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Russia's Dyatlov Pass Incident May Have Been Explained By Modern Science

swellconvivialguy writes "Fifty-five years ago, nine young Russians died under suspicious circumstances during a winter hiking trip in the Ural mountains. Despite an exhaustive investigation and the recovery of the group's journals and photographs, the deaths remained unexplained, blamed on 'an unknown compelling force.' Now American film and television producer Donnie Eichar believes he has solved the mystery of the Dyatlov Pass Incident. Working in conjunction with scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, CO, Eichar developed a theory that the hikers died because they panicked in the face of infrasound produced by a Kármán vortex street."

69 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Some Of Us Already Know What Happened! by rueger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Highly recommenced a pretty cool movie based on the same story: Devil's Pass. Netflix has it, plus the other usual places.

    1. Re:Some Of Us Already Know What Happened! by icebike · · Score: 1

      Because movies have ALL the answers.

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    2. Re:Some Of Us Already Know What Happened! by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Because Lord knows fictional movies are where I go to get all *my* facts.

      I see it got lousy reviews, too.

    3. Re:Some Of Us Already Know What Happened! by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Funny

      David Cameron believes so.

    4. Re:Some Of Us Already Know What Happened! by peragrin · · Score: 1

      damn straight. I am this close to building an Arc reactor. I am long way from electric thrusters with thrust greater than 3 newtons, but I almost have the power.

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    5. Re:Some Of Us Already Know What Happened! by x_t0ken_407 · · Score: 1

      The build-up was awesome, but I was ultimately disappointed. Good watch for a night when you have nothing better to do.

    6. Re:Some Of Us Already Know What Happened! by kriston · · Score: 1

      Not based on, but actually total fiction inspired by.

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      Kriston

  2. Rumble in Avalanche Country ? by icebike · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you hear it, You just run.
    Cross hill.

    Maybe there is no real avalanche, but at night, are you going to wait around to see?

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    1. Re:Rumble in Avalanche Country ? by reve_etrange · · Score: 1

      Bingo. It also explains why they ripped their tent open from the inside, and why some of the hikers had pressure injuries. There's a chance such an avalanche had a non-natural cause however (see speculation on wiki page) .

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    2. Re:Rumble in Avalanche Country ? by icebike · · Score: 4, Informative

      Often not mentioned is that four of hikers, including the three most beaten up, were all found at the bottom of a rocky ravine. The tent itself wasn't covered with that much snow, but even a small slide accompanied by something sounding like a rumble would have an experienced hiker slashing his way out of the tent and running.
      The temperature was such that dressed as they were, they probably had less than 30 minutes to get back to shelter, and if they couldn't find their tent, they were screwed,

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    3. Re:Rumble in Avalanche Country ? by icebike · · Score: 1

      In the dark, you don't, but since their tent just got knocked over by snow, sitting where they were
      would be considered unsafe. They ski/hiked in, they had a rough idea of the lay of the land.
      This wasn't their first rodeo.

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    4. Re:Rumble in Avalanche Country ? by reve_etrange · · Score: 1

      The avalanche itself then could have been caused by the hikers themselves, by a missile test, by infrasound or just for no reason. The first two seem the most likely (I guess in that order). It depends how much of the investigation results are taken to be true.

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  3. Re:No No No!!! by icebike · · Score: 1

    There is already plenty of speculation on the Wiki Page, first link.
    No need to wait for more.

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  4. Tornado did it? by paziek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So he claims that tornado produced infrasounds and it itself would be scary, but probably not that much with all that wind and hikers inside tent. From what I read, it is not confirmed that infrasounds induce fear or anxiety in humans, at least not to everyone. Those were experienced hikers and I guess they are used to bad weather... hard to believe that all of them would run away like that just cause of some noise outside of tent.
    He wrote a book, wants to sell it, so we have this story as promo.

