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1. The original image is very blurred and it's difficult to make out any facial features.
2. The enhanced version is very pixelated and the human mind is programmed to pick out faces from noise
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Its certainly a CREATURE of some kind, Human or otherwise, with an HEAD and BODY and ARMS and HANDS and LEGS. That much is not Pareidolia, unless its a very unusual shaped Tree or other object, which is most unlikely.
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A clumsy pursuer who stupidly went too far.
You only have to look at photo N° 17, no needs of enhancing it, to think that it is a very ordinary human figure.
(https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Thibeaux-Brignolle-camera-film3-17.jpg)
Contrary to photos N° 13, 14, 15, 16, it is not a photo of Thibeaux-Brignolle himself who would have wanted to make a humorous or poetic photo (while satisfying his narcissism, add the mocking tongues).
a) If Thibeaux had wanted to keep an amusing souvenir of the mood of this day, he would have taken the time and trouble to focus it properly.
b) Photo N° 17 is the last of the roll. This photo was taken on January 30, or rather on January 31. At this moment the weather was getting worse, the progress of the hikers by climbing up in the deep snow was slowing down, it was necessary to think of building the cache (labaz), the serious things began. On January 31, it was no longer the time to play !
c) Everything indicates that it is a human being who was only visible for a very short time and then disappeared immediately.
(https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Krivonischenko-camera-film1-23.jpg)
d) The trace left by the 9 hikers is clearly visible and easy to follow. So it was a person who was following the hikers and who had caught up with the last of the line of hikers. The last in the line of hikers was Thibeaux who heard a faint noise and who turned around; then he only had time to press the shutter release of his camera.
The mention of the yeti, a psychological mechanism to reduce one's own anxiety.
When two unknown human beings meet, approach or cross paths in a deserted place (i.e. several days' walk or ski from an inhabited place) the instinct of the human species (since prehistoric times, it seems) is to spontaneously make a gesture, or take an attitude, that shows that one is not aggressive.
Something equivalent to "hello", "okay ?", "all right ?". Even if we don't speak the same language, we must be able to make people understand "I am peaceful".
(Note: this seems to be a general phenomenon as it has sometimes been observed between two enemy reconnaissance patrols that meet unexpectedly without fighting, but that's another story !!).
On the contrary, this silhouette hardly noticed disappeared at once. It is therefore both unusual and slightly disturbing. Moreover from the photo now developed (which the hikers did not have) we see that the attitude of the silhouette is compatible with that of a a lookout (watchman) who would prefer to stay hidden.
Instead of confessing this light concern, which was reasonable, the hikers preferred to reassure themselves with humor by writing:
"In recent years there has been a heated debate about the existence of Yeti. According to recent reports Yeti lives in Northen Urals, near Otorten mountains" (Leaflet Evening Otorten N°1).
(https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/gallery/Dyatlov-Pass-Evening-Otorten-english.jpg)
It is possible, but I am not sure of this, that it is because of this unforeseen and worrying appearance :
a) that Dyatlov, in agreement with the others, preferred to put the tent on the bare slope of the Kholat Syakhl, a location with good visibility, and not in the forest.
b) that Zolotariov, Kolevatov, and Thibeaux-Brignoles who had a better political background understood the threatening situation. During the attack on the evening of 1 February, they were the first to leave and hide away from the tent, taking Dubinina, who seemed to be the most threatened because of her proven Stalinist statements.
A material proof that strangely many people refuse to understand.
The attackers who had left North 2 on the morning of January 31 caught up with the hikers a little earlier than expected as the hikers had moved relatively very slowly.
(https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Krivonischenko-camera-film1-01.jpg)
Photo No. 17 is an important clue, almost a photographic material proof, that the leader of the attackers committed a tactical mistake because by letting himself be seen, he unwittingly alerted the hikers who were able to defend themselves better with their fists.
For me, it is almost obvious that the attackers were ex-zeks who were in principle free
Perhaps only 3 loggers from settlement 41 that looks big. Numerous others loggers did not want to appear in the photographs next to these communist propangandists who adulated Joseph Stalin...
(https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Krivonischenko-camera-film6-25.jpg)
Or rather ex-zeks of unknown nationality, but who in January 1959 were constrained to live in the Vizhay region. (An unfortunate consequence of the Khrushchev's thaw).
