Wonder if there’s no mystery at all. The hikers thought, and I emphasize thought, an avalanche was happening. Who wouldn’t be a bit paranoid? Stiff wind, blowing snow, nighttime – and inside a tent on a mountain slope. The hikers got out of the tent as quickly as possible, most of them with no coat, shoes, hat or gloves. Head for the forest and build a fire large enough to stay warm until morning. But that doesn’t work. So…they split into two groups (Yuri K. and Yuri D. are unable to walk). While one group of three starts back for the tent to retrieve warm clothes, the other four build a snow den. The three climbing the slope freeze to death. The other four had no way of knowing that part of their snow den was built over a tributary of a river. That part collapses and the four plunge onto rocks in the tributary, with two breaking ribs and a third fracturing his skull. As the weeks pass, their bodies are covered in many feet of snow. The weight of the snow exacerbates their injuries, breaking additional ribs and widening the skull fracture. Nine hikers fled the tent and nine hikers died from hypothermia or a sudden fall into a ravine and subsequent hypothermia or perhaps from the severity of their injuries.
Wonder if…
It would need a bit of refinement. They rush out of the tent, their footprints later covered by freshly fallen snow, and those found belonging to nosy Mansi/geologists/loggers who inspect the abandoned tent, and they couldn't find their way back to a partially submerged, snow-covered tent in the dark, even with torches, and only have a limited time they can spend doing so before heading to the forest at the mercy of the elements.
Maybe more than one snow den would need to be made, and perhaps it would have to be to eventually house 7 people, and this second one collapsed, because the one found appeared to be some distance away from the ravine, and the floor of 'seats' appeared intact.
I've always thought some of the chest fractures were caused after death. Unless the pathologist tested them all he could not say they all occurred before death, only that the small number he sampled, possibly singular, did so. With Semyon found laid on his right side it's easy to imagine how he may have sustained some injuries during a fall, perhaps when being skittled by the rising wind, and then subsequently the increasing weight of drifted and falling snow breaks additional ribs when pressing down on the floor of the ravine. But it could then be argued why didn't this happen to all four.
I've sometimes wondered if they heard cracking sounds across the slope as the mountain froze up again at night, but I am speculating that is even audible there, even when placing yourself inside a stethoscopic trench. But geologically it's clear that meltwater and moisture getting into fissures in rocks during the day splits them as they freeze at night, this explaining the screed of loose rock covering much of the mountain's surface and especially the peak, as seen in summer, and possibly making it more barren than most. If you were laid there and already anxious about the tent siting and then you hear noises in the dark you might be spooked enough to be out with your torches convinced something was about to happen.
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