“Formally, this is it. The case is closed.”

May 11, 2021 1:38 PM

It wasn't a yeti attack. A Yekaterinburg prosecutor held a press conference to announce his solution (previously) to the Dyatlov Pass mystery. It was not well received.(SLNewYorker)

Dyatlov Pass (Previously)

posted by doctornemo (22 comments total)

Makes sense, unfortunately. Was always more interesting to think something weird happened.

But, the line that sticks is:
"The snow doesn't lie".

The radiation is still weird, but OK...
posted by Windopaene at 2:20 PM on May 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

Archived version.
posted by chavenet at 2:51 PM on May 11, 2021

It seems like the most plausible explanation provided. TLDR A snow slab formed above the tent, collapsed in the middle of the night, causing injuries and forcing them to cut themselves out fearing a full scale avalanche. Then they got lost and then froze to death while trying to self rescue.
posted by interogative mood at 3:42 PM on May 11, 2021 [6 favorites]

So a Yeti triggered a small avalanche, they are even more devious than we thought...
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 3:46 PM on May 11, 2021 [13 favorites]

I can’t get to the article but i assume hypothermia induced delirium or something like that? Hasn’t that always been the real theory?
posted by double bubble at 3:53 PM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

Basically - mini snow slide caused by digging into a very packed, steep snow bank that on a very dark and windy night caused them to abandon the tent and retreat to an avalanche safe area with minimal resources and all the downstream consequences thereof.
posted by drewbage1847 at 4:07 PM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

I didn't know the other weird details before. I'd have believed one of the exotic theories too, if I had, but this explanation seems quite plausible.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:13 PM on May 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

Although Kuryakov’s explanation makes perfect sense and I believe it to be the truth, I can kind of understand why some people, especially those close to the case, don’t want to. It’s just so, so sad.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:14 PM on May 11, 2021 [5 favorites]

The thing that sells it for me is the scraps of others’ clothing worn by some of them. That’s exactly what desperate, freezing survivors would do — after some party members died — to try to stay alive. The dead have no need of sweaters.
posted by darkstar at 5:23 PM on May 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

The most compelling thing about this explanation for me is that it assumes that they acted like experts in wilderness survival and that everything followed from that. They thought there was an avalanche, so they got the fuck out of there as fast as possible and sheltered in the woods. They were able to harvest wood and build a fire in the middle of the night in a storm. They knew how to build a snow shelter. They were in an environment that really, really wanted to kill them though
posted by mr_roboto at 5:47 PM on May 11, 2021 [13 favorites]

This article read like someone writing an essay at school and changing the wikipedia words around to reach the word requirement. The radioactivity was only the ever "weird" thing about this event, but makes a lot of sense knowing they were "upwind" from a nuclear accident only years before.
posted by GoblinHoney at 6:35 PM on May 11, 2021

"The radiation is still weird, but OK..."
"The radioactivity was only the ever "weird" thing about this event"

That's the one part I've never thought is weird. I mean, the US spent most of the 50s testing nukes in Nevada and poisoning entire communities in Utah that were downwind, mostly in SW Utah. Here's a map of HOW HIGH radioactive test material deposition was in SW Utah compared to other parts of Utah (where it's still a little high compared to the rest of the US).

We know that the Soviet Union hid some nuclear disasters from the rest of the world (notably the 1957 one mentioned in the article). We also know that both the US and the USSR conducted at least a few more tests than have been publicly disclosed (1054 for the US, 715 for the USSR). And that both the US and the USSR spent a lot of the 1950s and 1960s just merrily exploding nuclear weapons above ground to see how big their bombs were, with (especially at first) limited understanding of the effects of those explosions on the environment and communities nearby and downwind. Anything you read about unusually high radioactivity readings in the 1950s or 1960s in the US, USSR, or any place either of them maintained a military presence is probably because DUDES BE EXPLODING TEST NUKES FOR FUN or UNDISCLOSED NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS.

