Mountain of the Dead | The Dyatlov Pass Incident

The past few months I’ve been hungrily consuming every episode of Aaron Mahnke’s podcast, Lore. Each episode explores the mysterious creatures, tragic events, and unusual places that fill the pages of history. That being said, there were definitely plenty of topics to choose from, but one episode really stuck with me. Episode 38: The Mountain, explores one of the most baffling cold cases in Russian history, the Dyatlov Pass Incident.

In the winter of 1959, nine experience young hikers went up into the Ural Mountains. On the night of February 1st, for some unknown reason, they frantically cut their way out of their tent and ran into the woods. Some of them were improperly dressed for the severe cold, which was evident from the two hikers that were found in nothing but their underwear. All nine of them were found dead, most of them having died of hypothermia, but a few of them had questionable fatal injuries. The mysteries surrounding why these experienced hikers would flee from the warmth and safety of their camp, in addition to the ways in which some of them died has paved the way for a wide range of possible theories. Some of these include an avalanche, military testing, the local native peoples, and even a yeti or alien encounter. Needless to say, the amateur conspiracy theorist in me was excited to tackle this topic for my mocktober this year!