(https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Dyatlov-pass-Vizhay-20.jpg) (https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Dyatlov-pass-Vizhay-32.jpg) (https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Dyatlov-pass-Vizhay-41.jpg)
A material proof that strangely many people refuse to understand.
The attackers who had left North 2 on the morning of January 31 caught up with the hikers a little earlier than expected as the hikers had moved relatively very slowly.
(https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Krivonischenko-camera-film1-01.jpg)
Photo No. 17 is an important clue, almost a photographic material proof, that the leader of the attackers committed a tactical mistake because by letting himself be seen, he unwittingly alerted the hikers who were able to defend themselves better with their fists.
For me, it is almost obvious that the attackers were ex-zeks who were in principle free
Perhaps only 3 loggers from settlement 41 that looks big. Numerous others loggers did not want to appear in the photographs next to these communist propangandists who adulated Joseph Stalin...
Or rather ex-zeks of unknown nationality, but who in January 1959 were constrained to live in the Vizhay region. (An unfortunate consequence of the Khrushchev's thaw).
(https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Dyatlov-pass-Vizhay-20.jpg) (https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Dyatlov-pass-Vizhay-32.jpg) (https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/thumbs/Dyatlov-pass-Vizhay-41.jpg)
Hello,
I understand the "ex-zeke" hypothesis, but my opinion so far is that it does not fully account for the existent material evidence:
- if there was an attack by ex-zekes, why were both supply caches left undisturbed ? (the labaz and the supplies at the tent).
- if there was an attack by ex-zekes, what caused the injuries of Lyudmila Dubinina and Semyon Zolotaryov ? (the autopsy report mentioned they looked like hit by a car)
- if there was an attack by ex-zekes, why wasn't this story distributed by the state ? If that happened, there was no more need for the rocket theory or any other that were circulating in the given time frame.
- alas, if there was an attack by ex-zekes, how come there weren't any escapees found in the nearby work-camp (gulag) ? I understand that was one of the first places were the investigators looked.
Best,
............
I understand the "ex-zeke" hypothesis, but my opinion so far is that it does not fully account for the existent material evidence:
- if there was an attack by ex-zekes, why were both supply caches left undisturbed ? (the labaz and the supplies at the tent).
- if there was an attack by ex-zekes, what caused the injuries of Lyudmila Dubinina and Semyon Zolotaryov ? (the autopsy report mentioned they looked like hit by a car)
- if there was an attack by ex-zekes, why wasn't this story distributed by the state ? If that happened, there was no more need for the rocket theory or any other that were circulating in the given time frame.
- alas, if there was an attack by ex-zekes, how come there weren't any escapees found in the nearby work-camp (gulag) ? I understand that was one of the first places were the investigators looked
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••• why were both supply caches left undisturbed ?
---> For at least 3 reasons:
a) After the hard fighting they had fought on the night of February 1 to 2, the attackers were exhausted and perhaps even wounded.
They were in a hurry to go home (Vizhay? settlment 41?, I do not know) to recuperate and heal. They had no time to lose.
The hikers were athletic and hit hard. Look at the state of the fists of Kolmogorova, Slobodin...etc: they didn't punch in a vacuum.
b) The attackers were patriots from countries in conflict with the USSR. They were, or they considered themselves to be, fighters infiltrated into the heart of the enemy apparatus. The attackers put their honour in showing that they were not bandits or thieves. On the other hand, they demonstrated their victory in this small battle of 1 February 1959 by spectacular and symbolic profanations. That is to say, they managed to break ribs one by one and to tear out Dubinina's (viper's) tongue...
c) Khrushchev's policy from 1953, or 1956 (to go into details is complicated), was to improve the economy of the USSR. Also the workers were well fed (as far as possible). There was no need for the attackers to leave on the morning of February 2, weighing themselves down with the food of the hikers. They had enough to eat when they returned the next day (they were away for 2 nights and 3 days).
••• What caused the injuries of Lyudmila Dubinina and Semyon Zolotaryov ?
---> I am convinced by the arguments of Eduard Tumanov, see :
https://forum.dyatlovpass.com/index.php?topic=411.0
and by those of Per Inge Oestmoen, seek into :
https://forum.dyatlovpass.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=325
This old method is more than enough to explain all the injuries found on the bodies of the 9 hikers. Note that the blunt objects are made of wood and not of metal (except for Dubinina's tongue, which probably required a small pocket knife).
