Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident (36 page)

February 26, 1959

Searchers Boris Slobtsov and Michael Sharavin discover the Dyatlov hikers’ tent at an elevation on the east slope of Holatchahl mountain.

After Slobtsov and Sharavin return to camp, radiogram operator Igor Nevolin sends news to Ivdel that the tent has been found.

February 27, 1959

Search groups converge on Holatchahl mountain. Twenty yards below the tent, nine sets of footprints are found leading from the tent toward the valley.

The bodies of Yuri Doroshenko and Yuri Krivonishchenko are found by a cedar tree a mile downslope from the tent.

The bodies of Igor Dyatlov and Zinaida Kolmogorova are found later that day. Dyatlov is found roughly 1,300 yards from the tent and Kolmogorova about 300 yards from Dyatlov.

February 28, 1959

The search for the remaining hikers continues with no results.

March 1, 1959

Regional criminal investigator Lev Ivanov replaces Tempalov as chief investigator. Ivanov arrives on the scene to begin his investigation of the locations where the bodies were discovered. Ivanov examines the Dyatlov tent site and determines the tent was erected as per hiking regulations.

The first four bodies from the Dyatlov hiking group are taken to Boot Rock and prepared to be flown to Ivdel.

March 2, 1959

The hikers’ storage structure is discovered with food rations and personal items belonging to the hikers.

Ivanov and the bodies of the hikers are flown to Ivdel by helicopter.

March 3, 1959

The search for the remaining hikers continues with no results.

March 4, 1959

Forensic examinations of Igor, Zina, Georgy and Yuri begin in Ivdel.

March 5, 1959

Rustem Slobodin’s body is found under a foot of snow in the 300-yard distance between Igor Dyatlov and Zinaida Kolmogorova.

March 6, 1959

Rustem’s body and the tent’s contents are taken to Ivdel by helicopter.

March 7, 1959

Yuri Yudin travels to Ivdel by helicopter to identify the belongings of the Dyatlov group.

March 8, 1959

Yuri Yudin identifies the equipment and personal belongings of the Dyatlov hikers in Ivdel.

March 9–10, 1959

Funerals are held for the first five hikers in Sverdlovsk. Yudin is still in Ivdel and not able to attend the funeral.

March 11, 1959

Forensic examination of Rustem begins in Ivdel as search efforts continue in the Urals.

March 12–16, 1959

Four hikers remain missing: Lyuda Dubinina, Sasha Zolotaryov, Alexander Kolevatov and Kolya Thibault-Brignoles. The search continues.

March 17, 1959

Meteorologists and soldiers in Ivdel report seeing light orbs. A similar phenomenon is observed by search party member Vladislav Karelin as his team was traveling in the northern Urals.

March 18–30, 1959

Forensic examination of Igor, Zina, Georgy, Doroshenko and Rustik conclude that the five hikers had died from hypothermia. The question remains not how they died but under what circumstances.

Search efforts expand to a larger area with no results.

March 31, 1959

Search party members on the Auspiya River report seeing light orbs in the sky of a similar nature to those seen on February 17.

April 1–2, 1959

Harsh weather slows the search effort for the hikers.

April 3–6, 1959

The hikers’ tent is examined at Sverdlovsk criminal research laboratory. It’s established that the tent was cut by someone and the Dyatlov group escaped suddenly. Ivanov believes the issue of the tent being cut is crucial to solving the case.

April 7–May 2, 1959

A professional tailor examines the slashes in the tent and confirms what investigators have already concluded: It is a deliberate slash made with a knife.

Criminal expert G. Churkina later examines the tears in the tent under a microscope and determines the slashes were made from the inside of the tent, not the outside, by a blade or knife. Ivanov no longer considers the theory of an outside attacker.

Search efforts continue as the teams battle with strong winds and deep snow.

May 3, 1959

Mansi searcher Stepan Kurikov discovers loose branches, cut by a knife, under snow in a ravine near a cedar tree. Probing of the area begins and a piece of clothing is discovered. The team digs a large hole above the creek bed and discovers a cache of cut and shredded clothing.

May 4, 1959

Excavation through snow and slush above the creek bed reveals the remaining four hikers (Lyudmila Dubinina, Alexander Zolotaryov, Alexander Kolevatov and Nikolay Thibault-Brignoles) at the bottom of a ravine. The volunteers remove the badly decomposed bodies from the slush in the ravine.

May 5–6, 1959

Ivanov arrives to examine the condition of the bodies pulled from the ravine.

May 7, 1959

Helicopter pilot, Captain Gatezhenko, refuses to transport the hikers’ bodies to Ivdel without zinc-lined coffins to prevent toxic or biological leakage.

May 8, 1959

The remaining four hikers are flown to Ivdel by helicopter in the specified zinc-coated coffins.

May 9, 1959

A forensic examination of the remaining four hikers reveals “violent” injuries to three of the bodies.

May 10–17, 1959

Ivanov interviews more witnesses in an attempt to make sense of the recent autopsy results.

May 18–21, 1959

Ivanov orders radiological analysis for possible radiation contamination.

