Somewhere in the Skies - DEAD MOUNTAIN: The Mystery of the Dyatlov Nine

Starting point is 00:00:00 A beam of light came out from behind this mountain. The light that was radiating out zoomed back into the center. And then... We immediately thought that it was a UFO. Sometimes when you go looking for a monster, you might just find one. True paranormal experiences from real people. Euphemat. A show about the unknown and our relationship to it.

Starting point is 00:00:25 Find it now, wherever you listen to podcasts. Imagine being trapped on top of a mountain in below freezing. busy temperatures. No food to eat, no shelter for warmth, no help on the way, and you are now facing the cold hard truth that death is right around the frigid corner. It is truly the stuff of nightmares when you are nestled in your warm bed with the covers drawn snugly over your body. But imagine even worse the thought that while trapped in this nightmare scenario, your eventual death would never truly be solved. Your legacy would be frozen in a block of both tragedy and complete mystery.

Starting point is 00:01:18 A mystery that was all too real for a group of Russian mountaineers who hiked the Ural Mountains in 1959, prompting one of the most gruesome and tragic discoveries in the last half century. This is the story of Dietlav Pass. is somewhere in the skies with Ryan's bread. It was January 25th when 23-year-old Igor Diatlov assembled the crew that consisted of three engineers and seven students. These members were Yuri Doroshenko, Yadmila Dubinna, Yuri Kruvonashenko, Alexander Kolovtov, Seneidya Kolmo Gorova, Rustam Zyaboden, Nikolai Bregnolis, Semyon, Simeon, Elixievich and Yuri Udin.

Starting point is 00:02:59 The students, highly athletic skiers from the REL Polytechnic Institute, set off on a training expedition, preparing themselves for an even more ambitious trip to the Arctic regions in the coming months. As days passed, the group made modest headway, but it soon became clear that they deviated west in the wrong direction for quite some time due to worsening weather conditions and decreasing visibility. It was on February 1st that one of the team members, Yuri Udn, decided to stay behind in the nearby settlement of Vizhi due to illness. Little did Udn know, but his decision would ultimately spare his life.

Starting point is 00:03:42 The rest of the team set up camp on a nearby mountain called Kolot Saikal, or better known to the indigenous Monsi tribe, Mountain of the Dead. The decision to set up camp here has remained questionable for some time. Many wondering why they hadn't hiked about a mile more to a slightly warmer and less dangerous open space at the face of the mountain. In 2008, in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Udun himself would defend the decision by Diatlov and the team. Odgages, which was at the predilemon of the I, of course, I said, I said, that it, it's, it.

Starting point is 00:04:24 There was a diatlof. There was one, the wessurredness, a soldier's mottka. Postulating that he probably did not want to lose the distance they covered. Or Deatlev decided to practice camping on the mountain slope. Either way, the decision to set up in this forested area would prove disastrous as the days. trickled by, and no one, including Uden, had heard anything from the team. As more and more time passed, the families of the members became increasingly concerned.

Starting point is 00:05:00 A few days off course was typical for such expeditions, but when more than a week slipped by when not a single telegram or distress call, family members demanded a search and rescue operation by the Euro-Polytechnic Institute be put into action. When they failed to produce any results on the ground, local military helicopters were sent out to search for the team. It wasn't until February 26th that the first helicopter pilot would spot something on the ground near the campsite in the forest.

Starting point is 00:05:36 What the first set of investigators found was puzzling. The campsite boasted a large tent, that the entire team presumably shared. And the tent appeared to have been cut apart from within. One of the members of the Polytechnic Institute, Mikali Sharavin, accompanied the investigators. He would later explain what he first witnessed when they approached the campsite. We discovered that the tent was half torn down and covered with snow.

Starting point is 00:06:06 It was empty, and all the group's belongings and shoes had been left behind. This observation continued with investigators noting at least eight sets of footprints leading from the tent all the way to the tree line. Two other pairs of footprints, completely barefoot, were followed to a large pine tree, some 1,500 feet away from the tent. Under the tree, Sheridan saw the remains of a fire, but what he saw next sealed the fate of at least two. of the members. There, in the snow, were the bodies of Karvana Shango and Yuri Doroshanko, both naked except for their underwear. Investigators would also note that the pine tree had fragments of both men's skin, about 15 feet or so up in the branches, postulating that they tried to climb the tree to no avail. What exactly were they attempting to escape from?

Starting point is 00:07:11 With no trace of animal prints anywhere, their lack of clothes, and the fact that they'd had time to start a fire under the tree, made the investigators even more puzzled. And these were only the beginning of never-ending questions as the investigators uncovered more and more gruesome evidence of the remaining team members. About a thousand feet from this scene lay another gruesome sight. In the wintry terrain lay the mountainy terrain, lay the...

