Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 62 - Dyatlov Pass Incident

Episode Date: November 20, 2017

Sometime in the late hours of Feb. 1st, 1959, nine Russian college students died tragically in the Northern Ural mountains of the Soviet Union. When their bodies were finally found, a strange crime scene unfolded. The hikers had cut their way out of their tent in the dead of Winter. They didn’t bother putting on their shoes. Violence broke out that left one hiker with a fractured skull, another with a crushed rib cage, another with internal head injuries. They were burned in various places. They died in various states of undress. What happened? I present the most plausible options, and some not so plausible but at least interesting options, in this Russian mystery edition of Timesuck! Get tickets to the Feb. 16th Detroit show NOW so we can get many more live Timesuck podcasts going in 2018! Come see me and the guys from Small Town Murder and Crime in Sports. If enough tickets are bought in the next few weeks, a live podcast will be added and more live podcasts dates will appear. CLICK HERE for tickets to the 7:30 show at the Magic Bag. Physical donations for Safe Passage can be brought to the Post Falls Windermere office or mailed to 1616 E. Seltice Way Post Falls, ID 83814 Email Lynze at [e-mail] Email Jesse Dobner for all your editing needs! [e-mail] Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG, @timesuckpodcast on Twitter, and www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast

Sometime in the late hours of February 1st, 1959, nine Russian college students died tragically while on a winter ski hike in the northern-year-old mountains of the Soviet Union. When their bodies were finally found, a strange crime scene unfolded. The hikers had cut their way out of their tent and then carefully walked down the mountain to a group of trees below where they made a small fire. They didn't even bother putting on their shoes. And then some sort of violence broke out that left one hiker with a fractured skull, another with a crushed ribcage, another with internal head injuries, other hikers had hands bruised from fighting. They were burned

in various places. They died in various states of undress. Some tried to make it back to the tent and froze to death along the way. Others huddled in the woods below and froze there. What the fuck happened that night? People have been trying to find out for almost 60 years. I tell the story of the ill-fated hike and present the most plausible options and some not so plausible but at least interesting options in this Russian mystery edition of TimeSuck. TimeSuck. Happy Monday, motherfuckers. Welcome TimeSuckers. Welcome to a brand spanking new shiny Suck. That was an aggressive way to start this show and it felt right.

What your lips? Let it slide in. Wait, what? Forget about it. I'm Dan Cummins. The Suck Master. the Suckmaster General, the Suckmaster Most High, Suck Lord Maximus Superbusca Kiss, an honorable Bojangles servant Dan Sucks for the third, and whatever else, the Cult of the Curious has come up with and been calling me this week. Hail, Memrock!

Big thanks again for the iTunes Reviews this past week, right right around 1800 iTunes reviews now, which means more bonus episodes. iTunes reviewer Alex and I'm guessing this is a made up last name because there's very few vows. And by few, I mean, none. It's Alex WG VG HS GJ and please tell me that's not a real name. Wrote hands down one of the best choices I made this year was to start listening to this podcast. I'm always learning something new and I laugh at the same time.

Keep on sucking. Yes, Alex, that is the point. Learning while laughing, I love it. And again, the reason for the iTunes reviews, it's not an Apple bias. If anything, Apple kind of pisses me off lately, but it just happens to be the place where most people listen to podcasts. And where most people find new podcasts like 80 to 90% of people

So your reviews there spread the suck further than they do at any other place Not that I don't love them on sit your any other place So just not like don't don't hold off don't be like you know what? I was gonna give a review here that was nice But then he didn't say to do it in this place. So fuck it. No, it helps everywhere, but it helps the most there. For you, Android users, by the way, sorry about the Google play glitch this past Monday. I have no idea why the time suck RSS feed reverted to an old feed no longer in use.

The second you guys let me know, I emailed Google, which was all I could do, and they corrected it by the following morning. So hopefully that doesn't happen again soon, very soon, like less than a month soon, an initial version of the Time Suck app is gonna be out for both Android and iOS users. And then Google Play can go fuck itself. Because we're gonna have our very own player. And then when that messes up,

I know the people to yell at, because they're working for me right now. And they're fantastic. Holy, I don't think I would have to yell at them. But we can get a fixed pronto. And they're fantastic. Holy, I don't think I would have to yell at them. But we can get a fixed perunto. And speaking of the app, the goal is to release version one on Monday, December 4th. Now, this version, please don't be mad at me. Will not have the space lizard premium option. I wanted to do that by December and it just became too much. Because I'm getting the office going. I'll talk about that in a second.

A lot of other things, holidays, kids birthday, just life. And I just, I would have died trying to get that going. And I wanted also the app, waiting on a few things for that, just kind of some art to get kind of finalized. All that stuff takes a little time. And I just felt right to do it after the holidays. The goal is February 1st.

Because I like to have things kind of be ready. I'm getting the artwork for the CD, which recorded lots of other things that'll be done by that time. And yeah, you guys spread the CD which recorded lots of other things that'll be done by that time. And yeah, you guys spread the suck, you know, you buy merch, all that. I take the money, I get, I reinvest it in the suck and I improve it. And I just realized recently that I needed to record in the studio, but I didn't have one. So I am creating one. I just leased an office, hired an audio engineer. It's part time for now, hoping to have him go full time. We're getting new equipment soundproof in a room. The suck is going to be pro-level.

He's going to build a new template to increase kind of overall volume, increase quality. You know, just even out the sound, so it's the same every single week. So there isn't some other podcast that you think the sound is better on. And I just want to get all that stuff done right, and I want to get done right before we release the Secret Suck, before we launch the Space Lizard stuff. just want to get all that stuff done right. And I want to get done right before we release the secret suck before we launch this base lizard stuff. I want to just kick that off with the sweetest sound possible. And yeah, you know, it's going to take a little time to set up the office. Just made an Ikea run yesterday to get all the basics recording desk, workstations, couch, fun stuff, getting recording gear ordered.

And yeah, and we're making the app cooler, which is why I've taken a little longer to where do we I added some things midway I couldn't help myself. I just thought it would be fun and so I so I threw a couple little bells and whistles on there and And getting some new merch in the pipes so excited for the new stuff to roll out which should be out in just a few weeks and Hopefully kind of continuous a few more things coming out afterward. Just making it all better. It's really exciting, man. And I did get the Time Suck album that'll only be available for Space Lizards. That is the only way you'll be able to get a new album

to stand up. It's longer than I thought. I was shooting for like 30 minutes, ended up being closer to 45. And it's gonna be for Time Sucker Space Lizards only. And I'm very happy with how it turned out. Not gonna be on Pandora, not on Spotify, not on Amazon iTunes.

You won't be able to buy it anywhere else. Just fucking space listeners, got dang it. Had it done amplified wax and spoke in, man. And if you ever need some recording work done, and you're in the spoke in area, I cannot recommend them any stronger. I mean, really did great work. And also, gonna have a Black Friday through Cyber Monday

time stock store sale. 25% off everything in the store. It's going to be Black Friday through Cyber Monday. Sales going to start at 12 o 1 a.m. on Black Friday. Going to roll through until midnight on Cyber Monday. This is a once a year sale. Not going to see deals like this again until next year. So thank you guys so much for letting me just, you know, do what I love. Keep spreading that suck. Nothing beats word of mouth, nothing. So for that sale, use the promo code,

Hail Nimrod, H-A-I-L-N-I-M-R-O-D. All caps, Hail Nimrod to get 25% off in the store black Friday through cyber Monday. All right, the Instagram votes were tallyed by the way for Friday. Uh, November 24th, the bonus suck right after Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving by the way. Happy Thanksgiving, Wake. I guess be thankful that you weren't on the Dietlof Pass hike is the message of this episode. And uh, it's going to be, it's going be Unit 731, one in the landslide. Unit 731, 490 at a 731 vote, 67% of the vote on Instagram, Crush Tesla came in second,

Alexander the Great came in third, guess we'll just wait on those topics. Teaser for what Unit 37, 731's all about after today's narrative and you guys like it dark, holy shit, you like it dark. Lucifina may have tempted you a little extra this week. The vote to determine that suck, by the way, was made on Instagram at time suck podcasts, follow the suck on Instagram to be on board for the next bonus vote

in just a few weeks. Thanks to those of you who about tickets to that Detroit show on February 16th, 2018 at the magic bag, we still need more tickets, sold next few weeks in order to be able to add a live podcast. So please keep it going. Keep pre-bying those tickets. So me and the guys from Small Town Murder and Crime and Sports can add a second show, a live podcast. And then if you show up for that too, I can set up many more of the live podcasts. Tell your friends in Detroit. Ticket info in the show description.

Tell your Michigan friends, family, even enemies to get in on that and More end of 2017 shows coming up Dr. Grins and Grand Rapids Michigan November 30th through December 2nd St. Louis Fontebone and St. Louis Missouri December 7th through seven sorry December 7th through 10 Appleton, Wisconsin one night only on December 13th at the Skyline comedy club on State in Madison, Wisconsin December 14th through the 16th and then the state in Madison, Wisconsin, December 14th through the 16th. And then the comedy works in Denver, Colorado, December 28th through New Year's Eve. And so much more common in 2018. Uh, shows coming up fast and Indianapolis, Providence, Baltimore, Philly, Chicago, Cleveland,

Brea, San Francisco, Charlotte, Atlanta, Burby, and Ham, Huntsville, Nashville, Phoenix, Tampa, Miami, New York City, right Manhattan, so many more places. So please come support me. Get those tickets, keep this train moving so I can make it bigger, better, more fun. Sucker die, mother fuckers, suck or die. And now the deat left pass incident. Russia, 1959. It's cold. It's communist.

People are willing to challenge themselves against the elements. The Cold War is alive and well. Mother Russia wants to present an image of Russian youth as being morally and physically stronger than their soft capitalist counterparts. Youth are encouraged to be active in mind and body, be tough. And out of this culture comes a concept of what is now called survival tourism in Russia. In the 50s, you would challenge yourself on courses that were given various grades of difficulty. And if you completed them in a certain amount of time, you awarded various certifications.

And it is out of this culture that the Diathlon Hiking Party came up with its adventure. And now let's explore that particular adventure in detail with the time-step timeline. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time-sub-time line. January 23, 1959. A party of 10 Russian college students left the Svetlavsk Railway train station to Serov. Svetlavsk renamed Yekaterinburg in 1991. Its original pre-communist name was a major Russian industrial center. In 1924, after the Russian Revolution and Russia officially became a Russian state, the

city of Yekaterinburg was named Svetlovsk after the Communist Party leader Yakov Svetlov. During the 1930s, Svetlovsk was one of several places developed by the Soviet government as a center of heavy industry. During which time the famous Yorolmash was built a massive heavy machine production facility that employed over 15,000 people. Built tanks in World War II, heavy equipment such as excavators afterwards. Also manufactured blasts, centering machines, furnace equipment, rolling mills, presses, cranes, etc. for the mining and metallurgical industries located in the Urals in Siberia.

Metalurgy being the technique or science of working with, or heating metals, so as to give them certain desired shapes or properties still around and I'm sure still very popular in Russia. During World War II many state technical institutions and whole factories were relocated to Svetlopps away from cities affected by war, mostly Moscow with many of them staying in Svetlopps after the victory. It's also the city of the first Russian president following the collapse of the Soviet Union Boris Yeltsin. It's a good-sized city. Over 1.2 million people, Yikaterinburg is one of the most important economic centers in Russia and the city's experience, economic and population growth recently.

Some of the tallest skyscrapers of Russia are built here. It's also pretty cold. The average temperature in January is 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Sounds fantastic. And it can drop all the way to 50 below. It can drop all the way to just fucking kill me now. That's what 50 below is in layman's terms. Fun times, cold and industrial, which is how I think of all communist Russia. Cold winters, cold and spirit, cold concrete buildings. Whenever I'm researching the Soviet Union, I never come across stuff like, uh, he worked in a toy factory, which he had dreamed of since spending summers as a youth at a Russian water park. He thought, I want to bring even more joy to Russian children.

