10: The Dyatlov Pass Incident | Red Thread
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In the heart of the Ural Mountains, amidst the biting winds and the unyielding snow, remains yet a tell shrouded in decades of mystery.

The DeAlt of Pass incident, an almost innocuous sounding name that offers only whispers of the chilling story that truly took place, sits in the history books as one of the greatest unsolved mysteries ever. It was here in the dead of winter in 1959 that nine seasoned and skilled hikers ventured into the cold wilderness, seeking adventure and glory.

As the moon cast its pale light over the snow-blanketed slopes of Kolat Siakal, aptly known as the Mountain of the Dead, the group had set up their tent and settled in the relative warmth for the night ahead. The silence of the night was shattered soon after. But for reasons we know not, and through Avenue we still have no concrete answer for, all that was left in the morning were the ruins of their previous night. The hikers' tent, torn and abandoned,

Their bodies scattered across the landscape with injuries that defied logical explanation. A series of clues that seemed to lead only to more questions. This is the Dealt of Pass Incident. And this is the Red Thread!

I love that part. I love that part where you finally get to say, this is the red thread. That's my favorite part of these stories. I feel powerful now. I'm ready to punch something. That was dope. Also, for those who are going to be mad in the comments, I didn't ask to read the intro. Jackson granted me the honor of reading it this time. He just got lazy. Jackson said, I'm tired of working hard. You can just take this one. He types up 20 pages. I'm through. I've had it.

Types up 20 pages is called the lazy one. Yeah, he types up 20 pages. He's like, if I have to read that intro, that's a bridge too far. That's the last of it. Yeah, it's the straw that breaks the camel's back. I will not read this one. What I wrote is too much. It was too much for me to speak out loud. I wanted someone else to speak it to me. I wanted to be on the receiving end for once. I just wanted to know what it felt like. It was pretty cool.

It felt good to read the intro. I was a little disappointed, because I kind of wanted to start reading and be like, you're in the mountains of D'Altav. You're an avalanche. You're going really fast. Damn it! I should have done that! I should have been from the personification of an avalanche. That would have been so much better. Fuck!

Yeah, that was much more like a synopsis as opposed to like a boots on the ground type intro that you've become known for. Well, I just, I don't want to, I don't want to be known for anything, Charlie. I want to push the art form forward. I want to try different things. Yeah.

Well, this was a Wikipedia summary, whereas before you're given very abstract concept pieces. I still think that was cool. It gives the vibe. I liked it, but hold on, let me, just so the audience is happy. You're an avalanche. You're moving really fast towards a person. You're also a person. An avalanche is moving really fast towards you. This is the red thread. Yes, it's the red thread. Hello, everyone. My name is...

is Jackson, Charlie is here, Isaiah gave a wonderful rendition of my creation there. Before we really get into the... How did you pronounce it? I pronounced it Dyatlov. Dyatlov, Dyatlov, I've seen like Doltov or whatever. I have no idea. I'm

My role for foreign mispronounce, for like foreign words is I will try, but I don't promise. So yeah, well, that's the same as me. And I've got a history over this entire, the Red Spread has taught me more than anything that I just don't know how to pronounce like 90% of words apparently. So that's fantastic. That's very comforting. Um,

I'm going to go with Dyatlov just because that's what I'm used to. Dyatlov sounds good. That's what I always said for it too. I always said Dyatlov. I think it's based off my knowledge of Chernobyl, the miniseries and stuff like that. Because Dyatlov was one of the main guys. Yeah, you're right.

Anyway, so before we start talking about The Art Love, just another... I say this every time, but we've got show notes below. 20 pages of information about The Art Love past incident for you to go through on your own. Or you can read it along with the episode. That always works as well. There's pictures, sources and stuff like that in there.

I highly recommend you go check it out just so you don't miss any information and stuff like that. And we are also on YouTube, so you can see pictures and stuff. If you're listening to this on audio, you can go over to YouTube. Did I tell you guys that for the last three or four episodes, I've been putting secret little riddles in each video version of the episodes that lead to kind of like an ARG that people have to solve and then the first person to solve it gets a little prize from me on Twitter? Have you guys...

I did see that. That's pretty hot. I dig that. That's a cool note. It's mostly just been little ciphers. Yeah, it's just been little ciphers. So far they've been just stuff kind of referencing ciphers and stuff like that. But at any moment you want to, like, I don't know, form a new religion or something. That would be a good way to start it, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

I could work my way up to that. Yeah, that would be cool. Yeah, so you can see that on YouTube or you can just listen on audio platforms like iTunes and Spotify and all of that kind of stuff. If you're listening to the Red Thread on your commute, we appreciate it. Drive safe, please. Don't crash listening to us. That is very bad PR.

Feel free to share it around, leave a rating, all that good stuff. And also a big thank you to the sponsors of this episode, Zoc, Doc, and Current. Thank you to them for making the show possible. And thank you for listening to the episode as well. You guys make it possible as well. Now let's talk about Dyatlov. Where's your knowledge level, guys? I've watched a couple YouTube documentaries on it. You want to shout anyone out specifically?

