Sometimes I almost think I’ve read everything about this mystery; I’m sure I missed some, but it’s got to be close to everything since I’ve been reading for months now and every time I go back and check on something, it turns out I’ve already read it.
I think before agreeing with any one theory, it is important to stand back and look at the overall picture.
I don’t have much to say about theories such as Yeti, teleportation, mushrooms, UFOs, or other strange and improbable ideas, but to propose that these nine people panicked, cut their way out of the tent, ran, stumbled, repeatedly crashed and fell, hitting the sides of their heads, hands, ribs, and ankles on rocks, and tumbled into a ravine by accident and then ALL DIED, like nine clumsy oafs, is just not credible. This is not giving these nine people the respect they earned. They were skilled, tough, experienced, trained, and resourceful. One had been through WW II. They were not panic-prone newbies. The picture of them running helter-skelter without their coats and shoes, perhaps trying to out-run an avalanche by running in front of it, falling in the dark, getting hit by rocks and tumbling into a ravine, truly is material for a Dumb & Dumber movie.
Let’s give these guys some credit.
Indications are that their decisions at the cedar tree and the so-called “den” were intelligent, skilled, and by the book. When you are in a dangerous situation as they were, your training really does kick in. I worked in a prison for 10 years and we were constantly being trained and updated, and it was kind of wonderful to discover that when you actually are in one of those situations you trained for, your brain and muscles automatically do what you were trained to do. You really don’t just panic and run and die. Training actually works.
1) They would never cut their tent. Never. They knew perfectly well that this tent meant their very survival. They took good care of it and sewed the rips every night. This is training and experience.
2) They would never leave voluntarily without their shoes or coats. They knew perfectly well that this meant death.
3) There was no avalanche because training dictates to run perpendicular to an avalanche; you cannot outrun an avalanche by running in front of it. Again, this is training.
4) They did not get out of the tent to avoid a momentary problem, such as smoke from the stove, because if that were the case, they would step aside and wait for it to clear. Instead, they walked away for 45 minutes.
If the problem were a wolverine or a bear, they would not have walked away for 45 minutes. That makes no sense. Is that what you would do? They would have come up with a plan where the 9 of them could try to overcome it.
I would very much like to hear more from people who understand the KGB, the NKVD, the Russian military, the gulags, the bomb tests, from that time period. It seems like the political situation in Russia in 1959 could be relevant.
At any rate, it would be great if we could just remember, going forward, to give these people some credit and respect their intelligence and skills, rather than run the old Bugs Bunny cartoon again.
Topic: Nine Clumsy Oafs? (Read 12800 times)
