Mariana Rodriguez #27525381

Is The Dyatlov Pass Incident Solved?

For more than 60 years, the mystery of the Dyatlov Pass incident in which nine hikers in
Russia met a mysterious end in February 1959 has gone unsolved. How did the nine
trekkers die on the snowy slopes of Russia’s Kholat Saykhl, a name that translates to Dead
Mountain? Avalanche researchers. On January 27, 1959, eight men and two women from the
Ural Polytechnical Institute set out for a 190-mile (300-km) skiing expedition. Members of
the group were aiming to earn their Grade III skiing certification. The outing was led by Igor
Dyatlov, whose name would be linked to the incident and to the pass where the group met
their fate.

Due to poor health, one of the 10 turned back early. The other nine never returned. When
the trekkers were more than a week overdue, an extensive rescue operation was set in
motion. The searchers discovered the campsite and the first of the bodies on February 26,
1959. The last bodies were not recovered until May 4 of that year.

Analysis of the campsite showed the trekkers had cut themselves out of their tent and fled
in various stages of undress. Autopsies revealed three died from head and chest trauma
while six died of hypothermia. Two bodies were missing their eyes and one body was
missing its tongue. Some of the clothing showed evidence of radioactivity.

The searchers found the skiers scattered downhill from the campsite. Some were near the
tree line in their underwear around the remains of a fire. Some were found deceased in
apparent attempts to return to camp. The last members to be discovered were farther in the
woods and down a ravine.

Diaries found at the campsite showed that the group’s last night was February 1, 1959. The
trekkers had gotten a bit off course and ended up camping higher on the mountain slope
than their original plans, which would have put them about a mile downward by the woods.
The last photograph on the skiers’ camera showed the group cutting into the snow slope to
erect their tent. Russian authorities long ago realized that the snow on the mountain
obscured the undulating terrain, and the skiers must not have realized that the slope they
were setting up camp on was about 30 degrees, the minimum incline needed for avalanches
to start.

The last photograph on the skiers’ camera showed the group cutting into the snow slope to
erect their tent. Russian authorities long ago realized that the snow on the mountain
obscured the undulating terrain, and the skiers must not have realized that the slope they
were setting up camp on was about 30 degrees, the minimum incline needed for avalanches
to start.

The avalanche hypothesis is not new; two federal Russian investigations (completed in
2019 and 2020) also concluded that the hikers were most likely driven from their tents by a
slab avalanche that is, an avalanche that occurs when a slab of snow near the surface
breaks away from a deeper layer of snow, and it slides downhill in blocky chunks. However,
this hypothesis hasn't been widely accepted by the public, the new study noted, because
neither investigation offered a scientific explanation for some of the incident's stranger
details. "The slab avalanche theory was criticized due to four main counterarguments,"
Gaume said.

An another theory is A “brutal force of nature” In their study, the researchers learned that
the angle of the slope near the hiker's campsite was actually steeper than previous reports
indicated; the slope angle measured 28 degrees, compared with the area's average slope
angle of 23 degrees. Subsequent snowfalls in the weeks after the incident could have
smoothed this angle, making the slope appear smaller while also covering signs of an
avalanche, the team wrote. That detail took care of counter argument number one.

To this day, a scientific explanation for the deaths of these nine people has yet to be nailed
down. Manifold publications were inspired by the incident, some investigative journalism
and some entirely fiction. The mountain pass where the skiers set up their last campsite
was named for Dyatlov, and the Dyatlov Foundation, established by Yuri Kuntsevitch none
other than the child eyewitness at the skiers’ funerals in 1959 still works to persuade the
Russian government to reopen the investigation. The foundation operates the Dyatlov
Museum in Ekaterinaburg as well, to commemorate the dead travelers and tell the story of
their strange ends.