No, not really. I think everyone that's covered it has done a really good job so far, to be honest. No, there's no free clout here. If they weren't in your intro, you won't hear from them ever again on this show. I was just setting you up for the easy PO in there. It's not really like a PR. I mean, everyone knows Lamino. Lamino did an amazing job. I think I'm pretty sure Nick Crowley covered it at some point as well.

I was just asking which ones you specifically watched and enjoyed. That was it. I mean, they're all good. I've seen like three on this. Didn't BuzzFeed do one too? Even theirs was good. Yeah, the BuzzFeed Unsolved, Shane and Ryan, I'm pretty sure they did one. There's of course, like you mentioned, the Laminos is popular. My buddies at the Lore Lodge did one. I think...

mr ball and did one i know yeah there's a bunch of people have covered it i actually was going to cover it a while back uh but then i looked into a lot of the details which we'll talk about when we get to it but decided instead to go with what i think is a slightly more uh mysterious disappearance the kamar debon incident but yeah i did all the research for the diatlov pass so i

I think I'm pretty, I think I know the layout, the gist of it, so to speak. So I'm pretty familiar. It's a cool story. Very cool story. There's a lot of different details and stuff, but it is definitely one of those ones that is like very popular to talk about in YouTube video essays and stuff, which was surprising to me because we still had it like heavily, uh, like not recommended, um, heavily asked for in like YouTube comments. It's probably the most requested topic so far.

uh, in the entire run of red thread, people have been asking for the outlove. So I thought, Hey, why not, uh, go over this, see if there's any details, additional details that we can pick up on, um, and, and see what happens. That's surprising. This is probably the most documented incident in YouTube history with so many high quality video essays on it.

It's up there. It's definitely up there. Yeah. Would you just a tangent, but do you guys ever find yourself just like watching thing, watching video essays about things you already know, just because it's on some level kind of just comforting weirdly. Like I'll watch essays about like,

I'll watch video essays about just really banal stuff just to make myself feel comforted. I agree. I know exactly what you're talking about, but the way you phrased it makes me feel like I don't agree. It's less of an emotional thing. Do you ever watch videos about things you know, but you know that you don't know, but you know it?

I just want to pick up on more details about things that I already know about. Yeah, I do that all the time. Like, if I make a video about something, I'll listen to other people's videos about it after the video's up just to, like, see how they covered it, see what their idea was. Yeah, yeah, I do that a lot. Especially, like, JFK videos and stuff where I'm, like, pretty conspiratorial about it. I'll watch, like, another YouTuber's video and be like... Like, I remember when... Speaking of Lamino, I love his channel. I love his channel a lot, but when he did his video about, uh...

the book depository during the JFK shooting. I was sitting there the whole time like, oh, it's so well done, but I disagree with everything, but it's so well done. I love it. Yeah. So yeah, I do that a lot. It wasn't conspiratorial enough.

Well, I mean, his was kind of saying why it wasn't that much of a conspiracy. Like, kind of making the things that Lee Harvey Oswald did immediately after, like, how it makes sense. But I would conjecture it doesn't make sense because a lot of those reports were falsified. But that's a different episode. But Laminos does incredible work. Very jealous of his video production. He does do incredible stuff, yeah. Really good. Got a nice voice as well. So, Laminos...

Just a brief synopsis, even though I kind of already did give you a synopsis through the intro story. On January 23rd, 1959, a group of 10 Russian ski hikers embarked on a challenging expedition across the northern Ural Mountains, departing from Zvedlovsk by train. They were in high spirits as they set out for Ivdel, the starting point of their journey. It was comprised of eight men and two women, and they aimed to originally commence their hike on February 1st.

Like that's when they would actually start hiking the mountain. With the ultimate destination being Otorten, which it's a trek that's about, I think it's 321 kilometers, so 200 miles. And they were planning to do it over 16 days. Um,

I'm not... I like going hiking and stuff. I would not do a 200 mile hike. Good lord. No, that's... Especially through like extreme temperatures and like snowstorms and blizzards. Dangerous treks like that. And again, like this is in the 1950s as well. Like they don't have the creature comforts that we do now. That's an enormous trek. I know that like...

People hike the AT and stuff like that, and that's, like, you know, even further. But it's also in, like, the mid-60s for most of the hike. It's not, like, freezing cold tundra. Yeah. Yeah. So this speaks to their level of confidence, their level of knowledge. And it makes sense because they were all members of, like, their university's sporting lodge or sporting club, basically. So they were all really seasoned hikers.

This is a difficult hike. It's classified as a Category 3 expedition, and they anticipated facing daunting terrain and rigorous conditions, which is pretty obvious.

A few days before they were set to actually begin the hike, so once they were there already, but they were waiting to actually begin their hike, one of the hikers, Yuri Yudin, fell ill at the outset and was compelled to return home, avoiding the same fate that befell all of the other hikers. So he got extremely lucky. He got extremely lucky that he fell ill. Otherwise, he would have just been another victim.

I feel like that happens a lot in these stories. There's always like one survivor who like narrowly dodges it because they get sick or something. Like every time I read about like a naval expedition that got lost, it's always like, oh, the only survivors were three guys who like got a tummy ache and had to get out of there. Yeah.

