Dyatlov

Chapter One

Igor led the pack of well insulated travelers through the snowy wilderness of the Ural region. Following him were Yuri Doroshenko, Lynn Dubinina, Georgiy (George) Krivonischenko, Alex Kolevatov, Zinaida (Zee) Kolmogorova, Rustem Slobodin, Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolles, and Semyon Zolotariov. Lynn and Zee were the only women in the group, and, as such, stuck together as much as possible. The rest of the men enjoyed leveled friendships among all of themselves, none preferring any over another.

All members of the group respected Igor as an intelligent and shrewd leader. He evenly divided the load of food and other suppliers amongst his compatriots, except he himself carried the remainder of the division. Altogether they had enough good to last them two and a half weeks, although they expected the expedition to be over in 12 days. Ever cautious Yuri suggests that they bring extra just in case conditions became bad and their progress was somehow impeded.

After about 6 hours of hiking up the wooded mountainside, Rustem and George suggested that they take a rest and set up camp for the night. Everyone readily agreed, they were all exhausted. Lynn gathered some fire and started a fire while George, Nicolai, Semyon, and Igor set up the tent and prepared a meal.

"Zee, what did you think about today? First time hiking a category three?" asked Yuri.
"Honestly, it wasn't bad. I've been through worse."
"Hahaha! This was just the first day! We haven't seen anything yet. You'll see what it's really like to climb a cat. three in about 4 days," retorted George. Staring into the distance, Igor finally stopped chewing on the bread he had been eating.
"Let us hope that you are right, George. I see a storm coming our way. It probably will miss us, but you never know what the weather will do at elevations like these."

"Oh stop your worrying Dyatlov, enjoy the view," said Lynn as she say down next to their leader.

Another hour of idle chatter later and the entire party retired to the tent for the night.