Mountain of the Dead (9 page)

Yury Doroshenko had frozen to death and was found along with George Krivonischenko, under the cedar tree where they had built a small fire. They were thought to have been the first of the group to die. The results of the autopsy were as follows:

Ear, nose and lips were covered in blood.

His right armpit had a bruise 2 x 1.5cm.

The inner surface of his right shoulder had two abrasions 2 x 1.5cm with no bleeding in the tissue. There were two cuts in the skin.

There were brown/red bruises on the upper third of his right forearm. These measured 4 x 1cm, 2.5 x 1.5cm and 5 x 5cm.

The fingers of both hands had torn skin.

There was bruised skin in the upper third of both legs.

There were signs of frostbite on his face and ears.

There were foamy grey fluid discharges on his right cheek, from the mouth.

There was 150g of urine in his bladder.

Much has been made by theorists of the foamy grey discharge from his mouth, which was found on his cheek. It has been speculated that this was caused by someone pressing on his chest. The official cause of Doroshenko’s death was given as hypothermia. When he was found by the search party, he was wearing a vest, a shirt, a short-sleeved shirt, and knitted pants with a pair of shorts over these pants. The pants had tears on the inner thighs. He had no footwear but was wearing socks, of which the left sock was burnt. The issue of ‘paradoxical undressing’ in relation to Yury Doroshenko is referred to in Chapter 6
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Zinaida Kolmogorova was found nearest to the tent, almost as though she was trying to get back to it, although she was still some considerable distance away, especially considering what must have been her very weak state at the end. The results of her autopsy were:

Swelling of Meninges. [The Meninges is the system of membranes that covers the central nervous system and their swelling was an important feature of hypothermia.
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Frostbite on the phalanges of the fingers.

Numerous bruises on her hands and palms.

A long bruise that encircled her right side 29 x 6cm.

There was 300g of urine in her bladder.

The autopsy also showed that she was not sexually active at any time near her death. The cause of death was stated as hypothermia. When her body was found, Zina was wearing two hats, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater, a second shirt and a second sweater with torn cuffs. It could not be determined whether she had cut off the second sweater or whether the damage had been done by someone else. In addition she was wearing trousers, cotton athletic pants, ski pants (with three small holes in the bottom), three pairs of socks and a military mask, but was not wearing any footwear. As she was wearing more clothing than the others, this may have accounted for the fact that, of the whole group, she was closest in what seemed to be an attempt to get back to the tent. Had she made it back there, her chances of survival would have increased considerably.

The body of the leader of the group was found approximately 1,000ft (300m) from the cedar tree. Like Zina, it appeared that he had been trying to return to the tent. The results of his autopsy were:

Dried blood on the lips.

There were numerous dark red scratches on the lower third of the right forearm and the palms of the hands.

There were brown/red bruises in the area of the Metacarpophalangeal joints of the right hand. A common injury in hand fights using fists.

There were brown/purple bruises on the left hand with superficial wounds on the 2nd and 5th fingers of the left hand.

Minor abrasions on the forehead.

Abrasions above the left eyebrow of a brown/red colour.

Abrasions on both cheeks of a brown/red colour.

There was an incisor missing on the lower jaw but the mucosa was intact which suggested that the incisor was lost long before the final journey.

Both knees were bruised without bleeding into the underlying tissue.

There was bruising on the lower third of the right leg.

There were bright red abrasions on both ankles which were 1 x 0.5cm and 3.0 x 2.5cm with haemorrhage into the underlying tissue.

There were no internal injuries.

There was approximately one litre of urine in the bladder.

The cause of death was stated as hypothermia. Igor was wearing a sweater, a fur coat (with pockets) which had not been buttoned up, a long-sleeved shirt, and ski pants over his pants. He had no footwear but was wearing a cotton sock on his left foot and a woollen sock on his right foot. He was also bareheaded. Yury Yudin later stated that the long-sleeved shirt found on Igor Dyatlov belonged to him, and that he had originally given it to Yury Doroshenko when he left the group to return because of his illness. It can be deduced that Dyatlov had removed the shirt from the body of Doroshenko after he froze to death. Three items were also found on Dyatlov: a watch, which showed the time as 5.31, a pocketknife and a photograph of Zina Kolmogorova.

The body of the mandolin player Rustem Slobodin was found 500ft (150m) behind Zina Kolmogorova and 600ft (180m) ahead of Igor Dyatlov. He was wearing one boot on his right foot, along with two shirts (one long-sleeved), two pairs of pants, four pairs of socks and a sweater. His watch had stopped at 8.45. He was carrying his passport, 310 rubles, a knife, pencil, pen, comb and matchbox. The results of the autopsy were:

Traces of blood discharge from the nose.

Swollen lips.

Swelling with a number of small, irregularly shaped abrasions on the right side of the face.

Minor brown/red abrasions on the forehead, two scratches 1.5cm long and 0.3cm apart.

A brown/red bruise on the upper eyelid of the right eye with haemorrhage into the underlying tissues.

Abrasions on the left side of the face.

The epidermis was torn from the right forearm.

[As with Igor Dyatlov] There were bruises in the area of the Metacarpophalangeal joints of both hands [only Dyatlov’s right hand was so affected; a common injury in hand fights using fists.]

Brown/cherry coloured bruises on the medial aspect of the left arm and left palm.

Bruising on the left tibia measuring 2.5 x 1.5cm.

