Interesting idea, but ...

[similarly]

I think The Dyatlov Pass incident is a great concept and story for a game, but as someone who's studied the incident, I'd like to pass on a few mundane explanations:

1. Rustem Slobodin's skull fracture. Slobodin, like Georgyi Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko, had burns on his hands, and so was undoubtedly with them at the fire. The fire was made from branches torn from the tree. Slobodin MAY have fallen from the tree and hit his head. The real mystery was why they tore branches from the tree and didn't use the loose branches on the ground. Some have speculated that they couldn't see, possibly from blindness. I think it more likely that it was simply dark. Slobodin, Igor Dyatlov and Zinaida Kolmogorova were probably trying to crawl back to the camp.

2. The injuries of Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignolle, Lyudmila Dubinina and Zolotarev were likely caused by falling into a five meter deep ravine. Thibeaux-Brignolle had massive head injuries. Dubinina and Zolotarev had massive chest injuries and fractured ribs. Dubinina's heart was pierced and her tongue was missing.

Dubinina had torn pieces of Krivonischenko's trousers wrapped around her feet. The other three also had pieces of clothing cut from Krivonischenko and Doroshenko wrapped around them.

Zolotarev was wearing Dubinina's faux-fur coat and hat.

Here's how it likely went down:

For unknown reasons, the Dyatlov party cut their way out of the tent and ran to the forest, without shoes, coats or equipment. There were NO signs of humans or animals around the tent.

At the edge of the forest, a fire was made.

Here's MY guess. Slobodin, Dyatlov and Kolmogorova decide to try to get back to the camp for equipment, leaving the others by the fire. They perish quickly in the cold.

In their absence, Krivonishenko and Doroshenko also die of cold. The others tear up their clothes and decide, again for unknown reasons, to go AWAY from the camp into the woods.

I SUSPECT that they MAY have been running in the dark, because if they had been walking, likely only ONE of them would have fallen into the ravine.

Instead, I believe that Thibeaux-Brignolle, Dubinina and Zolotarev fell into the ravine. Thibeaux-Brignolle is believed to have died instantly or almost instantly. Dubinina would have died in minutes from the pierced heart. Zolotarev was massively injured but survived the fall.

I believe that Alexander Kolevatov, who was found with Thibeaux-Brignolle, Dubinina and Zolotarev, but had NO injuries, was running last, and when he heard the others fall into the ravine, stopped in time. Instead, he crawled down into the ravine to find Thibeaux-Brignolle dead, Dubinina dying, and Zolotarev in very serious condition. He then put Dubinina's coat and hat on Zolotarev, since he was injured but alive, and laid down with him until Zolotarev died. Kolevatov would have died of hypothermia perhaps a few hours later.

As for Dubinina's missing tongue, some have speculated that a scavenger might have come later and torn it out. It's also possible she bit it off during the fall and spat it out where it was not found.

So the injuries are not so mysterious. The real mystery though:

Why did they leave the camp in a panic?
Why did they tear off branches instead of collecting firewood from the ground?
Why did Thibeaux-Brignolle, Dubinina, Zolotarev and Kolevatov go AWAY from the camp and the fire?

Again, awesome potential for a game, but a lot of things have a rational explanation.

Oh, and the "orange skin" has been disputed as a myth.

One possible explanation people have offered is that the stones grinding may have made low frequency sounds which have been known to cause hysteria and panic in humans.

But we really don't know.

On a fun side-note: In the language of the local Mansi people, Kholat Syakhl apparently means "Mountain of the Dead" and was taboo to their people.

[Fafnir]

>nothing else surfaced until '90s after the end of the Soviets paints a very clear picture.
It doesn't, because nothing surfaced after the end of USSR. There were no new facts.
If there were blasts, why only few men got internal injuries? Why were these injuries so optional? Dark brown tanned skin color can be explained by Keferstein's spots, aftermath of death by cold and their subsequent thawing. Scrap metal in vicinity was found in few years after the incident. And it's strange to connect beta-decay with something like air-deployed mines.

[similarly]

Fafnir, I hadn't thought of that. You're right. They had time to cut the clothes from the others, wrap them around their feet and so on. So, you're right. They probably were NOT running. It's a strange thing.

[Jillas]

I just read that there's something strange with dates of the case, I think it was opened in February 6 (there's an interrogation protocol dated by February 6, and it doesn't look like it was a mistake), before the bodies were discovered by a search group (February 27) so, it looks like the army knew that they were dead long before they were found by a search group and who knows what they was able to do with the bodies or a crime scene (I don't really know if it's a right name for an incident, but you got my point).

[Fafnir]

Initiation of criminal proceedings is dated to 26/02/59, it was made just after discovery of dead Krivonishenko, Doroshenko, Dyatlov and Kolmogorova. Here's doc: https://sites.google.com/site/hibinaud/home/postanovlenie-o-vozbuzdenii-dela
Case couldn't be opened in 6/02, cause suspicions about missing of group took place only after 15/02 - that was a day, when tourists had to return to Sverdlovsk.
Can you show mentioned interrogation protocol?

[Jillas]

Nguyên văn bởi Fafnir:

Can you show mentioned interrogation protocol?

I can't show you these documents, but I read about them in the article in the russian newspaper called Komsomolskaya Pravda, here's this article http://www.kp.ru/daily/26000/2927753/ (Russian language) I'm not sure how much credible this statements is. There also said that there were 3 cameras total and we are missing two more films with 27 frames each.

