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Waymarker said to EnolaGaia- can give us your own latest up-to-the- minute May 2018 cutting edge theory as to what exactly happened"..:)
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Hmm..forgive my skepticism, but I'm puzzled how they could have "accidentally" abandoned the tent and gone down to the trees in subzero temperatures at night?
PS- I read somewhere that their tent had a lace-up door instead of a zipper, so they hung a curtain over the door end to keep out the draught whistling through the lace holes. That could be one explanation why they slashed the tent in an emergency to get out quickly rather than spend time fumbling with the curtain and laces in the dark.
One theory I've heard was that their stove was giving off carbon monoxide fumes that were choking them, so they slashed to get some fresh air.
But yet I read somewhere else that their stove wasn't turned on that night, so there are many theories and counter-theories whizzing around!
The only cold hard facts we have to go on are that they abandoned the tent and went to their deaths, and that Yuri Yudin said some items found at the abandoned tent didn't belong to any of the group.
*Ringo wading in. Here, hold my beer...

Waymarker, I can almost feel your enthusiasm through your posts. I can tell you're really into this subject. It's great to feel that especially for the likes of me who have seen their energy levels fade over the past 25 years of exploring the oddities in this world. But, and here comes the but, you are coming across as quite confrontational and sensationalistic. It seems, if I may say so Waymarker, that you have made up your mind about a certain modus operandi. I think your conclusions are based on conflicting information from multiple unreliable or questionable sources. Or maybe unreliable is the wrong word- maybe biased, or sensationalised as I mentioned earlier? There are inaccurate statements you are making which even I, not being that well read up on the subject, can correct...such as the stove.

Enolagaia has adressed most of these points over and over again, after having trawled through the original paperwork and reports AFAIK. Listen to Enolagaia and your own research will speed up as you stop chasing rainbows.

The problem comes when multiple sources conflict, then you start picking and choosing what fits your theory. We all know something unusual happened but let the facts (and not hack books) lead the way. For example, you ask us to forgive your skepticism regarding the group "accidentally" abandoning the tent. There was nothing accidental about them leaving the tent but there was obviously an unknown reason which caused them to do so quickly. This may all boil down to something very mundane (such as a irritated argument) followed by an unfortunate spate of bad luck (for example, weather conditions).
 
... I'm puzzled how they could have "accidentally" abandoned the tent and gone down to the trees in subzero temperatures at night? ...

I never said they 'accidentally' abandoned the tent. I though I made it clear I believe they deliberately abandoned the tent when confronted with circumstances that rendered staying there untenable. Whether they were thinking clearly when undertaking this course of action is another matter.
 
..reasons to take Yudin's claims about articles found at the fatal site with a grain of salt....he had turned back on only the second day (January 28th) of the group's setting out on foot / skis. One must wonder how well he could have known and / or recognized all the others' belongings after so short a time with them on the trail..

In fact, Yudin had been with the group for 5 days right from the start on Jan 23rd travelling with them by train, truck, and horse-drawn wagon before he pulled out on Jan 28th, so he'd have been well-acquainted with the gear they were carrying as they loaded it on/off the transport.
And remember, when he was asked to identify items retrieved from the abandoned campsite, he didn't recognise some of them, which suggests they belonged to another group who were there.
 
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...The story was always more widely known, and documented, within the Soviet Union. One must bear in mind that the official verdict was essentially 'accident' or 'act of God', so the rampant second-guessing we know today wasn't in effect. The story had plenty of time to fade from memory by the time the USSR collapsed.

I'm not sure whether, or to what extent, the story may have been repressed 'from above'. There are two peripheral factors that may have given a bureaucrat pause. Any allusions to lights in the sky may have triggered secrecy owing to connections with general military usage of the fatal area for training and exercises and / or details of the space launches that would have overflown the area. The trace amounts of radioactivity found on X's (I don't remember which one's) clothing resulted from his having participated in the cleanup of a nuclear accident the Soviets wouldn't admit for decades, and this would have been an even stronger incentive to bury the affair.

