This is what I'm thinking at the moment...
Search Scenario
In the tent in the evening with weather worsening 2 have left to go to the woods & stream location to either get water for drinking or cleaning teeth etc. or maybe for toilet needs, or possibly for some fire wood for the stove. They are not intending to be gone long so don't put full clothing on. They can't find their way back to the tent in the blizzard and fog and they start to quickly succumb to the cold. They follow their own tracks back to the shelter of the trees. They stay together and light a fire (maybe using the wood they were already carrying) and one climbs the tree to try and see a light from the tent to see where it is. He breaks off branches to line the inside of a snow den. He doesn't want to leave his friend in case he can't find his way back to him and the fire dies. They are both succumbing to extreme cold. They will die without action so one of them puts wood on the fire and leaves his friend by a fire and looks for the best place to quickly dig a shelter and line it with the vegetation hoping to drag his friend inside. This is why the den (den 1) is so small, its only for 2 men. When he's put the vegetation inside the den he returns and he and his friend remove their freezing wet outer clothes (to help stop cooling) to put under themselves in the den to help the clothing start to dry. He may have considered trying to improvise a cushion out of trousers filled with vegetation, or it was an attempt to dry the trousers quicker, but there wasn't time.
'A pair of brown trousers tied at the ankles but flared open with a tear to widen them'
https://dyatlovpass.com/gallery-the-den.
While he is away from the fire digging a shelter the fire burns his friends leg.
This was Yuri Doroshenko he was 180 cm tall, and the most sturdy and tallest member of the group. He has to work fast, trying to save the life of his unconscious friend Yuri Krivonischenko, he may also be sweating. In the freezing conditions this efforts are exhausting for him and he returns to try and drag his friend to the den. He may have dragged his friend to the den but it collapses and he decides to drag him back to where the fire is. By now too much time has passed and he too succumbs to the freezing cold and wet conditions.
By now the others have come out of the tent and keep searching for their friends, They slowly come down the slope shouting in the wind. Eventually they find their tracks and follow them to find their friends bodies at the cedar tree. They try to revive them but can't. Eventually the 2 leaders confirm the 2 yuris are dead, but now even more time has passed, and they are all freezing and wet too. They have walked down in to a huge pool of feeezing cold air. Now the cold is killing them too. They start collapsing, some stay with their collapsed friends and scavenge clothing from the bodies of their 2 dead friends to help protect hands and feet from the snow. (Semyon Zolotaryov has a rolled up newspaper on him to pack clothing if it becomes wet but hasn't used it or offered it to any other casualty at this stage. It is found still rolled up on his body).
Like Yuri Doroshenko it appears to be a golden rule and standard procedure for everyone when this happens that you don't waste any time, you dig a snow shelter to stay alive, or to get your casualty to a safe place where they can recover. They haven't time now to collect firewood and climb back up to the tent on the exposed pass with casualties and prepare the stove etc...The quicker solution to their survival is all around them. Nobody in this group knew of Yuris first little shelter (den 1), or it may have collapsed. So they decide to dig a large shelter for 7 in a large bank of snow. (den 2, in the ravine) They manage to dig a large den out but it collapsed while five are inside crushing and badly injuring them. 2 people are outside. (Zinaida Kolmogorova and Igor Dyatlov) They attempt to dig to get their 5 friends out but they are exhausted and freezing, the snow and ice is 4-5 meters deep and they have no tools. and now they are freezing and still without shelter. They only manage to dig out Rustem Slobodin who is badly injured with a skull fracture. They decide they must save themselves and try to reach the only shelter left which is the tent. Or they will die too. They find their way out from the woods and ravine, with igor and Zinaida having to support or carry the injured Rustem exhausting them further. They can't see the tent. They know they have to follow rising ground through the blizzard up to the pass. Unfortunately they are so exhausted and frozen from the the cold that they collapse on the slope climbing up to the tent.
Topic: Ski Boots (Read 12931 times)
