In late January of 1959, 9 experienced hikers set out on a trek up a mountain in Russia. Almost a month later, they were all found dead with no explanation as to what really happened. It would be a mystery that would plague the world to the fullest extent and led experts to ask, what really happened in the Dyatlov Pass Incident?
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Transcript
Alex
Hey everyone, it’s the first Tuesday of the month and you know what that means?
Amber
Another episode of true crime and chill supernatural style.
Alex
Okay, before we get started with this episode, I have to say that this past month has been insane. Okay, so this episode actually marks our sixth episode since we started a month ago. Seven, If you count our mini episode that I did on the Karen bodeen case, we actually have about 424 downloads and about 121 listeners in the past month alone, and they’re actually projecting that to go up so y’all I woke up with this idea and decided to just kind of roll with it. And I’m kind of glad that I did because we’re able to get these stories out to you guys, drop mini episodes for case updates, and thanks to you, Amber, we have this totally awesome website. So this is just awesome. Like, I’m feeling pretty good about it so far.
Amber
I… you know, and it’s this is not my first media project that I’ve done. I’ve had vlogs, I’ve had blogs, I’ve had podcasts. And this one is the first one where I don’t feel like I’m having to really try too hard for it to be doing well. Like, I’m just having fun with my best friend. And it’s, it’s, honestly, it’s taken off in a way that I hadn’t expected. Our YouTube views are about average, they’re about 100 less than what we’re seeing on the actual podcast itself. But YouTube is only on YouTube, whereas our podcast is across multiple platforms. So um, yeah, it’s a… Yeah.
Alex
Yeah, no, I I have people like one of my good friends. I actually met in a discord chat her and I were voice chatting and I was like, yeah, I’m working on my episode for my… I’m working on an episode for my podcast. She was, “Oh, what podcast you do?”
and I was like, “Oh, it’s called True Crime and Chill,” she goes,
“OH MY GOD! I already listen to that!”
I’m like, “What? “
She’s like, “how did I not realize that that was your voice?”
I’m like, “I don’t know.” But it’s great though because it’s like, you know, I have people who like, will ask me about it like, I like I donate plasma twice a week. And I have people at the plasma donation place listen to it now. And I’m like, and they’re always talking to me, “What case are you going to next week? What case are you gonna do next week?” and I’m like, We literally have a list, but we pick and choose from that list. So
Amber
and I’m part of a booze fairies group for my community. And for those of you who don’t know what a booze fairy is, we all put up a profile saying Who we are, what we like, and then people just randomly drop off gifts at your door from the group like it’s, it’s great for such you know, for this this day and age like right now when times are so uncertain to, you know, be able to uplift other women in your community. So, I mentioned in my profile that I do a true crime podcast. I had people go, “True Crime Podcast? Where can I find it?”
Alex
I mean, I hate to be morbid, but people love hearing about murder, like true crime and stuff like that. Like, I hate to be morbid, and I hate saying it like that, but it’s true. And you know, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m…
Amber
It’s the curiosity. It’s, but the thing is, and I want to I want to go back to this part of the reason we even started doing the podcast is you see, I watch True Crime documentaries on like Netflix and stuff. And sometimes on YouTube. You were listening to True Crime podcasts and things long before I was and you recently had a tragedy happen to you that hit close to home. I in my past had one happen when I was I was very young, and it hit close to home. And then actually, recently, I had another one happen. That also hit incredibly close to home. And it’s just interesting because we I feel like part of the reason we decided to do this was because we like to humanize bits and pieces of it. We like to humanize the victims. We like to speculate, you know, the psychology behind it. And to me, that’s what I love about true crime is, you know, hearing about like this, just trying to get into the mind of why somebody would do this, because I think it’s just so far fetched to me that somebody would want to harm another person, let alone harm them in the ways that, you know, we’re seeing in these cases. So… yeah
Alex
yeah, well, and all in all, we do want to send a thank you to everyone who just you know, suggest cases to us or listens and give us advice on how we could do better how we have changed things.
Amber
Absolutely.
Alex
One thing we do want to say is if you listen to our episodes, but don’t have enough time to actually listen to them the day they drop, set up whatever you, whatever site you listen to them on to auto download. That way, you still get the episodes and then it helps us boost our stats as well as get our names out there a little bit easier too
Amber
Make sure you’re subscribing because that helps us know also on YouTube, if you’re watching The videos please like and subscribe. And then also if you go to our website true crime and chill dot com, there is a place where you can recommend cases to us so if you have one that you would like to hear about or you have information on that you just haven’t heard anywhere, please let us know we would love to to discuss it with you.
Alex
And as always, we do thank you, our listeners for supporting us. Yes, but here we go with this week’s episode.
Amber
This one’s so good.
Alex
Okay, so with this week’s episode, it’s a little bit different than what we normally do every [*First] Tuesday of the month, Amber and I want to try and feature a case that has a more of a supernatural or unexplainable ending to itLast time was the Elisa Lam case. This time it’s actually the Dyatlov Pass case. Now Amber, you ended up not really knowing too much about this case, but you’ve heard me go on many a rant about it.
Alex
Oh no, I knew a lot about this case. Actually.
Unknown Speaker
See everybody I talked to you though is like, “What’s that?”
I’m like “…?”
And then I just like get into it, like you guys, and then I start going on many a rant about it. But however you kind of started researching and now you’re falling down more of a rabbit hole with it and I’m, I’m kind of loving it.
