The Dyatlov Pass Incident still remains a mystery more than 60 years later. What happened to the Russian hikers that still intrigues people all these years later? And better yet, can we solve the Dyatlov Pass mystery?
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00:00In the winter of 1959, 10 Russian hikers set out on a 200-mile, 16-day trek into the Ural
00:08Mountains along the western edge of Siberia.
00:11The trip was led by Igor Dyatlov and was planned as a Category 3 skiing trek, the most difficult
00:15classification in the sport.
00:17On the second day of the journey, one of the hikers, Yuri Yurgin, was forced to turn back
00:21because of crippling sciatica pain.
00:22He certainly didn't know it at the time, but this twist of fate would leave Yuri as
00:26the only surviving member of the group.
00:28On February 1st, six days after they started out, the remaining members of the Dyatlov
00:32party pitched their tent on the slope of Dead Mountain.
00:34By the time the sun rose the following morning, they were all dead, their bodies strewn across
00:38the icy terrain.
00:39Their horrific deaths and the enigmatic circumstances surrounding them would ignite one of Russia's
00:43most enduring mysteries.
00:45This is the story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, and the theories behind the hikers' mysterious
00:49fates.
00:50Now, everyone on this trip was an experienced hiker and skier, so when they missed their
00:55initial return dates, authorities weren't that concerned about their well-being.
00:58After all, trekking through the Ural Mountains in the winter is almost guaranteed to have
01:02a few complications.
01:03But when another week passed with no word from the hikers, authorities finally launched
01:07a search party.
01:08But there was a small issue.
01:09The exact path the Dyatlov party was set to take was not known to the authorities.
01:13The documentation had either been lost or was never filed properly, and so the search
01:17party went six days before they finally found evidence of the hikers.
01:21Two members of the search team discovered the party's tent pitched on the slope of
01:24Peak 1079.
01:25The entrance to the tent had collapsed, so the two men cut their way inside with an ice
01:29axe they found discarded in the snow.
01:31Everything in the tent was as it should be, with the gear and food stowed around the perimeter
01:34of the tent.
01:35The hikers' ski boots were lined up along one wall.
01:37There was even a plate of meat and a frozen cup of cocoa on the floor.
01:41By all appearances, the hikers had stepped out momentarily and could return at any second.
01:45On the far side of the tent, the men discovered something peculiar, however.
01:48Someone or something had cut a large opening in the tent.
01:51When the men stepped out, they discovered the footprints of several people.
01:54Ominously, the prints were made by stocking feet or, in some cases, by bare feet.
01:58If these prints were made by the Dyatlov party, very few of them were wearing proper footwear
02:02for the weather.
02:03The prints disappeared a short distance from the tent, and there was no further sign of
02:07the missing hikers.
02:08The entire search party returned the following day, and that is when the first two bodies
02:11were discovered.
02:12Grivanochenko and Doroshenko were found under a thin layer of snow nearly a mile from the
02:16tent.
02:17They were lying near what appeared to be the remnants of a small fire, and strangely, both
02:20men were dressed only in their underwear.
02:23The bodies of three more hikers, Kolmogorova, Slobodin, and the group's leader Dyatlov,
02:27were found at intervals in a line leading back up the slope.
02:30By all appearances, the trio had been trying to make their way back to the tent when they
02:33perished.
02:34Though they were better dressed than Grivanochenko and Doroshenko, these three were also severely
02:38underdressed for the weather.
02:39All five hikers were found to have died from hypothermia.
02:42After the discovery of the bodies, a legal investigation was immediately launched into
02:46the cause of their deaths, but it would be another two months before the last four hikers
02:50were found.
02:51And it's with the discovery of their bodies that things start to get really bizarre.
02:54Alexander Kolyvatov, Nikolay Thibault Brignol, Semyon Zolotaryov, and Lyudmila Dubnina were
03:01found in a ravine buried under more than 13 feet of snow.
03:04As a whole, this group was much better dressed for the weather, with many of them wearing
03:07multiple layers and even boots.
03:09One member even had a camera around his neck.
03:11It is theorized that they may have been outside when the terrible event that scared them into
03:15the freezing night occurred, but it was the state of their bodies that most puzzled investigators.
03:20Like the other hikers, Kolyvatov's cause of death was determined to be hypothermia, but
03:23his autopsy also reports an injury to the back of his head and a deformed neck.