To the extent I know the publication history it seems that the story got renewed publicity circa 1990, as the Soviet Union opened up and disintegrated. That's when a book by an Anatoly Gushchin appeared, entitled something like 'The Price of State Secrets was Nine Lives." That's also when the head investigator in 1959 (Lev Ivanov) published an essay about the case (to the best of my knowledge, his first public statement on the matter).

This is all really interesting. It's often struck me that these events can be separated into two distinct threads: the story - and how the story has been disseminated. They are clearly intertwined, but I've always thought that a reading of the latter can be fascinating in its own right. A recent example of this might be Gareth Williams recent book on the Loch Ness monster - A Monstrous Commotion - which seems to me to be more of a saga of the storytelling, than it is of the story itself. And a thoroughly good read at that.
 
This is all really interesting. It's often struck me that these events can be separated into two distinct threads: the story - and how the story has been disseminated. They are clearly intertwined, but I've always thought that a reading of the latter can be fascinating in its own right. A recent example of this might be Gareth Williams recent book on the Loch Ness monster - A Monstrous Commotion - which seems to me to be more of a saga of the storytelling, than it is of the story itself. And a thoroughly good read at that.


I'm fairly certain I heard of the tale pre-2000's but I can't remember where or exactly when.
I'd be interested to know when others heard or read about Daylatov Pass.
 
Welcome after your pilgrimage to this sensational thread mate, let me just bring you up to speed..:)-
Firstly, as the attackers were tracking the Dyatlov's, they'd have been following in their footprints where the going was easier, not approaching from another angle through deep unbroken virgin snow..


Granted. But I think even if thy were following the same path of footprints, it would be impossible not to add their own to them. Different prints. Additional prints. Much greater kickup of snow, or deeper tromping down of the snow. And assuming they left the scene in the same direction there would have to be footprints going in the opposite direction to the main trail.

I find it far less likely that investigators would not have noticed this.


Secondly, Yuri Yudin had to leave the Dyatlov group because of illness, and later when he was asked to identify items at the abandoned tent, he said several of them didn't belong to the Dyatlovs, so there's your evidence that other people had arrived at the camp!
"In an interview last year [2012] he recalled that he had been asked to identify the owner of everything found at the scene, but had failed to find a match for a piece of cloth that seemed to be of military origin, or for a pair of glasses, a pair of skis and a piece of a ski.."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10026000/Yuri-Yudin.html


Well, okay. Not so easy to explain. But at the same point are we to believe that a third party dropped skis, fabric and a pair of glasses.

If the skis were used by an individual to approach the camp, then leaving the camp without them (after, presumably, a violent encounter), the third party would be far more likely to stagger away or show signs of a far more careless retreat.

If the glasses belonged to the third party, and they relied on them for vision, again staggering away from the scene they would be more likely to be clumsy in retreat.

And if the fabric were to have been torn of clothing worn by an attacker then where was the evidence of a fight at the camp site? :)

Also skis *can* break from non-intentional non-violent means. I would hardly call it unusual in this terrain not to take a spare pair.

I just don't see it. I find it far more likely that Yudin simply wasn't aware that a member of the crew had reading glasses, that spare skis were being carried by somebody or that he was simply not aware of every different item of clothing which every member of the party had brought with them. I mean, honestly, why would he? :)

If there had been some kind of violent encounter at the camp, in those conditions? I think there would be far more evidence of it.
 
...you are coming across as quite confrontational and sensationalistic....there are inaccurate statements you are making...such as the stove.
Enolagaia has adressed most of these points over and over again, after having trawled through the original paperwork and reports AFAIK..

Thanks for the compliment mate, Charles Fort and other truthseekers have been described in some quarters as "confrontational and sensationalistic", so I'm in good company..:)
PS- What alleged "inaccuracy" did I make with the stove?
As for EnolaGaia, yes his researching skills are awesomely magnificent, but as yet he's formulated no theory of his own except to suggest that the Dyatlov's deaths were "accidental".
Hey Ringo, now let's hear your theory, I'm sitting munching my popcorn with my eyes glued to the screen in eager anticipation..:)
 
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In fact, Yudin had been with the group for 5 days right from the start on Jan 23rd travelling with them by train, truck, and horse-drawn wagon before he pulled out on Jan 28th, so he'd have been well-acquainted with the gear they were carrying as they loaded it on/off the transport.