Amber
It’s not the first time I’ve researched it, it’s just, there’s a there’s more evidence that’s come out, because they reopened the case, since I researched it last. It’s been a few years since I, you know, got into it. And so, there’s a bunch of new stuff that’s come out which, is which is cool.
Alex
Yeah, and honestly, it… it’s just so unexplainable and it’s well, it’s one of the reasons why it’s one of my favorite stories to talk about because it is so unexplainable. No set theory encompasses everything as a whole. So let’s do this.
Amber
Yes.
Alex
Okay. So, the end of January in 1959, nine Russian hikers decided to take an expedition in the northern – and I’m going to butcher some of these names, so if I do, I apologize. please correct me in comments. Um… expedition in the northern Urals in the Soviet Union. Igor Dyatlov who is Who the pass was actually eventually named after, was a 23 year old radio engineer at the Euro Polytechnic Institute. He was the leader of the expedition and handpicked the group he’d be traveling with. This group consisted of two women and seven men including himself. All of them were students at the Institute and all were at least grade twp for hiking experience with ski tour experience. Now for those of you who aren’t familiar with that kind of terminology like I was, it means they’re all pretty experienced with hiking mountain ranges, like they the one they were about to attempt.
At this time, the grade two is actually the highest certification you could get in the Soviet Union. So that’s saying something right there that all these like, you know, early 20 year olds were, like, grade two already. The whole reason they wanted to do this was to reach the mountain Gora Otorten, located about 6.2 miles from the actual incident site where everything took place.
Now, all of these hikers, like I said before, we’re about mid 20s. Okay, in fact, the oldest person there was Alexander who was 24.
Amber
So basically, they were all just really Young kids and I know when I first heard about this, I actually expected them all to be a bit older.
Alex
That was my thought as well. Like honestly, I was expecting Igor to be like, you know, like, full gray beard like big man and everything. And then when I saw the pictures of the hikers I was like, these are literally kids. I was like, I like I know what I was doing at 21/22 years old. I definitely was not hiking a mountain like I was not expecting them to be that young. So now on January 24, the group arrived in Serov a town that was basically going to be their first of many stops to get to this mountain, that the notes in the journal said that they were met with hospitality at the station, but the police very did watch them very closely in town. Like I said, this was just a very short stop. From here, they would do another train ride and a car ride and eventually start to hike.
Amber
Sounds like they needed to get there by planes, trains and automobiles.
Alex
Exactly. Except there’s no planes,
Amber
Not commercially. No
Alex
Yeah, I feel like I feel like if they had a plane, they may have made it there a little bit quicker. But you know, this is like late 50s and stuff in Russia. So unlike here where we are a little bit more advanced Russia was kind of … ‘cause you gotta remember that was a very communist time as well.
Amber
Sure. And the search team actually had access to helicopters. Yeah, but they weren’t… They weren’t for commercial purposes and they were going out for a certification so it makes sense that they would want to hike it the whole way.
Alex
Yep. So the group all kept extensive journal entries. Now all these journals can be found on various websites and stuff we’ll also link them back on our page true crime and chill. Um, the first the journal entry actually starts in the night of the 23rd when they were packing, taking stock of everything… everybody seemed in really good spirits and they just seemed excited to do this hike. One of the websites diatlov.ruptly.tv, which again we will link at the on our website actually has some pretty good visuals of the entries. Um, a lot of the videos are all in Russian but they do have English subtitles.
Amber, you’re the one that actually sent me that site, how did you come across it?
Amber
So there was a documentary I watched on YouTube that was made from this, this Ruptly group. And then in the preview, they show that they had this website and it’s, it’s honestly such a great website because it actually has a soundscape to go with it to see is involved like it’s, I would recommend looking at it on a computer. And it’s cool because it kind of goes through day by day and it shows the journal entries that the hikers made as well as photos that they had taken.
Alex
So you can see a lot of the actual photos of them, you know, being happy and smiley and stuff.
Amber
Yeah.
And well, you know, photos of the locals, photos of them like packing stuff up. I mean, it’s…
Alex
There’s actually an interview with one of the indigenous women from the Mansi tribe that we will talk about later in there and yeah,
Amber
yeah, it’s amazing, mmhmm.
Alex
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, they did. They did a really good job on it. So from Serov of the group took a train to Ivdel and arrived the early morning of the 25th. They end up staying there for a few hours before they took a bus to… now I’ve seen bus and I’ve seen a truck but either way it I they took a vehicle from Ivdel to Vizhai. I think I’m pronouncing that wrong but yes. So by now it was day three of the expedition. So three days in, they haven’t even really set foot where they need to set foot on the mountain yet.
Amber
Well, I honestly don’t know how they did it. I would be so tired after the first day like so I, you know, I traveled to Paris and Egypt a couple years ago, and the flight alone was like 14 hours just to get to Charles de Gaulle in Paris. And that was a flight right? And I had trouble just sitting I and that made me tired. And then there was you know, the time difference. That’s a whole I mean, that’s not quite the same but then you also look at like the the SpaceX NASA Launch that just happened. They had to be in a shuttle for 19 hours before they docked, you know, and then they had to sit in there before they even launched for hours. Like I can’t.
Alex
It’s hard. Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard Trust me.
Amber
Traveling makes me tired.
Alex
The furthest I’ve ever actually traveled is to Florida from Washington by car. And that took me about like it was, it was rough. It was rough. So day four arrives on the 26th of 1959. And by now it’s a little over negative 17 degrees Celsius outside. So for people who don’t know what Celsius is, Amber, would you know what that is in Fahrenheit since you’re the smart one.
