An interesting possibility, regarding navigation at the pass. Remember that there is magnetic anomaly there; compasses don't work there. Sorry, it took me couple of days to remember that, lol!!! If the group wanted to head to the storage and their compasses were acting wonky and visibility was low with the wind throwing snow around, could that be a plausible reason that they'd wind up at the cedar if they were trying to get to the storage?
Hmm where is this information from? Measurement by Aleksander Alekseenkov of a magnetic anomaly of "1700 units"? Which units?
Sorry, I don't have the ability read and respond to all forum posts yet, but if there is something I know well and can answer briefly and completely, I try to do so.
Manti, you are absolutely right ask these questions.
Back at the end of last summer we had conversation and the internet about this "anomaly."
Here are some summaries of that conversation
(if anyone is interested, here is the link in Russian
https://pereval1959.kamrbb.ru/?x=read&razdel=17&tema=223&start=0 , post from 26.08.2020 04:34,):
1. Shura honestly and accurately did his job of measuring the magnetic field strength in the area where the tent was set up. There can be no complaints to him. And he honestly published all the results and got the interpretation in the form of graphs from specialist and check the value of the field strength.
2.Then followed the
need realize these results in the form of physical quantities, their impact and practical application in this case.
3.All units were given in fractions and integers of nanoTesla per 1 meter of length, which means they have dimensions = 10 to the minus 9 degree or
fractions and integers of billionths part of magnitude. The maximum strength value there was 1700 nTl/m or 1.7 microTesla per 1 meter.
4.A magnet from very strong sounding speaker (Russian magnetic alloy ЮН14ДК-25БА) has residual induction of 1.3 Tesla (according to the passport), so at distance of 1 meter the magnetic field strength will be 1.3 Tesla/m. If you consider that at distance of 4 meters or 12 ft (in fact even less) already has almost no effect on the compass needle (this cannot be detected by the simple eye). If you compare this to maximum = 1.7 µTl/m, it is about 6 orders of magnitude (1,000,000 times less) than near sounding speaker.
5.The result is that this "anomaly", which is 400 meters (~ 0.25 mi) to the southeast, could in no way affect the compass, even if it were used determine direction during all events. Even purely theoretically.
6.Strong "inflating" of the influence of this anomaly, can be an example of how you can make an elephant out from fly, without using genetic engineering.
7.Shura understood it perfectly well himself, but he did his research not for that, but to be able estimate how much this change could affect winter thunderstorm, if it was there at the time.
I'm not an expert on most things related to the Dyatlov Pass incident at all but regarding this, I am pretty darn sure there is no place except close to the North and South Poles where compasses don't work. A "magnetic anomaly" will usually be due to ore deposits below ground or groundwater, or a magma chamber... even the most prominent ones will have no effect on a compass because they are thousands of times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field and mostly just shield it, rather than generate their own field. That would require something like flowing current or swirling molten metal...
There is no objection here either. There are three clarifications:
1.The compass does not work only on the Magnetic Poles, but they do not coincide with the geographical poles. And all the time change their position. Therefore, the angle between the direction to the Geographic North Pole and the direction of the magnetic arrow changes.
2.There are no appreciable deposits of magnetic ores in the area of the pass, so the compass behaves there as it does in the rest of the region on average. There are magnetic iron deposits on Mt. Chistop (this is 40 km or 25 mi to the south-south-east) and there are many anomalous phenomena associated with magnetism and electricity. This is the closest place with strong magnetic anomaly.
3. We have checked the effects on the compass needle at this location three times, by Polaris and GPS marks. Now there stable eastern magnetic declination of 19.5 degrees for at least 12 years.