Yudin may well have been acquainted with the packed-up gear (overall) from having traveled with the group to the trailhead. However, he had only 24 hours (and a single night camping out) in which to have any reasonable chance of seeing what all was packed away.

His failure to recognize items would have been more compelling if (e.g.) he'd seen an entire backpack he didn't think anyone had been carrying. As it was, his recognition issues all pertained to small items that could easily have been packed out of sight the whole time, overlooked if ever in the open, or forgotten.

I recall reading somewhere that Yudin wasn't even able to confirm how many cameras the group had been carrying. If I'm not mistaken his lack of certainty was one of the reasons there were questions concerning whether there'd been a fifth camera, as well as surprise at determining there'd been more than three (there were four).


And remember, when he was asked to identify items retrieved from the abandoned campsite, he didn't recognise some of them, which suggests they belonged to another group who were there.

I remember that Yudin couldn't positively identify all the items shown him as belonging to his fellow travelers. I don't remember anyone (including Yudin) claiming at the time this provided any evidence of another party at the tent site.
 
..I'd be interested to know when others heard or read about Daylatov Pass.

I heard about it many years ago, so I read up on it and decided that an avalanche got them and thought no more of it.
But the niggling doubts were still there, especially when I began watching youtube vids about it and I gradually got drawn in. The vital clue was the fact that a chap accused the Dyatlov's of stealing his wallet, so I put two and two together and decided he and his mates trekked after them to get his wallet back, by furious violence if necessary.
 
Granted. But I think even if thy were following the same path of footprints, it would be impossible not to add their own to them. Different prints. Additional prints. Much greater kickup of snow, or deeper tromping down of the snow. And assuming they left the scene in the same direction there would have to be footprints going in the opposite direction to the main trail. ...

There's another angle to the 'wallet guy's group stalking the Dyatlov party' that hasn't been mentioned - timing.

Yudin trekked with the group for a full day, then turned back on the second day. He didn't report encountering any second group following the same path. If there were a second group, and Yudin didn't pass by them, this would imply they were on the order of 1.5 - 2 days behind the Dyatlov group.

Even if these hypothetical stalkers managed to reduce the distance by which they trailed their quarry ...

When the Dyatlov group turned back from their first ascent attempt, why didn't they run into their stalkers? Why didn't the stalkers appear on the scene the morning the Dyatlov group spent establishing their cache before undertaking the second ascent attempt at or shortly after midday?

Even if I put any stock in the stalkers theory, I don't see how they could have intercepted the Dyatlov party before their quarry was probably already dead.
 
..I think even if thy were following the same path of footprints, it would be impossible not to add their own to them.
..are we to believe that a third party dropped skis, fabric and a pair of glasses..
If there had been some kind of violent encounter at the camp, in those conditions? I think there would be far more evidence of it.

1- Searchers didn't find the tent til 25 days after the deaths, and a lot of new snow and wind could have happened in that time to muss up the snow in the area.
2- In a fight anything could have been bust, ripped, knocked off or dropped and lost in the snow.
3- The autopsies reveal plenty of evidence of a fight, bruised knuckles, broken bones, gashes, fractured skull, smashed faces etc, here are autopsy report extracts listing the facial injuries alone-
"Doroshenko- ear, nose and lips covered in blood..
Dyatlov- dried blood on lips..
Slobodin- blood discharge from nose, swollen lips..
Dubinina- nose cartilage broken and flattened..
Kolevatov- broken nose"
(From pages 68-76 of McCloskey's book 'Mountain of the Dead')
 
... I'd be interested to know when others heard or read about Daylatov Pass.

I think I first encountered the story as a side note or passing mention in the context of destructive UFO encounters at least as far back as the early 1980's. I didn't pay it much mind, because it was a details-deficient bit of hand-waving analogous to what one gets on (e.g.) Ancient Astronauts.

I read at least two descriptions of the incident in the context of fatal backcountry / mountain trekking events no later than the mid-1990's. These accounts focused on the story in terms of bad luck or bad decision making, and only mentioned the more paranormal add-ons to illustrate how some others had spun the narrative.