Starting point is 00:07:41 body of Diatlov himself. One hand clung firmly to a nearby tree, while the other hand, frozen with ice, was wrapped around his head in a protective manner. Could he have been trying to stop whatever it was that Gervanshanko and Dorochanko were possibly trying to take refuge from? Not far from Dietlev was the body of Rustom-Slopoden, faced down with a large gash in the side of his head. Farthest from the others was the body of Colmogoro. Traces of blood were found around her body, yet no signs of struggle were apparent. The five deaths were all eventually attributed to hypothermia, but it wouldn't be until two months later when the terrain thawed out

Starting point is 00:08:30 that the remaining members were to be found. It was now May 4th, about 250 feet away from the campsite, in a half-frozen ravine, the bodies of Zelotrov, Nicholas Brighanel, Kolvatov, and Dubinia were discovered. All four had suffered severe internal injuries, though no outward trauma, bruises, or even tissue damage seemed to be apparent.

Starting point is 00:09:00 Local doctors were quoted as saying that the internal damage was equal to the effect of a car crash. Perhaps the most disturbing was that, that of Dubenina, who was found with her head tilted severely back and her mouth gaping wide. Her tongue ripped completely out and missing. Things only spiraled further into obscurity after that. All four seemed to have swapped various items of clothing with one another, including items from the two men found mostly naked under the tree,

Starting point is 00:09:34 where the fire had been set up. as if things weren't strange enough. Further investigation would conclude that most of the deceased were found with heavy amounts of trace radiation on their clothes. Several family members at funerals of the deceased would eventually claim that the bodies of the dead bore a rather odd orange color. The hair of the dead had also lost its pigmentation, turning a dull gray color.

Starting point is 00:10:04 Too many questions circled them out. in the aftermath of the almost unimaginable discovery of the dead, it was quite clear that something truly tragic had occurred. And as the families began to grieve, the investigators tried desperately to string a timeline together in terms of just what may have happened on the mountain that fateful day. Some hope of doing so came in the form of several roles of film and diaries that were found in the damaged tent.

Starting point is 00:10:36 The photos developed from the roles of film revealed that the expedition members had indeed set up their campsite on February 2nd at approximately 5 p.m. The first photo showed the members looking very happy and healthy. Taking into consideration the digestion of food in several team members' bodies, investigators were able to conclude that they'd eaten a meal sometime around 7 p.m. that night. and most likely went to sleep some hours later. Because of this apparent meal, forensic pathologists were able to estimate that whatever had led to their deaths happened between 9 p.m. and midnight leading into February 3rd.

Starting point is 00:11:22 Because of the knowledge that the experience team possessed, whatever happened that night must have sent them into a complete frenzy, fearing their lives were in great danger. While they all fled in several directions, it was also presumed that they all met under the tree where Kravana Shenko and Dora Shanko had been found. Perhaps they'd all started the fire together, and the two attempted to climb the tree to look for help,

Starting point is 00:11:51 eventually failing. This would lead the others to seek other paths for possible rescue from whatever seemed to be the catalyst of these tragic events. Would Diatlov missing at this point, The others had possibly began a track back towards the tent. This is when they fell into the ravine and were unable to get out. The events of February 2nd would lead officials to close off this pass from any other outdoorsman, fearing that whatever occurred that night could possibly happen again.

Starting point is 00:12:25 It remained closed for almost three years afterwards. The case was suspiciously closed by investigators, and any documents pertaining to the events were shipped off to a Soviet agency that is yet to be uncovered. To this day, no declassified files have ever been released on what happened on the mountain. But that didn't stop civilians from coming up with their own theories as to what may have sent the team into a panic and caused their untimely deaths. One theory was that while wandering a certain area the day prior, The skiers had unintentionally run into the indigenous Monsi tribesmen, who in their Siberian native ways didn't react too kindly to the visitors' trespassing of their territory.

Starting point is 00:13:19 They took matters into their own hands and attacked the skiers. A brutal game of hunter and prey occurring. But investigators were quick to dispel the rumors, stating that no trauma from humans caused the deaths of the skiers and their leader. One private investigator who spoke to former servicemen in the area said the hikers could have been killed after being mistaken for escaped prisoners

Starting point is 00:13:45 from local Gulag prison camps. Or alternatively, that they were killed in a cleanup operation after a series of military exercises. Siberia, at the time of the tragedy, was still a land of the Gulag. Many political prisoners were released in 1953 through 1956. But criminals were still behind bars. Many small concentration camps were dispersed all over the region.

Starting point is 00:14:17 The closest was Ivlock, situated just a few miles from the site of the tragedy. Although it's true that there were no escapes around the time of the tragedy, it doesn't mean that it never happened before. History knows many examples when prisoners would escape and go into hiding for years and even decades at a time. They could have easily missed the death of Stalin in 1953 and subsequent amnesty to all political prisoners. Young hikers could be taken for unwanted witnesses and subsequently killed. If you take into consideration that many of the political prisoners came straight from the fronts of World War II, it is plausible that these people knew how to kill and were open to the idea.