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QxAhrEiVR6Q/XO1P0CbKCaI/AAAAAAAAA7w/ssHvD8-g3mcHMf35Ds9mTq9nOXB3K5FWwCLcBGAs/s1600/Peasant%2BStaff%2B%2B%25285%2529.jpg)
This story of "spontaneous force that tourists were unable to overcome" and ghost vehicle is awkward propaganda to hide among others the insufficiency (and the ridicule) of the KGB whose mission was to protect the hikers.
••• why wasn't this story distributed by the state ?
---> I do not know what is occurring in the United States. In a nutshell, it may be that in Europe, and particularly in France, it is easier to access sources of information and texts by historians who explain different points of view. (One can easily read communist historians as well as capitalist historians)
••• there was no more need for the rocket theory or any other...
---> Yes ! Indeed there is really no need for the rocket theory or any other that were circulating in the given time frame....
••• how come there weren't any escapees found in the nearby work-camp (gulag) ?
---> I do not understand this question.
1) The prisoners of the labor camps, called zeks, were then watched almost continuously by guards every day. It is very difficult or almost impossible to escape from the camps. The zeks are often mistreated, in poor health and hungry.
2) On the contrary, the ex-zeks are then in principle free men. They are well fed and can benefit from normal medical care. In reality there are a large number of special cases depending on the circumstances...depending on the nationality of origin ,
( Chechens, Ingushs, Crimean Tatars, Poles, Czechoslovakians, Hungarians, Romanians, Moldovans, Ukrainians, Koreans, Germans, Bulgarians, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Finns..etc.)
We can simply remember that the possibilities of movement of the ex-zeks were not so much different from those of many ordinary Soviet citizens.
••• I understand that was one of the first places...
---> I read that the Mansi were first suspected, but I couldn't find any information on the anti-communists who were sojourning in the Vizhay region...
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I'm not sure the attack with wooden clubs could have produced the multiple broken ribs found on two of the members of Dyatlov group. Even with multiple blows, it's hard to produce such extreme damage...
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ALso, as the tent was emplaced on the exposed mountain slope, there was theoretically little chance for the attackers to approach unobserved. And, even if they would manage that (although I don't see how - the skiers had a rotational watch) , the skiers had with them ice axes and knives - which were not taken from the tent, therefore not used...
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So, if I understand it correctly, you consider the motive for the attack to have been a political one, and the attackers - several humans , correct ?
••• Even with multiple blows, it's hard to produce such extreme damage...
---> I do not understand this argument.
The translational and rotational energy that can be imparted to a two-handed mace is important because in the striking movement several larger muscles of the human body are put into action simultaneously.
The damage is not at all extreme.
The skull boxes are not crushed (destroyed), they are just cracked.
There are broken ribs. But ribs are relatively thin bones and not as strong as a femur.
••• little chance for the attackers to approach unobserved.
---> No! The attackers could hope to get very near to the tent undetected. The darkness was complete. It was windy, the tent canvas was shaking and making noise, powdery snow was flying in the air limiting visibility. In fact, the hikers stayed inside the tent to keep from getting cold.
••• the skiers had with them ice axes ..... therefore not used...
--->The hikers had a single ice axe (there was not so much ice or glacier - only snow - in the Urals mountains, but an ice axe could be useful...).
I think the ice axe was used by the hikers to secure the tent.
The wooden handle was completely embedded in the snow along its entire length (about 1 meter, I guess).
Indeed, this ice axe could have been a very effective and terrible weapon.
According to my reconstruction of the fatal DPI altercation (which I call "My hypothesis N°2"):
a) The hikers were forced to flee quickly. Perhaps they didn't have time to locate and then release the ice axe to retrieve it, which would have taken about ten seconds. More likely at the beginning of the attack, the hikers had not even thought of retrieving the ice axe, and afterwards it was too late.
b) The attackers did not see the ice axe.
••• ...............and knives - which were not taken from the tent, therefore not used...
---> Folding pocket knive were useless
a) The knives were small folding pocket knives. They were neither daggers nor non-folding knives like those currently used by campers.
b) Fighting or defending yourself with a folding knife is very difficult and requires a long special training (and the hikers clearly had not had this kind of training).
c) I know that a small knife is enough to silently slit a sentinel's throat. But you have to be able to attack by surprise, silently and from behind. It is rather an asymmetrical war process. For example I remember an allusion to this in a song of the French rebels in 1943.