On the way home, driving his bright yellow Volkswagen bug with a piece symbol bumper sticker, he stopped on a malt shop, put a nickel in the jukebox, played some Janis Joplin, enjoyed a cheeseburger fries, chocolate malt. No, it's always something like, he worked in a bullet factory and then took the train home to a state-issued apartment where he ate onion soup and stale bread and stared off into the middle distance, wishing the neighborhood could,

practice his mandolin so he could listen to something other than the soul crushing Russian wind whipping through the cemetery across the ice-covered street. It's always just so fucking dismal and bleak. Anyway, these 10 students back in 1959 were studying at the Ural Polytechnic Institute in Svedelusk, the biggest technical institution

of higher education in Russia, a place where you get degrees and things like chemical engineering, military science, building materials, heat power engineering, so very Russian. These are not liberal art students. These aren't sociology and philosophy majors going not liberal arts students. These aren't sociology and philosophy majors going on a nature hike. These aren't kids grabbing crystals and going to find inter-peace on some mountain top spirit center. These are tough, communist tech kids going on a winter

adventure to prove their survival skills. They were all members of the UPI sports club. It will be an exciting test of their hiking and winter survival skills in the remote northern-year-old mountains nearly 400 miles to the north. It was mid-winter in the conditions would be harsh. Yet for these avid outdoorsmen, the trip was a vacation. A fun break from the hard daily rigor of their studies. Trips like this were actually pretty common for Russian students and Russian youth in general. I guess where else are they going to go? Disneyland, right? Mountain nearing, orientirine or popular. There was an all-union sports classification system that detailed the complexity of various routes,

the number of journeys, the length of the journey, the difficulty of nature obstacles to overcome, and then you would gain a ranking. It was a sport. You know, you meet with some communist youth director, tell him you and your other buddies wanna tackle some crazy winter off trail We shouldn't even be here adventure then you get your basic equipment to do it accomplish it or die trying

You get marks in your file maybe get a little extra onion soup for being a good party member It better chance to pick up a job at the Earl Mash when you graduate You get what you've always dreamed of a day shift at the Earl Mash praise tolin hail kushkiff kushkiff, Kruschkiff. If we have fucking name is seriously though, each member of the group, they were experienced grade two hikers with ski tour experience, and they'd be receiving grade three certification upon their return. This time, this was the highest certification available in the Soviet Union required candidates to traverse 300 kilometers, at least 190 miles. The goal of the expedition was to reach Otappa.

Oh, I think it's Otappa. Oh, Otappa. Oh, Otappa. It's a O-T-O-R-T-E-N, and I found the Russian pronunciation, but only written. And since I don't know what any Russian letters mean, it does mean nothing. I noticed that all these Russian videos,

I'll look up like if it's an obscure place, that's not part of a pronunciation guide. You put them in YouTube or you Google them. And it's just like, it's very popular, like new Russian videos, or these GoPro videos, they always just sound track. They never actually just speak, just, you know, does me no use. So anyway, I think it's a mountain, 10 kilometers, 6.2 miles north of the side of the incident at the route in February was estimated against category three the most difficult.

The Communist Party encourages type of vacation for youth. It was called active rest. Stay healthy. You learn and exercise valuable social skills working with the team in the cold elements. Me personally, I prefer the very American capitalist vacations of my youth. Built largely around alcohol consumption good music No responsibility in the possibility of drunken sex If you're hearing a dingle in the background. It's because I just drove back from Seattle with a bunch of stuff my dog Cooped up and I didn't take her little dingle dangle Call her off and she is fucking wound up penny is riled

She will not sit still she's been the truck too long. So every year, once to all, I just hear a little jingling in the background. I don't know if the, I don't know if the mic is picking up or not. And by the time I do know, too late. All right, back to the hikers. Who were they? The first was Igor Dietlof, all right, who had just turned 23, an affable, highly experienced skier hiker, orientier, orientering by the way is a competitive sport in which participants find their way to various checkier, orientering by the way is a competitive sport in which participants find their way to various checkpoints across rough country with the aid of a map and a compass.

The winner being the one with the lowest elapsed time. So these are serious outdoors people to sport. In this case, they weren't trying to send any record time. They were just trying to complete it, the trip on schedule. Now Igor, he was the leader of the ill-fated hiking group. He had done this trip before. I mean, this is the whole incident that ended up being named after him. He was a student

of the fifth faculty of Radio Engineering at UPI University. It talented engineer. He designed and assembled a radio during his second year that was used during Hikes in 1956 in the Sion Mountains. He also designed a small stove that he brought with him on this trip. We'll be talking about that a lot later. He courted Zima, Komagrova, who also took part in the hike. Only the previous year, he had completed the same route, as I said before, and it just was the year before. And, you know, he didn't have any problems at that time and figured he wouldn't have any problems this time. And well, we know how that worked out if you're familiar with this story at all. There were two strong, wild girls in the group. The first was Lutmilia, Dubinina.

She was a third year student at UPI University, is an engineering and economics major, the youngest of the deatlof group. A student in the construction school at UPI with an emphasis on economics. Athletic and strong, she was also a dedicated and outspoken communist. She was active in the tourist club,

and she likes to sing and take pictures. And tourists, by the way, in this meaning, is not like somebody who goes and travels the world just being a tourist. It's just kind of like this outdoor adventuring and stuff is part of like the definition of tourism in Russia at this time. Going out and doing a lot of stuff in nature. Many of the pictures of the last trip were shot by her

during the expedition to the Eastern Sion Mountains in 1957. She was accidentally shot by another mountain near who was cleaning his rifle. She endured the painful injury courageously during the long and painful transportation back to the base she did not complain. Instead she felt sorry for causing her group trouble. That is a tough Russian woman right there.

Jesus Christ. I-I sorry for not moving out of way. When you-when you carelessly point battle of gun at me, while cleaning gun, I-I sorry for not being more aware of your reckless and dangerous nature. It is embarrassing. How much I bleed from bullet wound. I-I clean up. Now sit, sit, I-I clean blood. Continue. Clean rifle. Clean rifle. I-I go pass sit sit I clean blood. Continue clean rifle clean

rifle. I go pass out from pain for a little bit. Then we continue wood hike. Then we got Zinaida, Golma Gorowa. No one is Zina. It was a fourth-year student at UPI University as a radio engineering major. She was an experienced hiker who had her share of difficulties as well. During one of her trips, she was bitten by a viper, like a viper. I didn't even know they had those in Russia.

I thought I was too cold for snakes. Had her some quick Googling turns out there was a snake known as the European Adder or European Viper. It is venomous, venomous, and scary looking. It tends to be around two feet in length, pretty thick of the exact diameter with me, but just by pictures, pretty thick.

Bites rarely kill you, but people have died from their poison venom. It's man, snake bites and gunshots. You think these ladies might sour on the hiking after that, but nope, let's get back out there. It's fine eight dudes share a tent with them. We'll could go wrong with that kind of sausage party situation. We'll could go wrong with that kind of sausage party situation? What could go wrong with that ratio of testosterone to vagina? Well, despite pain and suffering for the snake bite,

Zena refused to lighten her load, unwilling to cause a hardship on other spans, these women are tough. She was very outgoing. She was energetic. People who knew her said she was the engine of the university. She was always full of ideas and was liked by everyone. Despite her popularity in school, she always treated everyone else with interest and respect.

As a result, people were naturally drawn to her. She was 22 years old when she died. And there was also seven other dudes. It was Yuri. Yuri, Krivon the Shinko. Yuri studied construction, hydraulics, had also previously experienced disaster. Of course, I feel like everybody,

everybody here has a disaster background. While working in Chelyabinsk, Chelyabinsk, Chelyabinsk 40, was a secret nuclear facility. He experienced a disaster that became known as the Kustumkoy accident. On September 29th, 1957, Plotonian plant experienced radioactive leak.

Yuri Krivalenschenko was among the people who was sent to clean it up, experienced massive doses of radiation. I guess he was the in-house court jester. I don't think that was from the radiation. It'd be kind of funny if he was a very somber person and then he got enough radiation and it turned him into a clown. Who knew? Who knew? Blistered his skin and it, you know,

fluffed up his mind a little bit. Now, he was, he was always looking to amuse his friends with jokes playing the Mandolin. Mandolin came up a lot in my research. Apparently fucking Mandolin playing was big. And late 1950s Russia, which is kind of a sad commentary on their music scene. What are you guys into?

We got rock and roll kicking off in the States. What are you guys doing? We got rock and roll kicking off in the States. What are you guys doing? We play mandolin. It is good. Hold some, it is, hold some community instrument. It is easy to learn. You can play, you know, nice melodies on mandolin. He was five days shy.

He was 24th birthday when he died. And then we got Rustam, rustic, slow-boden. Rustic was an athletic man, honest, decent, although quiet at times. He also liked to play mandolin. Of course he did. Slobodan, Rustic was an athletic man, honest, decent, although quiet at times. He also liked to play in Mandolin, of course he did. That often took, he took along during long hiking trips. His dad was a professor at another Svedlovsk university.

He was 23 when he died. We got Sasha. It's Zinom, Azoloterov, aka Sasha. He was a tough second World War veteran, World second World War veteran and expert in unarmed combat. And he was 38. He was the oldest member of the group by far, man. I guess the survival rate for local men in that area of his age was according to one store, suck found 3%.

So up until the deal of past trips, Sasha had been pretty lucky. It sounds like he was kind of creepy too. Why is a 38 year old going hiking with a bunch of 22, 24 year olds, seriously? Like if I was single, and I suddenly went on a hiking trip with nine other people, and all of them were 10 to 15 years younger than me. That's weird, that's weird.

You know, at least at those ages, you know, if one person's 55 and the others are 40, okay. But this dude sounded a little dirty. Sasha joined the Communist Party after the war. April 1946, he transferred to the Leningrad Military Engineering University. Later, he transferred to the Minks Institute of Physical Education. In the early 50s, he worked as a guide for the tourist base of Artebache in Altai, South Siberia. Could have stayed in the army, but left it. He could have have stayed and worked as a tourist guide. At the tourist base, and he moved across the country

repeatedly without explanation. Additionally, being a caustic from the South, I guess it's highly unusual that he never got married, never had kids. And he also had numerous strange tattoos that he hid under his clothing. These tattoos included his birth year, 1921, military slogans, a few names of unidentified people.

Again, kind of creepy. That stuff would come back up, you know, a little bit when there's theories about, you know, what happened to the party. You know, was it like some kind of military retribution? Was he kind of some covert agent that was leading them to their death? I don't know. bazillion theories about this. We'll find out.

We have Alexander Kolikov. Kolotov. There we go. 24-year-old student, a nuclear physics, a a fourth year student as a physics major at UPI. Prior to moving to Svetlovsk, he finished the Svetlovsk mining and metal, metallurgy, college majoring in metallurgy of heavy non-ferrous metals.

He distinguished himself as a college student. He was a cautious, studious person who enjoyed smoking antique pipes. Ah, great, we got a pipe guy. Got a Russian hipster on the trip. He wants to hold up an attempt with pipe guy. His friends described him as diligent, pedantic, methodical, with clear leadership qualities.

His enemies described him as a annoying pipe guy. And then we got Nick Ali of Levin Mirovich, he's 23. He graduated in 1958. He just graduated with a major in civil engineering from UPI. Son of a French Communist who was executed during Stalin's tenure. He himself was born in a concentration camp for political prisoners. So not the best start to life.