It must be such a complicated feeling to avoid that because on one hand, you are probably so happy that you avoided that kind of outcome. Like, oh, thank God I didn't go on that hike. Right. But on the other hand, imagine the amount of guilt you must feel that you are happy. Survivor's guilt. That's what car accidents and stuff like that. That happens a lot. I wonder, though, in this case, if you'd feel survivor's guilt considering you didn't

actually go on it though. I think it'd be more of just like the sadness of losing your friends. Well, he was five days in.

He did go on the hike. He was there with them in the starting lodge or whatever. He took the trip there and then he was like, no, he felt ill. So he turned around and went home, basically. Which makes sense. You don't want to do a hike when you're feeling ill. There's nothing really conspiratorial about this, I don't feel. And also, to your point, Charlie, he does feel survivor's guilt. There's some...

journal entries and some interviews with him where he does express pretty

pretty severe guilt over not being there with them. So that's sad. I guess you don't know until you're in that situation. Put it this way, if the three of us were going to go to the Denver airport and we met in, I don't know, Phoenix to go do it, and then I'm like, oh, sorry, I've got to use the toilet and I missed the flight and then you guys get killed by giant spiders under the airport, I'd feel bad. I'd be like, aw, I could have saved them. You'd feel even worse when I start haunting you for not going.

Yeah, but the streams would be crazy. It's like I'm sitting there playing a video game and you just hear over my shoulder, "Alright, that's about it. See ya." Then I cut your internet and you're just fucking livid. Yeah, Charlie's a ghost but he's a really lame one. He just messes with your fiber. Yeah, he's just a really annoying ghost. Sometimes your phone will just restart. I keep flicking his FPS from 60 to 30 in his games.

"Curse you Charlie, I'm glad that spider killed you." You'll know immediately that it's Charlie as well, you'll be like "Oh, fucking Charlie again." And then you have to get like a priest and exorcist out to get rid of the annoying ghost that just flicks around your graphics settings. Well then you'd feel even worse because that's such an extreme measure to take for what amounts to just a nuisance. I'd be even more mad. Yeah, it's like killing you for a second time. I go to my closet, all my Hawaiian shirts are now like white t-shirts, like you can't keep getting away with it!

He just keeps ordering Amazon deliveries from white t-shirts. Stop. Get Cynthia's back. The ghost is doing this, not me. Yeah, that'd be cool. We should do that. Yeah, we should kill Charlie so that happens. That'd be cool. Yeah, we'll see how that goes. Yeah. All right, so the location was the Dyatlov Pass, obviously in the northern Ural Mountains.

The hikers established their campsite on the slopes of Kolatsiakou. I don't know how to pronounce that. But that's also known as Dead Mountain. And it's an isolated and desolate area. So they originally trekked through from the starting area up to this area known as Dead Mountain and then set up a little camp. I think they were about three or four days into their trek. And then they set up the camp there. And this is an area that's just very kind of desolate and...

And there's forests and stuff like that, but it's just, it's extremely difficult to survive in, obviously. There are native peoples in that kind of area. I'm blanking on the name of them, the native people in that area. But there are kind of native communities in that area, especially during those times. I think it's like Mansee.

Does that sound right, Isaiah? The people who live around the Urals, you mean? Yeah. Yeah, maybe. I know it's a bunch of different groups of people. They're not isolated, but there's kind of different factions, so to speak, of people. I'm not sure if that's the word for all of them or if it's a specific group. To be honest, the sort of Central Europe, Asia, Africa, mountains, I'm pretty dumb on.

so i'll take your word for it yeah okay i think it's i think they're known as the mansi indigenous people and that's what i've got in the document just a little bit lower so i think that's correct um so let's let's go over the hikers biographies and get to know each of them before we find out what happened to them just so that we can kind of color our perception a little bit yeah on who this story well would you like me to take the uh

Yeah, go for it. The description sent horribly, but I'm going to horribly butcher all these names. I hope you all are ready for this. So, first of all, we have Igor Dyatlov, for whom the incident is named. He was born on January the 13th, 1936, and he was the leader of the hiking group, an engineer and student at Ural Polytechnic Institute. Igor often embarked on trips with his brother, Vyachilov, and fellow hikers from UPI.

In 1959, Igor initiated the plans for a challenging 60-day cross-country skiing expedition in the northern Urals, traversing the traditional lands of the Manse indigenous people. After obtaining approval from the UPI Sports Club for his proposal, Igor recruited classmates to join him on the trek. So, again, Igor is the reason the expedition gets its name.

Yeah, he's kind of like the leader, the expedition leader, the ringleader, the one that started this entire idea of going on this hike in the first place. Hey guys, you ever walk 200 miles in the snow?

You want to? Yeah. How's that guy? He must have been very charismatic, or all the other people must have just been adrenaline junkies, basically. I mean, look at that picture of him. He's got a kind smile. He does look nice. He does look nice. I'd go on a hiking trip with him. I'd go to the Denver airport with him, I think.

Yeah, you did a fantastic job on Vyashilov's, whatever his brother's name was, by the way. Oh, is that Vyashilov? I assume it is. Yeah, you did it really well. Thanks. Time for that streak to end. The comments will probably tear him to pieces if it wasn't.

So we'll know if you got it right soon. Throw me to the dogs, and I'll come back still unable to pronounce the names correctly. We're trying. No, what I'm about to do is I'm about to hit them with, like, you know, the death by a thousand cuts, because I'm going to mispronounce so many names here in a second, they won't know which one to correct. All right, so next, we have Yuri Doroshnik. Yuri Doroshnik.

