Post by Joanna on Dec 30, 2013 0:30:18 GMT -5
Has the mystery of nine skiers who died in the Siberian wilderness in 1959 been solved?
Author claims new 'scientific' explanation for the Dyatlov Pass incident.
A mysterious case of nine experienced skiers who died in bizarre circumstances on an expedition into Siberia may have been solved by an America researcher. Donnie Eichar, a film-maker and author, spent four years investigating the so-called Dyatlov Pass incident, and has now claimed that he has discovered a “scientific” explanation for the baffling case.
The skiers, who were all students, were led into the wilderness of the Ural mountains by 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov. Their aim was to reach the remote Otorten Mountain, but – with the exception of one man who turned back early because of ill health – all members of the party would be found dead beneath the snow.
Rescuers sent out into the -24-degree weather to track the party initially found nothing more than a collapsed tent still filled with the clothing and survival gear necessary to make the rest of the journey. But the rescuers were baffled because the tent also contained items of clothing and shoes, an indication some of the students had ventured out into the wilderness without their coats and shoes. Even when searchers uncovered the frozen bodies of all nine victims, there was no convincing explanation as to why the experienced hikers – who were well-versed in winter survival techniques – came to such a tragic end.
Search parties found one group of bodies a mile from the tent. They were lying in the snow in a flat area near a river next to the remains of a long burnt-out fire. Around 350 yards away lay the corpse of Dyatlov, the engineering student from Ural Polyetchnic who had formed and led the expedition. The area where the tragedy occurred would later be named for him. Nearby, a search dog sniffed out the remains of Zina Kolmogorova, 22, beneath four inches of snow, and then that of Rustem Slobodin. The bodies were in a line 200 yards apart, as if they had been attempting to crawl behind each other back up to the shelter of the tent.
Another two months passed before the remainder of the group was found under 15 feet of snow in a den they had desperately hollowed out for themselves before succumbing to the cold. Some members of this group had broken bones and serious internal injuries but, strangely, no external wounds, not even scratches on the skin. Postmortem examinations of all nine revealed other anomalies: Some bodies were fully clothed, others almost naked. The corpse of Lyudmilla Dubinina was missing her tongue and eyes.
An investigation by a Soviet government inspector was fruitless and quietly dropped after concluding no one was to blame. Lev Ivanov, the inspector, declared only that all nine deaths had been caused by what he described as “an unknown elemental force which they were unable to overcome.”
However, in a recent interview with Failure magazine, Eichar hinted at his conclusion, saying, “The conclusion that I have come up with could only have happened with the help of modern science and the help of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.” Jason Zasky, who interviewed Eichar, also wrote that his theory “involves a particular type of repetitive wind event (one that could be produced by the topography of Dead Mountain), which in turn might have triggered panic-inducing infrasound.” Eichar has remained tight-lipped about the specifics, but said the original investigator “couldn’t explain what happened because he lacked the science and technology to do so.”
The “infrasound” theory to which the interviewer refers is a bizarre – but apparently plausible – explanation which argues that sound waves too low to hear could have subtly affected the minds of the skiers, panicking them and causing them to rush recklessly out into the snow, where the cold killed them. These waves of infrasound, it seems, could have been produced by high winds resonating through the mountains. Studied have suggested that infrasound – soundwaves too low for humans to hear – can nonetheless produce feelings of unease, awe or even terror which cannot be explained any other way. It is unclear how far this explanation matches Eichar’s, but supporters of the theory claim it could account for the bizarre situation in which the bodies were found.
Source: Kieran Corcoran, The Daily Mail, December 23, 2013.
