I shouldn't have been warm enough for that, but who knows?
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Quickly :
Leaving the tent because of icy rain, due to a warm air pocket (and even warmer in high atmosphere).
Cause of injuries: heavy snow, ice, and branches falling from the cedar.
Timelaps between leaving the tent and last death: 2, 3 hours max.
Order of death (roughly): Doroshenko/Dubinina/Slobodin, Zina, Dyatlov, Tibo, Kolevatov/Zolotaryov, Krivonishenko.
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If the temperature had suddenly warmed up high in the sky, that could have trigger both a high-altitude storm and a short but heavy rain.
On the ground, it's still -10, -20 ; the water reaches the ground in liquid form, but on most surfaces, it freezes quasi-instantly.
The tent is quickly loaded with a coat of ice. One (or two of them) gets dressed, and from the outside try to break the ice shield with the ice ax. Under their efforts, The tent move and starts to collapse. The others are getting out one by one, with no time for big shoes. The ice ax already made some tears in the tent (and they have everything to mend it later), the last ones, trapped, just tears the tent to get out. Not out of panic: Just because that's the only possible way to get out now. (or is the ground in front of the tent so icy they can't really go out this way ?)
The rain is over quickly, it just lasted 20, 30 minutes. But it's night, and they can't fix the camp in these conditions. Some are wet, some are not well dressed... but the clothes and shoes are under the ice, quite uneasy to access without using tools - and they're tired, and the night is pretty warm, enough to make them confident they'll do that on morning.
They chose to make a fire down in the wood.
At the cedar, they make a fire out of birch bark and some twigs. But it does not last long: the rain has been making the snow on the cedar branches very heavy, the snowpack being really glued by the ice to the branches. On top, one the branches discharge anyways the snow (or break). The lower branches, when hit by this weight, don't just bend and discharge: some break.
Under the tree, the campers get an awful shower of snow, ice, and branches. Tibo, Zolotaryov, and Dubinina sustain the worst injuries, not to mention Slobodin.
After a moment of confusion, they realize the temperature is dropping, and the wind is rising. They start a new big fire, at the same place (now the cedar is snow-free... and they have some fuel with the branches who fall), but also think about looking for a new camp place, less windy.
They find the ravine, figure out it's a good shelter against the wind.
They pass clothes around, on the basis of what each one is going to do :
Slobodin and Zina have to go to the tent to get the medkit. They keep their clothes, because the wind is cold.
Dubinina, Tibo, Zolotaryov, and Doroshenko are hurt : they need to keep warm. They get to have good clothes from others. They could be dead already: but with most injuries being internals, the remaining hikers have no ways to know if they're really dead or just unconscious. Doroshenko's case is easier to settle: when later he stops struggling for breath (from pulmonary edema), the others call him dead.
Kolevatov, Krivo and Dyatlov are the less dressed. They stay active, bring branches to the ravine/den, but often warm up by the fire.
Kolevatov, Krivo and Dyatlov start to move the injured to the ravine, transporting the worst case first: Dubinina and Tibo. When Kolevatov got Tibo there, he realized Dubinina's death. He takes back his coat from Tibo and passes him Dubinina's.
On their way to the tent, Zina and Slobodin find a very icy ground, growing winds and maybe fog, coming with the wind. Slobodin is far more hurt than was he wants to believe: he falls quickly, losing conscientiousness because of his wound. The ice under him is not due to his own heat: it's from the icy rain, which did not melt in the following days because his body was protecting it from the sun.
Zina calls for help, Dyatlov hears. He takes back his clothes (and more) from Doroshenko who's dead and goes up in direction of the tent. He's caught in the cold wind, icy snow, ect just as Zina, and does not even go as far as she did.
Kolevatov falls in the ravine while carrying/helping Zolotaryov. He's unconscious.
Krivonishenko's temporal injuries have been giving him hard time: he's exhausted and waits by the fire for Kolevatov's return.
He probably realizes something has gone wrong, but also may still hope Dyatlov's return. He does his best not to fall asleep but finally dies.
Topic: Icy rain theory (Read 10174 times)