Amber
[laughs] The difference is about… there’s actually an equation I could look it up if I need to, but so Celsius is for the metric system. So everywhere in the world, basically, except the United States uses it and zero is freezing and 100 degrees is boiling. So like 32 degrees for them is like pretty dang warm for us. So for us Freezing is 32 degrees and their freezing is zero degrees. So it’s 17 degrees below freezing on 100 a degree scale so negative 17 I mean that’s…
Alex
that’s cold as crap. Like, I don’t do cold and that’s cold as crap. Um, but I mean even for something even for negative 17 degrees, though, the group is still in really good spirits. Now, Vizhai from what I read is actually a really, really small town, not a lot of people and it’s more of like a pit stop for hikers to kind of fuel up on what they need before they actually start up the mountain or for when they’re coming back down a pit stop basically, it actually used to hold a prison but not anymore. The hikers actually took pictures of it when they were going through and stuff so that was actually pretty cool. So from this town, the group ended up actually taking horses to the last stop they needed to hit now this last stop was literally just a house. It was literally just like a little cabin where they could again, quickly pitstop make sure all their gear was in order before they started walking out.
Amber
Well, and this was acutally, it was made for scientists who were coming out to do scientific experiments. There were more cabins. It’s just there was only one that was actually like, habitable.
Alex
Was open and able to actually be used and stuff, right?
Amber
Right. Because they had been sitting there for so long empty that a lot of them had, um, had become unstable,
Alex
Decrepit.
Okay, so by now it’s actually January 27. They were all pretty much ready to go. So on the 28th, though, Yui… Now there was at least there were three guys name Yuri in this group. All of them had a separate name, but they’re all in the articles known as Yuri. So the first Yuri, he actually ended up turning back due to health issues that had arisen during the trip.
Amber
He felt sick.
Alex
Yeah, so this would actually be something that ended up saving him from the same fate that befell his friends.
Amber
Yeah, he ended up surviving all the way to 2013.
Alex
Mm hmm. So he passed away in 2013, actually, and for a little bit there, the police actually suspected him For a second until they were able to fully figure out where he was during this trip
Amber
Right
Alex
So sometime during the trip though the group ended up picking up a semi semi-on Zo… I apologize… Semyon Zolotaryov. Okay, I’m, again butchering this and I apologize. Though they were hesitant at first they end up actually accepting him pretty quickly into this group. He actually ended up being the oldest at 38 years old and seemed to know what he was doing with the mountain which was something that put everybody a little bit more at ease because you know, you don’t want to bring an unexperienced hiker up the mountain with you. Especially because during this time of year this hike was treacherous. So um, but yeah, so he ended up asking if he could join them and he actually ended up taking Yuri’s place after he left
Amber
And it’s not TOO uncommon for people to join a hiking group. But then again, because of the, uh, the severity of this particular one, especially because they were doing it to get a certification I feel like it may have been a little odd for them to accept an extra person to their group like that.
Unknown Speaker
Oh, yeah, and but from different reports and from all the pictures that I could see as well. They were all eventually pretty good friends during the hike and everything so I mean, it kind of worked out in everybody’s favor. So about day seven, they actually started the trek up the mountain everybody has pretty good spirits so far, pictures are being taken, journal notes are uplifting and positive, and everything seems really good so far. They actually ended up bringing a mandolin so when they would stop for the night they would, you know, sit around the campfire, play the mandolin and everything like just eat, be around the campfire, tell ghost stories, be merry, stuff like that.
Amber
There’s a lot of entries about their travels. And they talk about singing, like, in all their journal entries, and they even talk about how one of the towns they stopped in was very much still ruled by communism and they got in trouble for singing.
Alex
Yeah, and that was actually the very first town, that was actually the very first town they stopped… that was actually the very first time they stopped in the one where I said that the police were actually watching them very closely and stuff. So I mean, they really seem like they were in super good spirits this entire time, which I mean, good for them. More power to them I would be absolutely dying with all that cold but I mean,
Amber
They knew what they were actually getting into, though, I mean…
Alex
Yeah, they knew they were getting into. More power to them. So they actually were following the local indigenous tribe, the Menzie’s trail, which was still in the woods and kind of protected from the harshness of the elements and such. So they ended up actually just stopping during the nights and setting up tent that Igor Dyatlov actually had made himself. It was this giant sleeper tent that had an opening for a collapsible stove. So it was actually a pretty smart design. About, and again, we’ll probably I’m going to see if maybe we can find some pictures for it. But like all the pictures that I found have been where it’s already collapsed, and it’s already like
Amber
Oh, no, there… There’s a couple of it made with the… you can see the exhaust pipe because he made it where the stove was inside so they could boil water and warm the tent and then there’s an exhaust pipe that goes out the back of it.
Alex
Yeah, so then we’ll try to put those pictures on the website and stuff or at least link them to the pictures.
