Here is my two cents: the simplest credible explanation must take the context and important established facts into account.
First, about the diaries, I don’t see any real demonstration in the diaries of strong hatred towards anyone. These were young people. Youth often express themselves with exaggerated banter and playful dramatization. The satirical Otorten document is an example of that. I don’t recall the mention of “traitors”. But if there is, it could be interpreted as a joke. Who hasn’t been with friends where a lot of dramatized cursing and ranting is made following some kind of mishap, as a way of making harmless fun of the situation.
The photos with the burned jacket are obviously posed with a humoristic intent. There are so many photos of them laughing and smiling… If any serious friction arose, I think these educated young people would have the social skills to turn it into something funny and to keep the peace in a situation where they utterly depended on each other.
Now about the context on the night of February 1, they must have been exhausted after skiing up there and all the work required to dig up the platform and set up the tent in a storm. They were camping without heat on an open and isolated mountain ridge in a stormy night, it was really dark, zero visibility, and very cold at minus 30 Celsius.
Those of you who have done this kind of winter camping would know that you don’t have the energy to pick up fights in such situation. Most importantly, you are intensely aware at all times that your survival depends on group cooperation and cohesion. So you let frictions slide. Nobody would run out of the tent without shoes or gloves and blindly walk for a mile in the cold dark storm because of some bickering.
Besides all that, they had a common goal: to get their class 3 certification. That was important to them, and they wouldn’t blow that away with fighting that would put everybody’s life at risk. If a major disappointment arose for someone during that excursion, they would certainly think it better to deal with their opponent or lost love after the excursion ended. After all they were in this for only 2 or 3 weeks. That is not enough time for developing uncontrollably strong hatred against anyone.
The facts are that their tracks show they did not run away from the tent, but they walked besides each other. That means they all had to have left the tent at the same time. And that they counted on each other for support, physically and/or morally. They probably were injured to some extent at the tent site, which is why they left it, and had to slowly walk away.
Other facts that must be accounted for, is that other witnesses observed strange lights in the area at the time, some radioactivity was detected on the victims, and the investigators were ordered to stop the investigation without explanation and evidence was taken away by higher authorities.
Some of Dyatlov group injuries could be the result of breaking firewood and digging a snow den with bare hands. I often am surprised when I go firewood cutting as to how many bruises and scratches I end up with. I can’t imagine how hard it would have been for the Dyatlov group to try to find sparse firewood in the dark, branches poking you in the face, without tools, freezing bare hands, etc. Some of the saplings they broke for the den looked to be 6 cm or two inches thick. I am amazed they were able to break that, I know how difficult it can be. It could well be that the large bruise on Zina’s back was the result of such work, as when trying to break those larger saplings if your grasp slips they bounce back and hit you hard.
Some would have been more injured by the event at the tent, than others, especially the two Yuris who apparently died first. It could be that the other 7 then went on to dig the den, which collapsed on 4 of them. Zina, Rustic and Igor tried to dig them out, but were unable to because collapsed snow hardens quickly. Their only remaining hope for digging out their friends was to go back to the tent to retrieve the ice axe. But they were too exhausted and cold to make it. In my opinion the entire group remained together as much as they could to the end, their main desire was to save each other.
Topic: Simplest Possible Credible Explanation (Read 165548 times)
