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Sculpture, Fine Art, Stuff, Things...
Sculpture, Fine Art, Stuff, Things...
In the winter of 1959, nine college-aged ski hikers departed into the Ural Mountains of Russia for a 14 day expedition to reach the peak of Otorten Mountain. This was considered a very difficult ski hike, especially in the frigid February temperatures and weather conditions, but the hikers were experienced and well prepared to meet the challenge. The group brought multiple cameras and kept pretty extensive diaries, which allows us to track their movements. On the day they prepared to attempt the final ascent to the mountain, the group lightened their load by creating a cache of extra clothes, food, and backup skis, and made for the summit. Unbeknownst to them, this would be their final hike. Almost one month later, a search party was launched as the hikers had not returned. What the search party eventually found was stunning.
The first thing the searchers stumbled across was the badly damaged custom tent known to be used by the hikers. The tent was pitched quite far off of the hikers intended course, and was set up on the exposed side of a mountain, instead of farther down in the shelter of the tree line, which would have been common practice for winter camping. This was the first of many strange discoveries. The tent itself was “half torn down and covered with snow, it was empty, and all the group’s belongings and boots had been left behind”. Upon further examination, it was determined that the tent had been shredded, but the cuts had come from the inside. There was one long vertical cut and farther away two horizontal cuts that had then been ripped open to create two large openings, presumably to allow the occupants a path to escape the tent. Even more strangely, there were multiple smaller horizontal cuts in the tent, near the roof. These would not have been cut to try to escape, rather it is almost as if they were created as viewing slits, for the hikers to see what was happening outside the tent. The searchers then followed multiple sets of footprints, some with boots and some barefoot, through the snow and down towards the tree line about half a mile away. It is at this point the searchers begin to ask themselves the question: why would these experienced hikers, in these harsh conditions, not only destroy their tent which was their only means of survival but what would cause them to escape their tent in various stages of undress, and run through the snow towards certain hypothermia, while running in the opposite direction of their cache of clothing and other supplies?
As the search continued into the edge of the forest, under a large cedar tree, the remains of a fire were found along two of the bodies. The bodies had both been stripped of their clothes and if they had shoes with them, those were taken as well, presumably by other, still alive hikers, in an attempt to stay warm. Further, it was discovered that skin from the pair’s hands was embedded in the tree bark and branches had been broken off the tree up to 25 feet in the air. Either the pair had climbed the tree to escape something, or more likely had climbed the tree to get a better vantage to try and re-find the tent through the blinding snow. The cause of death for these two was determined to be hypothermia.
Next, on the slope between the cedar tree and the tent, the searches found three more bodies. It appears these hikers were attempting to return to the tent, and collapsed at various intervals, before succumbing to hypothermia. One of these hikers also had a small, non-lethal fracture on his skull and multiple abrasions on his arms and face.
The remains of the other 4 hikers took much longer to find. They were found under 12 feet of snow at the bottom of a small ravine around 200 feet from the cedar tree. These 4 hikers were better dressed than the others, as they were found wearing the clothing of the perished to help keep themselves warm. It appears they had dug into the deep snow and built somewhat of a ‘den’ with tree branches and some of the other hikers clothing lining the ground as insulation. These hikers were found just a few feet away from the ‘den’ in a small river. One of these hikers had died of hypothermia, but the others had major trauma injuries to their skulls or chests, without showing outward signs of injury. The force needed to cause these injuries would be similar to a car crash, according to a local doctor. Further, one of the hikers was missing her eyes and tongue, some of the clothing was found to have low levels of radiation upon examination. One of the hikers found in the ravine also had a camera around his neck, with a few pictures taken, though only one of the pictures was salvageable due to water damage.
In this painting, the middle section is a depiction of how the tent was found, with one of the support poles and a couple of ski’s still standing as the hikers left them. One photo shows the hikers beginning their attempt at the summit on their last day alive. One photo shows what was the last photo on one of the cameras left behind at the cache, some say it looks like a Yeti. One photo shows the only salvageable picture from the camera that was found in the ravine with the hikers. It appears to show a very bright light in the sky, with 3 heads looking at it in the foreground. Lastly, the 4th picture shows the location of the tent, cedar tree, ‘den’, and where the bodies were found.