And Durashnikov, and that one has an O and that one doesn't, one of those. Yuri was born on January the 29th of 1938. He was a fourth year student studying radio engineering at UPI.

Yuri was said to have possessed a spontaneous and daring nature. He was known for his impulsive adventures, such as boldly confronting a giant bear with a geologist hammer during a previous camping excursion. That is so bad. Yo! Bro, hold up. We got Igor. Are geologist hammers even smaller than normal hammers? I think they are, right? They're like little picks. If it's what I'm thinking of, yeah. I'm imagining a gavel.

Yeah, yeah, it's like a little one-handed hammer. And he approached a bear? Yo, this guy's cool. Bro, no wonder they were so willing to go out there. They've got Hammer Man at the front of the pack. I think that probably means, like, the mystery of this situation, we can comfortably rule out bears, because there's no way bears would have been the cause of this if Yuri Doroshenko was around. He would have solved that issue real quick. Yeah, the bears are afraid of him.

Yeah, bears are off the tip. We have the bear hunter out there with him. Yuri had previously been romantically involved with Zenadia...

Kolmgorov Kolmgorava But they amicably split and remained friends Zanadia That is actually like She's one of the other hikers Yeah she's one of the other hikers I wasn't just going into like gossip mode Like did you guys hear Yuri and Zanida Were hooking up Yuri and Zanadia Sitting in a tree fighting off bears with hammers Yeah

Next we have Alexander Kolvatov. Alexander was born on November the 16th of 1934 and faced adversity from a young age following the death of his father, which precipitated a decline in his family social standing. Coupled with his mother's illness, financial struggles became a prevailing theme in his upbringing. Despite these challenges, Alexander channeled his energies into his academic pursuits.

A fourth-year physics major student at UPI, he dedicated himself to his studies while actively participating in social activities like the sports club. Alexander was a prominent member of the Institute Commissal Committee, assuming leadership of the shooting sports section within the Russian Communist Youth Organization. He ventured into hiking, tackling demanding tracks such as Mount Sablia.

So basically, Alexander came up from a hard upbringing, became a very skilled outdoorsman, you know, able to take care of himself.

Yeah, they all sound like really cool people so far. Just actual chads. I'm waiting for the one that's like, this guy had a tendency to bring bombs with him wherever he went. And he was seeing ceiling bombs. This guy was an American spy. Yeah, yeah. I'm waiting for that one. This guy was a prankster. Some kind of bear device to attract all of them.

This guy was a convicted arsonist. This guy just loved bringing bears everywhere. He was known for sneaking bears into locker rooms at school. Yeah.

Ludmilla Dubnina Dubnina, yeah so Ludmilla was born on May the 12th 1938 and experienced a transient childhood, frequently relocating with her family before finally settling in Zvedolovsk when her father was transferred there for work

At the time of the incident, she was a fourth-year student at UPI studying engineering and economics. Ludmilla was an active member of the sports club and also had many other hobbies such as singing and photography. In 1957, during a student hike, Ludmilla was accidentally shot in the leg by a hunter accompanying the group.

wounded she needed to turn back to recover this didn't stop her from continuing to hike evidenced by her successful completion of a category 2 difficulty hike in the northern ural region the following year what is up with these like russian women that are like she's been shot and she returns to a hike like six months later it's actually like

Impressive how cool these people are. You gotta finish what you start. Well, who gets hired to, like, lead a college sports club and accidentally shoots a girl in the leg? Like...

Aren't hunting trips and these kind of treks where most firearm-related accidents happen? Well, it's normally because it's inexperienced people are holding the guns, walking around. But the fact that the guide is the one who shot her, that's kind of weird. Well, I mean, it's not super... It's not that uncommon, though. Like, the whole Dick Cheney shit. Dick Cheney, yeah.

Right. It's possible. It's very possible. But normally on these, it's like the rich guy who's never held a rifle before who trips and fires and causes something rather than like the guy, the guy leading the group who shoots a woman in the leg.

Yeah, plus people say that Dick Cheney was actually trying to kill that person. So, it's not like it was completely an accident. Maybe. Potentially. Yeah, next episode of the Red Thread, Jackson gets, um, what's it called when you send someone to a different country for trial? Extra-dited. Extra-dited. Jackson gets extra-dited at the US. Yep, there you go. That could be a fun Red Thread, though, just the Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney.

That'd be pretty fun. It's like me and Charlie like sitting outside of the courtroom while Jackson's in there like talking about it. Man, I hope he doesn't get executed. That'd be sad. Dick Cheney comes out with a gun. He gets to do the executing.

The judge is like, well, we're going to do this the old-fashioned way. Dick, come on out. An actual old-timey duel with Dick Cheney. That would go so hard. That'd be pretty cool. What happens between two consenting adults at 30 paces is none of the government's business. Yuri Krivoshchenko Yuri was born on February 7, 1935, pursued studies in construction and hydraulics at UPI, graduating in 1957.

His close friendship with Igor often led them on joint expeditions. Yuri worked at Chelyabinsk, a nuclear facility where the Kistem disaster happened on September 29, 1957. He was actively involved in the cleanup efforts following the plutonium plant leak.