Starting point is 00:15:08 Furthermore, Yuri Udin discovered a piece of clothing that did not belong to any of the members of the group. Known as a bmotki, this piece of clothing is a wide piece of fabric that's wrapped around feet and legs to keep warm. They have both a distinct shape and are made from a very specific material. They were widely used among the soldiers in the 40s, and later among the prisoners of Stalin's concentration camps. There's another theory that several of the skiers were actually KGB agents. Semyon Zilateryov, Alexander Kolevatov, and Yuri Kovanovanov have been theorized to be agents on a mission to uncover a cell of CIA operatives.

Starting point is 00:15:59 They were to deliver radioactive samples and then take photographs of the Americans. But something went wrong and the CIA agents killed the group. Sounds a little fantastic of at first, but in a state of fear and paranoia, this was the only way to spy on the Soviet Union. According to this theory, two or more members of the Dietlav group were hired by the KGB to deliver fake proof of radioactive tainted clothes. The rest of the group was probably unaware of the real purpose of their journey. In fact, it was some strange details about the skiers themselves

Starting point is 00:16:42 that gave rise to a Cold War spy story scenario. Zolotayrov, a 37-year-old bachelor and instructor at a different tour base, had joined the group at the very last minute. He was a veteran with years of combat experience. Archives of the Ural Polytechnic Institute revealed a remarkable detail about Alexander Kulvatov. Before transferring to the physics technical department at the UPI, he worked in Moscow as a laboratory assistant in a top-secret scientific facility, an unnamed atomic institute known as P.O. Box No. 3394.

Starting point is 00:17:27 and Yuri Gravonashenko worked in a most notorious PO box. The plant, Mayak, where a massive nuclear disaster, second in severity only to Trinople, occurred in 1957. The background of all three, and they're coming together for this trip, seemed to be more than just sheer coincidence. The true objective of the ski trek, unbeknownst to the other seven members, was to deliver radioactive samples to a group of agents of the CIA and to take pictures of the spies. This was all disguised as a normal hiking trip, but when the meeting went south for some reason,

Starting point is 00:18:12 the Americans realized that the trio was playing a double game. A conflict ensued. A fight, torture, and the brutal massacre of the entire group led to the gruesome findings of the entire crew left for the group. dead. A bit more on the prosaic side, let's say. Here is another theory. Could this all have just been a very unfortunate accident due to an avalanche? While the area was not prone to avalanches, it isn't out of the realm of possibility. Although the hikers' diaries report a fairly thin snow cover. However, small avalanches could still prove to be highly dangerous. A portion of the

Starting point is 00:18:58 upper layer of snow could simply shift and roll over the hikers as a slab of thick snow. This could damage the tent and create havoc among the hikers who were suddenly trapped underneath several feet of snow. It would certainly explain why the tent was cut from the inside. Further retreat would be necessary if the hikers were worried a second avalanche could strike again. According to the supporters of the avalanche theory, the de-a-a-falanche theory, the de-a-falanche. That left group tried to make their way back to the river, and instead made a fatal mistake by descending into a valley of the Lasva River. After four weeks, this snow that was rushed down the slope of the mountain was simply blown

Starting point is 00:19:44 off by the strong winds that were common in this region. This would erase all signs of a natural disaster. However, this theory does have its gaps. From what we can tell from the footprints left by the group, everyone seemed to dissent with relative ease. It's highly unlikely that three people with broken ribs and flail chests would be transportable at all. In here we see several badly damaged men and a woman walk without problems or even help from any of the members of the group. Secondly, these men and women were experienced and well trained.

Starting point is 00:20:24 They knew that chances of freezing to death is more likely than getting killed. killed by an avalanche. Although the removal of the damaged tent from an exposed mountainside was out of the question, they had to retrieve all their warm clothes and footwear. In 2013, a book was published by author Donnie Eicher, titled Dead Mountain, the untold true story of the Diatla Pass incident. He brought forth a new scientific theory for the incident, proposing that the skiers may have been driven to hysteria by infrasound waves caused by a weather phenomenon known as a Carman Vortex Street. The lead investigator Lev Ivanov, his final conclusion,

Starting point is 00:21:10 was an unknown compelling force. So that was the only case that he ever had that was unsolved. And what I learned is that he actually was pretty damn close, considering he didn't have the technology in the science. And the conclusion that I came up with with the scientists at NOAA completely caught me off guard. And I could have only arrived at this conclusion with modern science. A Karmon Vortex Street is an oscillating pattern that emerges when a fluid or gas, or in this case, wind, flows around a suitably shaped object. In this case, a topographical feature, the mountain.