03:27Thibault Brignol had suffered a multi-splintered skull fracture, a wound that would have rendered
03:31him unconscious almost instantly and ultimately killed him.
03:35Semyon Zolotaryov had an open head wound, five broken ribs, and internal bleeding.
03:39And Lyudmila Dubnina had ten broken ribs, one of which had punctured her heart.
03:44These were blunt force trauma injuries, as though the hikers had been in a car wreck.
03:47All of the bodies were missing parts of their flesh as well, like eyes, nose, and lips.
03:52And the condition of these bodies weren't the only troubling facts to turn up in the
03:55case.
03:56Clothing on two of the nine hikers had tested positive for radiation contamination.
03:59And witnesses, including the local Mansi people and another group of hikers who had camped
04:0330 miles to the south, reported seeing glowing spheres or fireballs in the sky on the night
04:08the hikers were thought to have died.
04:18But investigators abruptly closed the case a month after the last four hikers were found.
04:23The case files were then sent away to a secret location, and hikers and skiers were banned
04:27from the area for three years.
04:28The official conclusion to the case was that the nine had died from an overwhelming force,
04:33which the hikers were not able to overcome.
04:35This vague conclusion was obviously not a satisfactory answer for the families of the
04:39hikers, nor for the many sleuths who would dig into the case in the years to come.
04:42And given that this was the height of Cold War Russia, many began to suspect a government
04:46cover-up.
04:48But what really happened to the hikers?
04:49Well, the theories are innumerable, running the gamut from an alien encounter to a CIA
04:53sting operation.
04:54But for this video, we'll be looking at some of the more plausible theories, though that's
04:58not to say some aren't mildly bizarre.
05:01Theory number one, man versus beast.
05:03Now, given the damage to the tent, the panic that seemed to overcome the hikers, and the
05:08violent nature of some of their deaths, investigators looked into the theory that the hikers had
05:12encountered a deadly beast.
05:13The most likely culprit in this scenario would be the brown bears who are known to live in
05:18the region.
05:19Though far from common, brown bears are known to have attacked humans.
05:21The biggest caveat to this theory, however, is that at the time of this incident, brown
05:25bears would be hibernating.
05:26Some theorists point out that if a brown bear woke up prematurely or had not yet gone into
05:31hibernation, it would likely have been close to starving, thus giving the bear a motive
05:34to come after nine hapless hikers in the dead of winter.
05:37Another related, and certainly more bizarre, theory is that the hikers encountered another
05:41kind of large beast, the yeti.
05:43This theory is largely supported by a single blurry photograph.
05:46The last photo taken by Thibault Brignon.
05:48Proponents of this theory claim that this photo shows a 10-foot hulking creature sizing
05:52up as prey, but others argue that this more closely resembles a hiker stepping out of
05:56the woods after answering the call of nature.
05:58But the fact is that there was no evidence around the camp of a large creature, fabled
06:02or otherwise.
06:03And while both of these beasts would certainly be capable of breaking ribs and crushing skulls,
06:07there were no external wounds to the bodies that would demonstrate a large animal attack,
06:10nor evidence that any of the hikers had been consumed by a large animal.
06:14The beast theory stands on very wobbly legs, and is not widely considered a feasible explanation
06:18for the demise of the hikers.
06:19But what about the possibility that the hikers encountered another ancient enemy of man?
06:23Other men.
06:25Man versus man.
06:28Another theory is that the hikers had been attacked by other people, and this is one
06:31of the theories that the Russian investigators initially looked into.
06:34The prime suspects here were the Mansi, a group of indigenous people who lived in the
06:38region.
06:39There was speculation that the Mansi may have attacked the group for encroaching on their
06:41hunting grounds, or grounds that some may have considered sacred.
06:44But the Mansi are a peaceful people, and they were known to have welcomed hikers that came
06:47into their villages.
06:48Several of the Mansi were also heavily involved in the search for the missing hikers.
06:52This theory was dismissed very early on by investigators in the case.
07:04But what if there was another group of people in the area?
07:06A group with the motive to kill anyone they encountered?
07:10As it turns out, there was.
07:12Maybe.
07:13Decades after the Dyatlov incident took place, it was revealed that the Russian government
07:16had a secret prisoner camp, also known as a gulag, in the area.