May 19–21, 1959

Radiological tests are performed on the hikers’ organs and clothing samples.

May 22, 1959

Dubinina, Zolotaryov, Kolevatov and Thibault-Brignoles’ closed-casket funerals are held for family only.

May 28, 1959

The criminal case is discontinued with Lev Ivanov’s conclusion that “an unknown compelling force should be considered the cause of the hikers’ deaths.”

May 29, 1959

Radiological analysis report comes back after the case has been closed. The radiologist determines articles of the hikers’ clothing to contain higher-than-normal levels of radiation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many relatives of the hikers, search participants and key people involved in the Dyatlov case have died without knowing what happened to their friends and loved ones. The spirit of this book is in honor of the nine hikers who died, their family and friends.

This book would have been impossible without the assistance of a great number of people.

Without the wisdom, tireless guidance and enduring friendship of Yuri Kuntsevich, Vladimir Borzenkov and Yuri Yudin this book would not exist. I would like to pay special tribute to Yuri Yudin, who passed away before the publication of the book. I hope I’ve made you proud in retelling your story. Rest in peace my friend.

Dmitriy Voroshchuk for accompanying me on the expedition to the Dyatlov Pass. Tatania Dyatlov and family, Piotr Bartolomey, Evgeniy Zinoviyev, Mikhail Sharavin, Vladislav Karelin, Oleg Arkhipov, Aleksey Budrin, Anatoliy Gushchin, Alexsandra Ivanov, Igor Dubinina, Yuri Koptelov, Aleksey Kashin, Sergey Lugovtsov, Sergey Zuberev, Mikhail Terekhanov, Valeriya Gamatina, Nikolay Roman, Stephan Anyamov, Valentin Yakimenko, Evgeniy Koshkarev, Leonid Rokotyan and Milana Borisova for providing essential recollections from interviews. Katya Bushkovskaya, Olga Taranenko and Eugene Alpirn for providing translations. Lev Ivanov for providing the clues contained in your 1959 case investigation. Many thanks to Olga Kuntsevich for taking me in as family into your home. You are a treasure.

To J.C. Gabel and Nova Jacobs. Without your tireless editing, writing and research contributions, the book would not have been possible.

Steve Mockus, my editor at Chronicle Books, for his superb instinct for narrative and for giving me the space to figure out how to tell this story. Emily Dubin for helping visually frame a difficult and complicated story. Beth Steiner, Lia Brown and Courtney Drew at Chronicle for your help.

The wisdom of experts and scholars: Dr. Al Bedard and Valerie Zavorotney at NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory; Dr. Chris Straus, associate professor of radiology at the University of Chicago Medical Center; Dr.

Yuri Yudin and Donnie Eichar, February 2012

Reed Brozen, medical director at Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center’s Advance Response Team; Bruce Tremper, director of forest services at the Utah Avalanche Center; Peter Sherwood, professor of Hungarian Language and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Russian scholars Jonathan Brent and J. Archibald Getty.

Carolyn Kellogg at the
L.A. Times
for tipping J.C. and me off to Richard Lloyd Parry’s brilliant book,
People Who Eat Darkness
, which served as an inspiration for
Dead Mountain
. Paul and Tinti Norton for their friendship, publishing expertise and guidance. Nina Weiner for introducing J.C. and me in the summer of 2011. John Sinclair, Konrad Ribero, Tony Macaluso, Jeremy Rabb, George Hodak, Sybil Perez and Rachel Wiseman, who all read the manuscript with great care. Josh Rogers for hosting a one-night-only salon to help garner additional support for the book.

To my good friend Jason Thompson, thanks for believing when the times were tough.

To my mom and dad for instilling courage in me at a young age, and giving me guidance when I was lost.

And finally to my girlfriend Julia for your shining integrity, your endless optimism and your creative instincts. And to our son Dash and his happy feet. Your smile brings tears to my eyes. You are my inspiration. This book is dedicated to you both.

INDEX

The index entries below are as they appeared in the print version of the book and are included here for your reference. Please use the search function on your eReader to search for terms of interest.

Abel, Rudolf

Aeroflot

Akselrod, Moisey

Anyamov, Andrey

armed men theory

Atmanaki, Georgy

Auspiya River

avalanche theory

Bahtiyarova, Pyotr

Bahtiyarova village

Bedard, Alfred, Jr.

Blinov, Yuri

brief description of

diary entries of

in Ivdel

photo of

previous hiking trips of

search efforts by

in Serov

theory of

on the train

in Vizhay

Bogomolov, S.

bone records

Boot Rock

Borzenkov, Vladimir

on author’s expedition to Holatchahl

brief description of

infrasound and

at Kuntsevich’s apartment

in Moscow

mountaineering skills of

photo of

on the train

at the train station

Brozen, Reed

Brusnitsyn, Vadim

Budrin, Aleksey

Chelyabinsk meteor event

Chernyshev, Captain

Chistop Mountain

Churkina, G.

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)

Conquest, Robert

Doroshenko, Yuri

autopsy of

birthday celebration of

brief description of

cause of death of

diary entries of

discovery of body of

final day of life of