  5. Re:From Wikipedia by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the comments of the OTHER article on the same site about this same subject (i guess its an earlier interview with the author) someone clearly and intelligently outlines the details of the injuries to the bodies, and explains the causes in context. Turns out, dying of falling off a cliff, combined with extreme cold exposure, can make you look pretty gnarly. http://failuremag.com/feature/... look for a post by user 'Dee' as I decline to repost the entire comment here.

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  6. oh no... not again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    infrasound produced by a Kármán vortex street

    I can't even count the number of friends and relatives I've lost to Kármán vortex street infrasound :(.

    We've got to DO something to stop this bloodbath.

  7. Re:No No No!!! by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 1

    Shush! don't give them any more ideas! The last thing we need is infrasonic terror rays controlled by the government!

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  8. Freaky by alaskana98 · · Score: 2

    The Dylatov Pass incident is one of the more freaky, but lesser known horror events of the 20th century. I'm a paranormal buff and I only learned about it in 2008. Whether the outcome was just the result of a series of unfortunate but scientifically explainable events or something more of the paranormal variety, here are some key takeaways from its Wikipedia page:

    -Six of the group members died of hypothermia and three of fatal injuries.
    -There were no indications of other people nearby apart from the nine travelers on Kholat Syakhl, nor anyone in the surrounding areas.
    -The tent had been ripped open from within.
    -The victims had died 6 to 8 hours after their last meal.
    -Traces from the camp showed that all group members left the camp of their own accord, on foot.
    -To dispel the theory of an attack by the indigenous Mansi people, Dr. Boris Vozrozhdenny stated that the fatal injuries of the three bodies could not have been caused by another human being, "because the force of the blows had been too strong and no soft tissue had been damaged".[2]
    -Forensic radiation tests had shown high doses of radioactive contamination on the clothes of a few victims.[2]
    -Released documents contained no information about the condition of the skiers' internal organs.

    No matter how you slice it (no pun intended), this is some freaky shit.

    1. Re:Freaky by rmdingler · · Score: 2
      That saves everyone paying attention a trip to Wikipedia.

      Wouldn't a link have been less typing for you?

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    2. Re:Freaky by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 1

      Unexpected, certainly. But how does one make the jump to freaky? Bodies in a ravine, avalanche, icbm testing, and hypothermia can explain every oddity, and with some uncommon yet mundane events it could be further simplified.
      I don't claim to have an explanation of exactly what happened, but multiple plausible scenarios exist.
      Being between missle testing and a nuclear facility during active testing might make for a freaky experience, but third party descriptions lose that perspective.
      I guess with your last bullet I could see how it could be freaky, the rest is just extra ordinary.

  9. Nuclear test still most likely by reve_etrange · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The infrasound speculation is interesting, but IMHO the known facts appear to support a low-yield nuclear bomb test.

    In that hypothesis, which you can read about in the speculative wiki and talk pages, a test of a low-yield warhead launched from Baikonur triggered a small avalanche which induced the hikers to flee and gave some of them pressure injuries.

    I recommend you read the Wikipedia pages and judge for yourself. If nothing else, the incident is truly bizarre and the facts and speculation surrounding it make for fascinating reading. The pressure injuries are just the beginning of the strange nature in which these nine people died.

    --
    .: Semper Absurda :.
    1. Re:Nuclear test still most likely by PNutts · · Score: 1

      And even more interesting from your second link is that in 2010 someone proposed infrasound.

    2. Re:Nuclear test still most likely by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      So even if we decide to go with the avalanche theory, the likelihood of the humans campers disturbing the snow pack is still only one plausible argument.

      Damn!

      This dispelling of conspiracy theories is a tough row to hoe.

      --
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      Ernest Hemingway

    3. Re:Nuclear test still most likely by reve_etrange · · Score: 1

      I'd go with the hikers disturbing the snow pack if you disbelieve the government investigator's claims about the radiation and thermal injuries, and the nuclear hypothesis of the claims are accepted.

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    4. Re:Nuclear test still most likely by reve_etrange · · Score: 1

      Sounds like they had just read about it somewhere. The main wiki article cites TFA.

