Dyatlov pass incident is one of the mysterious and horrifying events that shook the world, which still remains unsolved. In the early months of 1959, nine young hikers were killed (murdered?) near Ural mountains, inside the wilderness of Siberia – (Russia) during their hiking expedition. The real name of the site was “Kholat Syakhl (The Valley of the dead)” which later renamed as “Dyatlov Pass” in the memory of 23 year old Igor Dyatlov – The leader of hiking group. Expert says, this was a 3rd Category route – region difficult for hikers in extreme whether. But almost all members of the team were expert hikers with a lots of experience.
10 hikers, including 2 women and an ex-KGB agent started their planning for the expedition. Their destination was the Mount Otorten, one of the highest peak of the Ural Mountain range. It was calculated as a 14 day expedition, which started on January 27 from Vizhay – the last inhabited settlement of North. The leader – Igor Dyatlov planned to report back to his sports club after the expedition to inform their return, not later than February 12. On the second day of the expedition, a team member – Yuri Yudin, bacame ill and decided to leave the group and he went back to Vizhai. Team continued their journey without Yuri Yudin. Nobody knew, that they were walking into a total misery.
After February 15, with no report from the team, their relatives and friends demanded for acknowledgement from the authorities. On February 20, a search party including relatives, friends and teachers started the rescue operation on Ural Mountains. But they failed to find any evidences. Later, the Police and the Army involved in the rescue operation. All the modern aids like radio, planes, helicopters etc were used for the operation. Finally, on February 26, the search party found the hikers last camp site in Kholat Syakhl. What the search party found at the site was shocking!
The tent was damaged. There was no sign of hikers inside the tent. But search party retrieved their belongings including cameras, food, diaries, cloths and even their boots. The tent was cut opened from the inside. Their footprints were visible intact, towards the woods, which is a mile away from the tent. These evidences shows that they left in such a hurry. They didn’t even took their life saving cloths or shoes which were necessary to stay alive out in the freezing cold. Whatever the reason is, the hikers were running for their lives, probably escaping from something/ someone! But the strangest things were still to discover!
300 meters down the camp, where the forest started, 2 bodies were found under a cedar tree. Beside the bodies there was some burned tree parts, which seems like they managed to set up a fire. The branches of cedar tree were found broken up to the height of 5 meters. The investigators also found skin traces on the bark, which indicates the hikers performed a hard and fast climb to escape from something/ someone. May be that was the first thing they did when they came here running.
Half a mile from the tree, way towards the camp, the search party found dead bodies of 3 more hikers. They were lying face down, head towards the tent. Which seems like they exhausted and fall on their way back to the tent. Signs showed that all of them died because of Hyperthermia, but as an addition, one of the hiker’s skull was found fractured! There was also signs of multiple edema and some sort of injuries on face and hands. This was contradictory. The search continued to find the rest 4 hikers but nothing was found for the next 2 months.
On May 5, rest of the bodies were found in a ravine, 350 meters down the forest. The bodies were buried under 4 meters of snow. Their bodies were not like the early found bodies. All of them showed signs of fatal injuries, including fractured skull, crushed ribs, crashed bones etc and strangely one was missing her tongue and other one missed his eyeballs. Even bizarre, some of their cloths showed high amounts of radiations. This was totally confusing!
After the rescue operation, the detailed investigation was done. As per the reports, there was a number of findings that may leads to some crucial conclusions.
The Avalanche:
Some suggests that an avalanche explains everything. They say: The hikers thought there was an avalanche. They panicked and cut opened their tent all in a sudden, and they ran for their lives towards the woods thinking they could use the trees to escape. That might be the reason why 2 of the hikers climbed the cedar tree. But probably there wasn’t any avalanche and the hikers were falsely alarmed. After realizing this, the hikers tried to get back. But the whether was so extreme that they couldn’t make it up to their tent. And some of them were trapped somewhere around and they couldn’t find the way back to the tent. The fatal injuries seen in some hikers might happened when they fall in the gorge. This is the best explained conclusion but it doesn’t explains the radioactive cloths. Even some experts say that, no fall can cause such injuries and this might be due to some other cause. They also claims that the experienced hikers like them can easily detect an avalanche from other whether phenomenen.
UFO:
The last photograph from one of the hiker’s camera shows anonymous lights in the sky. And that picture wasn’t clear as the pictures they took before, which indicates they didnt got enough time to capture a perfect image. They captured that image all in a sudden or while they were doing something else, probably they captured it while trying to get out of the tent. Some people have an idea of an UFO attack and something related to that. There have been reports of seeing strange lights over this area. Many hikers have been witnessed these strange lights. People who support this theory says that it explains the fatal injuries and the radio active cloths. But no vivid evidences were found supporting this theory.
The Mansi Tribe:
There is a tribe settlement of Mansi people near Ural mountains, and some people says the Mansi is responsible for the hikers death. As per the records, there has been an incident of Mansi killing a hiker for trespassing. The pictures found from their camera and the notes from their diary proves that the hikers entered Mansi territory during their expedition. But the absence of footprints other than the hikers, and exposed bodies states the Mansi has nothing to do with this. Even the investigators questioned the Mansi people but found they were not guilty.
Yeti – The Abominable Snow Man:
The abominable snow man – The Yeti is another good chance to claim the hikers death. According to the Mansi legends, there are some powerful carnivorous ape like creature inhabiting the Ural mountains. They say there are people who has witnessed these giant creatures in the recent years. Those who support this theory says that the hikers had an encounter with the Yeti, and that might be the reason why they flee from their tents. They says, the hikers have even photographed Yeti while their expedition and it is a proof. The heavy injuries of the hikers can be explained by this Yeti attack. Only a creature like the Yeti can cause such injuries and the missing tongue of the lady hiker strengthens it (Yeti prefer soft tissues rather than hard body parts). Lack of footprints and other solid evidences doesn’t support this theory.
The Military Intervention:
There has been a military intervention and conspiracy – Says some experts. One of the hiker was an ex- KGB agent and he was using the young hikers to transport something across the Urals. Those portions of Urals are under strict observation of the defense and sometimes the military use this area as their testing ground of their newly developed weapons. There has been evidences of such weapon testing. At the time of this incident the military was testing some kind of thermal bombs/ missiles somewhere in the Urals. The light and sound of the bomb/ missile made the hikers flee from their tent and the photograph of the lights at sky might be this thermal bomb/missile. This explains the radioactive cloths of hikers – they says! Even the sole survivor of the expedition team – Yuri Yudin (the hiker who was ill) – claims that he noticed some strange military stuff in the photographs of the camp site, which shouldn’t be there for any reasons.
The Final Conclusion:
The investigation authority closed the case concluding that, the hikers death was due to some compelling natural force. Whatever the real cause is, Dyatlov Pass Incident still remains as an unsolved mystery. For more details pls visit www.dyatlov-pass.com
Pictures used from www.dyatlov-pass.com, www.wikipedia.com, www.google.co.in
