Theories Discussion > The stove

Why they didn't unpack and light the stove?

(1/4) > >>

eurocentric:
I've been trying to make sense of why the stove wasn't unpacked and operating in the tent, and why instead young men who'd been digging a trench and setting up a tent were inside supposedly removing wet outer clothing without first warming their environment.

The tent was a cut & shut job, like two cars made into a stretch limo, and normally had a centre rope to shore up the middle of the ridge via an eyelet. .

Crucially this centre rope supported the stove, which according to the diagram at this site was suspended from the centre ridge, and obviously it would require the centre rope in place or it risks a hot stove falling down on the occupants as they sleep.

I believe this may be the reason why they didn't unpack the stove. They couldn't use it because they had no way of installing a centre rope on the mountain slope. Additionally this centre rope would stop the long tent from flexing in winds, which if extreme would risk the canvas tearing in such an exposed location. The tent had been repaired repeatedly, and apparently was found with a jacket stuffed in a hole.

I'm exploring just one of many theories here - that the effect of a tent with no overnight heating possible, set up in an exposed mountaintop location at the limit of its stability, with a hole, with the windchill and wind speed rising overnight near the crest of the mountain, and nothing to help prevent it sagging and flexing which may open up other holes/repairs and tear the canvas, may have made the 5 lads' core temperatures drop after sweating from their exertion and removing wet clothing with no real prospect of getting warm again.

You then have the potential for paradoxical undressing, or rather 'paradoxically remaining undressed' inside the cold tent, explaining why they do not leave with shoes or coats, and they all decide to abandon the tent to head to the woods overnight to start a fire because that is the only place they can have any heat.

I've been colourising some photo's using online software. Note the centre rope used previously, but absent from the collapsed tent:

NkZ:
On a picture of a previous trek on the site you can see that in the open the middle rope is tied to skis. IMHO it also weakens snow wall (Along with the direction of the wind going downwards) and the « someone fell on the tent from above «  théories
But maybe the slope was not ok for this setting and then ....

eurocentric:

--- Quote from: NkZ on July 26, 2020, 11:49:45 AM ---On a picture of a previous trek on the site you can see that in the open the middle rope is tied to skis. IMHO it also weakens snow wall (Along with the direction of the wind going downwards) and the « someone fell on the tent from above «  théories
But maybe the slope was not ok for this setting and then ....

--- End quote ---

Yes, perhaps the angle of the slope made it impossible, unless skis were used and a supporting rope was tied to one lower on the higher elevation side and higher on the other, and the depth you may need to plunge the lower elevation ski into may work to limit the supporting rope height you can achieve.

There are skis there, but unless buried under snow I can't see any evidence of a diagonally aligned centre rope being used.

Monika:
It is quite possible that the stove was not used because they planned to use it later when  going to sleep. They had only one big log in the tent.

I imagine the situation as follows: 17.00-19.00 they built the tent, and then they sat down to dinner and shortly after dinner something happened forced them to leave the tent.

sparrow:
I believe they had not planned to use the stove the night they died.  There was talk somewhere (here on this forum?) about going without heat a certain number of nights when on a type III hike.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page