The Dyatlov Pass Incident: Nine Hikers, One Slashed Tent (1959)

ARCHIVE FILE. This happened in 1959 and is not breaking news. It’s part of the Redacted Weekly evergreen archive.

What happened

In late January 1959, a group of experienced ski hikers from the Ural Polytechnical Institute, led by Igor Dyatlov, set out on a difficult route toward Gora Otorten in the northern Urals. They reached Ivdel by train on 25 January, took a lorry to the last village, Vizhai, on 26 January, and began the trek on 27 January. A tenth member, Yuri Yudin, turned back on 28 January and was the only one to survive.

On the evening of 1 February the group camped on the open eastern slope of Kholat Syakhl, cutting a platform into the snow for the tent. Overnight, they cut their way out of the tent from the inside and left into the dark, most in socks or barefoot, in about −25 to −30 °C with a storm blowing. None of the nine survived.

The footage

There is no video evidence in this case, and none is attached. The visual record is the group’s own photographs. Diaries and cameras found at the campsite let investigators trace the route up to the day before the deaths. Wikipedia reports that in 1997 it emerged that negatives from one camera had been kept in an investigator’s private archive and were later donated to the Dyatlov Foundation. The 2021 Nature-family paper reproduces what it calls the last picture of the group before sunset, showing them making the cut in the slope for the tent, alongside photos of the tent taken weeks later by searchers. The featured image on this post is unchanged from the live version and credited to Wikimedia Commons.

Timeline

• 25-27 Jan 1959: The group travels to Ivdel and Vizhai and starts the trek.
• 28 Jan 1959: Yuri Yudin turns back.
• 1 Feb 1959: The group camps on the slope of Kholat Syakhl.
• Night of 1-2 Feb 1959: The hikers leave the tent.
• 12 Feb 1959: The latest date the group was expected to telegraph its sports club from Vizhai.
• 26 Feb 1959: Searchers find the damaged, abandoned tent.
• 4 May 1959: The last four bodies are found under about 4 m of snow in a ravine.
• May 1959: The case is closed, citing a “compelling natural force.”
• 1997: Negatives from one camera surface in an investigator’s archive.
• Feb 2019: Russian authorities reopen the case, considering an avalanche, a slab avalanche or a hurricane.
• 2020: The review concludes an avalanche most likely drove the group out.
• 28 Jan 2021: Gaume and Puzrin publish their slab-avalanche model.

What witnesses reported

There were no surviving witnesses to the night itself. The searchers’ records describe a tent cut open from the inside and footprints leading downhill, and the inquest found that everyone left on foot and of their own accord, with no sign of anyone else on the mountain. Yudin later offered a guess about the campsite choice: “Dyatlov probably did not want to lose the altitude they had gained, or he decided to practice camping on the mountain slope.” Separately, residents of Ivdel and nearby areas, including the meteorology service and the military, reported glowing spheres in the sky in February and March 1959. Those reports fed later theories but were never tied to the deaths.

What the research found

The original verdict was deliberately vague. The Soviet inquest found six deaths from hypothermia and three from physical trauma, including skull and chest injuries, and some radiation on one victim’s clothing. It closed the case citing a “compelling natural force.”