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  10. Some Of Us Already Know ... And It Wasn't That by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Informative

    Occam's Razor says very strongly that we already have a far more likely answer.

    1. Re:Some Of Us Already Know ... And It Wasn't That by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Insightful

      All of the "obvious answers" there were written be complete idiots ignoring the facts of the situation.

      But then, it was Cracked. So you knew that was the case going in.

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      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    2. Re:Some Of Us Already Know ... And It Wasn't That by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not all of the authors at Cracked are idiots, and many of their articles (but of course by no means all) are well-researched. Did you bother to check the references in the story? It's an old article so some of the links are broken.

      But the Cracked author did not think this up. He was simply echoing what many others have been saying about the incident. Every "weirdness" that was actually documented at the time has a rather mundane explanation. There has been a lot of build-up of the story over the years that doesn't appear anywhere in the official record.

      And, as I stated earlier: Occam's Razor suggests that the more mundane the explanation, the greater the likelihood of its truth.

    3. Re:Some Of Us Already Know ... And It Wasn't That by Anubis+IV · · Score: 5, Informative

      As you'd expect from Cracked, they jumped to conclusions based on only a partial understanding of the facts. Go read Wikipedia's page on the topic and you'll note that they misstated the basic facts on which they based most of their assumptions. For a quick example, Cracked mentions a tongue missing from one of the victims and provides an explanation for it, but neglected to note that it was actually the entire face missing, and that the cause for why it was missing was well-established: they found the woman face-down in a ravine on the edge of a stream that would have caused her face to essentially decompose and liquefy off her skull. The wounds and loss of other soft tissue were consistent with that idea, rather than predation or scavenging, as Cracked suggests.

      And the orange glowing spheres that Cracked claims were just people adding a spooky factor for the sake of doing so? Those spheres were actually reported by a wide-ranging group of people spread out over the region, and the reports came in repeatedly over the course of a couple of months. They were later confirmed to have been ICBM tests being conducted by the Soviets. Whether or not they are relevant remains to be seen, but dismissing them as ghost stories just shows that they didn't bother doing their homework in the least.

      The theory in the summary doesn't seem to address why they would need to cut their way out of their tent, so Cracked's theory at least has the advantage there. And claiming that they were witless as a result of infrasound doesn't seem to jive with the fact that they had enough wits about them to try and send out a smaller group loaded up with the warmest clothing in order to try and bring back help for the others.

    4. Re:Some Of Us Already Know ... And It Wasn't That by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "...but neglected to note that it was actually the entire face missing, and that the cause for why it was missing was well-established: they found the woman face-down in a ravine on the edge of a stream that would have caused her face to essentially decompose... "

      No, it wasn't the entire face. And while the Cracked author might have been wrong about that, the point remains that her situation wasn't "extraordinary" in any way.

      "And the orange glowing spheres that Cracked claims were just people adding a spooky factor for the sake of doing so? Those spheres were actually reported by a wide-ranging group of people spread out over the region, and the reports came in repeatedly over the course of a couple of months. They were later confirmed to have been ICBM tests being conducted by the Soviets."

      These aren't original records. You are quoting a Russian news story that was written 50 years later. (Well, okay... 49 years.)

    5. Re:Some Of Us Already Know ... And It Wasn't That by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Pardon me. I meant to add:

      About the only thing that cannot be easily explained was the crushing fractures that some of the party displayed. Although the (again, rather mundane) theory of an avalanche could explain that too.

      To the best of my knowledge, the story of radiation is not supported by any of the original records.

    6. Re:Some Of Us Already Know ... And It Wasn't That by Mike+Frett · · Score: 1

      People with "obvious answers" are usually quite closed minded.

    7. Re:Some Of Us Already Know ... And It Wasn't That by TrekkieGod · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Occam's Razor suggests that the more mundane the explanation, the greater the likelihood of its truth.

      Although I agree the Cracked explanation is perfectly plausible and very likely, Occam's Razor says no such thing. It's a pet peeve of mine when people state it that it that way. Occam's Razor makes no claims at all on likelihood of correctness.

