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31

General Discussion / Re: Why did Igor die?

« Last post by GlennM on October 24, 2026, 08:49:28 AM »

quote from Amashilu

Right, but I guess the question could be asked, as long as he wasn't incapacitated, why didn't he do what was necessary to keep himself alive, such as construct a quick snow shelter?

I argue that his ankle injuries contributed to his demise as one of the combining factors including exposure.

In the balance, a snow shelter is a wind break and an opportunity to rest. Alternately, it requires energy, working arms and hands and it delays covering the mile back to the tent.

Was IRZ's attempt to retain the tent worth dieing for? It is when you have nothing to lose. Surely, those were desperate hours.

32

General Discussion / Re: The Manuals

« Last post by amashilu on October 24, 2026, 07:37:04 AM »

Yudin did not believe outsiders were involved.

Yudin believed they were poisoned because they were expendable after witnessing something they shouldn't have. He says "it was the purge" and they weren't needed.

Quote from video of interview with Yudin: " ... they had already stumbled upon something they shouldn't have gone to, but it's not their fault. They accidentally became witnesses and were poisoned. They were doomed because Ivanov told me this, they simply weren't needed .."

33

General Discussion / Re: The Manuals

« Last post by Ziljoe on October 24, 2026, 06:59:06 AM »

It could not be a simple stunt to climb the cedar, especially without shoes. In order to be able to cut branches of 6-8 centimeters, someone had to climb above the branches with a knife and stand firmly on the tree. Anyone who falls from just 5 meters onto hard uneven ground without shoes at -30 degrees Celsius is unlikely to be able to stand on their feet afterwards! There is no soft layer of snow under the cedar.

This is a good point.

I remember Yuri Yudin could not reconcile the condition of the hikers' feet at autopsy with what they had apparently been through, in his handwritten analyses of the official criminal case files, he wrote:
"The legs are bare, not damaged, not torn to blood (1.85 km through the snow and stones and the socks are intact!), and then so much work by the fire!"
.....troubled by how the hikers could walk nearly two kilometers down a rough, icy mountain slope shoeless, without tearing their socks or suffering severe, bloody lacerations on the sharp stones. This anomaly led him to believe until his death that the crime scene had been staged or that the group had been forced down the mountain by outsiders.

Yudin did not believe outsiders were involved. The walking in socks has been flogged to death and researchers have done it numerous times with little or no problem. Hikers are encouraged to use socks for walking on source flooring around campfires.

34

General Discussion / Re: The Manuals

« Last post by Ziljoe on October 24, 2026, 06:56:11 AM »

I agree that they had to be stay together and not look everywhere for dry trees in the dark - if someone gets lost, he won't find they again, and they won't hear he shoutings because of the wind. There is cedar and it may be the most recoverable wood. If they reach the forest 100 meters away, they might not even find the cedar. There is a huge luck factor in this. They won't be able to find firewood,in the dark but they will reach the forest in the right place!
According to Pigoltsina, visibility is such that an object the size of a tent can be detected up to a distance of 16 meters. I tend to be critical of this. In my own experience, there is zero visibility in a blizzard. The stormy wind blows the snow off the slope and trees, and nothing can be seen from it. Especially if it even starts to snow.
This is a factor to consider when thinking about splitting the group. That's only likely after starting the fire! Otherwise they would lose each other. 
It could not be a simple stunt to climb the cedar, especially without shoes. In order to be able to cut branches of 6-8 centimeters, someone had to climb above the branches with a knife and stand firmly on the tree. Anyone who falls from just 5 meters onto hard uneven ground without shoes at -30 degrees Celsius is unlikely to be able to stand on their feet afterwards! There is no soft layer of snow under the cedar. That might explain why the two of them were lying there! But i do not remember that the autopsy would have described an injury that would prove this.

A knife can be used to split wood:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gVFCOndvJYM

After starting a fire, they could have tried to look for more dry firewood further away! Then they would find their way back to the light.

The ground to the branches is only shoulder high on the first run, the branches are selected because the are dry and break , literally dead . Using a foot in a sock standing on a branch or even bare foot is not a stunt . The branches are broken up to 5 metres high , it does not mean someone was standing at 5 meters high.

I have split wood with knifes, but you are showing a processed log cut with a saw , not a full log . They could have done many things but didn't. They would not be able to process wood with what they had in the time needed.

The hard evidence is , the branches from the Cedar were used in a fire, the hikers were next to this fire. This is the only wood with their limited resource and time .

35

General Discussion / Re: The Manuals

« Last post by Ziljoe on October 24, 2026, 06:34:52 AM »

I do not wish to take credit for this thread.

Sorry, you are the one who posted it. No one else. The credit is yours.

