OT: Talking Unsolved Legends / Events Wednesday

Submitted by Eli on July 10th, 2019 at 8:03 AM

Eli

July 10th, 2019 at 8:03 AM ^

No idea what happened, I just started the post. Anyways, the topic is the Dyatlov Pass Incident. For those that don’t know.... 9 hikers/skiers were mysteriously killed in the Ural Mountains in the What was at the time the Soviet Union. Something caused them to flee their tents inadequately dressed in the middle of the night. A couple of them had their bodies mutulated. Official cause of death was hypothermia. I am at a loss when trying to figure this one out. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Someones eyes and tongue were missing. Some had chest fractures. Some say avalanche, some say sound induced panic, some say supernatural, some say the government covered up what happened, some say it was a yeti. What do you say? Sorry for the gaffe in the OP. Have a good hump day. 

Hail-Storm

July 10th, 2019 at 9:11 AM ^

I think I read a cracked article on this that had a pretty reasonable explanation for this one.  Something along the lines of how hypothermia effects the brain and causes them to feel hot or something before death. it was a long time ago, so I'll look it up.

Hail-Storm

July 10th, 2019 at 12:23 PM ^

Found it.

The article states the theory is that an avalanche occurred causing the ripping of the tents and the trauma (bashed skulls) to the hikers.  The state of undress is theorized to be paradoxical undressing which is a known behavior for hypothermia victims.   The missing tongue is attributed to the fact that the bodies had been dead for several days, and a scavenging animal would go for the tongue, as it is possibly still unfrozen soft tissue early on before they found them.

Might still be weird stuff, but usually it's a boring truth that is the real culprit.

evenyoubrutus

July 10th, 2019 at 3:00 PM ^

Couple of thoughts: wouldn't there be evidence of an avalanche? Like, their tents should have been buried under at least several feet of snow?

What are the odds that hypothermia would have affected all of them at the same time and in the same way?

An animal attack seems most likely, but then again what sort of animal could cause the kind of trauma they experienced?

While I'm sure the explanation is very prosaic and boring, there isn't one obvious theory that makes 100% sense.

1VaBlue1

July 10th, 2019 at 8:23 AM ^

Yeti...

I dunno man.  I say the Soviet system got them.  Wouldn't put anything past those asshats that ran the Soviet Union (which includes Putin, BTW).  I'll have to read up on this sometime, since I know nothing about it!

1VaBlue1

July 10th, 2019 at 8:31 AM ^

I think enjoyment for enjoyment's sake would be reason enough for that regime.  Besides, when you leave your cushy state-assigned apartment and vodka allotment for a tent in the freezing chill of a Ural Mountain winter, you have to be up to something!

Sadly, we'll never know the extent of what the Soviet gov't was capable of.

befuggled

July 10th, 2019 at 9:37 AM ^

It makes absolutely no sense for the Soviet government to do this. If Dyatlov and crew had stumbled on something so secret that the Soviets needed to kill them, they would have just shot them and warned their friends to keep their mouths shut.

This was under the (relatively) liberal Khrushchev, but even under him the Soviets had well-established ways of dealing with dissidents and people who knew too much that didn't risk drawing more attention to whatever it was they wanted to keep secret.

readerws6

July 10th, 2019 at 8:29 AM ^

I can't imagine how scared you would have to be to run outside at night in winter and then let yourself freeze to death. Regardless of if it was in their heads or a legit fear that had to be extreme levels of fear.

Mitch Cumstein

July 10th, 2019 at 9:23 AM ^

This is a pretty interesting one. Ancient Aliens had a pretty decent segment on this.  The only explanation I can really come up with is they stumbled upon some govt experiments and were murdered as part of a coverup. There are still things about that theory that don’t really hold together, like why would the govt be so sloppy in a coverup like that.

 

This is a good commentary on the various theories:

 https://youtu.be/DvflOISJhms

huntmich

July 10th, 2019 at 9:54 AM ^

Hypothermia causes people to feel hot so they undress themselves. Then an animal comes by and eats the eyes and tongues and tries to get access to that chest jerky.

 

Solved.

monk81

July 10th, 2019 at 10:04 AM ^

As much fun as these are, I think this one has a very logical explanation. Lemmino does a great job explaining what could have happened.

 

https://youtu.be/Y8RigxxiilI

Don

July 10th, 2019 at 10:39 AM ^

Lemmino's (real name David Wångstedt) analysis is by far the most convincing explanation for Dyatlov than I've read. Solid, sober, evidence-based. The presence of the stove inside the tent explains many of the otherwise bizarre details of the deaths.

Blue Know It

July 10th, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5X1cElgBo4

I really want to know if anything ever happened to the ref that tried to intentionally give Bama this first down.

trueblueintexas

July 10th, 2019 at 10:26 AM ^

Bears wander into tent, campers cut themselves out of tent. Campers run. Bears chase campers. Bears claw hands and arms of campers. Bears pounce on other campers chests. Bear eats eyes & tongue of camper. Remaining campers afraid of going near bears still in camp die of hypothermia. 

I'm going with a Yeti did it.

drjaws

July 10th, 2019 at 10:28 AM ^

Simplest explanation is usually the most accurate.  I think they inadvertently hiked into an area with active military tests.  The "parachute bomb" theory put forth (and explained a bit on the wikipedia site) seems the most likely.  Basically, massive bombs start going off, the campers panic thinking they're being shelled, run out of the tent without putting on much clothing, get lost in the confusion (shell shock + regular old shock).  Explains almost all of the "odd" details 

ST3

July 10th, 2019 at 10:52 AM ^

Talking of unsolved legends, I just got finished watching the movie Legend, starring Tom Hardy and Tom Hardy as British gangster twins Ron and Reggie Kray. The big mystery surrounding that movie is why was it made? What an utter piece of garbage. It's like Goodfellas transported to 1960's-era London, minus ALL the good bits.