      What Occam's Razor does say is that when choosing between hypotheses which all give the exact same predictions, you should pick the one that involves less variables. Not because it's more likely to be true than the others (it's not, there's no requirement on nature to make things simple), but because there's no point in doing extra work to achieve the same result. The moment there's any difference at all between the predictions, Occam's Razor can no longer be invoked. At that point, you've got to eliminate theories by attempting to falsify their predictions. For example, if one theory says the incident was the result of an avalanche and another says it wasn't, you should now look for characteristic signs of an avalanche at the site. The evidence should rule out or support an avalanche theory, but "an avalanche is the simpler explanation" isn't evidence for anything.

      When you do invoke Occam's Razor is when the hypotheses make no testable difference. For example, you and I examine a black box that allows us to input a number via a keyboard, and watch a screen for an output. We type in 1 and get 3. We type in 24 and get 26. We type in 127 and get 129. Now you develop a hypothesis: "The black box outputs the input plus two." I develop a differnet hypothesis: "the black box first adds 5 to the input, then it subtracts 3." The predictive power of both hypotheses are exactly equal, and you can't devise a test to figure out what the exact computation happening inside the black box is. So, Occam's Razor says we should pick your hypothesis in order to make predictions, because adding the extra work is unecessary. However, it could very well be that my hypothesis is the one that is right...it just doesn't matter.

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    8. Re:Some Of Us Already Know ... And It Wasn't That by unitron · · Score: 1

      Perhaps I could persuade you to choose the one that involves fewer variables.

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  11. Ahhhh memories... by CODiNE · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fondly recalling the time I hooked up a speaker to a frequency generator in electronics class and experimented on the rest of the classroom. *evil laugh!*

    It really doesn't take very long for people to start weirding out and having strange sensations. The instructor found out and made me stop.

    I was unable to prove the existence of the brown note. :_(

    Oh the other hand! Maybe I can volunteer to DJ for the next class reunion!! *much grinning and skipping about!*

    --
    Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
    1. Re:Ahhhh memories... by CauseBy · · Score: 1

      Scott? Is that you? My friend Scott did the exact same thing in high school physics class.

    2. Re:Ahhhh memories... by CODiNE · · Score: 1

      Not Scott. Great minds think alike.

      --
      Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
  12. Re:Solved, my ass by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Have you got a better theory? And it's still only a theory:

    Russia's Dyatlov Pass Incident May Have Been Explained By Modern Science

    American film and television producer Donnie Eichar believes he has solved

    --
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  13. Infrasound for fun and profit! by Jonah+Hex · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well now I know why it's not used for effects in movies, I always thought it was just because speakers to produce infrasound would be too large and expensive for anything except theme parks. I suppose even a horror theme park wouldn't want to cause actual illness. I wonder how close to causing unease and discomfort lower frequencies that modern theaters can play over their sound systems comes to causing these types of effects. *runs off to layer a 20-30hz waveform over a youtube video of kittens* - HEX

    1. Re:Infrasound for fun and profit! by Jonah+Hex · · Score: 1

      I did do a google search, and found one reference to infrasound being used in Irreversible and a bunch of allegations that it has been used in other movies. Not exactly proof is it? http://truthseekers.cultureunp...

  14. I had the same reaction by PNutts · · Score: 1

    to 21 Jump Street.

  15. A Kármán vortex street? No way! by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    It's FAR more likely they accidentally depolarized the dilithium matrix, resulting in a sudden inversion of the quantum warp field.

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    1. Re:A Kármán vortex street? No way! by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      Yeah, thank god they provided a link to explain that crazy sentence.

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  16. 20 Hz sounds? by Snufu · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't this be very common? Why aren't there more documented incidents of "infrasound" induced hysteria?

  17. Wait. Died from panic? by stevegee58 · · Score: 1

    Maybe if you're old.

  18. Yes you are going to wait by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Because they were not IN an avalanche area, and experienced hikers would not set up tents in an avalanche area. So if year heard a rumble you would exit cautiously, knowing that you were in a safe place.