His friend liked him for his energy though. Good sense of humor. Generally friendly, kind of demeanor. He was a nurturer who often helped younger or weaker members of the group to carry their things. He fixed their bags to reduce the pain and make them more comfortable. Yuri Yudin, only survivor of the group who cut his trip short, mentioned that Nikolai helped him in his first serious trips to the Siberian forest.

Nikolai promised his mother that this would be his last hiking trip. He was known to friends as Koya. He was well-read, very funny, like this Koya kid. We've got Yuri Doroshenko, 21-year-olds, two, and a radio engineer in the UPA. A lot of Yuri's, by the way. That's not a mistake. There was just happen to be a lot of Yuri's on this trip.

I guess Yuri is Russian for George. We had a lot of George's. He hit an impulsive personality with famous at the school's Hiking Club for having run a giant bear, a run at, excuse me, a giant bear with a geologist, hammer, a a camping trip Yeah, I bet that would get your name around campus just who is that? That is your a don't a shankle. He wants chase better with hammer. He is real Russian man

He once involved he's once involved in a relationship with Zena Goma Goldva and Even had met her parents. I just I wish just fucking one of these people's last name was Smith or Johnson. God damn it. It's like, fucking tongue twisters, every single one of them. And then we have Yurika Kurskurskurskurskurskurskursk. And then we have Brannasnoma Kutoshikutikash. Okay, anyway, although they broke up, he kept a good relationship with her and Igor

Jettlulf weird. Why would you go on a three week hike with your ex girlfriend? I don't get that. It's something I would never do. And then another dude that I did not know is going to come up in this episode, it was on the hike, was Andre Chikotilo. Hear me out. There's no record of him officially being on the trip.

There's no record of him being in the area at the time. However, he was actually 23 in 1959 and Rostov, where he did most of his killing, as you know, if you listen to that episode, about a thousand miles away, but only just over a day's ride by train. So kind of possible that the Rostov ripper met up with some hikers at the same age for low hiking, low rastlin, low murdering. I only want to hike and climb mountain, I only do not. I like listen to mandolin, I have fun with group. But then one night I sneak outside of tent for a quick jerk or softcock, campfire make silhouette of jerky on the side of tent. I know not that people in

intent are watching shadow puppet jerk show I put on. I not know for group and I hear snickering, I hear laughing. So I do as chick a tittle do. I get angry, I kill everyone, I stop killing only for moments of coming. No, of course not. Of course, Chica Tilla was not on the trip. I actually thought I was done talking about Chica Tilla for a while, but then this episode came up, and it was said in Russia. I mean, where people died, who were the same age as him at that time. So I couldn't help myself. There was one other hiker that began on the trip.

I mentioned him earlier. You're a Uddon. He was another student who would turn back due to illness, lucky for him, he got sick. He actually had some saddock and stuff. I guess, I guess just getting sick. He just had some some back pain and thank God, thank God his back was aching because that would let him live to the age of 75 instead of being dead at 23. Since about the university's head of provision distribution, the group packed items for their trip, including oatmeal, three kilograms of salt, knives, felt boots, all the other accessories

needed for this journey. Rustam slow but into his mandolin, of course he did. Students who throw the mandolin to be one of the most important pieces of equipment for the journey as it would be their main source of entertainment. And that's when you know you plan to bad trip. When a mandolin is your most important piece of equipment, you know, what kind of entertainment? Are we going to have on this trip? Well, mandolin.

Is it too late to get some my deposits back if I cancel now? Looted to Binha, counted the money they had pulled together. Money was tight. They had been given a thousand rubles by the Trade Union Committee at the University, but they had to put in their own money as well. 11th member of the group was supposed to join them. Nikolai Popoff, nicknamed the Morose Fellow. That's a fun nickname.

Who's this bummer? Oh, that is, it is the Morose Fellow. He's nice with him Morose. He'd agreed with Igor Dietlo to provide his own supplies and equipment and come along. Popoff had already graduated from the university, was not a student. Fortunately for him, he missed the train.

I was unable to find out how long this guy lived after the incident or even how old he was, guessing from the lack of info he lived long in uneventful life. The kind no one writes about. Good for him. The whole route from the Svetloughs to Mount Oltapa with the intermediate stops was more or less directly north,

south and approximately 340 miles, 550 kilometers to crow flies from the departure to their arrival back in Svetlów. The trip was expected to take 22 days. And over two weeks of that, just over three week trip would be on foot. So January 24th, 1959 by 3 a.m. on the morning of January 24th,

having exhausted their stock of songs and being exhaust themselves, Zenea recorded in the diary that the rest of them had all fallen asleep as she surveyed the darkness outside the train window Yeah, you'll notice by the way anytime you do in a story in Russia in like the 20th century Before like I don't know the 80s just so much trains so much trains back there After leaving Svetlavsk well behind them the train pulled into the town of Seroth at 7 a.m On January 24th.

The group derived in Seroth. Yuri Krivleschenko is arrested by the police for creating a disturbance at the Seroth Railway Station. The policemen have been staring suspiciously at the group and they must have all felt intimidated as Zena further noted in her diary that they had not broken or violated any law under communism. The atmosphere of intimidation began to annoy Yuri Kremlinko as he started singing, which was enough for the policeman to grab him and haul him away. The police told the group that section 3 of local railway regulations forbade all activity that would disturb the peace of the passengers. And Zena made a diary entry about that which stated that Seraf must be the only station in Russia where songs

were forbidden. Now, communist Russia, where a student can get arrested and trained for singing, it's terrible. Although I have been at a fair number of train stations in the US where I wouldn't have minded seeing people get arrested for singing there. Dude, if you're going to sing in public and want people to give you money, please learn more songs than no woman, no cry and bye bye, Miss American pie. Okay. Maybe learn some James Ingram fighter of communism. Triple Am's right hand man. Just once can't we figure out what we keep doing wrong. Why would never last for very long. What are we doing wrong. Just once.

And can't we find a way to finally make it right. Make the magic last for more than just one night. If we could just get to it. I know it could break through it. Karah with all of our Michael mother, fucking Macdonald, it's too easy to forget about Jimmy Ingram. Joe James, the James and Nader, with karaoke and backing track. You don't win two fucking Grammys being a scrub. You all right? Show the guy some respect. You don't land just once on Quincy Jones album, The Dude.

Seriously, he actually released an album, 91, called The Dude. Awesome. God, being a grown-up in the 80s sounded so fun. James Ingram said a demo to Quincy he recorded for $50 and it became the highest charting single in the album because he has world-class talent. How did that song only make it to number 17 on the Billboard charts in the summer of 81? Well who knows what Yuri was singing at that Russian train station? Probably not James Ingram. Probably not. Probably didn't have some background karaoke music.

Probably had some horrific 1950s comedy music. I didn't wonder like, what were they listening to in Russia in the 1950s? Turns out this is the And they had this. It's like the Russian being crossbeam. Not feeling that? What about this? Fall asleep? Fall asleep right now? I am. Maybe maybe maybe go to something a little more, I don't know, a little more of this speed. So make you want to put your head through a wall, make you want to arrest a student at a train station? Yeah, me too. All right,

well, maybe part of the problem with that arrest is they had some fucking shitty music. Alright, well eventually Yuri Krivonschenko was released, the matter was settled amicably. Seraph was more or less halfway from Svetlana to Evedel. Seraph was a much smaller industrial city, about a hundred thousand, an important source of steel manufacturing, iron, silicon mining. It was a cultural hub for artists, musicians, actors. Had to begin into the Russian standup comedy scene. Yeah, right.

It was another bleak industrial shithole in a sea of communist shitholes. I have watched enough spicy videos, so now that Russia has a lot of cool shit going on right now. I know I have some Russian listeners, I know that things are different, but you know better than anyone, from the tailors of your grandparents in the 50s nightmare. There was maybe three cities that were fun to live in for a small percent of the population,

bleak, communist oppression, getting served to everyone else. These kids think it's fun to spend two weeks freezing in the woods. That's their vacation. That's how shitty their life was. The group had to spend more than 11 hours, or they had more than 11 hours to kill, excuse me, before they could take the next train to Evedale, which left Seroff at 6.30 p.m. They were warmly welcomed at a school close to the Seroff railway station. A janitor heated water for them, made arrangements so they could store their equipment. It was a free day for the group, and the dire entry for that day was made by Yorah Yudin.

Yudin had wanted to visit a natural history museum or I'm not making this up, a local factory. I mean, God, how terrible, like for your vacation you're going just to a barren frozen mountain to test your ability to survive. And then on your like one day on the way to the frozen barren wasteland when you have like 12 hours You something fun like let's let us go to factory. Let us tour factory for fun for day. Oh

Jesus Christ. Let us enjoy first non-travel moments Maybe we can maybe we can check in with radiaid or component assembly. How fun is that? Or maybe maybe we can watch industrial solvents get mixed. Or, you know, let Americans have their sock hops and leather jackets and poodle skirts and malt and French rides and backseat fornication. I trade factory tour in brick, washing, winter, for nothing. That's terrible. 12 p.m. in the first part of the day, a school day was over. The group organized a meeting with some school children. The meeting was held in a small cramp room For the children listening silently as a zold-trev explained what sports tourism was and what they were doing on their trip

And then the three kids that appeared the least interested in the assembly were executed with bullets to the head Now the last part didn't happen, but it felt like it could have January 24th to the 25th the group group arrives at Evedale Railway Station, railway station, just after midnight. And wait there for transport to Vichet, the following morning, Evedale is a small and old Russian settlement of about 15,000 people, known as a gold mining settlement, and then became a Gulag aka prison labor camp in 1937. The proper town in 1943 was also the site of the

first Russian wooden fortress built east of the year old mountains in 1589. So these guys are starting to get off the grid now. I mean, and Gulags by the way, yeah, these prison labor camps, they were all over Russia. They were a little less so in 1959, it's been a few years since Stalin. They were kind of easing up on the old Gulags. But before that, it was called the opp pressive bear and just loaded with prisons. You know, gulags were like, you know, like to reform people to make them better communists. They were just, you know, a place to fucking work people to death and get

free Russian labor to build more concrete, sad buildings and factories. January 25th, the group traveled from Evedale to Vichey by bus with the spend the night of 25th, kind of going into 26th of January. And very basic accommodations. There accommodation was described by Yuri Krivalchenko as a so-called hotel, which must have been very basic even by the standards of the austere Soviet Union in the 1950s. There was not enough beds for the 10 members of the group, so two steps to a bed. And then Sasha and Yuri K cream on shanko, they slept on the floor. The town of V. Shay seems tiny. I could find very little info on the web about it. Probably a few hundred people. Guess and more of just, you know, a little shitty bed and breakfast rather than a hotel in this tiny little village. They leave V. Shay 110 PM on the 26th,

hopping into the back of a flat bed, G.A.Z. G.A.Z. 63 63 truck travel to a woodcutter's settlement known as settlement 41. I bet that was a fun ride. I bet the shocks on that truck were just dynamite. So fun, so relaxing. I'm sure they just bounced around on a frozen truck bed and a frozen waistline. I, oh, this is all of it makes me so sad.

This is their life. And 17 below Celsius, just over one degree Fahrenheit is there on the back of this truck. After several hours to make it to camp 41, where there was also a hostel, camp 41 sounds like a fun place. That's a place doesn't even get a name. Just it's number.

That's the shittiest of the shit. When you're living in a place in Russia in the 50s that is just a number. Where are you living these days? Where Nikolai? Where do you... I live in camp 41, it is nice. It is like Los Angeles meets San Diego.

