(sorry for teaching you your job !
I'm just trying to push questions up. :) I'll take your medical judgement !
For the eyes... When strangling, yes ! Here I totally understand. The blood pressure is rising in the head, so yes ! ... but a chest pressure ? Would it rise the blood pressure to this point ? )
But about going back to the tent... maybe not. :)
I'm living in Yukon for 4 years now, with at least one short week of -40 each year (-20 being the nice time you WANT to get out for long walk).
I haven't made any ski trek here ; but I was used to it back in France.
From my experience, and if I had been down that slope this very night without any other element we don't know (just the cold, the torn tent, probably strong winds), I would have stay in the wood - make a fire first, then dig a den, move the fire closer to the den, and not move before noon.
I think that's really the fist thing my parents teach me when skiing : If you're lost, make a den and lay something red something around. (the second point not being very relevant in Dyatlov's case ! ^^) In the Yukon, I learned that fire comes first...
(Have you ever read Jack London's "
To built a fire" ? It could actually quite be Dyatlov's story... with lots of missing explanations though.)
Playing penguin : keeping close to each other, and singing (we know they loved that) to keep awake.
Then, go with the best clothes (what Zina, Dyatlov and Slobodin didn't have) to the tent for food and blankets. Come back to the den, make it another day, night. It's better to stay half frozen for 3 weeks than freezing fully.
That's the part I can't understand if there's no snow event : Why the hell would have some of them gone back on the slop without being ready (and with good condition, like less wind if the wind was really a problem) for it ? I can understand the Yuri's death, if the fire was not burning quick enough. I can really not understand a personne who try to get to the tent, feel the wind and the cold, and still go ahead. That is suicide : so much more than staying in the wood, even after staying in the den/at the tree for days.
(Well. If there's nothing else than naturals elements, of course ! )