Just to clarify the situation — I didn’t start this thread. You created it, titled it, and copied my chronological index into it. My original post was in the Igor thread, not here.

The material you inserted isn’t a set of “manuals.” It’s a mixed historical index covering multiple categories: early tourist companions, pre‑war winter fieldcraft textbooks, expedition eyewitness logs, post‑incident analyses, gear audits, safety codifications, academic syntheses, and theory‑based works such as Slobtsov’s Mystery of the Dyatlov Group Death.

Because the list spans 1930–2021 and includes doctrine, context, and theoretical interpretations, the thread needs a forward explaining what these documents actually are and why they matter. Without that context, readers will assume it’s a single theory thread rather than a reference resource.

As the moderator, you should be aware of how the index matters to new readers and why it needs proper framing.

Since you started the thread, the framing needs to come from you. If I eventually compile a full resource version, I’ll include the proper structure, categories, and examples, but the current thread still requires an introduction from its creator so people understand what they’re looking at, other wise this is just a mash up with no context of useful information.

36

General Discussion / Re: The Manuals

« Last post by amashilu on October 24, 2026, 04:57:26 AM »

It could not be a simple stunt to climb the cedar, especially without shoes. In order to be able to cut branches of 6-8 centimeters, someone had to climb above the branches with a knife and stand firmly on the tree. Anyone who falls from just 5 meters onto hard uneven ground without shoes at -30 degrees Celsius is unlikely to be able to stand on their feet afterwards! There is no soft layer of snow under the cedar.

This is a good point.

I remember Yuri Yudin could not reconcile the condition of the hikers' feet at autopsy with what they had apparently been through, in his handwritten analyses of the official criminal case files, he wrote:
"The legs are bare, not damaged, not torn to blood (1.85 km through the snow and stones and the socks are intact!), and then so much work by the fire!"
.....troubled by how the hikers could walk nearly two kilometers down a rough, icy mountain slope shoeless, without tearing their socks or suffering severe, bloody lacerations on the sharp stones. This anomaly led him to believe until his death that the crime scene had been staged or that the group had been forced down the mountain by outsiders.

37

General Discussion / Re: The Manuals

« Last post by bongyi on October 24, 2026, 04:22:42 AM »

I agree that they had to be stay together and not look everywhere for dry trees in the dark - if someone gets lost, he won't find they again, and they won't hear he shoutings because of the wind. There is cedar and it may be the most recoverable wood. If they reach the forest 100 meters away, they might not even find the cedar. There is a huge luck factor in this. They won't be able to find firewood,in the dark but they will reach the forest in the right place!
According to Pigoltsina, visibility is such that an object the size of a tent can be detected up to a distance of 16 meters. I tend to be critical of this. In my own experience, there is zero visibility in a blizzard. The stormy wind blows the snow off the slope and trees, and nothing can be seen from it. Especially if it even starts to snow.
This is a factor to consider when thinking about splitting the group. That's only likely after starting the fire! Otherwise they would lose each other. 
It could not be a simple stunt to climb the cedar, especially without shoes. In order to be able to cut branches of 6-8 centimeters, someone had to climb above the branches with a knife and stand firmly on the tree. Anyone who falls from just 5 meters onto hard uneven ground without shoes at -30 degrees Celsius is unlikely to be able to stand on their feet afterwards! There is no soft layer of snow under the cedar. That might explain why the two of them were lying there! But i do not remember that the autopsy would have described an injury that would prove this.

A knife can be used to split wood:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gVFCOndvJYM

After starting a fire, they could have tried to look for more dry firewood further away! Then they would find their way back to the light.

38

General Discussion / Re: Why did Igor die?

« Last post by amashilu on October 24, 2026, 03:40:57 AM »

you dig a shelter to prevent hypothermia; you don't dig one when you are already actively dying from it. By the time Igor was on that open slope, he was in the advanced stages of cold fatigue.

You don't know this about Igor. There could be other reasons why he just laid down and died; for example, were his ankles tied? You don't know.

39

General Discussion / Re: The Manuals

« Last post by amashilu on October 24, 2026, 03:34:03 AM »

I do not wish to take credit for this thread.

Sorry, you are the one who posted it. No one else. The credit is yours.

40

General Discussion / Re: The Manuals

« Last post by Ziljoe on October 24, 2026, 02:22:55 AM »

There was or is a thread discussing this but ultimately it doesn't seem to fit the autopsy details. However , a fall is possible that might have added to the problems.

I doubt 5 would climb up 2 at the most and the highest point would be around 3 .5 meters from the ground.

I suppose a fire might have been established and others were lying or squatting next to the fire drying their socks in the first stage of their survival effort landing on Zolo and lyunda for example but the blood in the chest cavity suggest a prolonged force.