It is, you know, beaches and girls and, you know, the great restaurants kind of a foodie thing going on. No, no, it's more like it's okay. You know, people not get killed every day. But man, a couple of times a week, people get killed the rest of the time. We, you know, we watch paint dry and freeze and cut down wood to make places to not want to totally kill cells. I don't know. January 27th, I spent it a night at settlement 41, where they just stayed in a little private part of the hostel, usually

reserved for geologists. You know, so at least they didn't have to like, you go to sleep out in the open, I guess, with everybody else who happened to be there. They get even further away from society on the morning of January 27th. They leave for an abandoned settlement of around 20 huts, about 15 miles away, using a borrowed horse and a cart to take their packs. So they're just getting, you know, more and more. I was degraded.

They spend the night of the January 2017 to the 28th and one of these huts on the banks of the LaVolsa River. January 28th, you're a Udden decided to turn back and return to Svetloth's kind of a severe back pain, Santa Monica, or just realizing that this was the shitiest vacation ever. How much was back pain and how much was like, what the fuck am I doing out here?

This place, this sucks. This is worse. I mean, things suck back home, this sucks so much more and not in the time suck way. The group of 10 is now down to nine. The target was to reach the 100 or a little over 1200 meter high mount, how we say it's Ultrathen.

Literally translated as don't go there, local Monty language, but they ended up on the slopes of the 1,079 meter tall Colotte, Siackel, translated as mountain of the dead in the local Monty language. What a fun area, what a fun area. Now you're gonna wanna take a left to don't go there mountain.

You wanna take a right at mountain of the dead? That's gonna put you right in the middle of you will be satanized by Damon's Valley and then you're a hop skip and a jump to Donkey Punch by the devil wild game preserve. It's gonna be fucking great. It's gonna be the best time you've ever had The monsey by the way are the indigenous people of the area they migrated to the area in the first millennia BC The Russians made contact with the Monsey at the tail end of the 15th century. There's under 10,000 Monzi in existence. And they were fighters led by chiefs and warlords. Bishop tried to Christianize the Monzi in the 15th century,

but then in a Monzi raid, in 1455, they killed that bishop. And the fate of the Monzi has been similar, kind of the fate of the American Indian industrialization and majority culture expansion has polluted and pushed them from their homelands, and their hunter-gathered lifestyle has been destroyed right by pollution by polluted you know I just mean their lands have been polluted by like industrial chemicals and that kind of thing. Quick note of the timeline going forward up until this point up until January 28th everyone

can be and everything I've said can be independently verified about the journey of the Diathlon group. Beyond this date despite the presence of a group diary and a few photographs, nothing can be verified for certain. Speculation now based on the plan route, they were going to take and where their bodies would end up being found. Once you decided to take his leave, there were many members of the group set out on their skis now, out into the wild terrain and away from any civilization at all. It was an area that was well known by Mandy or Monzi Hunters, but there was no sign or habitation or any kind of like settlements,

no sign of habitation, excuse me, or any settlements. Based on die ranchers who covered later, they went along this route close to the river Lovesa and just kind of in a single file, staying close to each other. Each of the remaining members of the group turned out to kind of take turns in the lead for 10 minutes at a time and kind of be the trailblazer.

5.30 p.m. on January 28th, they stopped to camp for the first night. On this part of the journey, the tent had a, it was a large one that had been customized by Igor Diatlov and his friend Boris Lopasov. I was big enough to sleep nine of them, or all nine of them. It would have accommodated 11, in fact, had your Eudon continue to journey with the group

and had Nikolai pop off, also made the trip. The interior had curtains, which was they used to make compartments, could afford some privacy so the girls could change away from the dudes. Egor had built a stove that would be placed inside the front entrance and the chimney going out of the tent, upwards at a right angle. They cooked dinner, sat around a campfire, alternately talking and singing accompanied

by Rustam's mandolin. What if the mandolin is actually what's to blame for their upcoming deaths? What if one of these guys, you know, probably Sasha just couldn't handle it and he couldn't handle anymore. Just no more fucking mandolin. He's one of the berserker murder rampage and then died himself when one of them fought back, you know Maybe died when he's smashed in the head with the mandolin He's like I hate mandolin so much as if cold is not enough as if girls not wanted to sleep with creepy old Sasha's not enough Girls not impressed by names tattooed on my body Ugh Argument breaks out that night over who has to sleep nearest a stove and other than some screaming and some bickering nothing else

At least according to diary entries goes on and they all go to sleep. January 29th, the second day of their journey into the mountains on foot sees them move from the river Lovesa to the River Aspia, a right-hand kind of tributary to the Lovesa River. The group traveled along a sleigh and deer trail on the river bank used by Monzy Hunters with a weak wind and a temperature of negative 13 degree Celsius, nine degrees Fahrenheit. The only thing mentioned in the diary for the day is the

occasional appearance of ice on the river lovesa. Trips sound truly terrible at this point. I mean, I love a good hike, but cross-country skiing. No thanks. Any enjoyment of scenery, I feel like is destroyed by the cold and knowledge that you could die if you just don't keep moving. Do not sign me up for that ever. If I was going to do that, it would be like an hour around trip max, maybe half an hour max, not a three week round trip nightmare. January 30th, they rise at 8 30 AM, either breakfast, depart, the group diary was written while on the go, their progress along the SPA river is impeded by ice dams. Although there's not enough ice to actually walk on the river itself, so they just kind of move slightly inland, sledge a trail used by the Monzy. Right, this third day on foot and ski, sees them moving into territory used by the Monzy

for hunting, references made to the tribe and their use of signs and markings on the trees that they pass, which signifies how many local hunters have passed along the trail and to which family clan those hunters belonged. Some of the markings also refer to the types of animals in the area. That's pretty cool. Midway through they reach an old Monzy camp, not in current use. The deer path ends and they continue moving across virgin snow. It's hard work because the snow is almost 120 centimeters deep just under four feet deep.

They pitch their tents along the banks, the auspia river. Temperatures plunged to negative 26 degrees Celsius, negative 15 degree Fahrenheit. January 31st, the sky was clear, but there was a strong west wind. That was causing snow to fall from the tops of the trees. The temperature was between 18 negative 18 degrees Celsius, negative 24 degrees Celsius. So around 10 below Fahrenheit, they gradually leave the SP SP river valley, making slow progress, about about a mile an hour. Oh, that sounds fun, right? Just in the, like in 10 degrees outside, your trudging along, you're making a mile an hour. They've taken old beaten Monzy trail. They noticed been used fairly recently by Monzy Hunter. The ground was starting to rise gradually, going was hard. There's low visibility. The winds whipping

the snow around. They're prepared to pitch their tent around 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. then afternoon. The snow cover about four foot, 1.2 meters thick. It's falling. They spent the night of January 31st at the edge of the forest before continuing the following day. The final part of the last entry in the diary states tired and exhausted. We start to prepare the platform for the tent. Firewood is not enough. We didn't dig a hole for a fire too tired for that. We had supper right in the tent, hard to imagine such a comfort somewhere on the ridge with the piercing wind, hundreds of kilometers away from human settlements. Guessing there is a lot of second guessing going on right now.

Why did we decide to do this with our vacation? You know, this is just like where we already live, but with literally none of the good parts, like buildings with heaters and windows and roofs and stores where I can buy shitty food, that is at least better than no food. You know, damn well, no one's pulling out that mandolin at that point. You know, rustic, sorry, suppose it's just shove it up

your ass, rustic, fuck you and fuck your Mandolin February 1st no more dire entries are made so now things really get hazy all we know about travel this days that it that goes Then to 500 meters off of their planned route and they pitched their tent on the north slope of the Colat Savackel Which nowadays is called yet left pass. Thank God. It's a word, it's two words I can say. They pitch their tent and then based on autopsies later at some point, believed to be approximately two to three hours after the tent is pitched later that afternoon evening. Something happens, forcing the group to exit the tent

as fast as possible by literally slashing their way out of it. So February 12th, the group was expected back in Vichet. February 21st, a search party, the search parties are on their way to find these kids. February 26th, the slash 10th is discovered by search party members. February 27th, the first bodies are found, Yuri Krebysenko, Yuri Doroshenko are found next to a cedar tree. This was quickly followed by the discovery of Igor Diatlof's body, 400 meters from the cedar tree, and then the discovery of the body of Zina, Kolma Gorovah, 500 meters away from the cedar tree.

March 5th, the body of Rostim, Slobodin is found, and then you have to go all the way to May 5th, the remaining bodies of Luda Dubininha, Alexander Kolotov, Sasha, Nikolai. They're found by a den that they tried to create to protect themselves from the severe weather. May 28th by, May 28th, the case is now closed into how these people died. The investigation concludes that an unknown compelling force had caused the death. So let's hop out of this timeline now, explore the crime scene and examine possibilities of how they may have died.

Alright, so let's talk about the crime scene and go through it as investigators found it. On their last evening alive after the tent had been in the pitch, the party was preparing to eat supper, would have been getting ready to bed down for the night. And something happened that caused them to panic to such an extent that they cut their way out of the tent. Something made them grab their knives, cut their way out rather than just go out the front of the tent.

And in their rush to get out, they left behind knives, hatch its shoes. Each had two pairs, one for outside, one kind of soft pair for inside the tent, as well as warm clothes. They didn't even have time to grab their shoes, just rushing out that fast. They left behind everything that would enable them to survive the harsh winter conditions that they faced outside the tent. These are experienced hikers, experienced outdoorsmen. They would have known that.

They would have known that they needed that stuff to survive and they don't grab it. So that's odd. The tent's later examined. It could be seen that two large gashes had been made to allow someone of an adult size to get through. Other than the slashes, the tent itself was fine. It stood at a distance of less than a thousand feet, 300 meters from the summit of the mountain they were on. An initial examination of the tent showed that the location had been selected correctly as it provided good shelter, a good space for someone to put a tent. And then there are footsteps outside of the tent. And here's what's weird.

8 or 9 tracks led away from the tent and down the slope of the mountain for a distance of roughly one-third a mile. And these tracks were shown to have been made by people wearing no shoes, had characteristic columns of press snow around where indentations had been made by the footprint. And what the members of the search party deduced was that the eight or nine tracks lay down the slope in a single file with the tall man at the back. Occasionally a track would wander out from the main file and then we'll return as if either wandering or looking for something. And just by the way the impressions were made, the tracks appeared to have made by someone who was or people who were walking. Not there were it was like a orderly walking down the hill.

Not not panicked running. So if they're in mortal danger and they had slashed away at the tent, why didn't why did they form an orderly line and just kind of go down the slope. It would appear to be a walking leisurely pace. Very odd. On the morning of February 27th, the first two bodies are found. Two members of the main search party were looking for a new spot for a campsite of their own before resuming the search.

They approached a cedar tree down hill from the tent. And as they drew near, they noticed two bodies lying in the snow. These were the bodies of Yuri Krevishenko and Yuri Doroshenko. The laying side by side almost stripped to their underwear as having bare feet, as well as having bare feet, as well as having bare feet. And weird, they both had boners and the tips of the boners were touching, which is odd, you know, unless you're a fan of the Tom and Dan, you know, mediocre time podcast. And then you know, all about tips, tip touching.