Starting point is 00:21:53 When they occur on such a large scale, this wind pattern can theoretically generate very low-frequency sound waves that have been blamed for harmful physiological and psychological symptoms in human beings. According to a 2001 review of the medical literature by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, such symptoms range from annoyance to fatigue to nausea. Eicher, the author of this book, argues that just such a phenomenon may have occurred under extremely high wind conditions on the night of the incident. The resulting bombardment of the skiers by infrasound waves induced severe panic and caused them to flee to safety out of the tent and meet their deaths. We now move to some of the more sensational and paranormal-esque theories on what may have happened. that night. And the first is UFOs. Lev Ivanov, the lead Soviet investigator on the case, interviewed a group of nearby hikers who were in the area when the incident supposedly occurred. A respectable 32 miles away, the

Starting point is 00:23:09 hikers reported a cluster of strange orange spheres in the sky. This was also reported by other witnesses in the area for the next few months after the event. Ivanov, in his late years admitted that he himself believed that the orange spheres in the sky may have been the cause of the Diatlov team's demise or at least had something to do with it, speculating that one of the skiers may have witnessed the UFOs panicked and sent the others into a similar frenzy. Many also theorized that a possible UFO could have caused the orange color to the skin found on the bodies, the gray hair and even the trace radiation found on their close, but others theorize on what those UFOs might have actually been.

Starting point is 00:23:57 The campsite was in a vast proximity of the Belikner Cosmodron, a Soviet nuclear missile testing ground. R7 intercontinental missile launches were done often here. Could one such highly secretive test have occurred that day, causing the UFO sightings and the panic of the skiers? Could it also explain the radiation found on the clothes and bodies. Some speculate that the skiers could come into contact with high traces of radiation, or had even drank some contaminated snow in the area. Either way, the UFO theory remains, accompanied by a juxtaposing theory of the cryptid kind. While many areas boast their own version of a hominid-like creature, Siberia reigns as one of the most popular with its own Siberian Yeti, known as the Alma.

Starting point is 00:24:56 In 1925, a Russian military expedition reported being attacked by a Yeti in eastern Siberia. In 1945, another unit of Soviet soldiers claimed to have had a violent encounter with a yeti in a cave, and in 1953, a group of hunters shooting Caribou narrowly escaped with their lives when they were charged by an angry Yeti. Almas, a Mongolian word, are typically described as huge. human-like bipedal animals between five and six feet and a half tall, their bodies covered with reddish-brown hair with anthropomorphic facial features, including a pronounced browridge, flat nose, and a weak chin. Many cryptozoologists believe there is a similarity between

Starting point is 00:25:39 these descriptions and modern reconstructions of how Neanderthals might have appeared. Perhaps an Alma had infiltrated their tent and sent them running for their lives. This theory holds very little weight, however, as no clear footprints other than those of the deceased had been found anywhere near the scene of deaths. But one very interesting and controversial piece of evidence couldn't keep this theory completely out of the realm of possibility. Supposedly, a piece of paper near the campsite was found that simply read, From now on, we know there are snowmen. Along with this piece of paper was a developed photo from one of the skier's cameras that shows a hulking figure off in the distance.

Starting point is 00:26:32 Though bathed in shadow, it eerily resembles that of a large hominid tracking through the snow. However, the source of this photo has never been confirmed as authentically coming from the film of out of the skiers. Other various theories have been brought forth, involving top-secret government projects being tested in the area. This can't be completely ruled out, as many investigators have alluded that teams were sent in to investigate long before the campsite was said

Starting point is 00:27:04 to have originally been discovered with the grisly scenes of death. An extra pair of skis and even fabric from military-like uniforms had been found near the campsite, as mentioned before. But just like the other theories before these, none of this can be irrefutably proven, once again, leaving us to spin our imaginations into overdrive

Starting point is 00:27:28 in terms of a possible answer to this tragedy. And even with the ongoing investigations of what may have happened that night continue, we may truly never know what happened. Perhaps we should first and foremost keep this word in mind. Tragedy. Besides the memories of friends and family,

Starting point is 00:27:52 a rusted plaque and memorial stone remain the only physical remembrance of those who lost their lives that day. It is truly a horrific set of events that caused the deaths of those on the Diatla Pass. Perhaps it could best

Starting point is 00:28:10 be summed up by the late Yuri Udin, the only member who dodged the terrible fate that night. In the same 2008 interview he took part in, he stated the following. If I had a chance to ask God just one question, it would be what really happened to my friends that night. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by Third Kind Productions in association with the Entertainment One Podcast Network. To learn more, visit Entertainment One Podcast.com.

Somewhere in the Skies - DEAD MOUNTAIN: The Mystery of the Dyatlov Nine

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