07:20It's theorized that if prisoners had escaped the camp in the winter of 59 and come across
07:24the Dyatlov party, they would have had several reasons to kill them.
07:27For one, the prisoners would not want to risk being reported to authorities.
07:30For another, given the remoteness of the camp, the hikers' food and supplies would be vital
07:34in ensuring the prisoners' survival.
07:36But prison records of the time do not show that anyone escaped the camp.
07:39And while it would certainly be an open question as to whether or not the Soviet government
07:43at the time would be completely transparent in their record-keeping, there were no signs
07:46of anyone other than the nine hikers in the camp, and no food or supplies were found to
07:51be missing.
07:52But what if the attackers were professionals, and they had worked specifically to cover
07:55up their presence at the camp?
07:56And that brings us to the next theory.
07:59Man vs. Government
08:02As we mentioned earlier, there were reports of glowing orbs or fireballs in the sky on
08:06the night the hikers perished.
08:07The final image in Kravanushenko's camera even seems to capture these mysterious objects.
08:12And so one of the more popular theories is that the Dyatlov group was simply at the wrong
08:15place at the wrong time, and were caught in the fallout from a secret government weapons
08:20test.
08:21This was the height of the Cold War, after all, and the Russian government was no doubt
08:24involved in such testing.
08:25And proponents of this theory have put forth several likely candidates for the orbs in
08:29the night sky.
08:30The testing of parachute mines, for example, could account for the severe injuries sustained
08:33by some of the group.
08:34The concussion from a large explosion could break bones without leaving any external sign
08:38of injury.
08:39A misfired nuclear weapon could account for the radiation found on some of the hikers'
08:42clothing.
08:43And the explosions from such weapons, or the noxious fuel from a misfired rocket, could
08:46certainly have been enough to send the hikers scrambling from their tent into the cold without
08:50any thought to what they were wearing.
08:52This is in fact what Yuri Yurdin, the group's only survivor, believes happened.
08:55The sudden closing of the case by Russian officials and the secrecy that followed also
08:59lends credence to this theory.
09:01Officials involved basically tried to sweep this entire thing under the rug, trying to
09:06make it look like some unfortunate accident.
09:09And for those theorists who are even more conspiratorial in their thinking, the Russian
09:12government may have gone beyond merely covering up the deaths, but in fact been responsible
09:16for them.
09:17The thinking goes that if the hikers witnessed a weapons test so secret that the Russians
09:21didn't want to risk news of it getting out to the public, then the hikers may have been
09:24eliminated by the KGB or the Russian army.
09:26An attack by special forces could explain the head trauma and broken ribs.
09:30Some believe the hikers could even have been tied to trees until they succumbed to the
09:33cold, and then their bodies arranged to look like a horrific accident.
09:36All signs of the attackers were then either erased or covered up by Russian officials.
09:40No less a figure than Boris Yeltsin himself, the future Russian president, looked into
09:44this theory as he rose through Communist Party ranks.
09:47During a meeting with the first investigator on the Dyatlov case, Vladimir Koroteev, Koroteev
09:51purportedly told Yeltsin,
09:53I think it was murder, and not a usual murder.
10:02But what they wrote when they closed the criminal case was true.
10:05They were killed by an overwhelming force.
10:07There are, of course, a few holes in this theory as well, including the fact that a
10:11faulty nuclear weapon would likely have left radiation on more than just two of the hikers,
10:15and that there are no clear records to indicate that any kind of weapons testing occurred
10:19in the area even 60 years later.
10:20On the other hand, the mere fact that the clothing was tested for radiation at all seems
10:24to lend this theory some credence.
10:26Why test the clothing if the cause of death was simply a natural occurrence?
10:30And that leads us to another set of theories.
10:31Could the hikers' deaths have been caused by nothing more than an ill-tempered Mother
10:35Nature?
10:36Man vs. Nature
10:40There are two theories in this category that seem to carry the most credence.
10:43The first, that an avalanche was the cause of the disaster, and has been around since
10:47the discovery of the tent in 1959.
10:50Certainly, setting up camp on a snow-covered slope would bring about this risk, but the
10:53angle of the slope where the Dyatlov party set up their tent did not meet the minimum
10:57slope thought necessary for a traditional avalanche.