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    1. Re:Yes you are going to wait by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The party had been half lost in bad weather, and stopped when they realized that they weren't where they expected to be. It was an unplanned, emergency camp site. The tent was knocked down and partially buried. That seems to indicate that they believed that they were in imminent danger of being swept away when they exited. They were pretty obviously NOT in a "safe place". If they really wanted to be in a "safe place" they never would have gone hiking into the mountains in the winter time. As a group, the party believed itself to be capable of meeting life threatening challenges.

      Sometimes, shit happens.

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    2. Re:Yes you are going to wait by rHBa · · Score: 1

      I already posted this link above but unfortunately experienced climbers do camp in avalanche prone areas, sometimes by misjudging the risk or sometimes by necessity.

  19. "Brown Note" by whoever57 · · Score: 1

    I thought that the Mythbusters broke that myth?

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  20. Don't you remember the movie? by mysidia · · Score: 1

    The explanation is simple..... the researchers came across a secret bunker; they dared open it and go in. They were eventually accosted by teleporting alien creatures who shredded their bodies, ripped out one of theirs' tongues; there was some teleportation and time-travel involved, and finally -- their boddies got dumped on the side of the mountain away from their tent, by the russians. The End.

  21. Yes, I read it before by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Insightful

    He was simply echoing what many others have been saying about the incident. Every "weirdness" that was actually documented at the time has a rather mundane explanation.

    I read the whole thing before after reading through the facts of the incident.

    None of the explanations given make the slightest bit of sense when the actual facts are considered, when you look at the real facts of the thing every single one of the mundane explanations is absurd.

    Paradoxial undressing doesn't explain why someone would be wearing SOMEONE ELSE's clothes for example.

    But the pointing to an avalanche to explain anything is just really the most idiotic thing of all. It utterly ignores the terrain of the area. It ignores the experience of the hikers (who would not camp in an area that could be affected by an avalanche). Even if there WERE an avalanche it doesn't explain why they would walk, not run, from the camp. In a real avalanche they would simply be gone, not have time to partially dress and then just stroll away. It's also utterly stupid since nothing at all was buried.

    The tanning explanation is horrifically stupid, and ignores an entire civilizations history of what happens to corpses after they die. Oh I see it was just a long tan that happened even after they were dead! Try putting a dead body out in the sun under any conditions and see if you can reproduce a tan.

    Basically the very existence of that article offends me with such egregious and unnecessary levels of complete idiocy. I am ever sadder that anyone else bought into the pack of poorly made up conjectures.

    --
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    1. Re:Yes, I read it before by Runaway1956 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "Paradoxial undressing doesn't explain why someone would be wearing SOMEONE ELSE's clothes for example."

      Sure it does. Let's say that I'm freezing, and as a result, I'm losing any semblance of rational thought. I throw away one or more articles of clothing. You may or may not be close enough to see me throw it away, but you do find that article of clothing. You're also colder than hell, but you have retained the ability to think rationally. Do you pick up the abandoned clothing, or walk past it? I suspect that you will pick it up, and put it on. Reverse our positions, and I know damned well that I'll pick up YOUR shirt, or whatever you have abandoned.

      The avalanche is perfectly reasonable. Remember, the party got kinda lost in the bad weather, and when they realized where they were, they set up what might be called an emergency camp site. They were resting up after a strenuous day, and making plans for the next day. An avalanche need not be extremely massive. A few mere tons of snow breaking loose at a higher elevation, and sliding down to an area with little snow on the ground is hardly noteworthy. There is no reason to assume that an avalanche must contain thousands of tons of snow, or rock for that matter. Enough snow to knock over a half dozen people, and to stun them, won't necessarily bury the tent - they were likely lying down, resting.

      Tanning - I don't have any explanation for. That's kind of left field for me.