Amber
Yeah
Alex
So about day 10 they started having the trees thin out and the weather was starting to get a little bit more intense. By then they’d actually built a shelter where they had packed away everything that they did not need to take with them on the trip. So that includes the mandolin, any extra clothes, extra food storage, stuff like that – anything that wasn’t just basic necessity because the rest of the time up the mountain really shouldn’t have taken them all that long. It should have taken them maybe a day to get up there and then a day to come back
Amber
right it was only six miles so
Alex
Yeah, so again, a day to get up there and a day to come back and stuff. So I mean, I really… they really weren’t expecting to stay up there for too long. Now keep in mind, this is the middle of winter in Russia, up a mountain. So you know, again, it was a super dangerous hike at this time, so you know, things happen. Apparently there was some kind of storm that made it to where it was just whiteout conditions to where they were not able to see. journal entries started getting not too concerned but just a little bit more worried than previous… basically talking about the weather conditions and stuff that was going on like that. Um, February 1 is actually the last journal entry that would ever be written for them. Because unfortunately, that night was when everything happened.
Unknown Speaker
So were their last entries.. Like were they normal? Or did they seem a little ominous?
Unknown Speaker
I mean, it was pretty much a normal entry. Um, however, it didn’t really give much on what was going on it just talked about the weather. The whiteout conditions, the snow. They talked about how when they reach the the base where they were supposed to be going and stuff it was of this mountain. The Mansi actually called this mountain dead mountain which I feel like should probably give you a, like they have a different word for it, which I cannot pronounce. I’m not gonna butcher that word, but the rough translation of it is dead mountain.
Amber
They did not name it that though until after the Dyatlov group was up there. It was unnamed when they went up.
Alex
But still, you know that might be… so Hey, you guys are hiking up this dead mountain but
Amber
but they knew it was dangerous like they… they went into this knowing how dangerous it was going to be. And that’s the whole reason they chose it was so that they could get that certification by doing a dangerous hike and surviving.
Alex
exactly. So they actually ended up hiking up the base of the mountain and stuff they ended up stopping for the night about a few hundred meters from the peak. So it says anywhere between. So it’s about six mile thing. So it’s anywhere between two, two and a half miles actually from the peak that they stopped. So I mean, in retrospect it really wasn’t all that far from the peak. However, when you think about all the conditions they were having to go through
Amber
right
Alex
Yeah, so the trip was only supposed to take two, maybe three weeks at most. Dyatlov told his companions that once they made it back to Vizhai, he would send a telegram to say that they had made it safe and that they’re on their way back. It was expected that he would send one on the 12th. But Dyatlov told Yuri before he left before he left on the 28th, that it might actually be a little bit longer. So when the 12th came and went, nobody was really all that worried.
Amber
No
Alex
But then the 14th came, and then the 15th, and then the 16th. And still no word from the hikers. By February 20, the families of the hikers actually started demanding that something be done, because it had been almost a full month since a group had left the town and there was no sign of them.
Amber
And I don’t blame them. Even though hikes tended to take a little longer back then, it’s still, I mean, it makes sense that it would take them a while but it should not have taken them this long.
Alex
They really shouldn’t have because you know, especially since Yuri himself was even like, hey, it might take a little bit longer than we thought but definitely not this long. So on February 26 search parties had been sent out to find the hikers and they ended up finding the badly damaged tent. The whole scene honestly just baffled The search group was one of them saying that the tent was half torn down and covered with snow and everyone’s belongings including shoes were neatly left behind. There were tracks of footprints leading from the tent however, you could tell that the hikers left with no shoes on, hence the shoes and the tent too. The tent itself had been slashed open with a knife from the inside looking like they left in a hurry. However, the footprint showed that they basically walked down the mountain super calm and collected.
Amber
So the tent looked like it had been destroyed. But they basically just calmly walked out into the cold with no protective gear on.
Alex
it’s starting to look like that. So eventually the search party was able to follow the trail down till the footprints vanished and were actually covered by the snow. Continuing on the search party actually stumbled upon the burnt-out fireplace and the bodies of the very first two hikers Yuri Kri-van-eh-shinko and Yuri Doro-shenko covered up in the snow, nude except for their underwear, it looked like they had actually died first and someone took their clothes. The cedar tree that they were under actually had signs of damage, like somebody had climbed it, um, either trying to escape from something or trying to get tree branches for the fire that was eventually burnt out in front of them. It actually looked like somebody had fallen from it as well.
Amber
There’s also a theory that they were looking to see if they could see sort of get a perspective of the lay of the land that’s another theory as well.
Alex
Yeah, so people thought that maybe they were trying to climb up to try and see if they could find the tent again in the dark.
Amber
Right
Alex
Um, so the next three hikers were actually found at different distances from each other and the tree. They were all dressed and such but really not by much. They were so lacking some of the basic things to keep them warm in the cold, like, you know, shoes, socks, hats, gloves, jackets, they were basically just in, you know, shirts and pants and stuff.
Amber
So at this point, they’ve now found both the remaining Yuris, Igor, Zina, And Rustem, correct?
Alex
Yeah.
Amber
And then there was a remaining four?
Unknown Speaker
Yes. So the remaining four, so where were the remaining four? Honestly a question on everybody’s mind. So far everybody that they had found had died of hypothermia. Reasonable way to die considering they left the tent with no protection in negative 17 degree weather.
Amber
Right. No shoes, very little clothes… Yeah, Mm hmm.
Alex
Yeah. So at this point the last four hikers were actually found almost two months after the original hikers were found. They recovered in almost three meters of snow in a little alcove of sorts. Three of them actually sustained fatal injuries. Nikolay had a fractured skull. Semyon had severe chest trauma, and his eyes were missing and Lyudmila had internal bleeding from chest trauma, and her eyes and tongue were missing.
Amber
Sorry, what was missing?
