Thank you for raising this topic again.
A few years ago I have read a post at Dyatlovpass.com covering the time these four watches had stopped.
If I remember well, this post had described that very probably Thibo had been 'officer for the correct time' at the day.
To perform this duty, he had been wearing two watches as precaution in case one watch might have disfunctioned in one way or another.
This post had also described that the four watches had been stopped due to being exposed to permanent temperatures below zero degrees Celsius.
Suppose the watches had stopped by being exposed to permanent temperatures below zero, than the question arises on which date these watches had stopped and if these watches had stopped in the morning, afternoon or evening.
Many investigators of this case assume that these watches had stopped within a timespan of 12 or 24 hours.
As far as I am aware, there is no factual rule for this assumption, except the assumption that all group members had left the tent at the same time.
Let's assume disaster had struck the group in the late afternoon of 1 Fabruary 1959, and:
1. both watches around the wrist of Thibo had stopped at 20:15 and 20:39 pm on 1 February 1959
2. the watch around the wrist of Igor had stopped at 5:31 am on 2 February 1959
3. the watch around the wrist of Rustem had stopped at 20:25 pm on 2 February 1959
The last assumption opens the possibility that Rustem and Zinaida - hurt in her side while stopped by a small tree after a slide on the ascent from the storage to the Dyatlov Pass? - had spent and survived the cold night between 1 and 2 February 1959 in the tent that had been re-erected on one ski-pole.
Both had sufficient isolation together by all the blanket available and they had sufficient food and drink for supper and breakfast.
Both had been found by the first search party adequately clothed for a daytrip to the cedar and ravine.
If this possibility is correct, than Zinaida and Rustem both:
- had placed the permanent unconscious bodies of Yuri Dor. and Yuri Kri. next to each other.
- maybe had placed the dead and/or permanent unconscious bodies of Alexander, Semyon and Thibo next to each other
- had not been able to lift Lyudmila out of the stream due to icy side of the stream
- had carried the permanent unconscious Igor under both armpits and knees some time..
Due to these shocking discoveries, Rustem and Zinaida had not made the way back to the tent in the evening of 2 February 1959.
These assumptions provide a timeline that may well provide a solution that meets all details as found by both search parties.