From DyatlovPass.com."Nikolay Ivanovich Kuzminov is writing to you from the city of Nizhnyaya Salda."
Then " The Mansi Kurikovs went hunting one day and struck gold. They discovered cut branches on trees and a trail of fallen trees leading to a ravine."
Then, " Since the snow had already melted a little, the trail of lost branches was visible. We began clearing the snow and reached the ravine. Under three meters of snow in the ravine, following a trail of spruce branches, we found a platform made of branches and spruce branches with some clothes on it. There were no people. We began digging down the stream. On the second day, we found the body of a man, positioned (as if crawling) upstream toward the platform"
Comment: As i am thinking about it I am imagining a children's toy called an ant farm. It is a sealed vertical container for dirt and ants sandwiched between two plates of thinly separated pieces of glass. The top surface of the model is the beginning and end of this debris trail. On the side view, I imagine a downward diagonal excavation dug by the R4 group to the place the mat was made upon the stream bed. Then I also can imagine a vertically excavated hole in the snow, achieving the same result. If it were me wanting to hide from the elements, I would waste no time and dig straight down. What guarantee would I have of ending beside and not on the stream? Where did the mound of excavated snow go?
Was this trail of branches deliberately laid upon the snow, or was it incidental waste? The fact that it is referred to as a trail leads me to think the Mansi and others thought it an intentional marker. I am doubtful since the term trail does not have to imply design. I believe pine needles and twigs were shed when the branches were dragged. The trail was an artifact . But what gave any of them a clue as to where to excavate a snow den?
Since the rescuers found the mat before finding the hikers, could the found R4 bodies be at the end of some tunnel excavation? It only seems reasonable if they did not wish to climb out of a 10 foot deep hole every time.So, instead of making steps, they made a tunnel. It may also be the case that they never intended to climb out the same way they got in. A tunnel would then be necessary.
To dig out such a lengthy snow tunnel did they do a bucket brigade of passing snow to each other and ejecting the spoil out of the top entrance? It makes me wonder how deep the snow was when they actually created the mat. There were no tell tale mounds of snow at the ravine to give searchers an additional reason to search the ravine.
Between making a tunnel in the snow or using the same energy to make a place to start a fire, which makes better sense? Fires must be fed. To do so means repeated trips for wood. That would be a grizzly prospect if they had to pass the Yuris to fetch wood. On the other hand, once the energy was spent excavating the ravine, cold would set in if the R4 just stopped and sat.
If not for the bits of cloth found on the mat, I'd argue that the was all coincidental.
Topic: Look for us here? (Read 23 times)
