Issuance of supplies

[GlennM]

"Dyatlov was supposed to deliver the third copy to the UPI sports club on receipt of the equipment, but he had apparently forgotten to do so. There is a conjecture that this was not accidental, as the revised return dates affected the beginning of the term. On the suggestion of Maslennikov, the initial target dates of January 26 - February 9, 1959, were changed to January 28 - February 12, 1959. This resulted in two simultaneous violations of the process of issuing the equipment: one by Dyatlov as the group’s leader, and another by Blinov, who as manager..."

Seems odd to me that Igor got the equipment anyway. It also is odd that the tour was for grade 3 certification, yet neglecting something fundamental like the books would certainly aggravate any administrator and possibly put the certificatiin in jeopardy.

If it were not for the fact that Zolo would make more money after getting certified grade3, I'd think the whole hiking club organization was a pretty loosely run organization. That, in turn makes me think the hikes were more about playing hooky from the job than some more lofty goal.

[Partorg]

That, in turn makes me think the hikes were more about playing hooky from the job than some more lofty goal

Absolutely right. Dyatlov was the leader of an informal (amateur) association. He could have been punished without being  assigned another sports rank, but this would have been a purely symbolic punishment since in practice he would have lost absolutely nothing from this. Zolotarev was a professional tourism instructor and for him the rank was a step in his career.

[Arjan]

From Vizhay on Jan. 26th , the tour had ought to take 18 days to return to Vizhay on Feb. 12th.

In case the planning had included one day rest per week and one day for bad weather, the group had 15 day for covering around 300 km.
This includes 20 km per day during scheduled days for trekking.

Sunrise is at 8:30 am and sunset is at 17:00 pm at that time of the year in that region.

Suppose leaving from a camp site and arranging a new camp site will take 1.5 hours each: add half an hour for lunch.

This estimate will leave 5 hours (including two small stops for a drink and a call for nature) for daily tracking 20 km: the average speed ought to be 4 km/u.

The group had already spent one rest day in 2nd settlement, they had miscalculated the ascend from the storage.
It is highly likely that they had never been able to catch up during a potential continuation of the tour to cover 300 km.

With this schedule in mind:
- why did the group leave from Vizhay around 16:00 pm - one hour before sunset - according to the diaries?
- why, where and by whom are the lists of Mansi words collected.
- one way or another, the group ought to have passed Ushma, while there is not any reference to this event in their diaries.

Possible reasons:
- According to the photos and diaries, at least Igor and Lyudmila had not been top fit; probably Alexander had not been top fit either.
- several other excellent reasons outside the focus of the post.