Tragedy

The Dyatlov Pass Incident was the mysterious deaths of nine hikers on the Kholat Syakhl mountains, in the northern Ural Mountains range, that took place in February 1959. Their bodies were not recovered until that May. Most of the victims were found to have died of hypothermia after strangely abandoning their tent (at -25 to -30 °C stormy weather) high on an exposed mountainside. Their shoes were left behind, two of them had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue, eyes and part of the lips. In forensic tests, the clothings of some of the victims were found to be highly radioactive. There was no any witness or survivor to provide any testimony, and the cause of their deaths was listed as a "compelling natural force," most likely an avalanche, by the Soviet investigators.