There was also identified a fracture of the frontal bone and haemorrhaging in the temporalis muscle of Rustem’s skull. Despite some of the injuries he suffered, the cause of death was given as hypothermia. The skull fracture may have been caused by a fall or could have been caused by a blunt object hitting him. It was observed in the autopsy that the blow or fall that caused the skull fracture would have resulted in shock and a loss of co-ordination, which would have accelerated his death by hypothermia.

Belonging to the second group of bodies, Luda Dubinina was found close to the den that the second group had tried to create. She was in a kneeling position, lying against a rock by a stream. The injuries sustained by her were the worst and were almost inexplicable. Her tongue was stated as just being ‘missing’, along with the muscles of the floor of her mouth. The autopsy does not state that her tongue was torn out. There was 100g of coagulated blood in her stomach, which is taken to imply that her heart was beating and blood was flowing when her tongue was removed. The results of her autopsy were:

Tongue missing.

Soft tissue missing around the eyes, eyebrows and left temporal area with partially exposed bone.

Eyes missing.

Nose cartilage broken and flattened.

Four ribs were broken on the right side with two fracture lines visible.

Six ribs were broken with two fracture lines visible.

Soft tissue of the upper lip missing, teeth and upper jaw exposed.

Massive haemorrhage in the heart’s right atrium.

Bruise in the middle left thigh measuring 10 x 5cm.

Damaged tissues around the left temporal bone measuring 4 x 4cm.

Luda was wearing two sweaters, two shirts – one with long sleeves and one with short sleeves, underwear, long socks plus two pairs of smaller socks and another single sock, plus a small hat. She was not wearing any footwear and in an attempt to protect her feet had cut a sweater in half and wrapped one half around her left foot. The other half of the sweater was found lying in the snow. Her cause of death was stated as haemorrhage into the right atrium of the heart, multiple fractured ribs and internal bleeding. Her fractures were symmetrical and are believed to be impossible to have been caused by falling onto rocks, quite apart from the lack of any external marks on the skin.

Also in the second group found, the body of Semyon Zolotarev was found close to the den that this group had created. He too, like Luda Dubinina, had suffered serious and seemingly inexplicable internal injuries. The results of his autopsy were:

Eyeballs missing.

Missing soft tissue around the left eyebrow measuring 7 x 6cm with bone exposed.

Flair chest with five ribs broken on the right side with two fracture lines.

Open wound on the right side with exposed bone measuring 8 x 6cm.

Zolotarev was found to have three tattoos: on the back of his right wrist at the base of the thumb, a tattooed male name, GENA; on the back of the right forearm, a tattooed outline of a beetroot and the letter C; on the back of the left forearm, two Cyrillic letters, plus separately a combination of eleven Cyrillic letters and the number 3, a five-pointed star, four more Cyrillic letters and the year 1921. The year probably refers to his year of birth.

Another member of the second group, the body of Alexander Kolevatov was found close to the den. The results of his autopsy were:

Lack of soft tissue around the eyes.

Eyebrows missing.

Skull bone exposed.

Broken nose.

Open wound behind the ear, size 3 x 1.5cm.

Deformed neck.

Intravital subluxation of the foot [which was bandaged with a piece of cloth].

The final member of the second group, the body of Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolle was also found close to the den. The results of his autopsy were:

Multiple fractures to the temporal bone with extensions to the frontal and sphenoid bones.

Haemorrhage on the lower forearm measuring 10 x 12cm.

Bruise on the left side of the upper lip.

A fall of some kind onto a rock as the cause for the large and unusual skull fracture was dismissed at the autopsy, which leaves the question: what else could have caused the damage to his skull? Some of the theories about what caused the deaths may account for what caused the skull fracture (avalanche/fight/attacks by criminals or special forces, etc), but whatever caused the damage must have happened fairly close to where he died, as he probably would have been unable to make his way from the tent without being carried or dragged. None of the evidence points to any member of the group being carried or dragged by the others.

The bulk of this chapter consists of information provided by the courtesy of the Dyatlov Memorial Foundation.

  
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/meninges
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This chapter looks at possible explanations using the official investigation as a guideline (particularly the only footprints present being from the group themselves) and also looks at all the possibilities arising from the deaths occurring in the vicinity of the tent and the lower slope of Kholat Syakhl by the tree line. The official investigation was concluded on 28 May 1959.

Fifty-one years after the tragedy, the Dyatlov Memorial Foundation organised a conference on 2 February 2010 at Ural State Technical University to bring a number of experts and interested parties together in order to try and answer some of the many questions surrounding this mystery. In the process, they examined a number of the main theories that have been put forward.

The following presents a list of possible scenarios that may have either directly caused the deaths of the group or been a significant contributory factor. All the possibilities suggested have been put forward at different times by different sources, ranging from the highly probable to the fantastic. There is also a line of thought supported by some that there is a simple and mundane explanation for the deaths. This line of thought is that they all left the tent and six of them froze to death; the other three (all three of them at the same time) fell into a ravine, seriously injuring themselves as they did so, and then were overcome by the elements. On the face of it, this is certainly plausible, but the following questions have to be asked: why did they slash the tent with knives to get out so quickly? What is mundane about nine experienced hikers/skiers leaving the confines of safety to walk or run to their certain deaths? Who in their right minds would commit virtual suicide as a group, unless someone or something had forced them to do so? Why did the group split into two and end up apart from each other? If they fell to their deaths in a ravine why did they all do so – did they follow each other over the edge and fall down one after another or did they all fall into a ravine at the same time? They cannot have been looking for help as they knew very well that they were many miles away from any help or civilisation. That is what takes this tragedy beyond the mundane.