Theories Discussion > Avalanche
Avalanche Theory for Dyatlov Pass Incident is Bolstered by New Study
GlennM:
If nine people are in a tent which is compressed by even a modest amount of snow, the collapsed portion creates an immediate suffocation hazard. There need not be any additional injuries. Clearing the tent and keeping warm are the most important concerns. It would be better to evacuate the area, get a fire going and return later to patch up and reorganize the camp. Firewood was only found in the woods below. The nine hikers did the right thing by getting off the slope. They had no control of wind, temperature and lighting. These ,they misjudged. It may well have been that instead of following Igor's lead, they started to do things by majority rule, then individual determination. Cold dulls the senses and lack of warmth and food makes it worse.
Squatch:
--- Quote from: GlennM on March 15, 2022, 08:05:28 PM ---If nine people are in a tent which is compressed by even a modest amount of snow, the collapsed portion creates an immediate suffocation hazard. There need not be any additional injuries. Clearing the tent and keeping warm are the most important concerns. It would be better to evacuate the area, get a fire going and return later to patch up and reorganize the camp. Firewood was only found in the woods below. The nine hikers did the right thing by getting off the slope. They had no control of wind, temperature and lighting. These ,they misjudged. It may well have been that instead of following Igor's lead, they started to do things by majority rule, then individual determination. Cold dulls the senses and lack of warmth and food makes it worse.
--- End quote ---
I agree.
I have posted here before that I support some sort of avalanche theory when all nine hikers were in their tent. I thought some of the slits in the tent were meant for communication between hikers in the tent and two outside, but now I think differently.
I now think the simplest of all things happened. This view is not popular because of the emotions people have around nine youthful hikers dying a horrible death. It just doesn't seem fair, and it wasn't.
But the explanation that makes the most sense for me is: There was no Yeti, no UFO, no Soviet military testing or anything else. The hikers were trying to pass the final test to become top level hikers. So they put themselves into a position that was potentially dangerous to prove this. That is why they took the time to document this in pictures and diaries. There were no iPhones or Internet back then (But imagine if there was... we would probably have enough evidence to solve this mystery!).
They did not anticipate that cutting into the mountainside's ice and snow would pose a danger. But in the night the weather got really bad with high winds and bad blizzard conditions. The slope where they were at was initially thought to be 15 degrees, far below the 30 degrees needed for an avalanche. But the location of the tent was more likely 28 degrees due to an error the first investigators made when recording the tent's location. Combine that with very high winds and blizzard conditions, and the cut mountainside for their tent gave way and heavy snow spilled onto the top of their tent. In a panic they cut their way out of it.
Because it was dark and very windy with blizzard conditions, they must have thought that a bigger avalanche was imminent. So they went down the mountain slope to the nearest tree and made a fire. Two of the hikers died from exposure. Three of the hikers decided to take their chances and go back to the tent in the hope that there had been no further avalanche, while four made a den in a ravine. But the den would not be enough to survive... they needed a fire or maybe they changed their minds and decided to follow the three going back to the tent. So they go out to get fuel for the fire or head back to the tent, and walk across an area near where they made the den not realizing that they are going over a steeper part of the ravine covered with snow which is hardened on the top. But the weight of all four of them collapses the top portion of the snow and they fall through a "snow cave" where there is not a lot of snow underneath where they are walking, possibly due to internal melting by the flowing river below. This accounts for the serious injuries to three of the four hikers. The least injured hiker is hugging one of the other hikers when this happens, probably in an effort to prevent him from falling through the breaking snow/ice cover they are walking on. The hiker he is on top of absorbs all the impact of the fall. But they all die from injury and/or hypothermia regardless.
This sequence of events makes sense to me. The UFO sighted by others in the region is coincidental. The "Yeti" photo is a prank photo taken by the hikers to be part of a joke newsletter they are working on. The radiation on two of the hikers is because the clothing was contaminated at a workplace that worked with radioactive material. The missing eyes and tongue on the hikers is because the place they landed on is a stronger flowing river in May when they are found and it is the result of decomposition by bacteria.
This is my final opinion on this tragic event. It makes sense to me. It satisfies Occam's razor.
Sunny:
Theres not enough snow to create an avalanche in my opinion
Marchesk:
--- Quote from: GlennM on March 15, 2022, 08:05:28 PM ---It would be better to evacuate the area, get a fire going and return later to patch up and reorganize the camp. Firewood was only found in the woods below. The nine hikers did the right thing by getting off the slope.
--- End quote ---
The right thing would have been to stay at the tent. It didn't blow away or get swept down the mountain. The second best thing would have been to take a few minutes to gather up warm clothing and shoes for the hike down the mountain, instead of risking hypothermia in the dark on unfamiliar terrain, hoping they can get a fire going and shelter built after being exposed to the cold. Going back to the tent later was suicide.
Marchesk:
--- Quote from: Squatch on March 16, 2022, 07:26:39 PM ---I now think the simplest of all things happened. This view is not popular because of the emotions people have around nine youthful hikers dying a horrible death. It just doesn't seem fair, and it wasn't.
--- End quote ---
It's not because of emotions. It's because the simplest explanations don't explain enough of the details of the case, and involve some contradictions. I'm not sure any theory does, but the tree fall one and staging of the tent up the slope to cover up the accident that Teddy's book puts forward comes close.
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