Amber
Yeah, that’s what I said. No valid reason as of why. So let’s go over some theories and complaints over the years – what we do best. So the main thing that the public knew that drew the attention of the public was, you know, the missing tongue. That missing tongue was actually never found. Now a lot of people tried to speculate that it was ripped out, a lot of people speculated that it was cut out, but the medical examiner never really went into detail. The autopsy reports only say that the diaphragm of the mouth and the tongue were missing. That’s it. So nothing about how it went missing or why it just says that’s it.
Amber
Here’s the interesting thing. So there’s a lot of people who theorized that the tongue may have like, you know, she was found out in the elements, right? She was found in running water. So there’s two theories with that. And one of them is that because the water the decomposition went further, and so that’s why it’s missing. Another one is animals. But here’s the thing that makes neither one of those make sense. When they did her autopsy, they found blood in her stomach… well, actually, they found a red slimy liquid in her stomach…
Alex
which it could have been which people tried to explain away by saying, oh, it could have been something she had eaten mixed with a little bit of blood, which I get but the same time it was, what, 100 milliliters?
Amber
Sure. So, well, roughly, it’s around there
Alex
Yeah, it’s roughly about 100 milliliters.
Amber
So that would mean, in normal terms, that would mean that her tongue would have had been removed while she was still able to bleed. Therefore, while she was still alive.
Alex
mm hmm. So another thing is the eyeballs were explained as gaping orbits, eyes missing in the autopsy, however, that one can kind of be explained a little bit more your eyes do end up decomposing first when you die or animals. But that also doesn’t explain why only two members out of nine were found missing their eyeballs.
Amber
Yeah, see and that’s a weird thing, too.
Alex
And the animal thing… Well, you would think if it was an animal thing, like let’s just sit, let’s just humor that and say it was an animal thing. Okay. You might think that the first two Yuris who were out in the open and the other three hikers who were out in the open would be would have them missing more.
Amber
Right? But instead it was ones who were either buried in snow or covered rather than the ones that were out in the elements. that’s weird.
Alex
Now let’s go to some of the pictures that were developed because one because, you know, the cameras are found, the pictures are developed. Now there is a picture on one of the, one of the, um, cameras that were developed. Unfortunately, it was the only picture that was actually like able to be developed due to the due to the extensive damage to the camera and the film camera
Amber
The camera was found in the water, mm hmm.
Alex
It’s literally just a picture of flashing lights.
Amber
Yeah, yeah.
Alex
That’s it.
Amber
There were other hiking teams that were actually out as well as locals in the area that reported, uh… orange?
Alex
bright orange orbs. bright orange orbs in the sky that night. They were about 30 miles from the incident as well.
Amber
Yes. Yeah. And they were saying that the orbs happened to be right around the space where the Dyatlov group would have been.
Alex
Yep. And then there’s another picture, The Big Foot picture as I like to call it.
Amber
Oh my God. That one, just… that one blows my freaking mind. So I’m into photography…
Alex
okay for people who are listening right now… for people who are listening right now, explain the picture.
Amber
okay. It is like, it’s like your basic Bigfoot picture like I’m not even kidding you. It’s all trees. And then in the in sort of the far back You see this, um, It looks like a giant… It looks like frickin Bigfoot. I am not kidding. And like when you look at it, he’s got kind of like a tummy and stuff on it like a bloated tummy like not like it doesn’t it doesn’t have the shape of any of the hikers because the hikers are all these thin, fit, young people, right? And even in their Get up, uh… It doesn’t look like this picture does. Like it seriously blows my ever loving mind. And they’ve had it like examined by professionals and professionals can’t determine it. Now, This is coming from somebody who does photography. Like I am legitimately a professional photographer, right? I… I’ve done international wedding photography, I’ve won awards for my photography, I look at this picture, it does not look like any of the people in the group at all. And, and the local indigenous people actually have lots of stories and reports about Bigfoot, like the Yeti, they have.. They had stories.
Alex
Yeah, no the Yeti, and they actually mentioned it in the journals to somewhere, too, somewhere they are where they actually we think the snow Yeti is real and I’m sitting here like okay, so another another thing is another thing that is brought up constantly are the three articles of clothing that were found with radioactivity. Now, like you said, Now, you know, like we had talked about completely different from this is that two of the workers you know, worked near or around radioactive material, however, I would get that but the radioactive material would have spread to the other… would have probably like the not the runoff, but like Yeah. Right. The essence of It would have you would have found it on other things that they would have touched, right? So only on these three things like clothing.
Amber
So there’s… there’s a couple things around this, too, like they’re saying that the… the wicks they were using in the lanterns had radiation in them which again, okay fine except that the radiation would be on everything else, right? Instead these three articles of clothing that were found.. it was, what? Two pairs of pants and a shirt, right?
Alex
Yeah.
Amber
So they were taken off the two hikers that were found by the fire, okay? It’s pretty obvious from everything that the people by the fire perished first, the two Yuris, right? And so then they were the clothes were removed by the other four hikers that were found in the opposite direction. And they because they had extra clothes on like they looked a little more prepared for the elements.
Alex
Yep
Amber
Still weren’t wearing shoes. None of them were wearing shoes. But, like, they found, you know, like ripped jackets like wrapped around feet. Like, obviously, it seems like they took these clothes from the people who had already passed. So the two Yuris, were wearing the clothes that were radioactive. Now, the theory out there is that because they worked around radiation in their everyday life, those are just clothes that the radiation had not been removed from, like, through washing and stuff like that. And that’s why there were radiation on those clothes.