Classic Russian nuclear facilities always. Look at our lineup currently. We have the bear hunter. We've got a woman who's been shot and keeps going. We've got all these cool guys. And then we've got Yuri, a nuclear plant worker. All these guys are superhuman so far. It continues on. This Yuri guy sounds pretty cool.

During the trip, Yuri brought along his mandolin. Oh, man. This guy. He's so cool. I love him already.

Okay.

dog no whimsy there i guess no fun allowed that's they they straight up footloosed him are you serious he got apprehended by the fun police for making too much joy i really thought like the communist russia kind of being all gray and depressing was like overblown and a bit of a meme but that

I mean, now that seems like super believable. You're not allowed to play the mandolin and just sing? I mean, maybe not since 91, because after the USSR dissolved, maybe they're a bit better, but given recent events, maybe not, you know, so I don't know. Maybe they're just, maybe it is so depressing, that's like, funds not allowed, put that mandolin up. Maybe Russia would be completely different now if they had allowed people to sing.

Yeah. Maybe if Yuri was still alive, he would have changed some stuff. Maybe the government took him out because of the mandolin. You never know. Alright, so... Next we've got Rustem Slobodin. Slobodin. Even their names are cool. Slobodin is a really cool name.

Rustem was born on the 11th of January 1936. He graduated UPI in 58. Slobodin was a talented athlete and had completed a trip from Frunze to Andikon with his father. It was a 300 meter trek that took place in the sparse mountainous area of Tien Shan. Was that 300 kilometers supposed to be?

Yeah, probably. 300 meters isn't all that impressive, if I'm being honest. You can see the end point. Yeah. He walked on a sports track behind the high school once with his father.

He walked to the end of his neighborhood street and back. We did Slobodan a bit of a disservice here with putting that in his obituary right now. That's his crowding achievement. He went walking for 300 meters once. Looks like they don't call him Slobodan for nothing. Oh, nice. I'm assuming that's going to be 300 kilometers, yeah. Next we have Zanada Komagorva. Zanadia Komagorva.

was born on January the 12th of 1937 and they were fifth year student at UPI specializing in radio engineering. She was said to be a very upbeat and social person with a positive energy that was almost infectious. Possessing a wealth of hiking experience, Zanadia once experienced a viper bite during a trip but refused to lighten her load despite the pain so as to not burden her companions.

Were these people grown in a lab? Every one of them. My word. Taken out by a viper and just shrugs it off. Continues to carry her load. That's impressive. Her commitment to both personal challenges and communal responsibilities was exemplary.

Donato held the esteemed position of member and chairwoman within the qualifying commission at the UPI hiking club. Her extensive hiking resume boasted participation in eight hikes, two of which she led, and she had embarked on six expeditions with four categorized as level two difficulty. Oh,

A word. Oh, oh, real quick. So Zenaida, Zenaida was, um, who was it? It was, I think it was Yuri Doroshenko's. Of the bear man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The bear guy's romantic interest. Yeah. I see why I would all, as a Russian man, I would also be like, wow, you did all that. That's pretty cool. Pretty hot. Nikolai Thibault Brignol.

probably sure yeah so nicolet was born on the 5th of june 1935 he had a turbulent upbringing with his father in and out of prison in march of 53 he was admitted to upi in the department of construction and graduated in 58 and then worked in a construction trust during this time at upi he was a member of the hiking club where he participated in multiple hikes and had even led one himself okay once again not a ton there for him

Not a ton there. I mean, he led a hike, so that's something, right? But yeah, not as superhuman as the others. No bear combat or, yeah. Yeah. But still probably a nice guy. No getting shot or bit by a viper and still going, yeah. Yeah. Next we have Simeon Zolotarov. So Simeon, also known as Sasha, was born in early 19... What?

Yeah, it's 1921. He was born in 1291! He's a superhuman. He's a vampire. These typos, Jackson. Unbelievable. You know what it is. You obviously don't think that he was born in 1291. You shouldn't believe everything that's there. I don't know. I think maybe Jackson was trying to tell us that Simeon's a vampire. Yeah.

It wouldn't surprise me with this crot cast of characters. What's so funny is you have a parenthesis after it that says the date can be conflicting between his own documents and the registry in his birth town. But it's in 1291. Yeah, exactly. It's like, it's like, it's like, it seems here in the records, he's 800 years old. Yeah.

Simeon served in the armed forces during the Great Patriotic War from 1941 to 1946, and even received four military awards. After a few years, he ended up going to the Institute of Physical Education in Minsk, where he graduated in 1950. Then went on to become a senior tourism instructor at the Korovaska tour base. Simeon had steel-capped teeth, tattoos, and a distinctive old-fashioned mustache.

Again, a Chad. Why would you get steel-capped teeth? What does that do?

Let you chew into human flesh more easily. Because he's a vampire. It's something they used to do with people whose teeth got broken up or to prevent teeth getting broken up. So imagine it's like old replacements. But a lot of guys in the military would get steel-capped teeth just to make... For one, so they could chew through stuff. But I've heard stories of steel-teeth Russian guys getting punched in the jaw and it hurts the other guy's hand. Yeah.