The story was also familiar to me from mentions in one or more Usenet newsgroups in the pre-Web days. I believe the majority of these mentions were also in the context of UFO encounters.
 
...I've long suspected this change of plan (night before = cache on other side of the pass; morning = set up cache where they were) was the first in the chain of events that doomed them. This delayed their starting out to ascend the pass and contributed to their finding themselves atop the pass in worsening weather conditions...

...I strongly suspect there could have been some sort of social / interpersonal stress that was a significant factor. One obvious source for such stress was the situation in which they found themselves - a situation resulting from a plan that was unraveling and leaving them stuck in a final camping location that was so ill-advised one must wonder if it was chosen out of desperation...

Both of these seem crucial points to me. The psychology and dynamic of groups in situations of environmental stress is interesting – and often counter-intuitive. (An example being that the technically most experienced are sometimes the least able to adapt a plan – especially one of their own making.) And it’s always worth remembering a very obvious point – that highly experienced individuals die on mountains all the time.

On a slight aside – I’ve experienced severe thunderstorms in exposed and isolated conditions on more than one occasion: the most memorable being while hiking across Kinder Scout in the Peak District, and while camping near Loch Ossian on Rannoch Moor in Scotland. The staggering amount of noise and physical commotion involved, when directly under a storm on exposed and/or high land and without any form of protection, is absolutely all consuming. During the most violent phase I seriously doubt I could have been capable of counting to ten*; I experienced a kind of loss of self – and I don’t think it’s exaggerating to say that the experience might be akin to some sort of existential/religious episode.

I’m not at all suggesting that the type of storm I experienced is in any way similar to the conditions experienced by the Dyatlov hikers; I suspect I was going through a very much tempest ’lite’ version - but this is kind of the point. The environmental conditions experienced by the Dyatlov party were clearly much worse than anything like this; and, if the vortex shedding theory were to be true – worse to the power of ten. I doubt most of us can really even begin to conceive how they might have been affected by such staggering environmental force.

*In the Ossian episode (the most memorable) I did manage to carry out some very basic precautions – like removing all metal objects from my person and vicinity; however, I have no recollection of actually doing so. I also left the tent: this made perfect sense given its location – but I have a feeling that I could not have borne being inside even if it had been in a safer position.
 
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I heard about it many years ago, so I read up on it and decided that an avalanche got them and thought no more of it.
But the niggling doubts were still there, especially when I began watching youtube vids about it and I gradually got drawn in. The vital clue was the fact that a chap accused the Dyatlov's of stealing his wallet, so I put two and two together and decided he and his mates trekked after them to get his wallet back, by furious violence if necessary.

Sorry I cannot understand your belief that someone got their wallet stolen and organized a skilled alpine kill team quickly enough to go after the Dyatlov party in some truly horrific weather to murder them all over a wallet and nobody knows about it.

It's so ridiculous I'd put money on the Menkvi doing it or aliens rather than that.
 
The portable custom-made stove wasn't even deployed (suspended inside the tent) the last 2 nights.
It was a compact cylindrical apparatus designed to be hung inside, with sections of pipe allowing for directing the smoke outside through an opening. Here's an illustration of the setup ...


The stove was typically hung when the tent's guy lines were secured to trees, owing to the need to support the stove's weight.
The stove was still stowed / packed up when discovered.

Yes that's another puzzling aspect of the case (as if there weren't enough already!), namely why didn't they pitch camp down in the trees on the fatefull night (which would have allowed them to rig up the stove), instead of pitching a mile or so away up on a barren slope.
 
This is all really interesting. It's often struck me that these events can be separated into two distinct threads: the story - and how the story has been disseminated. They are clearly intertwined, but I've always thought that a reading of the latter can be fascinating in its own right. A recent example of this might be Gareth Williams recent book on the Loch Ness monster - A Monstrous Commotion - which seems to me to be more of a saga of the storytelling, than it is of the story itself. And a thoroughly good read at that.

Yep ... Over the last couple of decades I've found it depressing to learn how many of my long-cherished paranormal narratives had been twisted or doctored in their endless re-tellings, as well as how many of them essentially disintegrated once I tried to untangle the original eventJ(s) from all the glossed overlays.