      Even more confusing, is why the entire group abandoned the camp site. I can understand that one or more of the party took a bump to the head. But, it's not reasonable to believe that ALL of them were knocked almost senseless. If I were awakened in the middle of the night to find myself half buried in snow, I think that I would take the time to grab my boots, and a coat. Certainly my boots. I know that much from experience with being awakened from a sound sleep to deal with an emergency. Of course, to be fair - the tent has been flattened, and the boots may be difficult to locate - fear may move me out of the tent before I locate my boots.

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    2. Re:Yes, I read it before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Tanning - I don't have any explanation for. That's kind of left field for me.

      They'd been walking in the sun, for days, over a lot of white, fluffy, high-albedo substance. They acquired a tan.

      Even more confusing, is why the entire group abandoned the camp site. I can understand that one or more of the party took a bump to the head. But, it's not reasonable to believe that ALL of them were knocked almost senseless. If I were awakened in the middle of the night to find myself half buried in snow, I think that I would take the time to grab my boots, and a coat. Certainly my boots. I know that much from experience with being awakened from a sound sleep to deal with an emergency. Of course, to be fair - the tent has been flattened, and the boots may be difficult to locate - fear may move me out of the tent before I locate my boots.

      The small-scale avalanche that mangled their tent got snow into and around their boots rendering them useless. When you're covered in snow @-25C, along with all your clothes and footwear, your best bet is to build a fire real quick. The first group were found under a tree, not far from the thrashed campsite, probably the first location they could find with anything remotely combustible.

    3. Re:Yes, I read it before by ultranova · · Score: 1

      Enough snow to knock over a half dozen people, and to stun them, won't necessarily bury the tent - they were likely lying down, resting.

      Any amount of snow must necessarily affect the tent to affect the people inside it. Unless they were chilling by a campfire when it hit, but then wouldn't they still be dressed for the outdoors, and thus not die of hypothermia? Also, wouldn't the Russian investigation had noticed massive blunt trauma?

      the tent has been flattened

      Was it?

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    4. Re:Yes, I read it before by estestvoispytatel · · Score: 1

      The avalanche version is quite unrealistic— the terrain is actually low hills with gentle slopes, and the tent, of course, was erected on a flattest spot around. The 'tan' as far as I remember, was described not like a sun tan, but rather a reddish or purple dye, and I can remember the conclusion that it's because of thawing waters running through the rocks with inclusions of some dyeing minerals — so, nothing mysterious here. The traces of radioactivity on some clothes were documented in the materials of the investigation. The level was not very high but still significant to be detected with quite a crude device detecting just gamma rays (with no further analysis of contamination, so no data on which isotope was involved). Also you shouldn't forget that it was few months later, when isotopes were partially decayed and rinsed by water from the thawing snow. The investigation was closed a day or two later after that finding, so it could be actually the reason to stop the efforts (or just a coincidence). The thing is, at least one of the group was an engineer working for the absolutely secret facility producing nuclear bomb grade materials (Mayak in Chelyabinsk-40).

    5. Re:Yes, I read it before by gr8dude · · Score: 1

      Is it common for people sleeping in tents in such weather to be practically naked, or wearing nothing more than underwear?

      Isn't it more reasonable to sleep dressed in pants and sweatshirts, etc. If so, then it means that they got undressed before escaping the tent - that wouldn't make sense.

    6. Re:Yes, I read it before by rHBa · · Score: 1

      These days yes, if you're in a good sleeping bag, 50 years ago? I'm not sure but maybe.

      This reminds me of an incident last year where Glen Plake survived an avalanche that hit their camp and was running around in the snow for 10 minutes before he realised he was barefoot.

  22. Re:Wait. Died from panic? by Greyfox · · Score: 1
    Lots of people die from panic. It causes very poor judgment. It causes people to forget the safety procedures they were drilled in. It causes people to miss obvious things that could save them. It causes you to burn vital resources faster. If you panic, you die. You might still die if you don't panic, but your odds are a whole lot better.

