Mystery of the Dyatlov group death. Евгений Буянов

the 2d lantern was found, is marked with a cross on the 3d ridge).

      Eight pairs of ski boots lay along the tent sides (6 – from the internal side, 2 – from the external side). Seven valenoks lay from the sides closer to the tent center. There were crackers, brisket skin in the tent, and the brisket, partially cut into pieces, was found together with Kolevatov's Finnish knife at the tent side.

      Outside the tent 2 lanterns were found, – one of them lay on top of the tent, and there was a snow layer under it. When Slobtsov, who had picked up the lantern, turned it on, it lit. The second lantern was found later on the stone ridge below the tent, – its position is indicated by Maslennikov on the scheme of the slope sounding. The position of the tent, cedar, victims (D – Dyatlov, C-Slobodin, K – Kolmogorova) are also seen there, as well as the borders of the stone ridges and the wood (three fir-trees and a curve dotted line is the border of the long-boled wood), the position of the mansiysky plague and distances between the main reference points are noted:

      A bag with documents (including three running schedules of the group) and their marching diary were found at the tent side closer to the back wall. The notes were broken by «A newspaper sheet «The Evening Otorten» on February 1st, – on these grounds the rescuers understood unequivocally that the tragedy had happened at night on February 2. It was evident from the diary that before a radial exit to Mount Otorten the Dyatlov group had equipped a warehouse (a storage protected from animals and birds) in the Auspiya valley in order to lighten their backpacks for a radial exit (it was noted above about the warehouse detection).

      One pair of skis was found outside the tent, – they didn't remember clearly, where it was (Sharavin said that the skis were stuck into snow at the tent entrance). In the picture of the tent excavation these two skis are visible, – they are stuck into snow near the tent. These skis were used as high racks for supporting the medial part of this tent at installation outside the wood zone, – as it is shown in the picture from the campaign of 1958 with I.Dyatlov's participation.

      Such a way of fixing let them support the tent by a vertical effort in its centre and increased its wind stability by lateral control rods from the ridge-pole centre:

      Installation of the Dyatlov group’s double tent in the mountain conditions of the campaign of 1958 along the Subpolar Ural by M.A.Axelrod's group, photo by P.I.Bartolomey.

      On March 1 the Axelrod group and inspector Ivanov (who was appointed to plead the case instead of prosecutor Tempalov) arrived from Ivdel, and the helicopter took away the Dyatlov group’s things and tent by return flight. The Dyatlov group’s traces from the tent weren't studied seriously in the beginning, as at first the victims were being looked for. The investigation team and the searchers examined the traces, took some photos. The line of traces was lost already 50-100 m away below the tent, and only separate traces which had been heavily swept up by snow were found below. The searchers’ testimony about the condition of traces supplemented each other. Here is what they wrote down.

      Slobtsov (in his report) states that:

      «… In immediate proximity to the tent no traces were found. Approximately at the distance of 15–20 m from the tent, in the direction where subsequently the corpses were found, traces of a man, going from the tent, were visible on snow. And it was visible that these were traces of a person without footwear, or in valenoks. The traces stood out over the surrounding snow surface, as snow near the traces was blown out by the wind. Some slippers from different pairs were found near the tent in the wind direction, i.e. in that direction where there were human foot traces at the distance of 0,5–1 m; ski caps and other small subjects were also scattered… traces were left closely at first, side by side, and further the traces dispersed …»

      It is possible that not all the Dyatlov group, but the girls above all used slippers as inlay for warming their ski boots, – writes G.K.Grigoryev, the correspondent of the Newspaper “The Ural worker”, in “Grigoryev’s worksheets” as the witness of search works. These slippers were also used in the tent at overnight stay as it was warmer for feet while setting them against the cold wall of the tent.

      Karelin's testimony about the tent place and traces:

      «…laying out of the tent above the wood border is the group’s mistake, their unwillingness to go down into the wood and then to rise back in order to go on the crust where movement is considerably facilitated … we saw clearly the traces of the running people on the mountain slope. At first there were 8–9 of them, then fewer, and soon they disappeared completely…»

      Tchernyshov's testimony:

      «…Starting from the tent at the distance of 30–40 m …clear, well distinguishable human foot traces were found. These traces extended by parallel lines close to each other, as though people went, clinging to each other. The lines of traces stretched in some kind of two directions, – we counted 6 or 7 pairs of traces in the direction from the tent downwards, into the hollow, and more left from them, at the distance of 20 m there were 2 more pairs of traces. Then these traces (2 and 6–7 pairs) got together in 30–40 m and didn't disperse any more. The traces disappeared on stone ridges, and below the stones they appeared again, and then were lost. The traces were well distinguishable. It was visible in some traces that a person went either barefooted, or in one cotton sock since toes were left printed. Owing to pecularities of winds traces are well preserved in mountains, and they are visible not in the form of deepenings, but in the form of eroded columns, – snow under traces is condensed, pressed and not blown, and round the trace snow is blown out. Under the influence of sunshine the snow trace hardens even more and remains intact the whole winter. Below all the traces one trace in a boot was visible. The heel and a sole part were very well printed, and the medium part wasn't printed. All the traces led in the direction of the wood which began on the right in the hollow. There a little bit later the corpses were found…».

      Tempalov's testimony:

      «Beneath the tent on the slope at the distance of 50–60 m from us I came across 8 pairs of human traces which I carefully examined, but they were deformed in view of winds and temperature fluctuations. I didn’t manage to determine the 9th trace (it is underlined – a comment) and it was lacking. I took photos of them. They went downward from the tent. The traces showed me that people walked at a normal pace down from the mountain. The traces were visible only on the 50th meter site, there were no more traces farther as the lower you go down from the mountain the more snow there is. At the bottom of the mountain a small river with the depth up to 70 sm flows as though from a ravine in which the snow depth reaches from 2 to 6 meters thick in places.

      It is possible to notice that Slobtsov, Sharavin, Karelin Tchernyshev, Tempalov's testimony should be trusted, as they were the first who saw the traces, – their observation isn't distorted by change of the traces the next days (as well as by the «false» traces left by the searchers and disappearance of these traces because of aeration).

      The difference in the traces, seen in the pictures, on different parts of the mountain should be also taken into consideration. In many respects the nature of traces was defined by snow depth and its condition, – it is different in different parts of the mountain. In some places snow cover was absolutely thin, – for example, on stone ridges. And in other places the snow depth was considerable – over 2 m. Sometimes, on thick snow, the traces were in the form of «platforms» (columns) made of condensed snow. For formation of such a trace snow should be pressed through on a firm crust with consolidation which also occurs even after load removal. Then deepening of a trace was swept up partially or completely by fresh snow, and later all fresh snow was blown off from the trace on the crust and the «platform» from the condensed snow was bared which looked like a sastrugus on a firm crust. At violation of these conditions the platforms of traces weren't formed or didn't remain on other parts of the mountain. There were traces-holes (dents) in some places. The heavy snowfall could destroy completely all the traces, but it didn't fall out for 25 days before arrival of the rescuers, as it was noted by Maslennikov. Therefore the traces