Alex
But it would still be, you know, again, there would still be it would still kind of transfer a little bit to other things that they touch.
Amber
Yeah, yeah, and it wasn’t just like a little radiation like it was actually like, but that also might explain why some of them… we’ll get into it. But you know, it’s also possible like, because when you’re when you get radiation, you’re burning, right?
Alex
Yeah.
Amber
So take the clothes off, but again, people wouldn’t be found wearing them if that was the case. So it’s…
Alex
Yeah
Amber
yeah.
Alex
So another theory that came up, and Honestly, a lot of people have accepted this until everything has started kind of coming out a little bit more because Mind you, the government, the Russian government and the KGB, it actually sealed all of these records after the murder investigation was done.
Amber
Yep. For years.
Alex
The only thing that was actually, the only things that were actually released to the public were things that just were not adding up. But everything that like actual main investigative stuff was sealed away from the public. And I’m sitting here like, why? So another, another theory that you know, they tried to put out there and people try to put out there including an American skeptic author Benjamin Radford, actually, he suggests that an avalanche was more plausible. An excerpt from one of his one of his writings is,
“The group woke up in a panic and cut their way out of the tent either because the avalanche had covered the entrance to their tent, or because they were scared that an avalanche was imminent. Better to have a potentially repairable slit in the tent than risk being buried alive. They were poorly clothed because they had been sleeping, ran to the safety of the nearby woods, where trees would help slow the oncoming snow. In the darkness of the night they got separated into two or three groups one group made a fire hence the burned hands,” because the two Yuris were found with burned hands, “while the others tried to return to the tent to recover their clothing, since the danger had apparently passed, but it was too cold and they all froze to death before they could locate their tent in the darkness.”
This was also a main theory because a lot of the bodies were found trying to look like they were trying to get back towards the tent like the three bodies that were found after the two Yuris look like they were trying to get back towards the tent.
Amber
Right.
Alex
“At some point some of the clothes may have been recovered or swapped from the dead but at any rate, the group of four whose bodies were most severely damaged or causing were caught in an avalanche and buried under four meters or 13 feet of snow, more than enough to account for the compelling force of nature that the medical examiner described. And the tongue was likely removed due to scavengers and ordinary preditation.”
However, there are several things that dispel the avalanche theory ie the fact of the location of the incident did not have any signs of an avalanche taking place. Even if it was a small one, there still would have been some kind of science on top of the fact
Amber
And the tent would have been buried.
Alex
Well, yeah, that too. And on top of the fact, there’s never been an avalanche report in that area.
Amber
No, no, it’s actually not sloped enough. There’s lots of videos and pictures about what it looked like and what it looks like. And in that it’s not a big enough slope. And again, if there had been an avalanche, there would have been a significantly higher amount of snow on the tent. The only snow that was on there was like it was almost like somebody like either scooped snow on there, or the snow that had come down in the, you know, month that passed almost
Alex
exactly. And on top of the fact that over 100 expeditions in the region were held since the incident and none of them have ever reported conditions that might create an avalanche.
Amber
And any of the local people will tell you, there’s no avalanches.
Alex
And also with the footprints right there dispel that theory. Because right there, the footprints would have been rushing away not walking calmly in a single file.
Amber
Right.
Alex
Yeah, another…
Amber
That’s the thing.
Alex
There was a repeated 2015 investigation, actually. So a review of the 1959 investiga… and this is coming from certain articles, I’m going to be linking them as well. A review of the 1959 investigation. Evidence completed in 2015-2019. So between those years by experienced investigators from the investigative committee of Russian Federation – that that sounds like Star Trek – on a request to the families confirm the avalanche with a number of important details added. However, I don’t know how you’re confirming the avalanche. First of all the investigators one of them an experienced alpinist confirmed that the weather on the night of the tragedy was very harsh with wind speeds up to hurricane force 20 to 30 meters per second. A snowstorm and temperature reaching negative 40 degrees these factors weren’t considered by the original investigation who arrived at the scene of the accident Three weeks later when the weather had improved and any remains of a snow slide had settled down. So they’re not saying like a full on avalanche, but they are saying that it may have been like with the winds it may have created kind of like a snow, like, waterfall maybe. I don’t know if that’s the right word to explain it.
Amber
So what’s interesting, really about… so let’s, let’s, let’s look at this because honestly, you know, there’s 100 speculations about the bodies, but the thing that really absolutely does not add up is why the tent was cut from the inside. And there were calm footsteps from the tent to the trees. Now what we need to remember
Alex
It kind of like, it kinda just like blows any avalanche or snow theory out of the water plus, Igor
Amber
Or even a Yeti. Sorry, but…
Alex
Igor and Semyon. They were both experienced hikers. They really were they were both experienced hikers
Amber
They all were
Alex
and No, no experienced hiker is going to set up in the path of an app, like, where an avalanche can happen.
Amber
Well, here’s the thing though. Anybody who’s an experienced hiker knows that you really shouldn’t set up the tent outside of the elements like that, like really, they could have walked the, you know, two kilometers or whatever. And set up the tent in the trees, which is kind of weird, but it was also presumably we’re thinking it could have been a whiteout because the weather was so crazy, right?
Alex
Yeah.
Amber
They’re experienced hikers. But yet, when they got to the scene, the tent was haphazardly set up with things like skis. Okay, it wasn’t actually set up to the standard of an experienced hiker, which alone
Alex
Yeah.
