I have a new theory that pretty much ticks all the boxes on the Dyatlov Pass Incident. My time away has not been wasted. The theory relies on no flying radioactive yetis, katabatic wind,or Soviet death squads but on the evidence that is known about the case.
My first clue was that every which-way you turn the information in the case, it seemed as if the evidence had no consistency, as if there was something fake going on. Not a cover up per se, but something that seemed to contradict the evidence at every turn.
It dawned on me that what I was looking at is not an altogether spontaneous chain of events, there is an element of simulation about it. But how to account for it?
Then I saw the following like in the Wikipedia entry that clued me in...
"Each member of the group, which consisted of eight men and two women, were experienced Grade II-hikers with ski tour experience, and would be receiving Grade III certification upon their return."
-Eichar, Donnie (2013). Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
ISBN 978-1-4521-2956-3. page 32.
What I was looking at was evidence of a training exercise gone wrong.
The USSR in the late 1950s was mending itself and had a new sense of its own purpose under Krushchev, but was in many ways a very dangerous and tough place to live. Russians have also never been overly safety conscious, and often the simplest tasks have an historical butchers bill in human lives that would make other European nations blanch. Training expeditions undertaken by organizations such as the military and the young pioneers were seen as a way of proving the worth of the citizens and constituted a measure of elitism in a society that was not supposed to recognise or laud the individual, thus personal competence was subordinated to group competence. This was the spirit, spoken or not, behind the Dyatlov Expedition.
So what happened at Dyatlov Pass? Let me offer you the following explanation...
The group was making good time and Igor Dyatlov, an experienced hiker was adequately impressed by them, and a number of the hikers had expressed an interest in undertaking fresh challenges in their training. Dyatlov, a young man of 23 and an experienced hiker with high certification is prone to agree with this request, and so he offers them some extra training. remember that young men sometimes take silly risks without quite meaning to. So he asks everyone if they would like to do an avalanche drill at some stage in the next couple of days, and they all enthusiastically agree, eager to test their skills and what they have learned.
So when they reach the pass, Dyatlov gets them to pitch camp in an area under absolutely no risk of avalance, but still on a slope. The weather seems clear, and Dyatlov has prepared the group over the days as to what to expect. He waits for them to start getting settled in the tent, but before they have the stove installed, then he starts the avalanche drill, which starts with everyone having to evacuate the tent in under 10 seconds. This is achieved well, as the group cut their way out. Dyatlov is not concerned about the damage as they have ample material to stitch the tent back up again, and that will form the last exercise. Note that this accounts for the state of undress of the group, as they had to abandon what they were doing and face the next challenge with what they were wearing. Dyatlov leaves a lantern to mark the position of the tent so they can hopefully find it the next day, even in the unlikely event that bad weather sets in and they face a fog or snow.
Next Dyatlov asks them each separately what they do when they are out of the tent and they see an avalanche bearing down on them. They are all prepared for the question, and answer that they run laterally away from the path of the avalance. Rather than making them do this, Dyatlov then says that they were all correct and so they don't have to physically do this.
The next exercise is that of winter survival. Dyatlov poses the problem "It is dark and the tent is buried under snow. You will have a better chance of recovering your supplies with the morning light, but for now you need to find shelter." It is generally agreed that the group will find better shelter and fuel for a fire below the tree line, but after that, the group splits as to how to proceed next. The main group is convinced that starting a bonfire will solve their group survival needs best, but 4 members are of the opinion that they would be better served by digging an ice cave to shelter in, using their combined body heat to stay warm with the snow insulating them (yes, this is known to work and is the main principle behind the success of igloos).
Then everything goes to hell in a hurry. The group splits into two. What Dyatlov hasn't quite anticipated is the weather. It doesn't snow, but the clear skies presage a viciously cold night, far worse than he ever suspected. Dyatlov has seriously miscalculated the risk. The 6 who engage in making the bonfire quickly find themselves in serious trouble as the temperature plummets. Try as they might to get warm, they just can't as the wind chill rips their body heat away. Some of them think better of their choice and try to get to the other group or to the ravine where they can make their own snow cave, but everyone dies.
The group who were digging the snow cave have also made a serious mistake. While the snow bank they are digging into would be safe enough for a single person to dig a personal shelter, they hoped to pool their labor, cooperatively, in good Soviet fashion, so that the whole group would benefit. What they don't realize is that the ice and snow above them is very unstable, and while 4 small caves might have kept each of them alive as individuals, when they group together to make a much bigger group cave, they undermine the structure and they wind up dead and buried under tons of ice and snow with cracked ribs and skulls, because the tons ice and snow acts just like tons of rock.
Now everyone is dead. Scavengers moving thru the area have a gobble at what exposed flesh they can find.
2 weeks later investigators arrive on the scene and can't figure out what happened. Having gathered the evidence, nothing makes sense. Every logical path towards explaining what happened leads to absurd conclusions. The whole thing becomes a legend.