Book recommendations.

[Herlock Sholmes]

The book has just arrived.

It looks really interesting.

Will settle down with it this evening.

Thanks again for the tip, Barn!

I’ve ordered mine too.

[Ms Diddles]

You're right Miss D, it's a case that just keeps on confusing me.

Here is an an interesting link from the Igor Pavlov book.

Lot's of photographs and other source material.

1079 (dyatlovpass.com)

The book has just arrived.

It looks really interesting.

Will settle down with it this evening.

Thanks again for the tip, Barn!

[Herlock Sholmes]

I intended to move any Dyatlov Pass discussion to the Dyatlov Pass thread but Ms D had beaten me to it.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Nice work, Herlock!

Do let us know your thoughts when you're finished...

I’ll let you know when I’ve solved it Ms D

[Ms Diddles]

I got Dead Mountain btw. Four chapters in.

Nice work, Herlock!

Do let us know your thoughts when you're finished...

[Herlock Sholmes]

Sorry Herlock!

I'll have a google and see if I can find the study online when I have a mo over the weekend.

I got Dead Mountain btw. Four chapters in.

[Ms Diddles]

I don’t know if it’s down to my tech but that page comes up a dimmer and nothing happens when I click on any of the items. I can’t see any mention on there of Dyatlov Pass either.

Sorry Herlock!

I'll have a google and see if I can find the study online when I have a mo over the weekend.

[Herlock Sholmes]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022...pass-incident/

Posted by String on the other thread.

I don’t know if it’s down to my tech but that page comes up a dimmer and nothing happens when I click on any of the items. I can’t see any mention on there of Dyatlov Pass either.

[Ms Diddles]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022...pass-incident/

Posted by String on the other thread.

[Ms Diddles]

Anderson suggests that the shredding of the tent was so that the hikers who were going to be left to freeze to death couldn’t have used it as shelter should they have managed to free themselves.

On the avalanche she deals with this by saying that there were no signs of an avalanche having occurred and that the searchers ruled out an avalanche immediately. As she says, if there was an avalanche wouldn’t there have been signs? Displaced snow/downed trees/debris? She also asks why there was no signs of avalanche damage within the tent either? A cup of cocoa was still upright and pack of crackers and other delicate items were undamaged.

I believe that the recent avalanche study proved that in certain conditions slab avalanches can occur and leave no evidence behind surprisingly quickly.

I'm sure the link to that study is on here somewhere.

Perhaps on the thread that I bumped.

Agreed about the cocoa and crackers though.

I think a few witnesses testified that the contents of the tent appeared undisturbed.

Weird!

[Herlock Sholmes]

I agree c.d.

Damaging their own tent in such conditions was tantamount to suicide.

The hikers were all experienced outdoors people who would have known that.

The danger presented by whatever caused them to vacate the tent in that fashion must have been absolute and immediate (or at least perceived that way).

That's why I lean towards avalanche as the most likely explanation, now it has been established that the topography would not preclude that (as was initially surmised).

Against that however is the fact that the items inside the tent showed no sign of disarray as one would expect in the aftermath of an avalanche.

Also, the foot prints down the hill were orderly and did not show signs of running or panic (although it was evident from the prints that the hikers were all bare foot or just wearing socks).

I've also speculated before that experienced hikers would likely avoid an avalanche by moving horizontally out of it's path rather than downhill in front of ět, but then I'm not exactly known for my survivalist prowess, so that may be a mis-fire!!!

Anderson suggests that the shredding of the tent was so that the hikers who were going to be left to freeze to death couldn’t have used it as shelter should they have managed to free themselves.

On the avalanche she deals with this by saying that there were no signs of an avalanche having occurred and that the searchers ruled out an avalanche immediately. As she says, if there was an avalanche wouldn’t there have been signs? Displaced snow/downed trees/debris? She also asks why there was no signs of avalanche damage within the tent either? A cup of cocoa was still upright and pack of crackers and other delicate items were undamaged.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi Herlock,

I am still a little confused here. If they were killed by "a small team" would the search team have found their tracks?

c.d.

Hi c.d.

I don’t think that I described it very well. Basically she suggests that one of the team might have been a Soviet spy passing false (nuclear) secrets on to a foreign power (USA/Germany for example) who then found out that the info was fake. The foreign power then sent in an small assassination team of 3-5 agents who killed everyone (after using torture to find out what they all knew) Some of the hikers were just bound and left to freeze to death. I just looked through her scenario again and she doesn’t mention the absence of any unexplained tracks but she does mention snow drifts so perhaps she’s suggesting that drifting snow might have covered some of the tracks with the ones remaining being indistinguishable from the hikers own? I don’t know. She does mention the possibility that other evidence ‘might’ have been discovered by the authorities after the snow melted but were kept secret. (The Soviets…keeping secrets?..Surely not)

I can see human intervention (murder) but I’m not keen on this particular theory tbh.

[Ms Diddles]

Just a random thought -- the cutting of the tent seems key. A very irrational thing to do in freezing temperatures. To me, it suggest panic, i.e., an avalanche or the belief an avalanche was occurring. If the Russian military showed up at night, I can see them awakened by the sound of snowmobiles or voices but I think they simply would have emerged from the tent to investigate not cut it.

Don't hold me to any of this. Not even sure at this point where I am going with this line of thinking.

c.d.

I agree c.d.

Damaging their own tent in such conditions was tantamount to suicide.

The hikers were all experienced outdoors people who would have known that.

The danger presented by whatever caused them to vacate the tent in that fashion must have been absolute and immediate (or at least perceived that way).

That's why I lean towards avalanche as the most likely explanation, now it has been established that the topography would not preclude that (as was initially surmised).

Against that however is the fact that the items inside the tent showed no sign of disarray as one would expect in the aftermath of an avalanche.

Also, the foot prints down the hill were orderly and did not show signs of running or panic (although it was evident from the prints that the hikers were all bare foot or just wearing socks).

I've also speculated before that experienced hikers would likely avoid an avalanche by moving horizontally out of it's path rather than downhill in front of ět, but then I'm not exactly known for my survivalist prowess, so that may be a mis-fire!!!

[c.d.]

Just a random thought -- the cutting of the tent seems key. A very irrational thing to do in freezing temperatures. To me, it suggest panic, i.e., an avalanche or the belief an avalanche was occurring. If the Russian military showed up at night, I can see them awakened by the sound of snowmobiles or voices but I think they simply would have emerged from the tent to investigate not cut it.

Don't hold me to any of this. Not even sure at this point where I am going with this line of thinking.

c.d.

[c.d.]

Curiouser and curiouser. Eventually, they will probably find some cachous and a photo of a man wearing a peaked cap. What an incredibly bizarre mystery!

My guess is that there is a combination of explanations. No one size fitting all.

c.d.