Oh, that's pretty cool. When you say chew through stuff, do they chew through barbed wire fences and shit like that? Well, I mean, you could, theoretically, if you had steel-capped teeth, but I mean, literally, it's a hard material to chew food with and stuff like that. But I mean, you could also chew through barbed wire, I guess. That'd be pretty cool. That would be cool. It's like bolt cutters in your mouth.

Alright, and then the last we have is Yuri Yudin. The one that left. Yes. Yuri is the sole survivor of the Dyatlov Pass tragedy, suffering from a...

sciatica oh oh i haven't seen that spelled before huh that's weird yeah sciatica flare up in unbearable pain he was forced to return home five days into the trip until he died in 2013 gregor was tormented by guilt over the death of his friends he reportedly visited the cemetery every year with deep survivor's guilt causing him to think he should have been there with them at their end when he had departed everyone

Wait, when he had departed, everyone was upset. The group gave Yuri a mascot that he has always since kept hold of. Some people believed he was in love with Ludmilla, although he denies this. But he never married. It seems he deliberately loaded himself with lots of work during his final life to escape the ghost of his past. Yuri believed that the death of his friends was not natural. He declared, not long before his death, that he believed they were taken from their tent at gunpoint and murdered.

Dubina was the most outspoken of the group, he said, which is why her tongue may have been cut, which is a detail of the desk we'll get to in a bit.

Yeah. And then there's a photo in the document as well of Ljordmilla, Juri, Nikolaj and Rustem Slobodin all hanging out together. It seems like they were very close friends and a tight-knit group. And yeah, it's a shame about Juri Jutton. Well, it's not a shame. He survived, so that's good. But it's a shame that he felt...

It kind of like haunted him for the rest of his life. That one incident ruined his life for the entirety of like, what, 60 years? Yeah. Tragic. Yeah, it's extremely sad. I'll take this next part.

So this is now getting into the discovery. As days passed without any communication from the hikers, their families grew increasingly concerned. Reports of heavy snowfall in the area intensified their worries, prompting frantic calls to UPI and the local bureau of the Communist Party, urging for assistance in locating the group.

On February 20th, a search operation commenced, drawing volunteers from UPI, prison guards from the nearby Lidvel camp, man-sea hunters, local police, and military personnel who deployed planes and helicopters for aerial assistance. So they really took that seriously. They got the whole kit and caboodle coming out to try and locate the hikers. Well, they do. They would today, I would think.

Yeah, but I mean, this is still like the 1959... We wouldn't pull prison guards and stuff like that, right? Yeah, this is still a lot. This is still a huge turn up for it. Oh yeah, definitely. The following day, ski tracks were discovered leading to the eventual finding of the hiker's tent atop the desolate peak of Kolat Syakl, or Dead Mountain. The tent, partially collapsed and buried under snow, lay empty upon digging it up. It became apparent that the tent had been deliberately slashed in several places.

despite the external damage their interior remained remarkably orderly with food laid out as if about to be eaten downhill from the tent distinct footprints of multiple individuals were observed these footprints suggested that the individuals were not wearing boots but were instead either barefoot or wearing only socks and a single set of footprints indicated that one person may have been wearing one boot

The trail of footprints went on for approximately 600 to 700 yards before abruptly halting near the edge of a tree line. So what do you guys think so far? To me, that kind of screams that they obviously left the tent on a moment's notice because they were in multiple stages of undress or dress. Only one boot on, they didn't have time to put the other one on, obviously. So that's what it seems like to me. I think that's the only logical explanation. I remember in like, I don't remember which video, but one of the videos I watched on Dyatlov,

They talk about how some people believed in like some kind of paranormal thing where they're being like hypnotized into leaving or led that way by some kind of force or some shit. But I think the only thing that really makes sense is that they were hurried out and due to some kind of emergency.

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helping the show out in that way it really does mean so much to us please check the sponsors out if any of them interest you otherwise back to the show thanks now returning to the diatlov pass incident charlie did you want to continue yes please on february 27th the first bodies were discovered the first bodies discovered were those of yuri gravinich

Krivonishchenko and Yuri Doroshenko. See, it's not so fun, is it? Huh? I can do all of them except Krivonishchenko. Krivonishchenko. That's the only one that I'm going to get hung up on. It's too many letters. Get rid of them. Found beneath a cedar tree in the forest beside an extinguished fire. Yuri was wearing an undershirt, a long-sleeved checkered shirt. There's two Yuri's here. You should specify. Okay.

Yuri Krivonishenko was wearing an undershirt, a long-sleeved checkered shirt, swimming pants, long underpants, and a torn sock on his left foot with no shoes. He exhibited signs of frostbite, along with multiple bruises and abrasions on various parts of his body.

Four. Well, wait, you say oof there...

