the young explorers were blinded
by blizzard-like conditions and unable to find their way back to camp.
They froze to death and their bodies were further damaged by the action of
scavenging animals and water. The pass was named in honor of the
group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. For several years after the incident it was closed to
hikers, but has since reopened. Hundreds of expeditions have been
mounted in the region without similar incident. The nine hikers who died are
buried together in a cemetery in Yekaterinburg. The one survivor, Yuri
Yudin, who left the expedition early due to his
aching joints, lived to the age of 75.