Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident

Author Donnie Eichar hikes toward Dyatlov Pass through deep snow. It is winter, and despite his best efforts, he is unaccustomed to the extreme cold. This is his second visit to Russia to try to unravel the mystery of Dyatlov Pass. He first became obsessed with the case in 2010, despite being American and having no mountaineering experience.

He recaps the case: In January 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers journeyed north from their home city of Sverdlovsk with the intention of scaling Otorten Mountain. By doing so, they would be eligible for a Grade III hiking certification, the highest available at the time. When the group did not return from their expedition, a search party was dispatched to look for them. They discovered the bodies of all nine hikers at various distances from their tent. All were poorly clothed and unshod. Three had severe injuries, one was missing a tongue, and several were wearing radioactive clothing. Theories ranged from UFOs to avalanches to a military attack. One of the hikers, Yuri Yudin, had turned back early and survived.

In 2010, Eichar contacted Yuri Kuntsevich, director of the Dyatlov Foundation in Yekaterinburg, to learn more. Kuntsevich invited him to Russia. Two years later, Eichar is still not sure what he hopes to find.

Nine friends are in their Ural Polytechnic Institute dorms, preparing to leave for their hiking journey. They record their experiences in a group journal. The leader of the group is 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov, a somewhat authoritarian radio engineering student. The group includes two women: radio engineering student Zinaida “Zina” Kolmogorova, who is 22, and economics student 20-year-old Lyudmila “Lyuda” Dubinina. Yuri Yudin, 21 years old, is a geology student; he has chronic back pain, but he still loves hiking. 21-year-old Yuri Doroshenko is a radio engineering student, too. Yuri “Georgy” Krivonishchenko is a hydraulics student who is bringing a mandolin with him on the hike. Alexander Kolevatov is a 24-year-old nuclear physics student. Rustem “Rustik” Slobodin, who is 23, comes from a wealthy family and already has a mechanical engineering degree. Lastly, Nikolay “Kolya” Thibault-Brignoles, 23 years old, has also already graduated with a degree in industrial civil construction. The nine rush to catch their first train, where they meet the tenth and final member of their group: Alexander “Sasha” Zolotaryov, a 37-year-old hiking instructor and WWII veteran.

On February 16, Igor Dyatlov’s sister Rufina starts to worry that her brother has not yet returned. The new university term will be starting soon. When she asks the university for help and for news, she receives “only noncommittal responses and baseless assurances” (51). After all, on such a challenging hike, any number of non-lethal situations could have slowed the group down. Other families are also starting to worry; eventually they put enough collective pressure on the university to get them to act. They put together a search party and fly out toward the hiking site on February 20. Yuri Yudin, having spent some days in a remote village with his family, only learns belatedly that his friends are missing. The search party does not initially find any trace of the Dyatlov hiking group.

Eichar travels to Russia for the first time with a colleague, Jason Thompson, leaving his seven-months-pregnant girlfriend, Julia, behind. At the airport in Yekaterinburg, the two men meet their host, Yuri Kuntsevich, who takes them to the collective memorial for the Dyatlov hikers, following by a day of outdoor activities, which they participate in despite their jetlag. Kuntsevich shows them a small music player not unlike the ones the students would have used in 1959.

In the days that follow, Eichar interviews many researchers and experts on the Dyatlov case. He is disappointed to find that many of them believe bizarre conspiracy theories about what happened to the hikers instead of seeking a scientific answer. The official report simply states that an “unknown compelling force” (74) killed the hikers. Despite Eichar’s repeated requests, Kuntsevich does not put him in touch with Yuri Yudin. However, Eichar does speak with Igor’s younger sister, Tatiana. She insists that the cold is not what killed her brother, because “When people are just freezing and cold, the color of their face is not so dark” (80). She offers no alternative explanation for his death.