Ahoy, partisans, workers and peasants, it's the alarm.
Tonight the enemy will know the price of blood and tears.
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Take out of the straw the rifles, the machine-guns, the grenades.
Ahoy, killers with bullets and knives, kill quickly!
••• So, if I understand it correctly, you consider the motive for the attack to have been a political one, and the attackers - several humans , correct ?
---> Correct
a) Yes ! The attackers were "several humans". I would very much like to know the number of attackers. However, due to various considerations, it seems likely to me that there were only 3 (three) attackers.
b) I am not able to properly explain the motives of the attackers but I feel that they were strong and numerous. There are certainly elements of retaliation, military honor, psychological wars between enemies nations, counter-propaganda, example to keep alive a spirit of resistance to oppression.....
Some more by going to read :
Dyatlov Pass Forum > Theories Discussion > Murdered > Resistance goup maybe?
Vietnamka March 20, 2019, 06:21:10 PM Reply #26
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You never been a prisioner contained for 25 years for good understanding motives, logic and possibility. Even about prisioner's skills (a lot of them passed through the 2WW) you don't know too......................
Nordlander March 27, 2019, 08:41:08 PM Reply #29
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Still, many of the "settlers" living in the area had been former inmates of gulags who remained there after the institutions were closed and they were freed. I think the loggers fall into this category--hence the comments in the diary about their roughness. There were also people in internal exile--many Jewish people, some ethnic Germans like the forestry guy--to keep them from away from the European part of Russia to prevent them from defecting. So a lot of area residents would have been exposed to the barbaric conditions in the gulags and to the forms of violence practiced there. That is one of the things that makes it hard to determine who the attackers may have been: many different groups would have the same "tool kit" because of Stalin's practice of mass incarceration, where political dissidents would be thrown in with common criminals and psychopaths.
..................vHow I would love to read about any investigations that took place in either village. The ex-Zeks were free but not autonomous in 1959. ................
...............that feeds them, keeps them warm and happy. Not to mention the luxuries in life being difficult to acquire in that place and time.
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There was a new command in Vizhay, as evidenced by the group being taken to the inadequate hotel. Zina says they were "taken" to the inferior hotel unlike two years earlier when they stayed the night in the club house. Something was different, something was amiss. The Dyatlov hikers were intentionally sequestered on this present tour.
I have always wanted to know what Yuri Yudin saw on his way back to Sverdlovsk by himself, he was probably in a lot of pain but did he see something significant that he thought was just ordinary?
............... It is also possible that the ex-Zeks came from Vizhay and hid at Settlement 41. To do this they would have to be hidden by people in Settlement 41. It would be much harder to hide at the dilapidated buildings at North 2, especially since Yuri Yudin and other Dyatlov hikers were searching for rocks and minerals for several hours to take back home.
Did they become targets after hearing revolutionary songs and conversation?
Were the occupants of Vizhay offended by the Dyatlov hikers pro-communist talk? Lyudmila was the most fervent in speech and ideology, did this cause her much worse injuries? The prison cloth found on Lyudmila?
As far as we know nothing was taken from the Dyatlov hikers...does this mean the attack was of a more personal nature and not a robbery?
The Dyatlov hikers, genuinely, seemed to have a much better time while resting at Settlement 41,
However, all things considered, if ex-Zeks came from Vizhay and wanted revenge on the Dyatlov hikers, what would the occupants of Settlement 41 loose (also in the future) if they didn't abide or aid the Vizhay ex-Zeks?
Photograph 17: doesn't have the outline to be Mansi or Khanty while out hunting. Maybe the clothing outline while they are outside their dwellings but not far away hunting. I don't see skins or clothing adornment on the man in photograph 17.
More like an ex-Zek acting as a lookout with a peek-a-boo movement and stance.
If the Dyatlov hikers were being followed and they didn't make Dyatlov Pass the first try then the stalker/followers, probably, were not expecting to see them again coming back down the southern side of Dyatlov Pass. The stalkers would have to hide, much the same way as the photograph indicated.
I agree with Jean Daniel Reuss. There was no time to play or joke around on their last morning/day hike up towards Dyatlov Pass.
The form, stance and gesturing of the figure in photograph 17 is not play, it is significant in impending collision.