It was such s focused two-year campaign of retrospective review (mid-1990's) that ruined my attitude toward UFO's - the Fortean category that had originally captivated me as a child.
 
Yes that's another puzzling aspect of the case (as if there weren't enough already!), namely why didn't they pitch camp down in the trees on the fatefull night (which would have allowed them to rig up the stove), instead of pitching a mile or so away up on a barren slope.

Agreed ... I mentioned what I consider the top 3 explanations in post #592:

- It was late and the light was failing (they pitched the tent around 1700);
- They'd committed to taking the above-treeline route the rest of the way to Ortoten; or
- They'd decided to self-test their winter camping acumen.

Still, it seems to me the weather conditions were already bad enough to motivate someone to ask whether they shouldn't ski a few minutes longer and make it to the wooded valley below, just to be safe.

As time goes on I increasingly suspect fatigue and physical duress from the previous 48 hours (e.g., two days without heat or hot food) degraded their ability to deal with trouble or plan with safety in mind, whether or not they were feeling the early effects of hypothermia.
 
Agreed ... I mentioned what I consider the top 3 explanations in post #592:

- It was late and the light was failing (they pitched the tent around 1700);
- They'd committed to taking the above-treeline route the rest of the way to Ortoten; or
- They'd decided to self-test their winter camping acumen.

Still, it seems to me the weather conditions were already bad enough to motivate someone to ask whether they shouldn't ski a few minutes longer and make it to the wooded valley below, just to be safe.

As time goes on I increasingly suspect fatigue and physical duress from the previous 48 hours (e.g., two days without heat or hot food) degraded their ability to deal with trouble or plan with safety in mind, whether or not they were feeling the early effects of hypothermia.

Why do you think they all left the tent?

Do you agree that some of the party was in the middle of footwashing?
 
Now that sunrise in occurring, I think it's time to call it a night ... :willy:

One parting item - for the sake of illustration ...

Here's a photo from the previous year (1958), showing Dyatlov's tent erected out in the open (without trees around) on an earlier expedition.

палатка.jpg

It illustrates how they rigged the tent using skis and ski poles for supports. This would have been the rigging approach used at the final / fatal site. It wouldn't take much going wrong to cause at least half the tent to collapse.

NOTE: The ski pole at the tent's nearest corner (left of center; foreground) is in a similar corner position as the ski pole found shattered into pieces when the tent was discovered.

The linear upward-pointing object at the far end is the stove's exhaust pipe, meaning that Dyatlov hadn't been afraid to hang and use the stove when the tent was being supported by skis and ski poles alone.

Anyway ... This is the only illustration I know of for the rigging arrangement used at the pass.
 
..Yudin trekked with the group for a full day, then turned back on the second day. He didn't report encountering any second group following the same path
When the Dyatlov group turned back from their first ascent attempt, why didn't they run into their stalkers?..

While waiting for their train connection at Serov station (where the alleged wallet theft incident took place), one of the Dyatlov females gave a talk to local schoolkids about their trip-
"After two hours the children did not want the group to leave. They wanted to know each minute detail of the trip.." (p 20 MOTD)
So it was fairly common knowledge around town what the Dyatlov's exact schedule, route and ultimate destination was.
Armed with that knowledge, the stalkers would have been able to carefully plan their own route (which may have been a very different overland route from the Dyatlovs) so that the ultimate confrontation would have been timed to take place on the fatal mountain.
Wait, I feel another speculation/scenario coming on, grab your popcorn!-
The stalkers might even have arrived in the MOTD area first and set up camp in the trees.
Then the Dyatlovs arrived and saw them and began to get a bad feeling about it, so instead of camping in the trees themselves, they pushed on and camped up the slope a mile away, then after nightfall the stalkers made their move..
(Alternatively, the Dyatlov's actually spoke to the stalkers in the trees and heated words were exchanged about the wallet, so the Dyatlov's walked off and camped up the slope)

Here's a map from the book to refresh our memories, (Serov is way off the bottom right edge). The yellow arrows are the Dyaltovs route by truck and horse-drawn wagon, and the reds are where they finally struck out on skis and foot. Kholat Syakhl is the 'Mountain of the Dead'. The dotted line is their intended onward route to Mt Otorten before making a big loop south and southeast to Vizhay-

dyatlov-route_zpsdpaiaqks.jpg~original
 
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...ruined my attitude toward UFO's - the Fortean category that had originally captivated me as a child.

