Ladies first?

[GlennM]

I recall a passage in the diaries which speaks to a modesty curtain being certainly justified in the tent. This triggered a number of what if thoughts. If the modesty curtain was in place all night long, then who sleeps nearest the tent opening flap? If anyone needed to relieve themselves when the curtain was in place, how do they manage to get past it and those hikers on the other side to attend to their needs? Wouldn't a modesty curtain make heat distribution uneven? If a modesty curtain were in place and near the tent flap, wouldn't those few who were separated by the curtain choose to exit the tent from the flap instead of knifing the side wall?

My original pre judgement is that when the tent was made unlivable, one and all exited via knife cuts through the side wall. Perhaps that is not the case. It may not mean anything at all except to point to observations that the recovery people valued, ignores or assumed were common knowledge.

Of course the modesty barrier could be a temporary arrangement. Did it need to be in place all night long and beyond while dressing for the day happened? I do not recall reading that the finders of the tent had to take down a partition.

Who would know about this?

[sarapuk]

I recall a passage in the diaries which speaks to a modesty curtain being certainly justified in the tent. This triggered a number of what if thoughts. If the modesty curtain was in place all night long, then who sleeps nearest the tent opening flap? If anyone needed to relieve themselves when the curtain was in place, how do they manage to get past it and those hikers on the other side to attend to their needs? Wouldn't a modesty curtain make heat distribution uneven? If a modesty curtain were in place and near the tent flap, wouldn't those few who were separated by the curtain choose to exit the tent from the flap instead of knifing the side wall?

My original pre judgement is that when the tent was made unlivable, one and all exited via knife cuts through the side wall. Perhaps that is not the case. It may not mean anything at all except to point to observations that the recovery people valued, ignores or assumed were common knowledge.

Of course the modesty barrier could be a temporary arrangement. Did it need to be in place all night long and beyond while dressing for the day happened? I do not recall reading that the finders of the tent had to take down a partition.

Who would know about this?

I'm not aware of any such curtain in the tent. Can you elaborate on that diary entry?

[GlennM]

The group diary of Jan 28  speaks to" the guys sewing curtains". But for the life of me, I can not locate the passage which is so clear in my mind. It will come up, of course. Anyway, it is only of any passing interest in how they arranged themselves and their movements as they settled into their trek.

[Ziljoe]

28th January

"....We stop to rest at 5:30 pm on river Lozva. Today we spend our first night in the tent. The guys are busy with the stove, sewing curtains out of sheets. With some thing completed and others not, we sit at dinner. After dinner we sit for long time around the campfire and sing heartfelt songs. Zina even tries to learn to play mandolin under guidance of our musician Rustik (Rustem Slobodin). Then we resume our discussions, mostly about love. Someone comes up with an idea that we need a special notebook for ideas that we might come up with. After a good long talk, we started going into the tent two people at a time. The suspended stove radiates heat and divides the tent in two sections. The further section is occupied by me and Zina. Nobody wants to sleep by the stove. We agree that Yurka Kri will sleep there. On the other side sleeps the person on duty (Aleksander Kolevatov). Yurka couldn't stand the heat and after laying down for 1-2 min, he got up and moved to the second section cursing and accusing us of treason. After that they still argued about something for a long time, but at the end all was quiet... "

30th January

...The stove does a great job. Some of us (Thibeaux and Krivonischenko) think we need to build steam heat in the tent. The curtains in the tent are quite justified. We get up at 8:30am.

[Hunter]

There are two options.

The first option is that the curtain divided the tent into men's and women's areas.

The second option is that the curtain was hung at the entrance, creating a kind of vestibule or air cushion to block the cold air that came in through the entrance and preventing the heat from the stove from escaping quickly.

Personally, I think the second option is more plausible.

[Senior Maldonado]

The second option is that the curtain was hung at the entrance, creating a kind of vestibule or air cushion to block the cold air that came in through the entrance and preventing the heat from the stove from escaping quickly.

Personally, I think the second option is more plausible.

This was the only option actually. When installed, the pipe from the stove ran through almost all tent's interior. Having a curtain near the hot pipe was very risky. If the curtain had been paced before the stove, the girls would have been isolated in the coldest section of the tent, right beyond the enterance.