When someone says "these 1958 clothes have a high level of radioactivity that is unexplained." Well, yes, technically unexplained, but it's not at all unusual, and we can make some pretty good guesses. Like, oh, your grandma's wedding suit is weirdly radioactive? Did she honeymoon in Utah, by chance? Or the Ural Mountains? Or any remote location of natural beauty with a US or USSR military presence? I feel like we're on the trail.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:00 PM on May 11, 2021 [18 favorites]

Also re: the radiation. There was a shitload of thorium in those camping lantern mantles.
posted by mr_roboto at 8:23 PM on May 11, 2021 [6 favorites]

A snow slab formed above the tent, collapsed in the middle of the night, causing injuries and forcing them to cut themselves out fearing a full scale avalanche. Then they got lost and then froze to death while trying to self rescue.

And then the radioactive yetis arrived, but sadly it was too late and there was nothing they could do.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:56 AM on May 12, 2021 [6 favorites]

I mean, yeah...trying to fend off radioactive yetis when you're already hypothermic and injured is just...well, there's just little chance of coming back from that.

At night, the ice weasels come.
posted by darkstar at 10:30 AM on May 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

This one time, in college, I was snow shoeing on Killington Mountain and got turned around (ie, lost). So I started hiking downhill as they taught us in Scouts, figuring I'd run into one of the slopes or other civilization. Later, I was admiring the sunset and realized I was walking down the west side of the mountain, whereas the resort and my friends were all on the east side. I turned around and powered back up the mountain. As the last light was leaving and I was contemplating making a snow cave, through some branches I just barely made out the lights of the lodge at the top of the mountain. If I had continued downhill, as my training taught me, I'd have entered a 20 mile wide wilderness area. Moral of the story: be a map person and pay attention to the sky.
posted by hypnogogue at 11:17 AM on May 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

What a terrible end to those nine young lives, and how horrible it must have been for their families. Their parents, as well as many of their other family members and friends, would have died never knowing what happened to them.

The snow slide explanation makes perfect sense to me, and I can't help side-eyeing those referred to in the article who refuse to accept it. I love a tantalizing mystery like this one was, but I'm satisfied if a thorough investigation of the evidence produces a conclusion that fits all the facts, even if the explanation is mundane. Some people seem to need their resolutions to be elaborate and sexy, to feel like they're in the know/on the track of something exciting and hidden when other people aren't (i.e., Q-Anon), but the reality is that the explanation can be quite simple.
posted by orange swan at 12:08 PM on May 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

There was this investigative documentary on Netflix about on a death at the Cecil Hotel in LA that I'm reminded of. The poor woman died after going off her medication and making an unlucky and impulsive decision, but there was all of this internet speculation and accusation and obsession that she'd been murdered. The documentary drove me a bit nuts since it was addressing the wild speculation bit by bit, how it started and flourished before at last revealing that it was all based on a single crucial error, but then I realized that this show isn't for me at all, it's for the wrongfully obsessed, and it shows them how their belief sort of 'rightly' developed and reassures them that they can let it go now. I figure this incident could use Netflix's help too.
posted by turkeybrain at 12:17 PM on May 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

This one time, in college, I was snow shoeing on Killington Mountain


Well there's your problem, right there.
posted by darkstar at 1:46 PM on May 12, 2021 [5 favorites]

I started hiking downhill as they taught us in Scouts

Probably good advice in environments where exposure is the major risk because further down is generally better sheltered; but if I'm disoriented in rough terrain and the weather isn't completely crap, I'll always head up.

My rationale is that ridge lines are generally way faster to make my way along than slopes or creek beds, and that once I get to some reasonably commanding height I've got a really good chance of achieving a view that's going to be a real help in re-orienting myself.

So far this has got me out of trouble twice. Australian remote bush country both times, steep and heavily wooded but nowhere near high enough or cold enough for snow.
posted by flabdablet at 3:11 PM on May 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

Every time I've faced a survival disaster I wander around aimlessly shouting out The Lord's Prayer between bouts of self-pitying weeping. Eventually somebody from another tent in the campground comes out and leads me back to where I belong.
posted by Chitownfats at 2:35 AM on May 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

The margin for safety on a back country trip is very low and nature can arbitrarily fuck you at any moment. It is really hard for families and friends to accept how arbitrary it is.
posted by interogative mood at 3:22 AM on May 14, 2021 [1 favorite]