Amber
is kind of weird, right? So that’s kind of strange. But then for them to have cut open the inside of the tent like in a hurry. Leave all of their belongings behind…
Alex
and then just walk calmly down the hill
Amber
and walk calmly down the hill. The biggest mystery honest to goodness is, why did they do that? Why is that tent not set up to the standard of nine experienced hikers? Nine. Not one or two, nine.
Alex
So, here’s another thing. Lev Ivanov’s boss, who was the original lead investigator of this.
Amber
Yes
Alex
Avengene Akachev was still… he was deputy head of the investigative Department of the Svevloski Ovlev prosecution unit. Okay, so basically he was like the head of the guy who had been investigating this. He was still alive in 2015 and gave an interview to the former kemerovo prosecutor Leonor Prushkin in which Avengene actually stated that he was arranging for another trip to the pass to fully investigate these deaths because they really didn’t have a lot of time to really investigate it up there of the last four bodies because you know, the the other ones, they had a cause of death, they died of hypothermia. It was tragic. This is what happened. But the other four bodies they were Just like what happened, so he was actually gonna put in another. They were actually he was actually going to plan another trip up the mountain to go investigate the last four deaths and kind of look around and do a little more investigating when Deputy Prosecutor General Urokov arrived for Moscow in ordered the case shut down. He also stated in his interview, that Kemerov, head of these prosecutor’s office was actually present for the first post mortems in the morgue and spent three days there. It’s something he regarded as highly unusual. And the only time in his experience that he had that the guy had actually done that. And his experience as a as a process for the prosecutor’s office. He had never spent three days in a morgue with bodies.
Amber
let’s talk about about a couple other things here. Things that we didn’t bring up, first of all, the Yuri who returned because he was feeling ill, right. They… once they discovered the scene, right? They took him out there so that he could confirm that that was the tent
Alex
Yeah, yeah, because they didn’t know anything. They needed him to know like they needed to make sure that this was the group of hikers they were looking for.
Amber
Right. I think it’s also important to note that the the stove was never set up that evening, it was still packed away. Okay, so the stove was never even set up
Now granted, I imagine it was a lack of wood. So what’s the point in doing the work to set up the stove? If you don’t even have any wood to burn? Okay. To me, that makes perfect sense. But when Yuri went out there, he found that there were items that did not belong to his group. Now however, however, I learned from this podcast that the the 38 year old gentlemen, I’m not going to try and go back and I’m sorry, I’m not gonna remember his name. But he, you know, he joined after that Yuri left, so it makes sense for that to possibly be his stuff. Because the Yuri that came back isn’t going to recognize the stuff of somebody who joined after he left.
Alex
Yeah, and you know, that’s what I mentioned before is like he joined after So like Yuri wouldn’t have known what his stuff looked like at all.
Amber
The today’s first day I heard that it was my asking that 10 people went out. And then one person returned that everything that I read up until this point, that’s that was my understanding. So hearing today that the nine, you know that there were nine people one left and one replaced, it would make sense that Yuri would not recognize any of the items.
Alex
Yeah. And that’s understandable, honestly. That’s understandable. Like I… yeah, so now, something that’s completely related. Now they ended up having the hikers funerals so had them all at the same time because you know, the dead same times are having the same right
Amber
and he attended seven of them, I think?
Alex
They showed a body, they showed the bodies, okay. 12 year old Yurni Kunsuvich, Okay, who later actually became head of the Dyatlov Foundation, attended five of the hikers’ funerals, He recalled that their skin had a deep brown tan,
Amber
which is weird.
Alex
It is it is extremely weird though I get getting sunburned. And if you tan a little bit like you can obviously tan while hiking and stuff. And if they’re exposed to the elements, yeah, they’re gonna they’re gonna tan a little bit but you don’t tan after you die. So like, that’s, like, that’s the thing. And so it it was just it was just kind of weird that people were like, wait a minute. What? So I mean, little things, it’s just little issues, little things, you know,
Amber
like, here’s my favorites. Oh, did you hear about the documents? Sorry. I just I was curious if you heard about the documents that they finally allowed to be released within the last three years.
Alex
YES!
Amber
Years or so that they opened the investigation before they were reported missing.
Yeah.
Alex
I didn’t hear about that one.
Amber
Yeah. There were two Like official documents, they were like journal entries that take place that don’t fall correctly in the timeline. But they’re dated. Showing that before they were reported missing, the investigation was opened.
Alex
Yep.
Amber
And that also that they were starting the search… the military was a search party before the actual search party was put together.
Alex
Yeah, cuz that’s not suspicious at all.
Amber
No. And again, this just came out in the last couple years, which is why I’m saying like I knew a lot about this case to begin with, but then going in, there’s all these new theories. Now one theory that does make some sense now, by the way, we also did not mention that one of the Yuris found by the fire had part of his knuckle in his mouth like where he bit off part of his knuckle and and they found that bit of knuckle in his mouth, right? So to me though, that’s says that he was fighting to stay conscious.
Alex
Yeah.
Amber
And they theorize they theorized that the burns on the bodies actually happened post mortem because they died by the dying fire.
Alex
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. And like a lot of people, like a lot of people for the original ones that did die of, um, like hypothermia and stuff. Like obviously one of the symptoms of hypothermia that you have is basically you get, you get delusional and you get warm and you start tearing your clothes off thinking like,
Amber
Yeah, right.
