An Unknown Compelling Force?
On January 23, 1959, 10 hikers set out for a winter trek through Russia’s Ural Mountains. One turned back after several days for medical reasons, but the other nine continued along their route. They had planned to send a message back to their sports club about three weeks after taking off; so when the club didn’t hear from them by February 20, a search party set out to find the hikers.
Over the next couple of weeks, the search party found the first five of the hiker’s bodies spread out over the snow. They were in various states of dress and had bizarre injuries, with one appearing to have bitten off part of his own knuckle.
Months later, after some snow melt, investigators discovered the bodies of the remaining four hikers. They had even more inexplicable injuries. One had a fractured skull, another had a twisted neck, two were missing their eyes and one of the bodies with no eyes was also missing her tongue.
The gruesome fate of the nine hikers has generated theories ranging from natural disasters to secret weapons testing to an attack by yetis.
The Soviet government attributed a “compelling natural force” as the cause.
Although some theories are more plausible than others, the “Dyatlov Pass incident,” as it is known, remains one of most contentious and unsolved mysteries of the modern era.
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