Isaiah I'm assuming you think that like maybe he bit down with a lot of force for there to be skin in his mouth yeah either way if it's if he bit down to like he had to do something and he was biting his hand to stop from screaming or if he was like trying to wake his hands back up either way that's that's brutal

like you know but i also well he's probably like he had frostbite so i'm assuming that he was probably trying to wake his hand up yeah well but the skin will also maybe would have come off easier he probably didn't have to bite down that hard to get this that's what i was thinking yeah yeah or at least he wouldn't have felt it you know the level of it true yeah brutal brutal situation does frostbite get rid of like it kills the nerves right so you don't feel anything late stage yeah

It would, uh, I mean, I don't know if you wouldn't feel anything cause you still have like deep tissue nerves in your hands and stuff, but it would be, you know, like this is dumbing it down a lot, but you know how like when your arm falls asleep, you can't feel it for a bit or you can't feel like this top layer of your skin. It's kind of like that. Um, only you're a lot more cold and miserable, of course.

So then,

His body bore numerous bruises and abrasions with traces of moss and pine needles found in his hair. The right side of his head showed burns while blood covered his ears, nose, and lips. Swelling and dark red hemorrhaging were observed on his upper lip, and his right cheek displayed a gray foam accompanied by gray liquid emanating from his mouth, likely due to pulmonary edema.

uh edema god geez edema yeah medical experts assess these injuries as non-lethal proposing that yuri may have inflicted them upon himself in a state of agony possibly striking himself with rocks and ice speculation arose regarding the origin of the gray liquid on his cheek suggesting it could have resulted from external pressure on his chest cavity or a fall from a tree

Yeah, I think, though, I don't know if I mentioned it in this document, but there are reports that the tree that they were sitting underneath where their bodies were found, it was a cedar tree, a cedar tree, and its branches were all, like, kind of torn and, like, shredded and stuff like that. It looked like someone had climbed it previously, is what the assertion is. Yeah, and so it's possible that he may have climbed to scope out the area and then fallen and damaged himself in that capacity. Mm-hmm.

That would explain the blood and stuff like that too. I don't know about the burns though. The burns are interesting and there's a theory later on that we might get into. Well, we will get into that. They were next to an extinguished fire, right? So the burns could have come from that fire. Like maybe he fell from the ground to the fire. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Possibly. Yeah.

But I remember in one of the videos, again, I don't remember which one. This is also where they got into like a more, I wouldn't say conspiratorial because this whole thing is so like mysterious and the circumstances so confusing, but they were talking about how this could have been like, uh, them being tortured out here. And then like they escaped and that's why he like bit down to stop from screaming. So they couldn't find them again. Shit like that, which is also why they had like all these abrasions that could be from them getting like cut or tortured or whatever. Um,

The issue with those kinds of theories is I don't think that there's enough evidence

Yeah. ...in the environment to kind of build up to that. Like, there's no... If there were actually, like, a military force out there or a group of people that were interrogating 10 hikers, I think there would have been far more evidence left behind in that of footprints, stuff like... You know, stuff like that. Well, not necessarily. In an environment like that, I feel like that's constantly going to be changing with, like, you know, snow falling and, like, all that. Like, I feel like that could easily get away. Yeah, except... Except there were...

The way that most of these bodies were discovered was through footprints. That's true. The footprints from them survived, so how the fuck would the torturers erase the... Not saying I believe in those conspiracies, just saying that they're out there. I mean, I'm not ruling anything out with this one. It's just there's not enough evidence to definitively say one way or the other. So a lot of the conspiracies like that I think are more than valid enough anyway to talk about.

So later that day, the bodies of Igor Dyatlov and Zinaida Kolmogorova... Kolmogorova. Man, when I... So when you were pronouncing these, Isaiah, I thought you were just a fucking buffoon. But, like, saying them out loud is so much harder than reading them. Yeah. Yeah, it's not so fun, isn't it? Look, everyone. Funny how that works. Point and laugh at the other guy with dark long hair and a beard. Ha ha, look at you, stupid. Did you really just say that reading them is easier than speaking them out loud? Of course it is. What the fuck?

Well, like in my head, I think most people have like a little voice in their head. So when I'm like reading this, I'm hearing it in my voice in my head. I'm like, oh, it's so easy. It's just clearly Karl Magarova. Oh, there it is. Have you guys heard? Have you guys heard of the people that don't have an inner monologue and don't have a voice in their head? I don't believe it because I have a voice in my head.

you have a voice in your head. I really don't think that they, I don't think it's real. I think it's just not recognizing what, what you're saying. Cause I feel like everyone has to have some kind of inner monologue. Yeah. Unless you only think in like pictures. I, I have heard some people say that like once they hear about something or like say they watch a movie or something, they never think about things unless they are talking about them out loud. They never, there's no inner thought, inner conversation. Yeah.

and I can't wait so they're just entirely they're entirely uh led by impulses they're on auto they're on autopilot constantly all the time yeah you don't have any free will you're just kind of like they don't they don't do things unless it is being discussed like unless they are actively talking or doing something about it there's no consideration no that is actual like NPC behavior I know it's terrifying NPC behavior it is terrifying yeah

But anyway, they were discovered further up the slope, suggesting they had been attempting to make their way back to the tent before passing away. They were found facing the tent with tightly clenched fists. Igor Dyatlov's body was located approximately 300 meters from the cedar tree, mostly buried under the snow, with only his clenched fists visible above his chest. He was dressed in an unbuttoned, fur-sleeveless vest,

Interesting.

What would stop a watch? All of the watches on these individuals, a lot of them had watches. All of them stopped at varying times. Is it just from being in the snow, probably? Yeah, it frees up the gears, for sure. Probably, yeah. Yeah.