11:00Furthermore, there was no evidence of an avalanche in the area when the search party arrived on
11:03the scene, and the tent itself was not buried under the snow as one would expect if an avalanche
11:07had occurred.
11:08More recently, however, investigators and scientists have theorized that the hikers
11:11were victims not of a traditional avalanche, but something called a slab avalanche.
11:16To put it simply, a slab avalanche occurs when snow accumulates on a thin, weak layer
11:20of ice, and slides down the slope as a cohesive unit.
11:23Though they carry a smaller volume of snow, and can occur on a gentler slope than a traditional
11:27avalanche, given the right conditions, such an avalanche can bring the weight and force
11:31of a speeding vehicle.
11:33The occurrence of a slab avalanche could explain the traumatic injuries suffered by some of
11:36the party.
11:37This is, in fact, the theory that was put forward in 2019 after the Russians reopened
11:41the Dyatlov case.
11:42The lead investigator believes that the hikers cut into the side of the mountain to create
11:45a windbreak for the tent, weakening the snow layer and making conditions ripe for an avalanche.
11:50Snow continued to pile up on the slope above the campsite for several more hours, until
11:54the snow broke free and struck the tent, possibly causing trauma to the hikers.
11:58The fear of another, larger avalanche then drove the hikers from their tent, and after
12:02getting lost, they died while trying to survive in the frigid temperatures.
12:06Critics of this theory point out that there have been more than 100 expeditions to the
12:09area since the Dyatlov Pass incident occurred, and none have reported finding conditions
12:13for an avalanche on the slope.
12:16Not only does this theory explain the presence of the radiated clothing, there's also the
12:18question of whether the critically injured hikers would have been able to get out of
12:21the tent, let alone move more than a mile down the mountain.
12:24The second, albeit more bizarre, theory involving Mother Nature is that the hikers were the
12:28hapless victims of a phenomenon known as infrasound.
12:31This is the theory most compellingly put forward by Donnie Eicher in his book Dead Mountain.
12:35On a scientific level, infrasound is a sound that occurs at frequencies too low for human
12:39hearing.
12:40Some studies have reported effects on humans like nausea and dread.
12:43In some cases, it's been shown to cause panic or fear.
12:46Natural events like earthquakes and avalanches are known to produce infrasound.
12:49In his book, Eicher posits that winds speeding over the dome of a nearby mountain produced
12:53infrasound on the night of February 1st.
12:55The Dyatlov party's tent is unfortunately directly in the path of these winds, and when
12:59the infrasound hits the tent, the party panics and flees, completely unaware of why they
13:03are so desperate to get out of the tent.
13:05The panic drives them down the mountain, and by the time they are out of range of the infrasound,
13:09they've lost sight of the tent.
13:10They become separated either while they are fleeing or shortly afterward, and unable to
13:14make their way back to the tent, they succumb to the cold.
13:16Four of the hikers stumble over a precipice in the darkness, seriously wounding themselves
13:20on the rocks below.
13:21They die in the ravine and are covered in snow in the weeks before they are found.
13:24Now like all the other theories, this one has its own holes, and as it relies on a loosely
13:29understood phenomenon, it's not widely accepted.
13:31Frankly, none of these theories seem to be able to answer all of the questions of the
13:35case.
13:36However, there is one theory that has gained traction in recent years, which may come the
13:39closest.
13:40It's simply referred to as the Everything Theory.
13:43The idea is that the Dyatlov hikers were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
13:46A Russian military weapons test occurred very close to the camp.
13:49The resulting concussion from the explosion injured some of the hikers and showered others
13:53in radiation.
13:54It may even have caused a small avalanche to fall onto the tent.
13:57The hikers then fled in a panic, and unable to find their way back to the tent, succumb
14:01to the cold.
14:02The best-dressed hikers had the wherewithal to dig a snow cave to protect themselves from
14:05the cold and wind, but they had the unfortunate luck of digging their cave over a small stream
14:09which had created a hollow ice tunnel.
14:11This ice tunnel collapsed beneath their weight and sent them crashing into the rocks below.
14:15The walls of snow crashed in behind them and buried them.
14:18Animals then scavenged the bodies before they were recovered by the rescue party, and the
14:21Russian government covered the whole thing up so as to protect the top-secret weapons
14:25testing.
14:26Anyway, slice it, this is a mystery that will likely never be solved to everyone's complete
14:30satisfaction.