Hey can I just nonchalantly mention in passing that I might have been abducted twice while camping alone in remote fields!
I've posted stunning accounts of it in other forums (with google earth location pics and maps), with dramatic thread titles such as 'Twice Taken' and 'The Spalding and Kings Lynn Incidents' but can't remember if I also posted it here at FT..:cool2:
 
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Thanks for the compliment mate, Charles Fort and other truthseekers have been described in some quarters as "confrontational and sensationalistic", so I'm in good company..:)
PS- What alleged "inaccuracy" did I make with the stove?
As for EnolaGaia, yes his researching skills are awesomely magnificent, but as yet he's formulated no theory of his own except to suggest that the Dyatlov's deaths were "accidental".
Hey Ringo, now let's hear your theory, I'm sitting munching my popcorn with my eyes glued to the screen in eager anticipation..:)
You made no inaccurate statement about the stove but you referred to a possible carbon monoxide build up causing the sudden evacuation of the tent. I was referring to this.

I don't have a theory per se as I'm not that into all the details. I think being followed and murdered for a wallet is a bit extreme. Bwing followed and murdered for a different reason and using the wallet as a cover story would be a great twist.:wink2: I'm not sure everyone needs to formulate a theory. The evidence will form one in time otheriwse as I mentioned before, evidence confirming the theory is accepted where as evidence disproving the theory is rejected.

However, I think that as with the Mary Celeste legend, the actual events have had the chinese whispers treatment and a simple logical order of events (which must have occurred) has now been lost because we don't know the triggering factor. We have the map but not the key. Just like Taman Shud's code paper. It means something and is completely understandable once you have the key.

If you push me for a theory (which due to my lack of knowledge would be as much use as a fart in a hurricane) then I would wildly conjecture that fatigue made them choose an ordinarily OK spot to camp (but not that evening due to extreme weather moving in). Some freakish storm destroyed the camp, left the team in a panic and disorientated due to lack of sleep and the cold), extreme tempertaures shocked them into flight/fight response and had them running for tree cover. In the immediate aftermath, they all one by one fell foul to weather or accidents, to be then nibbled at by fauna.

What eveidence do I have for any of this? None. Except reading here on the surrounding factors, weather, exposure and experience of the group.
 
You made no inaccurate statement about the stove but you referred to a possible carbon monoxide build up causing the sudden evacuation of the tent..
If you push me for a theory..Some freakish storm destroyed the camp, left the team in a panic and disorientated due to lack of sleep and the cold), extreme tempertaures shocked them into flight/fight response and had them running for tree cover. In the immediate aftermath, they all one by one fell foul to weather or accidents, to be then nibbled at by fauna.

1- But if the stove was on, isn't it possible it gave off fumes?
And hey, there are occasional sad reports in the papers of campers dying of carbon monoxide because their barbecue gave off fumes even after they'd put it out and brought it into their tents overnight.
As EnolaGaia's pic in post #617 of the Dyatlov tent on an earlier expedition illustrates, it's quite feasible that they had the stove going up on the mountain.

2- Yes your "freak weather" theory could have happened, we had one here in England in Feb 2018 that the media dubbed "The Beast from the East" that hit most of England, I've never seen anything like it in all my life, a real subzero gale-force humdinger blizzard!
Here's a pic from a police helicopter of it sweeping in to clobber London-

beast-from-east-from-london-police-helo_zpshmxb74oi.jpg~original
 
Wait, I feel another speculation/scenario coming on, grab your popcorn!-
The stalkers might even have arrived in the MOTD area first and set up camp in the trees.
Then the Dyatlovs arrived and saw them and began to get a bad feeling about it, so instead of camping in the trees themselves, they pushed on and camped up the slope a mile away, then after nightfall the stalkers made their move..

But if the 'stalker' group arrived first, and hid in the trees, where was the evidence of their tracks? And would the Dyatlov party not have noticed such tracks when looking at somewhere to pitch a tent?
 