According to my hypothesis N°2 (cf: Tumanov, "hikers took part in a fight") which gives an answer of all (let's say almost all because there is a lot of data to read) the informations that have been compiled by Teddy on the Dyatlovpass.com website, it is some ex-zeks who attacked the hikers in the night of February 1st to 2nd 1959.
In 1959, as a consequence of the decisions of Beria and Khrushchev since 1953, there were still ex-zeks (of unknown nationalities) in the vicinity of Vizhay.
The majority of these ex-zeks were peaceful. A few people kindly mocked the hikers by providing them with wet wood to make their fire in Vizhay ("...but the fire is hard to get started, the wood is wet and the whole ordeal takes us a lot of time."). it is clear that it is not very harmful).
But it is difficult to imagine the mentality of a human being who has been mistreated and humiliated for years in a Gulag camp.
and whose entire family was tortured and killed by the NKVD on the orders of Joseph Stalin...
Eduard Tumanov : "...Most likely, the group came into conflict with someone in the area of the pass..."
The so-called yeti is a clumsy attacker (clumsy because he alarmed the hikers) and photo # 17 (Thibo) is an important photographic clue that is often neglected by commentators.
The DPI turned out to be a ridiculous failure on the part of the KGB, which was fooled into failing to protect the hikers, which was one of its missions.
I plan to present my arguments and to continue this discussion on the appropriate topic, that is cleary on the following topic:
Dyatlov Pass Forum > Theories Discussion > Altercation on the pass > Altercation on the pass
https://forum.dyatlovpass.com/index.php?topic=411.0
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
An additional note suggesting that the attackers may have been near the Dyatlov Pass.
1) •••
The route planned for the hikers was known to all who wanted to know it.
The itinerary had been approved by the "route commission at the Sverdlovsk city committee on physical culture and sport",
including Korolev, Novikova, Maslennikov, Bogomolov.
The itinerary (approved to be a category III ski trip) was: city of Vizhay - 2nd Northern - Mt. Otorten ...
(Note the absence of a stop at settlement 41 !
Dubinina: "In general, we had to go to 2nd North, but it was getting dark and we decided to stop at the 41st. At 4.30 we were met..."
The hikers had spoken freely at Vizhay and at Settlement 41. The hikers also had asked the opinion of the ranger Rempel Ivan Dmitrievich
But to catch the hikers it was obviously also necessary to find the trace in the snow that had been left by the 9 skiers.
2) •••
The ex-zeks (like some of the loggers of settlement 41) worked and moved around in the forest (also called taiga at this latitude, if I am not mistaken...).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silviculture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_management
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forestry
3) •••
Nobody lived permanently in North 2, but the place was known and one could certainly bivouac in some others ruined houses.
Yuri Yudin:
" We spent the night in the hut of the 2nd Northern settlement. There so much - many houses, warehouses, premises, forgotten old vehicles, machine tools. Everything was abandoned since 1952................."
SteveCalley February 25, 2018, 10:15:18 PM
Second Severniye (=North 2, I don't understand everything, 2000 houses seems to be a mistake, it's rather 20)
https://forum.dyatlovpass.com/index.php?topic=109.0
"....24 km past 41st Quarter, past Vizhay. I'm not sure what to make of this deserted place, but certainly I mistrust the official explanation. This geological townsite far out of Ivdel had 2000 houses? What a city! If there were five to a house, that's ten thousand residents! Ivdel's the same size. And all geologists? Something's amiss.
A Siberian town suddenly abandoned a few years ago, falling down, perhaps after six years. What happened around 1953?
Stalin died, Beria soon after. Joy to Rodina to lose those devils! The gulags were cleared of many prisoners. Was this Ivdel North, perhaps? What do you think? ...."
4) •••
On the day of January 31, 1959, the pursuers may not have started from North 2, but from a shelter even closer to the tent.
Here's an example from Google Earth in 2020. There were probably similar shanties in 1959.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipMsN4m4GHjrqbUIHsmAa9F3veW7fkge6DCKS844=h720)
This is not a house to live in for a long time, it is only a shelter, a refuge that allows you to sleep quietly several nights.
Users who hunt animals or work in the forest can leave here food and blankets
The current position (2020) is :
61° 35' 54.6 (N) & 59° 41' 29.3 (E)
It is located as the bird flies, 22 km from the Dyatlov Pass and 17 km from North 2.