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About the fabric and the tears / rips / apparent cuts in it ...

The two searchers who discovered the tent on 26 February were Slobtsov and X (I don't recall), both of whom were friends with Dyatlov and other members of the missing party. By their own admission, they became greatly excited and immediately began attempting to get into the collapsed tent to check on their friends. They had ice axes, and these were the only tools (I've seen cited) they used to cut their way into the tent. With the exception of a single horizontal slit near the tent's peak and approximately halfway along its length, no other cuts or holes were officially noted as definitely resulting from this attempted entry / opening frenzy. I frankly don't believe they tore into the tent and left only that one little slit.

The presumption the holes had been cut from the inside derived from a casual comment made by a seamstress / worker who happened to see the tent when it had been recovered and set up for display at the relevant local authority's headquarters. She noted that bare thread ends seemed to curl or bend outward, as if they'd been cut from inside the tent and forced outward. I've never seen any claim she examined each and every hole in the tent fabric. For all I know her comments may have been spot-on for one or more holes but ended up being over-generalized as if they pertained to all the damage.

I'd also point out the tent had lain in the snow for almost a month, been dismantled and dragged across the tent site, folded, transported, and unfolded / refolded any number of possible times before being hung up for the seamstress to see *in a heated building.* I've never been convinced any apparent directionality to the thread ends around the holes' edges necessarily reflected their state when discovered on the mountainside, much less provided reliable evidence for how they were made.

The shapes and edges of the holes are not uniform / identical. Some of the edges are quite ragged and strike me as more probably being tears or rips.

Some of the larger holes were cut or ripped in straight lines that curiously match the directionality within the weave of the canvas material. I suspect one or more of the larger holes were ripped to a larger size to gain access to the tent's interior and the missing party's belongings. This could have been done by Slobtsov and his companion or by the larger group of searchers and investigators once they arrived at the scene.

I have a hard time believing panicked trekkers could have consistently cut such straight lines through the canvas under duress.

We know there were notably high winds the night following the tent's final erection on the mountainside. The reports from the "geologists' party" miles away on Chistop are sufficient to establish that.

Dyatlov's tent was a homemade mashup of two smaller tents (both of which were already well used) that had been sewn together to make one larger unit. I have no problem believing some or most of the apparent damage to the down-slope side of the tent was the result of being buffeted by the winds.
 
About the fabric and the tears / rips / apparent cuts in it ...

The two searchers who discovered the tent on 26 February were Slobtsov and X (I don't recall), both of whom were friends with Dyatlov and other members of the missing party. By their own admission, they became greatly excited and immediately began attempting to get into the collapsed tent to check on their friends. They had ice axes, and these were the only tools (I've seen cited) they used to cut their way into the tent. With the exception of a single horizontal slit near the tent's peak and approximately halfway along its length, no other cuts or holes were officially noted as definitely resulting from this attempted entry / opening frenzy. I frankly don't believe they tore into the tent and left only that one little slit.

The presumption the holes had been cut from the inside derived from a casual comment made by a seamstress / worker who happened to see the tent when it had been recovered and set up for display at the relevant local authority's headquarters. She noted that bare thread ends seemed to curl or bend outward, as if they'd been cut from inside the tent and forced outward. I've never seen any claim she examined each and every hole in the tent fabric. For all I know her comments may have been spot-on for one or more holes but ended up being over-generalized as if they pertained to all the damage.

I'd also point out the tent had lain in the snow for almost a month, been dismantled and dragged across the tent site, folded, transported, and unfolded / refolded any number of possible times before being hung up for the seamstress to see *in a heated building.* I've never been convinced any apparent directionality to the thread ends around the holes' edges necessarily reflected their state when discovered on the mountainside, much less provided reliable evidence for how they were made.

The shapes and edges of the holes are not uniform / identical. Some of the edges are quite ragged and strike me as more probably being tears or rips.

Some of the larger holes were cut or ripped in straight lines that curiously match the directionality within the weave of the canvas material. I suspect one or more of the larger holes were ripped to a larger size to gain access to the tent's interior and the missing party's belongings. This could have been done by Slobtsov and his companion or by the larger group of searchers and investigators once they arrived at the scene.

I have a hard time believing panicked trekkers could have consistently cut such straight lines through the canvas under duress.

We know there were notably high winds the night following the tent's final erection on the mountainside. The reports from the "geologists' party" miles away on Chistop are sufficient to establish that.

Dyatlov's tent was a homemade mashup of two smaller tents (both of which were already well used) that had been sewn together to make one larger unit. I have no problem believing some or most of the apparent damage to the down-slope side of the tent was the result of being buffeted by the winds.
I don't know anything about this event but with regard to fabric, the direction the threads point to on the edges of a tear especially if they are subjected to wet and then dry won't relate to which side of the cloth the tearing object came from. Also, very worn natural fabrics have a tendency to tear naturally along the grain of the fabric, and a small tear can end up very large without any human intervention.
 