No, their winters were not touching. Of course, they're not. That's crazy. Their balls were frozen together, though, which is arguably even weirder. Apparently, they rub their sweaty balls together to stay warm, which I have done many times camping. Very normal. You get cold, you rub your balls against someone else's balls,

and you use that friction to kind of heat up your bodies as I was taught as a child. And then the temperature for, you know, you know, it drops in it for those, it throws our balls together. No, that none of that is true either. But I wanted so badly for you to believe it was. I just, I was so tempted to lie and just to keep going. No, just, you know, but it was fun to me to think that whenever you

would hear about the de-loved pass incident, you would think about guys with their balls frozen together. Which you may still think about just because I've talked about it so much. No, their bodies were kind of next to each other, like they were kind of together, possibly for warmth. None of it, none of the ball or penis stuff was true. No, near their bodies with remains of a fire in which they were tops of small trees

which have been cut with a knife. Later to do so that Yuri Kremoshenko and Yuri Doroshenko may have tried to keep the fire going as long as they could, believe to be a period of like one, one and a half hours, not sufficient enough of a fire to keep them warm in freezing conditions. There were burn marks on their hands and feet, which were believed to have been caused when they put their frost, bitten feet and hands into the fire to warm, but did not

feel the pain of being burned. And it was believed that they froze to death while sitting next to this fire. How fucked is that? You're putting your hands actually in to the fire. You're burning your hands, still can't stay warm, still die of hypothermia. The Cedar tree was about a mile from the tent. The branches were broken to a height of approximately 13 to 16 feet, looked as though members of the group had climbed the tree, broken off branches to make the fire, as well as using a knife to cut smaller sections of the wood. Pieces of skin from one or more members of the group

also were found on the tree, where they'd scraped themselves, climbing up. Oh man, as more members of the search party arrived to the scene, another body was found roughly 300 meters again, a thousand feet from the same cedar tree, the body of the group leader, Igor Diallof. Igor was lying on his back with his head pointing in the direction of the tent. And someone had drawn a dick on his forehead with his sharpie.

So it is assumed that earlier that night he was the first to fall asleep. No, nothing was drawn in him. Monzi hundreds and their dogs found the body of Zena, Kilmigorovah. She was found approximately one-third of a mile from the other bodies. And like Igor, her body was pointing towards the tent. So it appears that these first four had all been together near a cedar tree, had started a small fire, and then maybe upon realizing the little fire wasn't in cute then warm, maybe then Igor and Zina had tried to get back to the tent.

Now, on March 2nd, another surge party found a base camp that hikers had made down by the river where they stored a bunch of equipment, including 120 pounds of food, a pariskees, skees, roustics, mandolin. All these items being found weeks later seems to rule out that students were being followed by someone who was intent on robbing them. You know, there aren't a lot of bright spots, you know, to this tale being that they all died, but at least they did not have to listen to that stupid mangeline in their final hours. On March 3rd, the body of rustic, Slobodan was found, his body was near the bodies of Zena and Igor. It was initially misto to just be a little more hidden in the snow.

He was 600 feet ahead of Igor, 500 feet behind Zena and a straight line headed towards the tent. All three appeared to have been trying to crawl back to the tent. The other bodies would be found two months later. On May 4th, remaining four bodies are found 230 feet away from the cedar tree, where the first group had started the small fire. Their bodies were found under 15 feet of snow. Why were they apart from the other hikers? Nobody knows.

Maybe there was a disagreement on how to survive once everyone left the tent and the party split into two camps. Maybe they how to survive once everyone left the tent and the party split into two camps. Maybe they tried to dig a hole into the snow and form, you know, some kind of shelter, a little snow cave. Maybe this whole thing was a big snowball fight. Just went on too long and, you know, there were two teams. Maybe they were playing the dumbest game of capture the flag ever.

Nobody knows. Whatever it was, the bodies of Luda, Alexander Sasha and Nikolai were all found together. Luda found wearing clothes taken off of Yuri Kuravanschenko and Yuri Doroshenko. So it's assumed that they died first. They took the clothes off of those guys, gave them to, or, you know, put up, Luda put them on herself,

or was given them by somebody else trying to keep her alive. And then she was, you know, she froze as well. But now let's talk about some injuries, some non-hypothermia injuries. There was a number of troubling, confusing injuries. Yuri Doroshenko had pulmonary and edema, excess fluid in his lungs causing difficulty of breathing. He had pulmonary contusion or a bruised lung as a result of blunt trauma. He had burned on his foot and his right temple, his ear, nose, and lips were covered in blood.

Experts describe the injuries, bruises, and abrasions as non-life threatening. And I'm not kidding, this is not one of my weird things. Explain them as Doroshenko hitting himself with rocks and ice, like in the face, and other surrounding objects in his final moments of extreme agony. Like that's, I guess, that's a thing people do sometimes

when they're just, they're cold and frustrated, they just grab shit around them and just bash their faces. Just like I did picture them and trying to explain that with a straight face to, you know, somebody question, you know, question them about the investigation. Why was his face bloody? Well, we feel most likely from hitting self and faced with rocks and ice and hard ice. Young Russian children, you know, often taught at early age when going gets tough, he itself in face with rocks is what we think.

The official concept is listed as hypothermia and also he was found with no shoes on. Yuri Krivochenko, he bit a piece of his own knuckle to whether stay awake or stifle a cry. He had third degree burns. It cannot be sustained. If you fall asleep, still alive. The presence of skin between his teeth that was torn from his right hand or from his

hand might suggest that he tried to stay on the cedar tree as long as he could, tried to awaken his irresponsive hands by biting himself or he was trying to stifle a cry. Just odd. He also had burns on his left leg and left foot. Official cause of death though, it listed as hypothermia. And again, not wearing shoes. Igor Diablo have been vomiting blood in his final moments. He also had a metacarpal philangial joints on his right hand were bruised.

It bruised knuckles is what that is. This is a common injury, uh, you know, in hand to hand fights, you know, when you make a fist, it's a part of the hand you used to hit somebody with. So that's odd. Who was he hitting? Igor also wasn't wearing shoes at time of his death. And again, the official cause of death is listed as hypothermia for him. Zena Goma-Govra. Uh, she had a baton shaped bruise on her wrist. I mean, could that be another injury from a fight? Was she restrained? Did someone grab her wrist? Finally, polar. She had a baton shaped bruise on her wrist. I mean, could that be another injury from a fight? Was she restrained? Did someone grab her wrist? Finally, pull her. She also had numerous unexplained

abrasions on her face and hands. A fisheakha's death is listed as hypothermia, but it is listed as hypothermia due to violent action. She also had no shoes on, but did have three pairs of socks and multiple layers of clothes. Roustic, Roustic Slobodan, suffered blunt trauma to the head. He had a fractured skull. Someone or something had hit him. Medical autopsy further states that Slobodan probably suffered loss of coordination due to initial shock right after the blow that could have sped up his death from hypothermia. His bell was severely rung and he wouldn't think improperly after that injury.

Despite his injuries, hypothermia was still listed as the official cause of his death. And also with Igor, Bruce is on his knuckles. And unlike Igor, Igor had Bruce's on one hand. Roustic had Bruce knuckles on both his hands. So he was, he was doing fighting as well in his final days for some reason. Luda Dubininiya, her corpse was found missing her tongue. If you look into this story at all in your own, that comes up a lot, no tongue and no eyes.

However, she was laying on kind of a natural ledge with water rolling over it, which could have sped up the soft tissue, putrefaction, some scavenger, could have taken her eyes and tongue. My scavenger, I do mean critter, not just like some dude, you know, look at ribols and tongues. However, she was also found with 100 grams of coagulated blood in her stomach,

which could indicate she was still alive when her tongue was ripped from her head. Doesn't definitely indicate that, but it does lead one to believe that's very possible. The blood then pulling in her stomach from carnage in her mouth, her nose was broken as were four ribs on her right side. She was missing her upper lip. Did some creature attack her? Would she was still alive, right? And again, like all the other, no footwear.

Her cause of death was not hypothermia. It was listed as hemorrhage of the right atrium of the heart, multiple fractured ribs and internal bleeding. So something bad happened to her, and not only was her face all messed up, her ribs, she had gotten hit hard in the body by something, but what?

It is worth noting that none of the body showed any signs of sexual activity near the time of death, whether consensual or non-consensual. No signs of sex with this group. They were the pure Russian youth. He or her father of snow only, snow and hiking. There was no Tom Fuluri.

This is not the America. Stosh's corpse, the older guy, he was found missing his eyeballs. Creepy, he's also found a hole in the pen. And a note bag, but he hadn't written anything down. It's possible that he was about to write a note as anyone seen my fucking eyeballs. I don't know why that made me laugh. and his chest had been crushed on the right side There were two fracture lines throughout his ribcage rib two through six were all broken. I was really messed up. I said that

Oh, now I'm sorry now. I'm laughing at the fact that I laughed at saying something so horrific. I get so Jay to with these Yeah, he also had an open wound on the right side of his skull with exposed bone. A lot of his wounds were in line with those suffered from experience, the shockwave of a bomb. So that's odd. That comes up a lot in stories. You know, was there some kind of crazy military weapons

testing going on? His crushed chest was what caused his death. He died of internal bleeding, not hypothermia. Alexander's corpse was found missing some soft tissue around the eyes as well. The eyeballs themselves still in the sockets. So maybe Sasha was writing Alexander or no. Could you, could I borrow one of your eyeballs? Could I have at least, could I have one of your eyeballs?

You have two eyeballs, I have none. The school bones were exposed. Alexander's corpse, he had broken nose, opened wound behind his left ear. He also had what on the autops reported strange. He called a deformed neck. That's the exact verbage, a deformed neck. Not, doesn't say broken, I'm assuming broken, that's a weird way to write it. What's his neck broken? It's kind of, it's a little, it's deformed. It was bent in a U-turn shape, which is unusual for Neck. His injuries similar to those from someone who dies

in a fight, Snap Neck, blow to the back of the ear, consistent with how special forces in that area, you know, the Russia would kill someone. His official cause of death was hypothermia, despite his injuries, not sure how a deformed Neck doesn't kill him, but I guess to be fair, not a Ne next doctor. Nikolai's corpse was found with severe internal head trauma, an injury

consistent with a high-speed car crash or fall from several stories higher. More, there was no damage to the soft tissue of his head like to his face. So no external damage, lots of brain damage. Head trauma is what caused his death. All in all, nine people die, the whole party from a mixture of hypothermia and injuries consistent with being attacked. Sex is not a factor. No one is having it.

And at least two of the nine hikers had hurt their hands in a manner consistent with punching somebody. No one had any fucking shoes on. Some are huddled up. Perhaps in a snow den, some seem to try and make it back to the tent as anywhere from around,

negative 25 to negative 30 degrees Celsius negative 13 to Negative 22 degrees Fahrenheit the wind is blowing a fire roughly a mile from the tent is started Eyes are missing. Are we sure it wasn't chikotilo? I don't know if you remember that from his episode But he did take many of victims eyes, you know What I say I a very sentimental like take eyes. I put I put eyes and jar I it's for fun. I show I show I I jar to kids. I I take eyes, I put eyes and jar. It's for fun, I show I jar to kids, I play a game, I let you live if you guess amount of eyes and jar.

I kidding, that's messed up, I let no one live. A couple guys have had severe head injuries, a couple of hikers, severe ribcage and internal injuries. And the close of the hikers were wearing, we're found to have high levels of it, severe ribcage and internal injuries. And you know, and some the close the hikers were wearing, were found to have high levels of radiation. That's also a thing. Two of the hikers had high levels of radiation on their clothes. What the fuck happened?

Well, before I look into legitimate explanations, let's look into what some wacky doodles have to say. Let's check in with the idiots of the internet. Under a YouTube video called Stuff, they don't want you to know, Deatlof Pass. I love the vague they. Who doesn't want me to know this? They, they don't want you to know. Under this video, a user swagger like us posts, the crazy part is there's way more cases like this worldwide.

