Tent: Discovery date

[Missi]

Hi all. It's been a while since I've last been active. There has been much going on and I've had to let Teddy's book sink in.
Recently I've stumbled across a mini-series on Youtube and there it was again, the mystery, that kept me hostage.

The videos I've been watching on Youtube are german. They can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-FH4ptK-XW1nBe-myLUVTaQ6NUVkG-Im
Especially part 7 made me rethink things. He mentions that the tent has been discovered three times.

1. On Feb 24th Pashin, Cheglakov and Anyamov found the tent, yet seemed not to tell anyone. Their finding the tent is proven by their testimony in the case files. At least Pashin and Cheglakov did testify accordingly.
2. On Feb 25th the tent was found by Karpushin and his pilot while flying over the area. Which is proven by an interview he gave later in his life.
3. On Feb 26th the tent was found as everyone knows by Slobtsov and his group.

Is there any known explanation at least for Feb 24th and 26th being present in the case files simultaneously?

As an explanation: I've been trying to find something explaining the whole story at once. Inspired by Teddy's book I though I'd try to find plausible explanations for all the little things and get those out of the way before trying to find something explaining the rest of the facts together.

[Manti]

So they found the tent and did nothing? Didn't dig it out to see if someone is in there? Seems hard to believe. And it's not like the "military was unsure if there's something to cover up so they asked for confirmation" or something like that because, well, Anyamov a Mansi was with them.

[Missi]

That is exactly what puzzles me (and many other).

Maybe it's an example of "lost in translation". Maybe someone reading Russian can clarify. Until then, this is what we have:

Testimony of Cheglakov:
"In the third week of February 1959 on the orders of the Chief of the logging branch Hakimov, together with the forester Ivan Pashin I flew by helicopter to the site of the death of a group of hikers near Mount Otorten. With us together in the same helicopter were 4 people and from Ivdel the same day came another 5 people. We start to carry out the assigned tasks same day we arrived. The search of hikers started in two groups. One person left on the protection of belongings and tents. On the first day of our search we found the ski tracks of the hikers. On the second day we found the tent of the hikers which was located in the upper reaches of rivers Auspiya and Lozva at the height of the mountain Verhuspiya. It was badly drifted by snow. We did not go inside.

We couldn't see any ski tracks of the hikers around the tent. Mansi ski tracks we have seen 10 km from where the tent of the of the hikers was found. One kilometer from the camping site of the hikers we found new Mansi stand (chum)."
https://dyatlovpass.com/case-files-44-45?rbid=17743

Testimony of Pashin:
"On February 23, 1959 6 of us were dropped off from a helicopter in the area of Mount Otorten ​​to look for the lost group of hikers. On the first day of the search, once descended into the Auspiya we found ski tracks from the hikers. Here we pitched a tent, spend the night, divided into three groups and went to look for the hikers, as a result of the search we found a tent with belongings that was not clearly seen since it was covered with snow, we did not go into the tent."
https://dyatlovpass.com/case-files-49-50?rbid=17743

There's nothing I could find in the testimony of Anyamov concerning the finding of the tent.

There's no testimony, but an interview with Karpushin:
"February 25, the weather was just wonderful. Mountains against the background of a clear, clear sky created a calm, gracious mood. From Ivdel airport almost simultaneously in the air soared 7 aircraft. To the village of Burmantovo we flew in V formation. There, at an altitude of 300 m, were divided, as was agreed earlier. Kholat Syakhl (Mountain of the Dead), marked simply as "altitude 1079" on the pilot maps, was directly at the rate of the leading aircraft. "Approximately 25-30 km to the mountain," recalls navigator Karpushin, "we saw very clearly the tent stuck to the eastern slope of the mountain ...

"To avoid the accumulation of aircraft, I instructed the rest of the crafts to return to Ivdel. I remember we made a lot of runs over the tent. It was clearly visible that it was cut from the north. Straight by the tent, a corpse of a woman lay judging by her long hair. A little further away lay another body. It was evident that the students left the tent in panic. By the way, I was already struck by the fact that the tent was improperly set up, on a gradient of about 30 degrees, open to all winds and rock falls ... What made the guys do this - I can not imagine. I can assume that, having reached the top, they were so tired that they decided not to go down to the foot of the mountain. This mistake became fatal for them.

The pilots marked the tent position on the map and contacted Ivdel, where they received the command to return to the airfield."
https://dyatlovpass.com/interview-karpushin?lid=1 - Bottom of page 2

That part is a mystery to me. Not that it's the only one...

[Manti]

Kaprushin's interview reads like a fantasy. Flying in V formation is for airshows, not rescue missions in the mountains. And they flew from Ivdel to Burmanytovo, which is 66 kilometers, and were only at an altitude of 300 m? No pilot will ever do this. This is risky, a waste of fuel, against common sense and probably also against regulations (not sure about the SU in '59...).

And from Burmantovo to the Dyatlov Pass, it's 77 km, not "25-30 km". What kind of navigator is this? Moreover, the navigator doesn't "instruct aircraft" (other aircraft) to return to anywhere. That's ATC's job. So I don't trust that testimony at all.

Also, Cheglakov's testimony makes it seem like the "site of the death of a group of hikers" was already known. Odd...

[Missi]

I agree, the testimony seems weird. But I think that's maybe because of the translation?
As for Karpushin, I'm not quite happy with that interview myself, especially because it's an interview from years later as opposed to the testimonies at the time. Yet it's all we have, so either we believe it or we find something to disprove it. And still, even if we don't believe Karpushin, there's the testimony of Cheglakov and Pashin which make it two findings of the tent and no tell the first time.

[tenne]

As far as I can tell from reading the interviews, the only reason to refute this testimony, which he has nothing to gain by and a lot to lose by telling the truth, is it doesn't fit in the individual's theory of what happened.

Back in a repressive regime like the soviet union, no one with official people with them, would ever do anything that wasn't approved because that put you in a gulag. He could hardly insist on his story being told because he would have been severely punished for daring to disagree with the authorities.

He had a superior with him, he would do as he was told.

[Missi]

I do not refute his testimony per se. It's just that between the testimony and the incidents he testifies about are many years. Those years could have altered his memory. I don't think he's lying.

[amashilu]

www.dyatlovpass.com/igor-povetkin

I like his examination and explanation of the details and documents regarding the conflicting dates of tent discovery.