There are too many unknowns and too many variables to claim there's a single definitive answer. Having said that, here are some broad-strokes things I think I believe ...

As I've stated before, I'm not convinced there was a single catastrophic event that motivated everyone to abandon the tent all at once. All we know is that all of them apparently followed the same path (set of tracks) down into the valley below. Neither can we claim with any certainty that the party abandoned the tent during that first night at the site. Combining these two points, we can't even claim with certainty that the later / final trek(s) down into the valley occurred in the dark.

As to one of the points Marhawkman mentioned ... Take a look at the photo(s) of the party digging a place to erect the tent in white-out conditions. Then look at the photos of the tent site as it was found by the searchers 3.5 weeks later. One thing is quite apparent - there's less snow depth later than there was when the tent was erected. Also, the searchers had no trouble locating and following the trail of footprints down into the valley.

My point is that the fierce winter winds had plenty of time to scour the snowpack at the tent site and farther downslope. As such, I'm not sure how reliably one could claim there'd been no mass movement of snow down-slope - particularly if it had been anything short of an epic avalanche.

There are different levels / degrees of "avalanche" events. I tend to doubt there was a single massive avalanche (of the epic variety). For one thing, a major avalanche wouldn't have left the tent and its contents in as good a shape as they were when found. I doubt either end of the tent would have remained upright. Neither would it have afforded the trekkers the ability to escape if they'd been heavily buried.

On the other hand, I've never had any problem with the notion there'd been a smaller "snow slip" event in the area immediately around the tent.

Bear in mind that the major damage to the tent was concentrated on its down-slope side - i.e., the side *away from* any sliding / cascading snow movement.

Also bear in mind that the most "official" documentation that even mentions one of Dyatlov's jackets being stuffed into a hole in the tent fabric near the entrance states that the hole into which the jacket was stuffed was on the up-slope (relatively undamaged) side of the tent.

One of the biggest deficiencies in the evidentiary record is a total lack of descriptions or photos of the relatively less damaged up-slope side of the tent.

BOTTOM LINE: I don't rule out a modest snow slip or snow slide event occurring, but IMHO it clearly couldn't have been a single-point catastrophe.

More to come ...
Well, my "not an avalanche" thing comes from initial examinations of the area less than a month after the incident. Those investigators ruled it out. Why? the bits I know suggest that it's because there was a still-intact tree line uphill from the tent. Avalanches have to COME from somewhere and the only obvious route was... blocked.
About the fabric and the tears / rips / apparent cuts in it ...

The two searchers who discovered the tent on 26 February were Slobtsov and X (I don't recall), both of whom were friends with Dyatlov and other members of the missing party. By their own admission, they became greatly excited and immediately began attempting to get into the collapsed tent to check on their friends. They had ice axes, and these were the only tools (I've seen cited) they used to cut their way into the tent. With the exception of a single horizontal slit near the tent's peak and approximately halfway along its length, no other cuts or holes were officially noted as definitely resulting from this attempted entry / opening frenzy. I frankly don't believe they tore into the tent and left only that one little slit.

The presumption the holes had been cut from the inside derived from a casual comment made by a seamstress / worker who happened to see the tent when it had been recovered and set up for display at the relevant local authority's headquarters. She noted that bare thread ends seemed to curl or bend outward, as if they'd been cut from inside the tent and forced outward. I've never seen any claim she examined each and every hole in the tent fabric. For all I know her comments may have been spot-on for one or more holes but ended up being over-generalized as if they pertained to all the damage.

I'd also point out the tent had lain in the snow for almost a month, been dismantled and dragged across the tent site, folded, transported, and unfolded / refolded any number of possible times before being hung up for the seamstress to see *in a heated building.* I've never been convinced any apparent directionality to the thread ends around the holes' edges necessarily reflected their state when discovered on the mountainside, much less provided reliable evidence for how they were made.

The shapes and edges of the holes are not uniform / identical. Some of the edges are quite ragged and strike me as more probably being tears or rips.

Some of the larger holes were cut or ripped in straight lines that curiously match the directionality within the weave of the canvas material. I suspect one or more of the larger holes were ripped to a larger size to gain access to the tent's interior and the missing party's belongings. This could have been done by Slobtsov and his companion or by the larger group of searchers and investigators once they arrived at the scene.

I have a hard time believing panicked trekkers could have consistently cut such straight lines through the canvas under duress.

We know there were notably high winds the night following the tent's final erection on the mountainside. The reports from the "geologists' party" miles away on Chistop are sufficient to establish that.