And there's a shadow government cover up going on to hide what's truly behind them. Is that the crazy part or is the crazy part you post in a random statement as fact, even though you have absolutely no proof of what you're talking about? If there's way more cases, why didn't you list one of them? What is the agenda of this shadow government? How many times have you watched each and every single episode of the X files? User Eric Osteling caused me to laugh so hard I almost choked on a protein bar I was eating, my free search and when he posted, here are the facts. I took a shit. This is where it gets crazy. I didn't wipe That has nothing that has nothing to do with the alias pass or idiots, but it made me laugh and I wanted to share

User ye the dinosaur casually solves a mystery posting. I think they died because there was, I think they died because there was a machine that the government made and it killed and somewhat crazy and stripped themselves, ripped the tense apart and ripped out their tongues. And underneath this, the trash man replies, of course, why didn't we think of this earlier? Exactly trash man. I love it when people present half-baked nonsense as an obvious solution. It's easy guys. The government made a kill machine. They made a machine that makes some people rip their tongues out

and go crazy and kill each other. Next mystery. Next problem. User Sheldon Ludlow poses an important question. He asks, why no mention of the photograph of the Yeti found in the negatives in the camera one of the students had. I'll take this one. Sheldon, if you're listening, it's because the Yeti photograph doesn't fucking exist

because the Yeti has never been photographed ever, not in this case, not in any other case. Stop talking about Bigfoot and Yeti, all right? Still believe in those monsters. I have two words for you, Google Earth. We have photographically mapped the entire planet all of it. We would have found one of these apes

if one was to be found on Earth. There was only one Sasquatch and his name is Nimrat, God of Time Suck, space Sasquatch with the head of a Chubacabra who rides the top of black unicorn. Hail Nimrat, praise his alpha and omega ball sack of life and knowledge. User Brian Bernstein writes, it was the military.

These kids stumbled across an area 51 type place and they were killed for it. Why else were the footprints down where they found the bodies in a walking pattern and not running the military marked them down and killed them? No Brian, no, it wasn't. It was. Do your homework. It was an approved hike. They didn't stumble on to some secret military base. They barely went off course. They went a couple hundred meters off course of a hike route sanctioned by the government. Why would the government encourage citizens to hike near an experimental weapon site?

They wouldn't. At least they wouldn't with college students. Not the good ones, right? They might encourage some, you know, people in society they consider less desirable. Some people, you know, maybe they were, maybe some lepers. Maybe they'd take some, that's what the lepers get to go for their hikes is in the military weapons site. But no, they didn't send these college into a just weapons testing area. Just bodice.

I was thinking we planned new hikers for Communist youth at university. Perhaps I've then walked to the middle of the area, frequent bomb testing. First they hike to bomb testing, then to secret weapon firing target practice, then to poison this gas disposal area. it'd be nice challenge for youth. You know, make them strong. Alright, let's talk about one more dummy. One more person who takes the time to write, but not research any opinions they have before type it about.

User Dennis Carroll posts, it's the work of demon UFO. It's the work of demon UFOs. The evil spirits control them, cutting the tongue as part of the game they play for their own sick uses. They also cut cow tongues commonly. About 10% of those words were spelled correctly. I can't believe I actually got through that,

not messing up on some stuff. So much scary here. I clicked this guy's profile, old Dennis, and he doesn't appear to be a troll. Worse, he appears to be a parent messing up on some stuff. So much scary here. I clicked this guy's profile, old Dennis, and he doesn't appear to be a troll. Worse, he appears to be a parent of several young children who he talks about, who he tells stories to these kids about demons.

He's talking about demons on other videos to the kids. He's a 45-ish white dude, and again, based on his videos, he seems to work as a painter just by this stuff. He was wearing one of them. It seems to enjoy going fishing. He was fishing in a few of them. And again, talking about demons.

That's one of those favorite things. So crazy to me to think that there's this man out there, some dude named Dennis Carroll, who truly believes that the de-at-love pass incident is explained by demon-controlled UFOs who take peoples and cows tongues for their own sick uses. Really. I don't think it's a coincidence that he believes this and it spells about one out of every 10 words correctly. When I reach shit like this,

I just wanna go back to school. I just wanna go back and I wanna study anything. God damn it, education is important. I know that universities are ripping us off left and right, another over price, but if you can get a scholarship or grants or low interest loans, it won't prevent you from buying a house

or starting off life with crippling debt, if you can get into community college, affordable state school. If you have the family money to burn at a private expensive school, go. If you can audit classes for free, do it if you have the time. If you can go to the library and just read some stuff here and there, fucking get in there. Fight the good fight, combat ignorance with education.

Don't be Dennis. Make the world a better place. Help our species continue to evolve and push forward and refuse to become an idiot of the internet. ["The Internet"] Idiot, I'll be into that. Get rid of that. OK, so what did happen if it wasn't a Yeti or demon UFOs or the military?

Well, actually, let's look at those theories. I just mentioned first. Let's look at Yeti. The Discovery Channel actually ran a documentary called Russian Yeti, The Killer Lives. And of course, they did. The Discovery Channel has as much scientific credibility as World Weekly News tabloid. It is shit. It's as educational as TMZ.

And I guess in this show, some investigators, if you can call them that, so that I've to prove that the giant tongue eating Yeti or Mank as the Monzi called him, did this. And if you think it's odd that the Monzi has their own Yeti mythology, right? If that makes it more real to you, no, there's giant man mythology in almost every culture.

And has been since the beginning of time, I break it down kind of the why in Time Suck episode 26, Sasquatch versus the Loch Ness Monster. The central show piece of that program is a black and white, not the one I'm talking about, but the Discovery Channel one, is a black and white still photograph showing a dark, unidentified figure standing in the trees. It's introduced with Stark on-screen text saying,

the following image is one of the last photos taken by the hikers. It is being shown on television for the first time. Well, it's probably been shown on television for the first time, because you just fucking made it up. It's presented evidence that Yedi was stalking the doom party to the woods, and to my eye, it is an obvious hoax. It is obvious photoshopping.

Someone dropped a Yeti-ish figure into the back of the photo. But as much as I hate Sasquatch talk, I wasn't there. So I guess I have to allow for the slimest of slim possibilities. Those Russian hikers died at the hands or Paws, is it? Claws perhaps, Firmittens. They died at the Firmittens of a Yeti. Or several Yetis. I don't know, maybe they killed in packs. I don't know a lot about them. You know, I don't know anything about them. You know, but if we're going to go there, I also like to add that it may have been a leprechaun that killed them. If we're going to allow for Yeti, then we have to allow for leprechaun. Or maybe it was a jingle jangle. Maybe a jingle

jangle. You know, what's that? I don't know. What what it is is shut the fuck up and stop talking about jingle jangles, right? That's what it is. Actually, just some words popped into my head and that may describe a creature I've never seen before or thought about before. Since I wasn't there, maybe that thing did it. It could be anything.

If we allow for yeti, we allow for everything. What about UFOs? That's another popular theory. It's always a popular theory when someone disappears with no witnesses, especially way out in the woods. Right? I guess mostly way out in the woods.

If you disappear in the city, it's harder to blame UFOs, because there's people that were like, no, they weren't there. I like UFOs. I like the possibility of UFOs. I have to, I have no reason to believe that they're controlled by demons, like Dennis Crazy Pants' Carol,

but they may exist. We don't know what's out there in space. And if they did want to focus somebody without anyone, you know, seeing them without getting caught, I don't know why they be worried about that though, if they have spaceships, but if they were worried, you know, the yet love hiking crew would have been a good group to mess with. And they are in the middle of nowhere. And here is actually some interesting info from, from investigators about that theory.

Lev Ivanov was the man who was in charge of the investigation at the L.A.F. Pass. Almost four decades later, after the fall of communism, after retiring in the early 1990s in an interview to a local journalist, Ivanov made a statement that during his investigation initially, he and another investigator both noticed that the pines in the forest around the Diatat-love kind of crime scene were burned at the top

He also claims that AP Keralenko member of the Soviet Congress along with his advisor a.f. Ashokken or Ashokken forced Ivan off to take out any reference to the unknown flying objects or other strange phenomena This included pictures of flying spheres drawn by the Monzi hunters and other testimonies, such as people in the area seeing strange nighttime lights around the time of the disappearance. Probably some fucking space lizards, you know, probably some new lizard illuminati ancients come into earth to crawl into their lizard tunnels, take over more of our world leaders. God damn space lizards. It has to be it. world leaders, god damn space lizards, it has to be it. Supposedly, included in Ivanov's original report was this, when EP, Massin Lomakoff and I examined the scene in May, we found that

some young pine trees at the edge of the forest had burn marks, but those marks did not have concentric form or some other pattern, there was no epicenter. This once again confirmed that heated beams of a strong but completely unknown, least to us energy were directing their firepower towards specific objects in this case people acting selectively. And that's what he says. That's what he says. You know, it's just kind of his word that this was in his original report. And also I should note that he was paid to give this interview late in life. So perhaps there was financial incentive to whip up an interesting story for him to tell. But perhaps he was telling the truth. Maybe some weird UFO shit went on out there. Military testing, some weapons testing.

That's a popular theory with the D'Alof Pass. Memo's eventually a surface that revealed the Russians had been testing rockets roughly in the area of the hike. However, the military denied any tests were being done in that area during the dates of the hike. But a 2008 conference at the Ural State Technical University, together with the Diathlon Group Memorial Foundation, did decide that military testing was to blame. The Federal Security Service responded that all those involved in the case had long since died. Now, if this did happen, I doubt it was intentional, but maybe someone messed up. Maybe some type of weapon was detonated in the area and then they realized the students had planned to hike in the area. I don't believe the students were killed intentionally, despite what some on the web claimed.

This area was not off limits. Again, this was an approved plan hike. The Soviet Union had millions of political prisoners and gulags around the nation that could easily kill some of those poor bastards. They didn't need to kill well liked and high achieving college kids again. That's ridiculous. But so that's those three theories. And there are so many others. One theory revolves around infrasound. You know, that infrasound, I guess, waves might have been responsible for sudden unpleasant feelings amongst the hikers. A man named Donnie Icarr author and filmmaker responsible for the Kurt Cobain documentary soaked in bleach also wrote a book called Dead Mountain, the untold true story of the

Deatloft Pass incident. He used a management five years researching the incident, undertook the dangerous trek himself, believes in a wind phenomenon called a Carmen Vortex Street, could have produced a terrifying, powerful sound, which has proven to induce irrational fear and humans. Due to the unique topography of the mountain of the dead which is a perfect dome shape, the fierce winds that blow through the past could have been warped as they struck the blunt surface of the mountain. The wind which was blowing in a straight line which had been twisted into a series of small but powerful

tornadoes. They would tear down either side of the past, the tornadoes spinning fast enough to tear the roofs off buildings would have created a definitely noise even if they missed the tense as Icarst theory suggests. Under certain circumstances they could also produce a more subtle and terrifying phenomena known as infrasound. The opposite of ultrasound infrasound is a type of vibration in the air, which has a frequency so low it cannot be picked up by the human ear, but a succession of studies has shown that it can have marked effects on the human body, including loss of sleep, shortness

of breath, extreme dread, eye-carb, backed by scientists in the National Oceanic and the Atmospheric Administration in the United States believes that a combination of these effects on infrasound, the deafening noise of tornadoes and the claustrophobic pitch black tent, could have unseeded even the most steady minded adventurer. A 2003 study in the UK found that a fifth of people exposed two infrasound reported feeling anxious, scared, or unable to breathe properly. Another theory holds that waves are linked to ghost sightings. Icarz hypothesis for the deall of past holds that the whirling tornadoes would have been able to produce infosound and sufficiently high levels to induce panic and the slumbering hikers after which the Siberian weather did the rest.

