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

As the search for the missing hikers begins, so does a criminal investigation into the incident. Researchers reconstruct the hikers’ intended route, which took them through a small Mansi village. Confusing the Dyatlov group with another set of hikers, the Mansi people tell investigators that the Dyatlov group passed through their village on February 4, when in fact they visited several days earlier. Several Mansi individuals agree to join the search party, as they have excellent knowledge of the area. Also in the search party are fellow members of the university’s hiking club, who are friends with the missing hikers. After several days, the search party finds the tent.

Eichar’s first trip to Russia did not answer many of his questions. Before he left, Kuntsevich gave him hundreds of pages of information about the Dyatlov incident that Eichar then had translated into English. After more than a year of independent research, Eichar decides that he has to go back to Russia and embark on the same challenging journey as the hikers undertook to see what the expedition was really like. Kuntsevich agrees to host him again and to try to put him in touch with Yuri Yudin. Eichar puts together a winter hiking wardrobe. He now has a one-year-old son, Dashiel, who was born on February 1—the same day the hikers died. Eichar flies to Moscow, having disguised all the Dyatlov files on his laptop to avoid suspicion. On a layover, he meets a researcher named Vladimir Borzenkov. Borzenkov gives him extensive information about the Dyatlov group, but because of the language barrier, Eichar struggles to understand him. He flies to Yekaterinburg, arriving at three in the morning. When he reaches Kuntsevich’s apartment, Yuri Yudin is there.

Yudin does not really understand why Eichar is so interested in a Russian mystery about which so much has already been written. They discuss the political climate of the USSR in 1959. Men and women were considered equal in abilities and in the workplace. Yudin came from a poor background, and his health was never good. Hiking gave him a sense of purpose. After the Dyatlov incident, Yudin completed degrees in geology and economics, which led him to a long career at a magnesium plant. The men discuss their upcoming trip to the Urals, and Kuntsevich notes that the weather will make things very dangerous. Eichar becomes increasingly paranoid when he learns that the car that drove him back from the airport had been deliberately damaged, possibly as a message from the government to stop investigating the Dyatlov incident. Kuntsevich does nothing to lessen Eichar’s paranoia, as he also believes they may be in danger.

The hikers arrive at their next stop, the town of Ivdel, during the night. They rest in the train station before boarding a tiny bus where they have to share seats so that everyone can fit. After a brief stop, the hikers realize that one of them, Kolevatov, is missing. He did not make it back onto the bus, so he has been sprinting down the road to catch up. The hikers ask the bus to pull over, and Kolevatov makes it aboard.

In 2012, Yudin wonders whether Kolevatov might have survived if he had not caught up with the bus, or if a delay for the entire group might have saved everyone.

In 1959, the bus arrives in Vizhay, a remote town, in the early afternoon. The Dyatlov hikers socialize with young workers there. Zina makes waterproof boot covers in anticipation of bad weather.

The searchers who find the tent hope that the absence of bodies means that their friends might still be alive. They take from the tent any items that might help the search. Many more searchers soon arrive to examine the area more closely and to look for the hikers. They find several sets of footprints at varying distances from the tent, some of which appear to have been made by people not wearing shoes. They also find a cedar tree with branches that have been cut and burned; at the base of the tree are the remains of a rudimentary fire. When the rescuers dig through the snow, they find two dead bodies lying side by side. They are wearing few clothes: no jackets, pants, or shoes. Some of their clothes appear to have been cut away. There is damage to the face of one of the bodies, probably from animal scavenging. Search party members are able to identify the two bodies as Georgy and Doroshenko.