Ladies first?

[Axelrod]

The main incorrect term used in this diary is "steam heating."
This type of heating was used in the early 20th century as a simple method when pumps were unavailable.
By 1959, steam heating was hardly in use anywhere in Sverdlovsk, yet the term continued to be used.
In reality, it was hot-water heating—pipes designed for steam, but carrying water.

However, hot-water heating in a tent is also out of the question. It was likely a joke, much like "Evening Otorten."
In that case, there could be jokes about curtains or anything else.

Another significant error in that entry is that the city of Salekhard is named instead of Khanty-Mansiysk.
The population is listed as 8,000. It is unclear to me who made the entry containing such an error; there is no signature for that day.

The population of Khanty-Mansiysk in 1959 was 20,677.
The population of Salekhard in 1959 was 16,567.

Neither city fits the figure. The discrepancy is significant.
I do not understand the point of such incorrect entries that have no relation to the hike.

[Hunter]

По поводу парового отопления - да, шутка. А вот использование импровизированного полога - вполне реально. Нечто подобное можно увидеть у военных в полевых условиях, порой в домах и на дачах.

-----------------------------

As for steam heating, yes, it's a joke. But using an improvised canopy is quite feasible. Something similar can be seen among the military in the field, sometimes in homes and dachas.

[Ziljoe]

The population of head count was last recorded to be 7488 in 1939. The next census was 1959 or count .
If they read or were taught anything about the indigenous people's , I suspect they got mixed up because it's probably from estimation and written from memory as they are hiking. They did not have a library or smart phone to cross reference. So the last known head count before their deaths is 7488.

Steam heating and steam rooms are mentioned in other hikes . I e seen two references to it already. . It is a joke.

[GlennM]

Ziljoe, thank you for your response and clarification to Axelrod. Based on his response to my prior post, I believe he favors a more occult and mystical explanation of the event. I think he is advocating for fate, destiny and Karma. This is a point of view not based on reason, rather belief. Cause and effect reasoning are not germane. Thank you again for clarifying not only the question of the curtain, but also its probable location and purpose in the tent.

I conclude the baffle was not used on their last night because the stove wasn't either. I've learned that a modesty curtain among Soviet hikers was unnecessary as Hunter indicates. So Lyuda and Zina could have been anywhere in or out of the tent at the time of departure. If they were behind a modesty partition together, what affected one should affect the other. That was, of course what I wanted to get at in the thread. My feeling is that both women left the tent for the woods without assistance. This strengthens your argument that a collapse of a cave or cornice at the ravine and not at the tent itself is the sole cause of Lyuda's (and by extension) Zolo's shared misfortune.