So it made them go crazy, they cut the wear of the tent and then they died, because they were stuck out in the cold with not having a tent anymore. Who knows, I don't claim to understand the science behind that, but according to numerous scientists, it is possible. Carmen Vortex Street, what a strange phenomena I had never heard of before. Then there's the avalanche theory, you know, but this one doesn't hold much weight with me because the mountain they run wasn't that tall and it wasn't that steep. While some mountaineers have said it's possible this could have happened and caused the hikers, you know, to want to get out of the tent immediately, which, you know, gives reason to cut the way out of the tent. Various experts have shot this one down

as being very highly unlikely to have happened where they were and when they were there based on the historical kind of weather conditions, various geological factors of the time that these kids were there. So I'm going to say no on this one from everything I saw. And once they got out, there's just no evidence that they continue to run around. Panicking as they may have if there had been an avalanche, so probably not. And then there's a theory that the Monzi killed them since there were no prison breakouts from the local corrective labor colony, local gulags, the next in line to be suspects for the, for, you know, were the indigenous

Monzi people lived in the area. Now Monzi had been in this area where the bodies were found around the time of the hikers dying, so it is possible they could have done it. Monzi knew the area, definitely had the skills to hide their ski tracks and hunt the hikers into the woods. Monzi are proud and secluded people who consider those mountains, their sacred hunting grounds. There is a chance a verbal confrontation broke out between some Monzi and the hikers could have escalated and turned physical. However, again, why why would the hikers cut their way out

of the tent in that situation? And why didn't they, you know, more of them have obvious wounds from being attacked with the blunt instrument or a sharp one or a gun. I doubt it was the Monzi. And the Monzi, the 20th century, have no reputation for doing anything like that at all. Very unlikely. This theory really only exists because the Monzi and the Monzi in the 20th century have no reputation for doing anything like that at all very unlikely This theory really only exists because the Monzi happened to be the closest people to the hikers when they died There's a theory that the revolves around shrooms the psychedelic mushrooms. I guess a strain of them grow in that area and can be found even under The snow in the winter and there's a theory that either the hikers found some a too much and went kind of crazy

Just fucking went but Anna's cut their way out and you know ended up down trying to start fires instead of staying in the winter and there's a theory that either the hikers found some a too much and went kind of crazy. Just fucking went bananas and cut their way out and you know ended up down trying to start fires instead of staying in the tent or that the monzi who did hunt these mushrooms for spiritual purposes came across the hikers and a fight ensued because of the shrooms. Again, this seems like a real stretch. The monzi part seems like a stretch. I will say being on having been on psychedelics, this theory makes a little more sense than the other ones I'd come across previous to this point in the episode.

But again, highly doubt it, highly, highly doubt it. It'd be super weird for all nine hikers to have the same bad trip, if that's what happened to them. There's paradoxical undressing, this theory, which paradoxical undressing is a term for a phenomenon frequently seen in cases of lethal hypothermia, shortly before death, the person will remove all their clothes as if they were burning hot when in fact they are freezing.

It's also known as cold stupid. This could explain why many of the members were in various states of dress. However, it doesn't explain again why they cut their way out of the tent in the first place. And while this could add to their death in the final moment, in their final moments, it doesn't explain to them, like the other injuries, why they broke out from different groups once they went down there.

It just is part of the explanation of their final moments and why they were dressed the way they were. And there's a ton of other gibberish theories as well, like the nefarious scientists, you know, teleporting there and attacking the hikers, not kidding. There's a theory that massive ball lightning strikes scared the hikers into running for the tree line. But if that's true, why would you carry around the tent? Why not just open, you know, go out the open den and just walk out, especially a footprint from the site showed that people were walking out running.

There's weird KGB kind of theories, even some CIA stuff, like there was some secret CIA based there of Americans hiding out, doing some cold warship, and the Americans killed them, or the KGB thought they were doing something with the Americans and they killed them.

I mean, just kind of nonsense stuff. And there's other ones I know that some listeners have sent in, based on various movies and stuff, but they just didn't seem credible to me. The ones that I came across. I did find one that I think could be it. I think this could be the explanation. Sorry to say it's not very sexy. And it involves that stove that Diathlon made. His homemade stove and it involves a smoke filled tent. Now a very clever Swedish vlogger who goes by Lemino put together a great YouTube video

explanation of this mystery and he thinks the entire incident is a result of a fire in the tent and was started by Diattlof's homemade tent. So he's very convincing. I tend to believe him and here's his summation. This is in his own words, why would they leave the tent? I would argue that the only thing that could make them leave would have to be an immediate threat inside the tent. If something was outside such as an animal or a UFO, then there would be no reason to cut the tent open. There were no signs of an avalanche, however, they could have escaped believing an avalanche was tumbling towards them. The problem with that theory is that the footprints showed them walking in a calm and orderly manner

down the slope as opposed to running away in panic. So something caused them to panic inside the tent but once outside they calmed down and made a conscious decision to walk down the slope. Their external stove was a completely unique and homemade design as the leader of the group had built the stove himself. We know that they had used the stove on the leader of the group had built the stove himself. We know that they had used the stove on the night of the incident before the incident took place as partially eaten pieces of fried ham and bacon were found inside the tent. I think that after disassembling the stove and removing the exhaust pipe, the embers inside

the stove were accidentally re-ignited. As the exhaust pipe had been removed, the smoke would have filled the tent in seconds. As they attempted to get control of the flame, they cut a few holes at the top of the tent to vent the smoke. When that didn't work and it became increasingly difficult to breathe, the side of the tent was slashed open, and they all escaped in a state of panic. The burn marks on the bodies and the clothing could have been from the scalding hot metal stove. Several members of the group were found with blood around their mouth and coughing up blood could be a symptom of smoke inhalation. Some of them were intoxicated, which would have affected their judgment as well as their sensibility to the cold. Lending credence to this possibility is a photo taken of Alexander Kolotov, the day before he died wearing a severely burnt jacket.

Alexander Kolotov the day before he died wearing a severely burnt jacket. Now did he burn it on the stove the day before? There is a diary mentioned that the first night they camped and set up the tent to stope presented some problems when they made their fire. Now Igor didn't buy this thing. Again, he built it. Now it's for the other kind of like violent injuries. Here's what I think. I'm adding onto Lemunos theory here.

I think, you know, let's say the stove does start a fire and they have to slash the way out of the tent. And these are experienced hikers, right? Like there is no choice. They're like, they're dying from smoke inhalation. They slash their way out, they run out, they get outside, the smoke is no longer, you know, threatening them.

So that's why they're not continuing to run once they're outside. Then they're like, fuck, what do we do now? These people are smart enough. No, they can't go back in the tent, but they can't just wait for very long because they're going to die of hypothermia. They got no shoes. They just made it out as fast they could.

So then they take a march down the hill to the trees below, where they ended up where the bodies were found in that area. And think like, okay, let's start a fire. And then maybe when they get down there, tensions flare, all right? They're pissed off. Somebody messed up when they were dissembling that stove. Deatlove, he's one of the guys that had some bruised on his knuckles. It was his stove. And then the other guy was rustic. So maybe rustic took some cracks on him. He hits the ego a a few times Igor fights back

Ristic had that school fracture. Maybe you know, he go gets him with a good punch or you know It's him with a rock or something and crashed his skull and now remember some of the other people had violent injuries to them Well, maybe the fight just you know continue to go and maybe there was something a branch or something You know swung into somebody's rib cage or maybe another fight broke out later as they were panicking and they're dying and you know, they're angry about it. I don't know. It's for the alcohol he mentioned. I'm not sure what Lemino is talking about there. I did not find that mentioned any kind of toxicology report, but you don't need and the eyes? Well, I mean, I think some scavenger animals could have pecked their eyes out of it, as others have said, could have eaten the tongue, soft tissue of the face, the eyes. Why did Russia close the investigation quickly? And give it the vague conclusion that they died from natural compelling force?

Well, because, you know, there's no witnesses. They didn't know exactly how everyone died. You know, because the frozen bodies and stuff, it was probably tricky to kind of put the crime scene together and because it doesn't look like any outside people did it, there wasn't strong incentive to spend a lot of time and money to find out exactly what happened. It was like, you know, kind of like, yeah, we don't know. Something got fucked up with the tent and they panicked

and some injuries happened in the diet. Or, or, I mean, I don't know, maybe they really were covering something up. I also have to allow for that possibility. You know, maybe there were orders from up on high to kind of shut it down. I mean, there is a lot of agreement among researchers that whatever happened, there was a government coverup

of some kind. And these are people who have spent much more time than a week like I have on the Diathlon Pass. So I don't know, if you want to know more, the book, Mountain of the Dead, the Diathlon Pass incident by Keith McGloxley, he lays out various possibilities in tons of detail, way too much detail for me to put it here. And again, after doing all his research, far more than I could do in a week, even if I worked 24 hours a day, he also came to the conclusion that it was a military accident.

That it was a cover-up, that's why the government shut it down. He actually thinks specifically it was a micro-biological warfare accident, possibly and probably anthrax. Apparently, the evidence was uncovered after the fall of Soviet Union that there was a massive biological warfare project going on, and mistakes were made. There had been some accidents concerning the development of an aerosol anthrax weapon intended for warheads attached to missiles that would detonate over American or some other enemy cities and kill hundreds of thousands of not-millions. During the testing of this weapon on at least one occasion, some of this anthrax was accidentally released into the countryside near

Svidlowsk and people died and there was a huge cover up. And you know, key things that the you know, the deatloff past situation could have been another one of those mistakes. But again, that doesn't explain the violent trauma injuries. I mean, the more you look at this stuff, the more confusing it is. So maybe it was a military cover up, maybe it was a fire followed by some fighting, maybe UFOs, fuck it, you know, maybe it was the last great rampage of the Russian Yeti. You know, and again, it could have been a combination of a few of these things. It could have been the fire. They, you know, forced them out. They could have

got out. And then they could have been the victim of some, you know, military mishap or a military mishap could have pushed them out of the tent. And then once they got out of the tent, maybe some wild animal attack them. Maybe the monzi did attack them. It's, we'll never know. We'll never know for sure. The only thing that we will know for sure is that we're going to look back once more

with some top five takeaways. Time, suck, top five takeaways. Number one, in the evening of February 1st, 1959, something went terribly, terribly wrong for nine hikers in a remote frozen region of the Ural Mountains. Hypothermia, head injuries, and internal bleeding left nine students dead, and a ton of questions were still looking for answers to.

Number two, the final report on the Dallof incident by the government officials in Russia concluded that the incident was not a man-made disaster. That could be interpreted in so many ways, especially coupled with the autopsy conclusion that the hikers died as a result of an unknown compelling force. Number three, the hikers died on a mountain, the local indigenous people of the area of the Monzi had named the mountain of the dead. Maybe if you're planning to hike, don't plan one heading towards the mountain of the dead. Number four, to me, the most disturbing piece of the puzzle is the fact that the hikers cut their way out of the tent, their only shelter in the middle of the night in the dead

of winter. However, they died, there's a good chance to involve an element of extreme panic in terror. Number five, new info, the Lair of the Golden Woman. The Golden Woman, or Zola Taya Baba, is a legendary idol, an alleged item of worship of the indigenous people of Northwestern Siberia. It's served as an oracle, and legend for Monzi Priest, and appears on on 1569 AD map of the region.

The layer of this idol was rumored to be near where the party died and mythology holds that ancient ancestors of the Monzi guard the layer and guard the idol with lethal force. And some think these guardians had the power to basically attack with some kind of form of directed energy, like that investigator described, which could explain the strange internal wounds of some of the group's members. So that's just that this is something that's out there, not something that I necessarily

believe, but it's something that's out there. So maybe it was the golden woman and maybe the golden woman is Lucaphina herself. Lucaphina before she fucked with the suck. It was fuck with those poor Russian hikers. Damn, you Luce of Fina be gone. And that's it for today's Top 5 Takeaways. Time, suck, top 5 Takeaway. So that was the Deat Love Pass incident.

