Hi From UK

[DAXXY]

What a great site.  Congratulations and well done on putting this together. Such a fascinating mystery, and so sad.
I looked at Zolotaryov's camera information and I would like to share some ideas.  The 'lynx' photo could be a snow bike.  Facing away from the photographer.  I can make out a larger round front wheel on the left end and a small round wheel shape lower down on the right end. It may be converted from a motorcycle. The photo just illustrates the idea that I'm suggesting. I don't know if there is a side car also .   Unfortunately there is nothing for scale to get a size of the object.  Some of the other photos could be of holes in the tent fabric.
Looking forward to new developments.  All the best for the New Year.

[Teddy]

Your idea aligns with Igor Povetkin's theory. Have you read it?

[DAXXY]

Just found it thanks.  Very interesting. If the photo is of an early form of adapted Snow-bike it may be military. It may be that he just saw it and found it interesting and worth a photograph.  He found a place to belong in the military and tried to follow a military engineering path before he changed direction and became an outdoor sports instructor (still using military type skills, but with civilians, Navigation, leadership, survival).  So a new type of military or civilian snow bike would be of interest to him, If that is what the photo is.  I don't know if they even existed in the 1950's.
There are some photos of him quite straight faced but he is a 38 year old male among younger people.  Middle aged males do not always go around happy and smiling and clowning. He is on the trip to further his career path.  He wanted a military engineers life but instead he is doing this.
Maybe a good comparison would be to compare crush injuries on avalanche victims.  To see if it was the depth of snow that caused the crush injuries post mortem.

[DAXXY]