He also encounters the “tenth hiker”, Yuri Yudin – who turned back from the trip due to illness. On Pinterest there is a gallery of photos Eichar collected which further reinforces the humanity behind this unsolved-mystery story.Įichar weaves three stories together – the hiker’s journey in 1959, the search for them a few weeks later, and his own journey in 2012. Eichar discusses the family’s distress, especially at the difficulties having their children buried back in Ekaterinburg. For me, the most forceful impact of Eichar’s book was restoring the humanity of those who lost their lives an incident like this tends to attract a lot of speculation and curiosity with the sheer loss suffered overshadowed. This incident has attracted a lot of attention over the years, much of it conspiracy-theoretical in nature. The investigation concluded that an “unknown compelling force” had caused the deaths”ĭonnie Eichar’s book Dead Mountain is a compelling account of the incident, and his own investigation over fifty years later. Additionally, a female team member had her tongue missing. One victim had a fractured skull while another had brain damage but without any sign of distress to their skull. Soviet investigators determined that six victims died from hypothermia but others showed signs of physical trauma.

I first came across the Dyaltov Pass incident some time ago on Wikipedia, probably by following a link on the Wiki page “List of unusual deaths” The incident saw the deaths of nine Russian hikers, all students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute and experienced hikers, sometime on the night of 1st February 1959 when, as the Wikipedia page puts it: “during the night something made them tear their way out of their tents from the inside and flee the campsite inadequately dressed in heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures. Memorial to the Dyaltov Hikers,, Mikhajlov Cemetery, Ekaterinburg

Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar