Theories Discussion > General Discussion

Poisoned while up a mountain - what do you do?

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eurocentric:

--- Quote from: Manti on February 05, 2023, 01:36:41 AM ---If it was something waterbourne: Didn't the searchers drink from the same source? Yet there were no reports of them getting sick.

It might be that the contamination was temporary and cleared up by the time the search began but how likely is that? Another possibility that I have been considering lately is that we have the locations off... Maybe the cedar was in the next valley. And the searchers in fact camped in the Lozva valley, I made this rudimentary map to explain:



Perhaps.... the "cedar" was actually in the valley of the 3rd tributary of Lozva. And the searchers actually camped in the valley of the 4th tributary, that is more commonly believed to be where the cedar was. Why? Teddy found a pipe that was most likely used as the chimney of the searchers' tent... in valley 4 of Lozba, not the Auspiya valley.

So it might be that the Dyatlov group drank from the contaminated Auspiya, but the searchers drank from the clean Lozva?
If if was foodbourne: Wasn't the food found in their cache eaten by the searchers? Again no reports of any ill effect. But maybe only 1 tin was contaminated that the Dyatlovites took with them on their way to Otorten and the rest was fine?

--- End quote ---


I considered how the rescuers ate the cache contents, but that had included no bread rusks, and only some loin (I think 4 or 5kgs), which if shared among a much larger number of men, who at the time were low on provisions so telegrams were going out pleading for food being sent, then the effect of the toxin would be suvivable, though it may affect their performance, memory and mood in the way I've suggested lower doses may have affected the hikers in the days before death, as potentially evidenced in the diaries.

I looked for evidence of any of them feeling ill, but all I could find was exhaustion and urgent telegrams being sent asking for replacements, which could be the effects of a toxin, or simply how arduous were the conditions, even more so with underfed men. Toxins will make people tire, and if strychnine it lowers blood oxygen levels, making everything gruelling.

I like your suggestion of the rescuers using a different water source to the Dyatlovs. Maybe also they didn't use the rivers, only streams, or because they would have a campfire on the go melted snow, which I know is what I'd prefer to do, plus it requires less go-fetch effort, but the Dyatlovs may have risked it with the river, or minus a campfire they had no means of sterilising it. The Blinovs, it seems, were 80kms West of the Dyatlovs when they died so wouldn't be drinking from the same sources.

Because of the climate of ill health around there, the Mansi hunters, their deer, I lean towards the toxin being waterborne, but it then becomes impossible to work out what it could have been, or a combination of a number of things, but still have to consider the lightweight convenience foods, bread and dried meat, they took with them up 1079 which was found abandoned on the tent floor.
 
If it was the food, and strychnine was consumed previously in lower doses, I could even suggest that because of its effects on muscles and nerves, that Yuri Yudin's sciatica flared up the morning after he'd likely eaten his first dose of dried loin and bread rusks at Second Northern, although a trip in a cold truck prior to his skiing and a night on a hard floor would equally do the trick. Then, after he removes himself from further ingestion, he survives, as does Uncle Slava.

Focusing on the water possibly strengthens the idea the hikers headed down 1079 to find a water source, a meltwater stream, they felt they could trust, and a number of them had overloaded bladders at autopsy which while it may have other medical explanations can also, obviously, be the result of consumption. The autopsies suggest they died within 6 hours of a meal.

Also, if the river was the source, then possibly the higher they got up the river the more concentrated or localised any pollution, natural or manmade, became as the water levels thinned towards its source.

GlennM:
Reconstruction of the general form of the tent with the stuff inside on their places the way they were found. Not to clutter the scheme are omitted hikers 9 backpacks lying on the floor, 9 blankets (2 spread and 7 crumpled) and jackets. For a scale is shown a man with the size of Yuri Doroshenko (height - 180 cm, shoulders - 55 cm).

to the left of the entrance, this is where almost all the footwear of the hikers was piled up - 7 felt boots (valenki) and 6 pair of boots
to the right of the entrance, household inventory - 2 buckets, flask with alcohol, 2 large axes, 1 small ax, cooking pots, rasp in its sheath, suspended stove, bags of biscuits, as well as a piece of loin approx. 3 kg
in the center of the tent to the right of the entrance were found 2 pair of shoes
in the far part of the tent where stored the food - cereals, cans, sugar, and wood for the stove
This scheme depicts the state of the groups last minutes quiet routine. Everything seems orderly and normal except the pile of shoes in area A. Even if there some shoes there left for the night the chaos of the footwear piled on top is uncharacteristic for the scene.

The following shows the construction of Dyatlov's group tent:
loop at the top of the tent for stretching ropes to avoid the sagging of the canvas
Dyatlov's group tent was made from two 4-person tents and this is the double seam that connects them
Igor Dyatlov created this suspended stove, on the drawing the chimney is assembled and the stove is showing suspended but the search party found them on the floor of the tent.

On March 3, 1959 at Ivdel airport all things from the location where the tent was found were spread out and protocoled: 9 parka, 8 quilted jackets (vatnik), 1 fur jacket, 2 fur sleeveless vests, 4 shell pants, 1 cotton pants, 4 Scarf, 13 pairs of gloves (fur, cloth and leather), 8 pairs of ski boots, 7 pcs boots (valenki), 2 pairs of slippers, 8 pairs of gaiters, 3 skating caps, 1 fur hat, 2 felt beret, 3 compass, 1 pocket watch, 2 Finnish knives (Tibo's and Krivo's) in their parkas, Kolevatov's Finnish knife in black leather sheath, 3 axes (2 large and 1 small in a leather case), 19 pcs overboots, 2 buckets, 2 pot, 2 flasks, 1 first aid kit. There was also a significant number of small items (socks, foot clothes, masks, toothbrushes) taken out of the backpacks, making it difficult to determine who did they belong to.

What I notice here is that between the initial inventory of the tent and the March 3 inventory, there is no food in the latter. We may assume the food was consumed by the rescuers. None were reported I'll from food poisoning.

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