Hey can I just nonchalantly mention in passing that I might have been abducted twice while camping alone in remote fields!
I've posted stunning accounts of it in other forums (with google earth location pics and maps), with dramatic thread titles such as 'Twice Taken' and 'The Spalding and Kings Lynn Incidents' but can't remember if I also posted it here at FT..:cool2:
You could always look and see if you have. If not, you're welcome do so.
 
1- But if the stove was on, isn't it possible it gave off fumes?
And hey, there are occasional sad reports in the papers of campers dying of carbon monoxide because their barbecue gave off fumes even after they'd put it out and brought it into their tents overnight.
As EnolaGaia's pic in post #617 of the Dyatlov tent on an earlier expedition illustrates, it's quite feasible that they had the stove going up on the mountain. ...

It was feasible, but no - it didn't happen on the fatal night.

The stove was neither hung up nor used on the presumably fatal night nor the night before. It had been stowed for 2 days. Zina's diary clearly stated there'd been no stove use nor fire the penultimate night, and photos of that night's encampment don't show the stovepipe coming out of the tent. Both the stove and stovepipe were found disassembled and still packed away by the searchers.
 
..The stove was neither hung up nor used on the presumably fatal night nor the night before. It had been stowed for 2 days. Zina's diary clearly stated there'd been no stove use nor fire the penultimate night, and photos of that night's encampment don't show the stovepipe coming out of the tent. Both the stove and stovepipe were found disassembled and still packed away by the searchers.

Thanks, that rules out the possibility that the temperature was cripplingly hypothermic when they settled down to sleep in the tent, or they'd have got the stove going to ward it off.
Unless of course the temperature suddenly dropped drastically in the night and hypothermia got them before they could kindle the stove.
 
But if the 'stalker' group arrived first, and hid in the trees, where was the evidence of their tracks? And would the Dyatlov party not have noticed such tracks when looking at somewhere to pitch a tent?

If the Dyatlov's noticed the stalkers tracks they might have decided to push up the slope to camp, I do that myself when camping rough, I'd never camp near anybody else because you never know who or what they might be.
Searchers didn't arrive on the scene til 25 days after the deaths, during that time fresh snowfalls could have obliterated some tracks.
 
Waymarker said- Hey can I just nonchalantly mention in passing that I might have been abducted twice while camping alone in remote fields!
I've posted stunning accounts of it in other forums (with google earth location pics and maps), with dramatic thread titles such as 'Twice Taken' and 'The Spalding and Kings Lynn Incidents' but can't remember if I also posted it here at FT.
.:cool2:
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You could always look and see if you have. If not, you're welcome do so.

Well I ran a search but couldn't find the Kings Lynn one so I presume I never posted it at FT, but I did find 'The Spalding Incident' which I posted here 6 years ago, but it hasn't had a single reply in all that time, it must have bored people (sniffle)..
LINK- http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/the-spalding-incident.47533/#post-1177984
 
... Unless of course the temperature suddenly dropped drastically in the night and hypothermia got them before they could kindle the stove.

The meteorological evidence (such as it is ... ), combined with the testimony of the other party at Chistop, pretty clearly demonstrates the temperature dropped radically that night.

If nothing else, this change in the weather would have seemed quite notable to the Dyatlov party. Even though it was generally 'cold', their journals (during the earlier days) contained multiple comments about the weather being mild for that place and season.

One of the complaints that surfaced early on was the relative 'warmth' causing the frozen river they were using as their main pathway to be covered in slush or 'sleet' that they had to recurrently pause to clear off their skis. This caused them to make less forward progress than they'd originally hoped, and it contributed to their seeming to fall farther and farther behind (anticipated) schedule each day.

The previous day (when they turned back from the first ascent attempt) was the first time during the trip they mentioned concerns with severe winter conditions.

I'm not sure they could have set up the stove without doing some major remodeling on the tent once it was already set up. The stove wasn't designed to be used on the 'floor' (a separate tarp underlying the entire tent), and they wouldn't have been able to use the stovepipe to remove any smoke. I'm not sure how much hassle and / or rearrangement would have been required to hang the stove after the fact.
 
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