That was a fun one for me to research. Hope it was a fun one for you to hear. Special thanks to Time, suckers, Cree Lucas, Dane Enick, Charles Ferguson, Andy Somerlin, Phil, Calwell, At OG, Bulgogi on Instagram, and anyone else I missed for suggesting today's topic. I love an interesting mystery. Thanks to Sydney Shives for managing the time-soaked emails and social media as always dependable as shit that one. Big thanks to Jesse Dobner for editing this episode. So thorough, so fast. Hit him up at jessedobneratoutlook.com. J-E-S-S-E-D-O-B-N-E-R-atoutlook.com.

For any editing work you need, he is fantastic. And now let's talk about safe passage. My wife, Lindsay, works with safe passage in Cordell and Idaho. And what safe passage does is it takes victims of domestic violence. And it beats him further. It's fucked up. That's what my wife is in do, and I'm trying to support her and not judge, you know?

That's how, I don't know. No, of course not. That would be the worst. That would be the absolute worst. The people of safe passage work tirelessly to help families in difficult situations, such as ones involving domestic violence and help them get to a safe place.

For those of you who have ever been in an abusive relationship, you know how crucial this kind of work is. As part of their efforts to help these families, Lindsay is working on the giving tree for Christmas this year. She's collecting donations of wrapping paper, tissue paper, greeting cards, present tags, bows, ribbons, scissors, tape, anything else you can think of for gift wrapping. You can drop off donations between now and December 9th at the Windermere Realty Office in Post Falls, Idaho, every little bit counts. So again, physical donations can be brought to the office, mailed to 1616 East, Celta's Way, Post Falls, Idaho, 83814, or you can email Lindsey at L-Y-N-Z-E

at W-I-N-D-E-R-M-E-R-E dot com. Lindsay at Windomere dot com. Uh, okay. Morbidly excited for next Friday's Suck Already Unit 731. Most of us have heard about the horrible experiments on humans, uh, that the Nazis did under Dr. Joseph Mangle, uh, but the Nazis weren't alone in conducting cruel experiments on humans. One of the lesser known atrocities of the 20th century was committed by the Imperial Japanese armies unit 731. Some of the details of this unit's activities are still uncovered. They destroyed

a lot of evidence. For 40 years, the horrific activities of Unit 731 remained one of the most closely guarded secrets of World War II. It was not until 1984 that Japan acknowledged what it had long denied, vile experiments on humans conducted by the unit in preparation for germ warfare. Deliberately infected with the plague, anthrax, cholera, other pathogens were an estimated 3,000 enemy soldiers and civilians who were being used as guinea pigs. Some of the more horrific experiments

included vivisection without anesthesia and pressure chambers to see how much a human could take before their eyes literally popped out of their heads. Yeah, not gonna be for the faint of heart, the week of stomach. And it's coming right at your ass for the day after Thanksgiving, which I think is so fucked up. Friday at noon, Pacific daylight time. But you know what, that's what Nimrod demands.

The will of the will of the coast, the curious demands. It's the demands of dark black frights. It's gonna be a real black friday on the suck. All right, so let's check in with the polls of the colds, the curious now with some time sucker updates. The first one comes in from time sucker and future space lizard, Travis Lang. Travis wrote in saying, dear Dan, the sucking man, I'm an

awesome guy. I'm a super cool guy. I'm a super cool guy. I'm a super cool guy. I'm a super cool guy. I'm a super cool guy. I'm a super cool guy. I'm a super cool guy. All right, first awesome chief crazy horse updates from last week. The first one comes in from time sucker and future space lizard Travis Lang Travis wrote in saying dear Dan the second man. I'm an almost 23 year old Nissan on my do man out of Auburn, California. I work for a nonprofit organization helping the local native community with drug and alcohol addiction and mental health Challenges as well as teaching cultural practices. So it's cool to hear a native topic on time suck. I've been a fan of your comedy and been listening to time suck since the beginning episodes, and I appreciate the mix of raunchy dark humor and compassion that you bring

to the topics that are covered. I love the crazy horse topic, and I hope to see more native topics in the future. Not a lot of people think about the fact that native people are still alive and well, and a lot of us still carry as much of the old ways as we can. I don't want to write too much and be annoying, but I feel like there is much discussion on Native peoples left to cover and not only the struggles of our past and present, but the resilience and humor of our communities. Anyways, I hope you come to Northern Cali and you're travels because I would love to see you live from a future space lizard and current sucked crazed red skin.

Love it, Travis. Love that you still carry on your ancient and sacred traditions. It's a beautiful thing, man. Cherish that sense of community that runs centuries deep. And I will see you in Northern Cali. I'll be there again next year coming back to San Francisco punchline. Okay. Next one is another crazy horse update update from sucker extort nair Dan Sparks Dan writes hey Dan

I've been a big fan of your comedy for years now and recently became a listener of time suck and it is quite frankly one of the best decisions I've made Very low bar, but still I happen to listen to the chief crazy horse suck right after my sports law class We talked about the use of American Indian mascots and sports and thought you might be interested by what I learned You mentioned the black horse court case and how they found in favor of the redskins, as far as washing redskins. In our class, we covered a 2015 appeal of that Black Horse case to court and the court ruled in favor of the American Indians.

They said that the use of the term redskins may have disparaged American Indians so the redskins couldn't trademark the name and logo. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court recently said in his unconstitutional to not trademark something just because it may be disparaging. So basically now the Redskins, Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves can all use the offensive mascots and imagery of their choosing.

It is crazy to me that these mascot and team names can be used even though some of them are basically caricatures of American Indians. Just thought you might be interested in this, keep up the awesome podcast comedy and keep on sucking. Yeah, it is crazy, Dan. It is. I have first-hand experience with this kind of crazy.

I graduated, you know, back in Riggins, Idaho from San River High School, and our mascot is San River Savage. Or, you know, the savages. Our mascot, at least when I went there, I even checked what the visual is nowadays. But when I was there, I graduated way back in 1995 and our mascot was a wild-eyed American Indian on horseback, Tomahawk and hand, looking like he was about to scalp.

And if you don't think that's offensive, picture a wild-eyed African trivesment with a bone through his nose and a spear in his hand. Now does it seem a little offensive? Picture a mascot called the kamikaze and it's a super slanty eye Japanese fighter pilot getting ready to crash. Think that might be a little offensive? Yes. It's super offensive to have the fucking savage getting ready to do some Tomahawk chop and it's fucked up.

We're becoming more empathetic to unintentionally disparaging every other culture. It's like for some reason, you know, American Indians don't count. I guess, I don't know. Is there not enough of them to be taken seriously or something? It's just a bummer. It's just a bummer. It really, really is.

You know, because those other, you know, the kamikaze, the tribesmen, those wouldn't be allowed for people who would lose their goddamn minds. If one of those was on a professional sports franchise, but somehow it's okay when it's American Indians. I don't know. Another chief crazy horse update from sucker Whitney Gaines, One of those was on a professional sports franchise, but somehow it's okay when it's American Indians. Another chief crazy horse update from sucker Whitney Gaines, Whitney wrote an email to bowjanglesatimesuckpodcast.com titled Not Fun Facts, and this is what was inside.

Dear honorableable jangleservants, Dan Sucks, for the third. After listening to the chief crazy horse episode, I wanted to share some fucked up little known about American history as it relates to American Indians. Number one, the United States has signed over 400 treaties with American Indian nations and has broken every single one of them. Good going, assholes. Number two, the United States didn't ratify the genocide convention for 40 years after

it was adopted in 1948 for the main reason that the government didn't want to be held accountable and sued for its genocide of American Indians. So that's fun. The only ratified it because they included reservations where no group can bring a suit in the international community against the US without consent of the US government. So never. And he did point out the irony of using the term reservations. Sometimes our history is disgusting. Thanks for the great episode and keep on sucking Whitney Gaines. Wow, thanks Whitney. It is funny how the US will rail against four nations for cultural genocide abroad, you know, as it should,

but then ignore its own sins. You know, it's like I've said before with my standard, I do think we're the best nation of the world, the United States, but that doesn't necessarily me who are a great nation. We can be so much better. Okay, this one from a sucker-skiler, Stuart's, dear Profit of Nimrod,

I've been a fan of your comedy for years in a loyal listener of Time Sucks that you had a show into Coma Washington last year. I'm writing this to let you know how refreshing it is that a white man who grew up in rural Idaho can have progressive ideas on the social issues that are so relevant in the world today. I just finished listening to the Crazy Horse episode and it was really cool to hear how you took the

time to make sure you were using the proper term for American Indians as not to offend anyone. I always thought Native American too, so I learned something new. This coming just hours after I was playing Xbox, where racial and homophobic slurs are thrown around left and right and I was losing faith in humanity. It shows how you countless hours to to get every episode just right And this is why I can't wait to become a space lizard keep sucking me great on my commute your loyal sucky Skiner well, thanks God, I mean I try to do these episodes It's funny man. Everyone I do as I'm doing it though I think like god dang it. I wish I would have done that better. I wish I would have done this better

But I do I do put a lot of effort. I will say that These episodes may not always come out the way I I want them not better. I was told it on this better. But I do, I do put a lot of effort. I will say that. These episodes may not always come out the way I want them. I struggle over everything I say. But if they do fail to be entertaining, it is not from lack of effort. And by the way, I'm not trying to be a social justice warrior or a curry favor from anyone with these things too. Not trying to jerk anybody off for points for being progressive or whatever. I do like, you know, that you said that. I'm just trying to not be a dick is what has come to is I've gotten older. I'm just trying not to be a dick in a world full of so much dick. Just so many assholes.

I'm just trying not to be one of them. That's all. Trying not to march alongside them in the herd of the human dick parade. Glad so many of you guys are doing the same. It feels good to know, you know, I'm a long ways from being alone. You guys are the fucking best man. I feel like that's one thing I've noticed

about time suckers in general. We're all just trying. You know, we're just trying to be better. And that's all you can ask. That's all you can do in life. I think that's the best thing to do. Just, you know, just try to be better You know make it fun. Don't don't look like a bummer like oh fuck was no good enough. No man. It's never good enough

Trying to improve don't kill yourself don't beat yourself up. Don't beat yourself down You know, but yeah make it fun make it fun to learn some new stuff make it fun to evolve make it fun fund to become a better human being as the age and set it just some old grumpy fuck. I'll probably have the grumpy part, I don't know, but hopefully I won't be a dickhead. Anyway, last update really quick when this just came in right before I recorded from Hannah, Weatherwax. Hannah just let me know that Charles Manson topic of time, suck episode 18 just died. My wife also let me know that moments before Hannah's email came through. Yeah, man. The cold leader, the brains, if you can call them that, behind the man's and family murders died yesterday, November 19th at the age of 83 of natural causes. He had been in custody

for over 45 years and spent most of his life before his final incarceration stretch, also incarcerated. And you know what, whatever freedom that dude was given, more than he deserved. Dude was a monster and I'm glad he's dead. Yeah, straight up. Dude manipulated people right up until the very ending. He was never repentant for the horrific shit he did. So, fuck him. You know, he killed those poor innocent people because of, because what? Because he wanted a record deal. That's a sad, pathetic underlying truth. Because he wanted a record deal. That's a sad, pathetic, underlying truth. Because he wanted a record deal that he couldn't get through Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys.

Nobody wanted his shitty music. And so he just turned on the world and had people who were better than him killed. He was a misogynistic, fucking lunatic. So good night, Charlie. Rest in stress. Next time, suckers, I need a net. We all did. And that's all for today's show.

Have a wonderful week. Please buy those Detroit tickets soon if you're gonna buy them. Stop by, see my wife at Windomir. If you're in the Corde lane or Post Falls area. Now drop off that stuff for safe passage. Don't go on a cold, rugged winter hike to a place called the Mountain of the Dead, or to a place called Sodomized by demons Valley, or to a place called Hold You Down and Rub Sandpaper on your private creek.

And keep on sucking. Oh!