Dead Mountain- true tale of creepy disappearance of 9 hikers in a winter storm

KETOGENICGURL

This is an American author who became fascinated with the true events of 9 highly experienced, fit, young college kids in Russia in January 1959…they all died over one night in a howling winterstorm…abandoning their sole tent, wearing only underclothes, and socks, and died horribly in 25 below temps…frozen to death, but with strange marks and in odd circumstances.

What would make 9 experienced hikers, all good friends, run into a howling snow storm, completely unprepared, in the freezing dark? ( we learn their tent was slashed, with a knife…from the INSIDE as they escaped from a terror no one could explain.) Rumors swirled for decades about this famous tragedy.

their bodies were found in weird positions and locations a month later, no moonlight meant none found their way back to the ONLY shelter for hundreds of miles. The Ural Mountains in N.Russia is a severe survival challenge, which is why they planned well for an endurance adventure.

Nine healthy students, age 20-23, 7 guys, 2 girls were going for the highest classification of hiker badge, then they could teach and train others for income. Hiking and camping was a big deal at this time for activity, as books, records, etc were banned, so nature was an only outlet.

The American writer- a Florida boy! persisted in 2013 against the Solviet government, the lack of few living relatives after 55 years, no language skills, and suspicion by the Russians he met.

The blame was placed on everything from attack by wild animal, or local tribesmen, to alien abduction, and Russian secret bombs, or military murder.

Books like this really entice me….what people do to survive in unusual situations, on a planet where we don't have all the answers from science is engaging. Mr. Eichar does a great job with just b& w photos and old records, and testimony.


Dead Mountin- the untold true story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar

marieamethyst

Spent my evening reading about this incident... still no idea what really happened. It's like watching Unsolved Mysteries all over again!

fithealthygirl

Bump! Sounds like an interesting read.

KETOGENICGURL

yes, the best answer is given by the author… the Alien answer seemed plausible, as well as being killed by solvates for seeing secret test…these were bandied about as truth.

I'll share the 'secret' since the book is hard to find, and worth reading anyway (I HAD to stop myself from jumping to the end to know..I was biting my nails the whole way thru!)

the noise and vibration of howling winds in a SPECIFIC topological arrangement ( they had pitched their tent in the worst possible location it was determined by the "audio/sound" experts who studied this) causes a vibration of "Infrasound"…like ultrasound, but affects the brain and nervous system so ALL reason leaves you. this has been used for war and by various despots in the past.. as the book reveals.

it is now believed they became deranged, at about the same time, after being in the tent during the storm, because cutting THRU the tent to get yourself out….. because it takes too long to untie the closures?…and NOT stoping to grab your shoes??? (no velcro, canvas tents with rope ties and draft flaps)

these were VERY experienced hikers, together, as friends, so they had mental support and knowledge of each other and trust, and STILL the mental disturbance caused the to abandon their ONLY SAFETY to "get away" at all costs

…as they ran into drifts in the howling wind, they may have come back to reason, but it was too dark-- no moon, bone chilling wind and dropping body temp caused them to try to shelter in place..from what the author says they got separated, it was too driving a wind to hear screams, and could not go back uphill, in pitch black, no way to find their tent again…

this book still bothers me.

2 men did light a small fire, but the experts say they were too deranged to THINK to light the dead TREE itself on fire..thus providing more heat, AND their friends might have found each other that way.

also these were hikers who kept waterproofed match packets sewn into their sleeves..for just such an emergency, so they were never without a way to build a fire.

what seemed bizarre--clothing hacked front their bodies, one woman lost her tongue ( no reason was given..but another man lost his eyes to birds..so a better autopsy might have revealed animal damage vs surgical removal for the record was not done.....rumors the Solviets killed them all for seeing something, and she was the "mouthy one" she may have argued with the killers..etc, ..so her tongue was cut out as a 'warning'…all are dramatic, but not sensible.


the author believes one man cut off some of the clothing of his dead friends and tried to carry it and cover 2 others still alive, which makes sense. since it was more than a month after the deaths there was no way to track timeline any tighter since they all died within a hour or two of each other.

so seeing the 'facts' laid out without: aliens, solviet killers, angry natives, evil spirits, etc took this author a long time to parse out..and you wonder, what CAUSED this man to get SO interested in an obscure event..and pursue it spending all his savings, leaving his new wife, etc..makes you wonder if their "spirts" called to him 9000 miles away in sunny Florida to come tell their mystery to the world..

cartow

Sounds so good. I liked the Jon Krakauer book about Everest, _Into Thin Air_. Not really mysterious but absorbing.

lithezebra

This is exactly why I don't like to go camping.

Maybe they ate the wrong mushrooms in the woods.

lilithsrose

I've been very interested in the dyaltov pass incident for some time. I love unexplained true stories like this. I lean more towards the government cover-up idea, but it still doesn't explain everything. Something started from inside the tent that forced them to all run. There were no traces of fire or anything like that in the remains of the tent. Investigators were unable to find any signs of an avalanche either. As you said, these people were all highly trained. What happened to make them leave their shelter?


Oh, and there is a decent movie called Devil's Pass that is based on this. Its fictional and it takes a sci-fi spin, but I really enjoyed it.

KETOGENICGURL

rhlin-- I will have to find that movie!! I really was entranced by what happened to them…the explanation of sound and vibration causing terror is entirely plausible..dont most of us get creeped out by weird noises? a tofally harmless little critter out hunting his supper at 2am can weird out several grown adults safe in their tent… so the howling winds as described int the book as the cause make the most sense

KETOGENICGURL

a clever and smart Native American ( well, it's Upper Canada/Greenland) girl kidnapped away by a warring tribe in the 1300s..and how she travels and survives is the MOST amazing read "Picturemaker"… well detailed, a long book..and there is a follow up one about her daughter: Dream Weaver…but the 2nd book acts like a forced entire history-- shoving everything in that period into one much smaller book..plus wayyyyy too many coincidences, chance savings at the last second, etc etc a 3rd book about another character is out, haven't found it yet.

the Picturemaker book allows you to see how Iriquois people truly lived, and lived WELL in the woods, also the Inuits ( author makes even that icy life attractive!) then the adventure with meeting 'Greenlanders' stranded from Viking countries ( and how awful the early priests and church people were treating every native like scum, enslaving them..(not a good time for Christian behavior, no love or caring for native peoples)