Frase célebre.

[cib]

Alexander Pope : "El que dice una mentira no sabe qué tarea ha asumido, porque estará obligado a inventar veinte más para sostener la certeza de esta primera."

[Manti]

I don't get it, what are you suggesting?

Also the middle photo might not even be from this trip, but let's assume it is. After that is taken, they set up the tent and put the skis under the tent.

The left and right photos are from the search, and the skis visible in the photos are either the searcher's skis, or, they have dug out the Dyatlov group's skis and randomly dunked them in the snow.

[cib]

It's easy to understand, because the evidence is a function of the depth of the tent. It is common to associate the central photograph to the day before the tragedy and in the official version, it can be clearly seen that there is no such depth.

[Manti]

Ok, so, in the middle photo they dug down to a depth of 1.5m. But in the photos from the search, there is no trench, the tent is not that deep (it was buried under snow though?)

But, what does this mean? That the middle photo is from some other time? Or other place? The trench was elsewhere?

I never really understood what the Dyatlov group is doing in that photo... it's not the way to set up a tent, and there was level ground not that far away ...they would have to ski back a couple of hundred metres but isn't that better than digging deep, without a shovel?

[cib]

Very good question Manti. The first time I saw the photo I also thought it was strange for various reasons. One of them is the one you mentioned about digging with a shovel. Notice how surprising they are working in the middle of the storm with light and fragile sticks, instead of using shovels.

The firm snow on the slope of the Pass is very hard, due to physical weathering processes (freezing-thawing) and even Colonel Ortyukov himself had to request shovels from the Corps of Engineers and from the Sappers weapon.

[Ziljoe]

It looks more like 1 meter to me. It might be a toilet hole they are digging and not the actual tent foundations.. Also the wind blows the snow like the desert sand dunes. Hence the raised foot prints. The level of snow changes.

I think Colonel Ortyuko asked for strong men to dig the hard snow in the ravine. This suggests that there was a snow collapse on top of the ravine 4 as this was where the snow was hardest. This is what we see when snow ploughs compact snow at the side of the road or where snow falls from a sloped roof top.

 

[Manti]

The snow looks soft in the photo, the backpack has sunk into it:


This indicates recent new snowfall (i.e. they are in a blizzard). But they seem to have  dug through the hard layer below this soft new snow. One of them seems to be using a ski for this? There may be rocks or pieces of ice under the snow, isn't this a bit careless?


The conditions of snow in the ravine in May, when it has been regularly above freezing point for a number of days (at least during the day), is going to be completely different. It wouldn't be "nast" (firn in English?), like on the slope, I don't think it's even snow. It's going to be a kind of slush, there's heat from above (air above 0C), from below (stream), it's going to partially melt the stuff and make it waterlogged, therefore more heavy, but partially a melted. Maybe the top layer then freezes during the night? Anyway it could be harder to dig as it's heavier

[Ziljoe]

Hi cib ,

You have 1.5 meters in the middle photo. What does this 1.5 meters represent?

[Manti]

"profundidad" = depth?

[Manti]

But I don't think it's anywhere near accurate. On the other photo of the same activity it can be seen that the hole is "half a person" deep because the edge of the snow is at the waist of the person standing in the hole. So unless our hiker were 3 meters tall...

[Ziljoe]

I agree, the person is in the foreground bending with elbow raised.