    You gotta wonder at what stage of our evolution, stampeding in the face of danger was a good thing. Sure the adrenaline from the fight-or-flight reflex is somewhat useful, but the down-sides are pretty damn deadly. I'd rather have full control over my meatputer, which should be my number one asset for resolving deadly situations, not just ten pounds of useless fat.

    --

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  23. The answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    my friend, is blowing in the wind.

  24. Dead Mountain--the name by minstrelmike · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I find the idea of infrasonics plausible. Certain tribes worship mountaintops for their sounds.
    I wonder how long the place has been called Dead Mountain. If it's an indigenous name, then I'd suspect some kind of natural forces (such as a vortex) at work.

    1. Re:Dead Mountain--the name by CauseBy · · Score: 1

      Like, a polar vortex?

    2. Re:Dead Mountain--the name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Oooh, he said a sciency word! Maybe I'll look smart if I say a phrase containing that same word that I heard in a different place!

  25. Easy! by presspass · · Score: 1
    Don't know why it took so long to figure this out...
    They were all in the same tent no?

    One of the girls yelled "Spider!" or "Mouse!" and panicked, knocking down the tent. Someone cuts the tent open to get out. They all flee, but it's dark and everyone gets turned around, not able to find there way back to the tent
    Seriously, once you have some kind of panic event the rest of the events seem to be quite ordinary.

  26. Avalanche still a compelling theory by guacamole · · Score: 1

    There are many strange circumstances under which group died, but the simple "death from avalanche" theory is still quite plausible, and that's the one described in the first paragraph here:

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

    The traces of radiation on some clothes could be something that the group picked up on the way to this trip, though the train or train station. (Soviet Union always treated its radioactive materials quite carelessly. There have been instances of people finding dangerously radioactive devices, such as portable electricity generators, out in the wild left out there by the military many years ago.) As for the missing tongue and dark skin, that's something that can happen to a dead recomposing body out in the wild and in freezing temperatures.

  27. Re:From Wikipedia by estestvoispytatel · · Score: 1

    Of course, but I see a problem with statistics here: just 3 out of 9 persons in the group which I expected should die by freezing, have more or less 'natural' picture of injuries. Others have very heavy traumas — broken skulls, broken rib cages (not single ribs but entire cages), missing tongues etc. At least three of them couldn't move after being hit by lethal force — the death was instant or close to it. But not a single of them was found on the clear scene of such action, not under a big rock, not under a cliff and so on. It's strange when you expecting to find two broken ancles, three broken wrists, injured knees, bruised heads but have such a treasure trove of really heavy injuries.

  28. one gigantic piece missing by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    So why were some of the hikers' clothes extremely radioactive?

    1. Re:one gigantic piece missing by guacamole · · Score: 1

      Soviet Union handled its radioactive materials quite carelessly. I have heard of many stories of people finding radioactive materials in the junk-yards or somewhere out in the woods. Once was a story of a farmer finding a metal device that seemed to emanate warmth when approached. It turned out to be a piece of a portable nuclear powered power station used in the military, and I guess just abandoned somewhere. The guy who allegedly poisoned Russian dissident Litvinenko in London left a radioactive train on the planes he flew TO and FROM London. The Chernobyl meltdown incident first became known in the west not from news, but from traces of radioactive contamination somewhere in Sweden. So picking up radioactive contamination in USSR sometimes was not as hard as some think. Anyways, considering this, I think it's quite plausible some of the group members could have picked up the radioactivity somewhere on the way to the trip, such as at a train station or in the train or at work. Who knows. Because of this hypothesis, I wouldn't want to discount the Dyatlov Pass theories that don't involve nuclear weapon blasts or aliens.

  29. I still think it was the local jets making noise by kriston · · Score: 1

    Some folks still think it was local jet traffic that made the noise that scared them all so much that they ran out of the tent, lost their lights and senses of direction, and died of exposure. It's just much more likely than a freak sound event.

    --

    Kriston

  30. Cthulhu by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one that totally gets a Cthulhu vibe from this story?

    I sense an old ones tentacled appendage in this one...

    an unknown compelling force indeed!