[Jillas]

Nguyên văn bởi Fafnir:

Can you show mentioned interrogation protocol?

Nvm. I found it in your link, here - https://sites.google.com/site/hibinaud/home/protokol-doprosa-svidetela-popova-v-m "Допрос начат 6 февраля 1959 г., закончен 6 февраля 1959 г."

[Fafnir]

Oh yeah, I see. But well, it's hard to make any conclusions from this.
Look, witness spoke about "powerful winds in first days of February month". Manner of description, used by him, sounds... well, it sounds like he spoke about something not so close - just like if february was previous month. Sixth day isn't so far from beginning of month but he used phrase "first days of fevruary" - not "previous days" or something.
It even could be mistake in date's record and nothing more. I agree, this interrogation's protocol looks strange, but it's not enough to discourse about plot or anything like that.

[Jillas]

Hmm, you probably right, it does really sound like he was talking about the events that happened more then a few days ago so, maybe they really put a wrong date by accident, but still strange that it was written like that twice (in the interrogation protocol and on the cover of the case file http://www.kp.ru/f/4/image/61/39/613961.jpg ).

Now about the cameras, the Dyatlov group had from 4 to 5 Zorky cameras with them
You can read about 3 of them here: https://sites.google.com/site/hibinaud/home/protokol-osmotra-mesta-proissestvia or read some more info I was able to find below:

<<From the inventory (the Criminal case)

Zorky № 488797. 34 shots. Krivonischenko's camera was found with it's color filter broken and it was attached to a tripod
Zorky № 486963. 27 shots. The case has deep scratches. The belt is broken (supposedly belongs to Slobodin)
Zorky № 55149239. 27 shots. Definitely belongs to Zolotarev because 7 month after the investigation was terminated the camera was given back to his mother and she confirmed it was her son's item.

There is a testimony of Captain Chernyshov (a rescue team part) that yet another camera was found outside the tent, on its edge together with a flash light. But this is the only mentioning the camera outside, not confirmed by other witnesses

We know by now that there was yet another camera Zorky № 55242643 owned by Dyatlov but it was not included into the February inventory.>>

[Jillas]

I don't know where we can find photos made by other two cameras, but someone mentioned that there was regular hiking photos mixed with old photos from a party made in the last year (1958). So, I guess I was wrong when I thought that they wasn't shown to public. No TOP SECRET stuff after all. =(

Still, there's a few strange photos here (it's like they tried to take a picture of some object in the night sky) http://onerussian.eu/cameras-and-the-night-sky-shooting/01/05/2015/ Probably UFO or a Rocket, not sure on which camera it was made.

Also, "the unknown overwhelming force" as investigator Ivanov's reason for closing the criminal case sounds very mysterious... Personally, I think it was UFO or the military.

[similarly]

Off-topic question: Jillas, Fafnir, are you from Russia?

[Jillas]

Nguyên văn bởi similarly:

Off-topic question: Jillas, Fafnir, are you from Russia?

Yes, and I think Fafnir is also from Russia judging by his profile. Is there a problem with that? I know that my english is not perfect, but I'm trying as best as I can, sorry if some sentence that I wrote is hard to read or understand.

[similarly]

No, no! No problem at all. I was actually going to say that you and Fafnir have really amazing English. My question may have seemed rude, and if so, I'm sorry. I'm just really impressed because you both write like native speakers!

I'm also really amazed at how much you both know about this topic. I've used google-translate on the Russian documents you post, and it works quite well. I can understand the ideas through the translator.

I'm really enjoying learning about this.

[Jillas]

Aww, thank you for the kind words, wish if I was able to write like that as fast as native speakers, but to tell you the truth, I didn't study English language, and because of that I have some troubles with grammar, past and future tenses, often I use google to help me with that. The downside is that I am spending too much time trying to make my messages look better and more readable, but I'm fine with that if it can help the people like you to understand better what happened there, more than 56 years ago.

When I read about it for the first time (I think it was in 2008), I was so fascinated by this incident and we discussed it on anonymous image board for 3 days straight, and there were so many good theories, I really liked Yeti version back then, but I know it's not realistic to be true. Anyway, it's really nice to know that people from other countries is also interested by this incident.

Right now I really want to play this game, just to see what the Devs came up with, I just watched a 15-minutes gameplay video and I was feeling really jumpy for the whole second part of the video. They did a great work with sound and ambience!

[Fafnir]

Even if we don't speak about the truth, Yeti's version sounds really poor as we talk about traditional image of that creature - there was Discovery's film "Dyatlov's pass - hypothesis of the yeti" and gosh, it was really dumb. But well, there can be good story if it crosses yeti and creatures from manci's folklore, such as hum-po-len.
There's good novel, that was inspired by story of Dyatlovs' group - "Sorni-Nay's hunt", it took story of touristic hike and described its death by legendary goddess Sorni Nay - Golden Idol, Flame-woman. That's example of good artistic treatment of verisons, suggesting, that group's death was result of somebody's actions.

[Arsinowey]

Jillas,I'm excited to play the game too !! I've been reading this thread the whole time it's been up and all I can say is WOW !! You and Fafnir write really great english and the knowledge you all have on this topic is outstanding !!
To get that site where everything is laid out and I can swap between reports and news clippings and everything else,just makes my day ! I pretty much spent all day Sunday reading,watching videos on youtube ,some where stupid,but others were very informative. I really appreiciate all the time and information everyone here has posted and to be honest,Tuesday can't come quick enough for me to finally play the game !!