Teddy, its so interesting you posted this. It came up in the "light" thread....Nigel had posted something about a radiogram mentioning a broken ski....
"28 people continued to search all day long period No results in 450 meters under the tent found flashlight turned on comma 20 meters from the tent a piece of broken ski period Tomorrow March 8 is declared a day off period I think that the search must be stopped till the end of April period The weather is getting worse period Tomorrow with me fly three Muscovites, it is desirable to take off part of the civilians.
Maslennikov"
Which led to a discussion about how a ski could have snapped, just by the wind, when it was likely made from aluminum (Nigel mentioned it could have snapped because it was posted in the snow....however, the radiogram makes no mention of it being IN the snow):
Quote from: Clacon on March 29, 2019, 07:56:14 AM
From Wikipedia:
"In 1950 Howard Head introduced the Head Standard, constructed by sandwiching aluminum alloy around a plywood core. The design included steel edges (invented in 1928 in Austria,[52]) and the exterior surfaces were made of phenol formaldehyde resin which could hold wax. This hugely successful ski was unique at the time in having been designed for the recreational market, rather than for racing.[53] 1962: a fibreglass ski, Kneissl's White Star, was used by Karl Schranz to win two gold medals at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.[53] By the late '60s fibreglass had mostly replaced aluminum."
According to "A Short History of Skis" on the "International Skiing History Association" website: Before 1926 they were made mostly of wood. After that year, steel edges were introduced. In 1928, in France, a solid aluminum ski was prototyped. By 1945, they had sandwiched wood between aluminum laminate, by 1946, the wood was sandwiched by a plastic material. See above Wikipedia quote for 1950. In 1952, the first fiberglass enforced plastic ski is introduced, but is only popularized by 1959.
https://dyatlovpass.com/resources/340/gallery/Krivonischenko-camera-film1-08.jpgBy the looks of the skis in the pictures they are really thin and I'm not sure you could get that curve upward with wood? We have to consider maybe too that they were students and probably couldn't afford the latest in ski technology; plus the fact that fiberglass skis were only popularized the year they died....I doubt they were fibreglass. The above picture appears to show ski poles that look almost like bamboo....note the notches in the wood.
So wooden ski poles....perhaps wooden skis?? But again, the skis just don't appear to be wooden to me. That leaves aluminum.
Although if a ski was "broken" as in the radiogram, I'm doubting it was aluminum, even the wood sandwiched by aluminum type. Unless it becomes brittle when frozen?? If a ski is broken it must have been wood or fiberglass.
Anyway....I am seriously doubting whether the wind could break either."Have made a few checks on aluminium and it is unlikely to suffer from failures as a result of fatigue or brittle fracture under the conditions on Kholat Syakhl, even it was left in high winds and cold temperatures for 3 weeks.
Aluminium doesn't have a fatigue limit like steel, and remains ductile down to very low temperatures. Although I haven't made any calculations on this, I can't see that a ski would fail due to wind speed. If it was stuck in the ground then highest force would be on the bottom of the ski. An aluminium clad plywood ski would also be very strong and plyable. Ths leads me to think that if there was a broken ski then it was not something that happened after the group died. In other words it broke before the event or during the event.
Where is the info on this broken ski? It might be important.
Regards
Star man"
Basically, if there was a spare set or a 9th pair and this pair was at the tent, not the Labaz, then it is likely that one of them was the broken ski reported in the radiogram (if we can believe this telegram).
The implications may be this: how did it break?? If not by the wind, was it broken while being used as a weapon? It could explain the bruise on Zina's side, and it could have been used to bash heads in (Rustem and Kolevatov). I don't know if it would explain the fractured ribs though of Dubinina and Semyon though.
Topic: Counting skis (Read 11139 times)