Alex
And so if it’s a panic induced tearing and stuff and so you start carrying your clothes off, which in turn speeds at the hypothermia and stuff and so people so it’s like, obviously, like the various stages of undress and everything. People automatically thought, well, maybe that’s what caused them to like, leave the tent so commonly, but then I’m like, why would it still be it’d be understandable they left out the front, but why would it be ripped?
Amber
Yeah, yeah. Well, Because they I mean, first of all the tent was buttons. It wasn’t a zipper. So it was you know, I could see them if they were in a hurry ripping the tent open.
Alex
Right.
Amber
But the thing is, it was pretty obvious that the bodies, the bodies who died first right, had been moved postmortem, like there were markings showing that they had been moved, which shows that their clothing was removed after they after they died. To me, that makes perfect sense. Sorry, it does.
Alex
Yeah
Amber
But one of the theories that makes the most sense, but it still doesn’t match up with everything is the one about how they had the two Swedish hikers: Richard Holmgrien and Andreas Litchagren, they set out with two Russian guides Aketrina Imina and Artem Dometgrov… I, I’m butchering those names so bad and I’m so sorry. But they went on an expedition at the same time as the Dyatlov group in 2019. So they left at the end of January 2019. This is just over a year ago. The idea was to replicate the same issues that the original group had faced, and they ended up battling Katabatic winds, which would sort of explain like so they haphazardly set up this tent, which still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me like to me that just the tent is like the key to this whole thing. Right?
Alex
Yeah
Amber
You know, their theory is that the katabatic winds hit, they collapsed the tent, and they had to leave the tent, right, so they ripped open the tent, because it didn’t want the tent to blow away. So they ripped holes in the tent thinking “I can fix those later,” and then they threw some snow on the tent to keep it in place, and then walked down to the trees where they were going to get some refuse or refuge from the wind. And because these were gale force winds, it was picking up twigs, it was picking up rocks and it was hitting them which would explain all of the abrasions and stuff that found on the bodies. By the way, all of the bodies had these really weird abrasions on them like on their hands like they were defending themselves. Almost
Alex
Yep.
Amber
So then they got down to the trees, and they built a fire and kind of decided what they were going to do next. And so three of them were going to go back to the tent to try and get supplies. And then two of them were going to stay by the fire, right? Or they died by the fire. And then the other four went to go build shelters. And when they were in the shelter, the snow collapsed onto them, which is what caused their internal injuries and that’s when they died that they happened to build these shelters over running water, that fro and and they froze and unfroze, froze and unfroze, which explains kind of like, why their bodies were sort of separated and all over the place.
Alex
Yeah
Amber
To me that’s the one that makes sense except… except her tongue and the eyeballs. Like and, one of the hikers…
Alex
And that’s the thing is like all of these, all of these, by themselves, pose a really, really really really, really good like explanation of what happened, but none of them really encompass anything as a whole.
Amber
No, every see, lets… you come together with one, right? And you’re like, Okay, this makes sense. This makes sense. This makes sense. But then this doesn’t make sense. And this doesn’t make sense, like the radiation on the clothes on the tongue thing don’t make sense. Everything else falls into place except for those pieces. And that doesn’t make any sense. But just to go back really quick. The injuries about the four that succ… the excuse me, the three that succumbed to massive injuries. They said it was similar to being hit by a truck, which is why they said there’s no way that a human could have caused these injuries.
Okay,
Alex
so what’s funny is… They actually had to say that they had to say that actually, not just because of the force of the hit, but because people were actually starting to look at the local Mansi population because they thought maybe they had stumbled upon to one of their hunting grounds and the Mansi became volatile and what what’s terrible about that
Amber
Because they did find a hunting… they did find like a Mansi shelter nearby
Alex
well what’s terrible with that is the Mansi we’re actually helping out in the investigation from day one. They were helping out with searches and stuff. So the fact that people were like well maybe it was them, that’s why the coroner came out and said no, there’s no way that a human being could have done this.
Amber
Well not only that, but even the Mansi people weren’t crazy enough to go hunting in that weather.
Alex
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. There’s there’s just an unfortunately there’s just there’s just so much stuff so much stuff with this case I feel like it seems like there’s never really going to be a for sure answer on what happened that February night. And that sucks. Because you know, most of the families are dead now. You just really have descendants and stuff like grandkids and everything because when then probably not even that, because you probably have like nieces and nephews. I think the only one that was really that really had any kids was Seminov… was Seminov and I don’t even think he had a child. I know that he d… what’s sad is he actually died On his 38th birthday
Amber
yeah, yeah. And there was another one that was five days short of his 24th birthday. I think it was one of the Yuris. But wasn’t it Seminov that was found with a like a pen or a pencil and a piece of paper in his hand?
Alex
Yes! He looked like he was about to write something down, but nothing was written down.
Amber
Right. Yeah, he died before he could start to write whatever, like he literally was just about to write down what happened and then he died.
Alex
Yeah, yeah.
Amber
If that’s not mysterious. I mean, that alone. But to me, the key piece of this case is the tent. I mean, what… what could cause nine very experienced hikers to not only not set up their tent properly, but then to leave it in such a hurry, obviously, by cutting it open from the inside, and then walking away calmly. Without any clothes on.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. So like I said, it seems like there’s never going to be a for sure answer on what happened that February night in 1959. But It’s a mystery that’s honestly plagued history, and it will probably still plague history until it’s fully solved. So, what do you think happened in the Dyatlov Pass incident?
Amber – end credits
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