So, what caused these hikers to cut themselves out of their tent and run panicked toward certain doom? There are many theories, some of which I will detail below:
1) Avalanche – on the surface, this seems a likely culprit. The tent was hit by an avalanche, causing the hikers to have to cut themselves out of the tent to escape the weight of the snow and also abandon their gear due to fear of a second avalanche. But this slope does not seem steep enough for an avalanche, is not historically prone to avalanches, and the skis still standing outside of the tent make this theory unlikely.
2) The Mansi – Could the local indigenous people have gotten upset that the hikers had entered their land? Not likely, the locals were known to be friendly, and many hikers had passed through before.
3) Magic Mushrooms – Could the hikers have unknowingly eaten a local mushroom that causes hallucinations causing them to panic and escape the tent? Interesting, but not likely.
4) Russian Military/KGB – Could the hikers have stumbled across a secret military program and been silenced? Perhaps a Russian missile test launch went off course, and exploded near the hikers? This theory does have some credence, as there was a Russian military base about 50 miles from the site of the incident, and some geologists in the area did report strange lights in the sky that night.
5) UFO – Along the same vein as the missile launch theory, could the strange lights in the sky reported in the area be from a UFO? Could the hikers have cut viewing slits in their tent to see what the bright lights in the sky were? Could some of the more well-dressed hikers have exited the tent with the camera that was found in the ravine and taken a series of photos, which explains the bright light photo? It is possible, but I would say a military missile is much more likely in this scenario.
6) Infrasound – From the final pictures, it appears the hikers were experiencing an extreme weather event on their last night. A ‘perfect storm’ has been known to cause infrasound, which is unperceivable to the human ear, yet has been known to cause shortness of breath and an extreme sense of dread in those who are unexpectedly exposed to it.
7) The Stove – The hikers had a custom travel stove with them, used to heat their tent and cook meals. Could the stove have begun to leak smoke into the tent, causing the hikers to panic and cut open their tent for a gasp of oxygen? Potentially, but though we cannot say for sure, it appears the stove had not yet been set up for the night when the incident occurred.
8) Yeti – Is one of the last photos evidence the group was being stalked by what looks like a Yeti? Could they have cut viewing slits in the tent to keep track of a Yeti circling their tent, before it finally attacked, causing them to flee into the cold night and then later move from spot to spot in the forest while trying to avoid the monster? While I desperately want this to be the answer, and the area has an abundance of Yeti sightings, if an animal trying to get into their tent was the cause of their panic, it was likely a bear or wolverine.
9) A Fight/Cabin Fever – I have always said the most dangerous thing in the woods is man. This is my personal favorite theory and what I most likely think happened. Could one of the hikers lost his grip on reality and gone stir crazy in the tight confines of the tent, with the storm and wind howling outside? Perhaps he pulled a knife, and started swinging wildly, causing the small horizontal slits near the roof of the tent? Maybe a fight ensued, leading to the skulls fractures and injuries to the hands of many of the hikers? My theory is the hikers, in a desperate attempt to flee the violence that suddenly broke out in the tent, cut themselves free and ran to the nearest cover in the tree line, trying to escape the most urgent danger and willing to take their chances with the cold. Further, I think the perpetrator then followed the light of the small fire the hikers had built at the cedar. Two of the hikers had perished from their injuries and the cold at that point, so the survivors removed their clothes to dress themselves. The group was then chased away from the fire, going deeper into the forest and then built the ‘den’ in the ravine. Some of the hikers then left, in an attempt to return to the tent to retrieve clothing and supplies, to give them a chance to survive and perished in the attempt, some making it farther up the mountain than the others. Then, one more time, the survivors were chased from their ‘den’, falling deeper into the ravine and river, meeting their end and causing at least some of the traumatic internal injuries.
The mountain pass the expedition was trying to conquer is now named Dyatlov Pass, after the leader of the fallen group. Whatever happened to these young skiers that terrified them enough to abandon their only hope of survival in a panic has baffled and fascinated people ever since.