In January of 1959, nine Soviet college students died under mysterious circumstances while hiking through the Ural Mountains in what's now known as the Dyatlov Pass incident.
On January 31, 1959, a 23-year-old ski hiker named Igor Alekseyevich Dyatlov embarked on a journey to reach the peak of Otorten, a mountain in the Northern Urals.
The Soviet college student brought a team of eight experienced hikers from the Ural Polytechnical Institute along with him for the adventure. Before he left, Dyatlov had told his sports club that he and his team would send them a telegram as soon as they returned. But none of the hikers were ever seen alive again.
The Hikers Enter Dyatlov Pass
From what was recovered from cameras and diaries discovered at the site of their deaths, investigators were able to piece together that on February 1, the hiking team began to make their way through the then-unnamed pass leading to Otorten.
As they pushed through the hostile climate toward the base of the mountain, they were hit with snowstorms that ripped through the narrow pass. Decreasing visibility caused the team to lose their sense of direction, and instead of moving toward Otorten, they accidentally deviated west and found themselves on the slope of a nearby mountain.
This mountain is known as Kholat Syakhl, meaning "Dead Mountain" in the language of the indigenous Mansi people of the region.
To avoid losing the altitude they had gained, or perhaps simply because the team wanted to practice camping on a mountain slope before their ascent of Otorten, Dyatlov called for camp to be made there.
It was on this solitary mountainside that all nine hikers would meet their demise.
A Doomed Journey
Dubinina, Krivonischenko, Thibeaux-Brignolles, and Slobodin having a good time.
When February 20 rolled around and there was still no communication from the ski hikers, a search party was mounted.
The volunteer rescue force that trekked through the Dyatlov Pass found the campsite but no hikers — so army and police investigators were sent in to determine what had happened to the missing students.
When they arrived on the mountain, the investigators weren't hopeful. Though the students were experienced hikers, the route they had chosen was remarkably difficult, and accidents on tricky mountain trails are not unheard of. With so many days gone, they expected to find bodies and sad but uncomplicated answers.
They were only partially correct. Bodies they found — yet the state in which they found them only raised more questions. Their discovery would open a mystery that continues to this day.
Investigators At Dyatlov Pass Stumble Onto A Shocking Scene
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