Dyatlov's tent was a homemade mashup of two smaller tents (both of which were already well used) that had been sewn together to make one larger unit. I have no problem believing some or most of the apparent damage to the down-slope side of the tent was the result of being buffeted by the winds.
I feel the need to point out that the tent Dyatlov used had been used many times before possibly in worse weather. so... seems unlikely that it waited until that day to give in to the weather. Possible, but.. odds seem bad.

the bit about the way the threads were warped by being cut... has some merit, but it's a reflection of the angle the blade was at and NOT the side of the tent the person doing the cutting was at.
 
Well, my "not an avalanche" thing comes from initial examinations of the area less than a month after the incident. Those investigators ruled it out. Why? the bits I know suggest that it's because there was a still-intact tree line uphill from the tent. Avalanches have to COME from somewhere and the only obvious route was... blocked. ...

The tent site was well above the tree line at that location. There was no tree line up-slope from the tent.

Are you referring to the scattered suggestions that there had been an avalanche that somehow extended down to the den site in the valley below?
 
The tent site was well above the tree line at that location. There was no tree line up-slope from the tent.

Are you referring to the scattered suggestions that there had been an avalanche that somehow extended down to the den site in the valley below?
Or maybe I just mis-remembered. Some of the stuff I read was years back and I may have mixed things up. Anyways, here's a thing I found looking around: https://dyatlovpass.com/theories?flp=1#avalanche
This cites it as a slope so gentle that it's unlikely to have the traditional sort of avalanche. It also mentions what I said about how the initial investigators saw no sign of an avalanche, but the logic is not what I used. Namely this cites it as simply not having a chunk of missing snow on the uphill side, or having a large amount of snow covering the tent area. The logic is that for it to have been an avalanche.. the snow chunks would have had to be so loose that they blew away in the wind.... which isn't the sort of snow that could be a serious danger given how gentle the slope was around the tent.

Yeah, looks like I was thinking of a different camp site. One pic of their campsite shows them near trees, but.. not THIS camp site.
 
I feel the need to point out that the tent Dyatlov used had been used many times before possibly in worse weather. so... seems unlikely that it waited until that day to give in to the weather. Possible, but.. odds seem bad. ...

The tent had developed some number and type(s) of holes or tears in the earlier days of the trek. Diary entries mention one particular end-of-day tent setup where there was minor interpersonal friction over who was going to mend the tent and who ended up doing the repairs.
 
I feel the need to point out that the tent Dyatlov used had been used many times before possibly in worse weather. so... seems unlikely that it waited until that day to give in to the weather. Possible, but.. odds seem bad.
I dunno: if it's finally going to give up the ghost, seems more likely than not that it will do so under challenging conditions rather than waiting for more clement weather.
 
Now ... Regarding the injuries and their possible relationship with an avalanche scenario.

I don't believe the most significant injuries were the result of being hit or (at least partially) buried by a snow slip / snow slide event at the tent site. I think the major injuries all happened down in the valley, at either the cedar / campfire site or the den / ravine site.

For example, there's no way Dubinina could have made the 1.5 km trek downslope to the forest area with a lacerated heart. Her injuries are more than adequately explained by falling at least 6 to 9 feet onto rocks in the "ravine" and then having 3 adult males fall in on top of her - i.e., exactly the situation in which her body was found.
Understood, thank you. The snow slip event almost checks the box for substantial chaos. After digging their way out, the team needed something compelling enough to leave behind their belongings, too. Maybe raging winds were just enough icing on the cake to make a half-clothed run into the valley seem like a good idea. At first.
 
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I dunno: if it's finally going to give up the ghost, seems more likely than not that it will do so under challenging conditions rather than waiting for more clement weather.
The tent had developed some number and type(s) of holes or tears in the earlier days of the trek. Diary entries mention one particular end-of-day tent setup where there was minor interpersonal friction over who was going to mend the tent and who ended up doing the repairs.
Well, yes, but I'm just saying it seems unlikely catastrophic structural failure of the tent was the reason for the incident.

Also, while there is reason to believe the area was "windy".... what do the party photographing the trip show? We have copies of some of the photos don't we? *looks it up* Yes, they look like they're in blowing snow. https://dyatlovpass.com/loose-photos 11 and 12 look to be taken during tent setup.

oh yeah, also I found this:
Unknown-origin-Dyatlov-photos-06.jpg

this is from the previous night's campsite I think. Which was a lot further down the slope. But it's a good photo of what the tent looked like the previous night before it got shredded.
 
Dyatlov Pass Incident: The Real-Life Mystery That Inspired The New Season Of True Detective

In the latest series of True Detective, True Detective: Night Country, a team of researchers go missing in the Alaskan Arctic and are later found frozen together in a horrifying human “corpsicle”. The series contains spooky parallels to real life, and sparks some interesting questions around human cryogenics.

Director and writer Issa López confessed to drawing inspiration from historical events in the new series. These include the mysteries of the Mary Celeste and the Dyatlov Pass incident.

https://www.iflscience.com/dyatlov-...spired-the-new-season-of-true-detective-72628

maximus otter
 
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