That's not super suspicious. Okay, but I guess that would give an idea of when he finally succumbed in the snow then, surely. Yeah, I'm sure it was good for the forensics, but it's not like there's anything mysterious about the watch stopping. Yeah, yeah.

I will say, though, like their outfits are really like what they were found wearing is all very interesting because they're in just like this mishmash of different things in different states of disarray. It's just very odd. If they knew they had to leave the tent for whatever reason, I'm assuming they just grabbed whatever they could to put on while they were leaving, while they were.

Yeah, but if they had time to grab and put stuff on, I feel like they would have put things on that made more sense. The first thing you'd probably grab is a fucking giant coat, right? I feel like they had no time at all to dress. It was just whatever they were in at the time. Yeah, that too. Yeah, definitely. I thought you were saying they didn't have enough time to style match and make sure they colored their mind and stuff like that.

I just meant like, you know, being found in like just this complete, you know, hodgepodge of random little assortments, like one different sock, like a cotton sock, a wool sock, but no shoes, that kind of stuff. The shoes thing is what gets me because if you knew you were going to be walking in the snow, if you were heading out of the tent and you knew that you were going to be walking in snow, I would think you would hyper-focus on getting some shoes. Yeah.

Yeah, that'd be another one of your priorities you would imagine. Yeah. But if you're panicking a lot, maybe it just doesn't cross your mind. I'm sure that's the case, yeah.

Dyatlov suffered no internal injuries but was found with extensive abrasions and bruises covering various parts of his body including his face, forehead, upper eyelids, cheek, etc. Knees, hands, legs, and ankles. Dried blood was observed on his lips and his hand joints displayed brown-red bruises indicative of potential hand-to-hand combat injuries. Additionally, he had superficial wounds and incisions on his left hand and right ankle. The cause of his death was determined to be hypothermia.

That's an interesting one to me. Injuries kind of suggesting hand-to-hand combat. How else would you cause bruising on your knuckles and stuff like that if not using your fists in that capacity? Yeah, I have no idea. That's definitely a mysterious one. Yeah.

It is interesting how they all kind of came out of this with a lot of different injuries that don't necessarily align with one another. Like, if they were all taken in the same event, I would have thought that their injuries would be more consistent. The only thing I can kind of write a lot of these as is this was the 50s, correct? Or the 60s? It was 50s. Yeah, 50s. Okay, so...

And the bodies had been out there a while, so maybe natural bruising from early decomposition was mistaken for bruising, but I think they knew the difference, right? Or at least the form. Yeah, I would assume that they would be able to pinpoint post-mortem bruising. Yeah, versus pre-death bruising. Interesting. Yeah, it's strange. I forgot about a lot of these details.

It's interesting. Yeah, it's been a while since I watched those videos, so a lot of these are a bit foggy to me now. Zanata was located approximately 630 meters from the cedar tree lying face down. She was dressed in two hats, a long-sleeve undershirt, a sweater, a checkered shirt, and another sweater with a torn cuff on the right sleeve. The sweaters were worn inside out. She also wore cotton sport pants, trousers, ski pants with three small holes at the bottom of the right leg, three pairs of socks, and no shoes.

Of all the discovered hikers so far, she had the most extensive clothing protection. She was also found in possession of her five rubles and a military-style protective mask. So she has time to put on two hats and a military-style protective mask, but no shoes? That's interesting. It's so strange. You know that almost... This is 630 meters from the tree the other two were at, right?

Yeah. And she's wearing two shirts and they're inside out. So no shoes. So it sounds like all of them left wearing basic clothes. And then maybe after the two of them die by the tree or they're about to die, she takes their clothes or they give them to her and she quickly throws them on. Although the clothes are inside out and then makes it, you know, 630 meters away before dying.

So... That's kind of interesting. That is an interesting theory. Yeah, it sounds like she took the clothes off of them, because that would explain why she wasn't wearing any shoes, because none of them were wearing shoes, but she took what clothes she had from the two others. I just can't believe that, like, not many of them are wearing shoes. Like...

We should add another conspiracy into this that there was like a shoe thief out here or something. What it likely was... Now, hold on. Hold on. There were no survivors, right? Were any of them discovered with... Okay, except Yuri, yeah. Were any of them discovered with shoes? Or, alternatively, it doesn't have to be anyone who was found. If there was someone else out there with them and you were prepared to make a long hike back somewhere, you would want to take spare shoes, right? Because you can go through them pretty quick, especially if they're the wrong size. Right.

So maybe if there was a soul survivor walked out, he took a bunch of the shoes. But what more than likely happened is they were all rushed out of their tents, say middle of the night in different directions. And then they had to scrounge around with what they have, what they, you know, picked up as they were walking out or dragged out of their tents potentially. Yeah. Yeah. She had the protective mask. What do you think that's something that she brought with her?

Yeah, I would assume that they would have taken masks on this kind of hike. Is this like a ski mask type thing? I was picturing like goggles. Yeah. Okay, yeah, that's fine. That's something she'd have access to, yeah. Yeah. And I just went through the document and had a quick glance. I think most people either had no shoes or just one shoe. Okay. Yeah, there... So what...

What that sounds like is they were forced out of their tent, away from their gear, and then scrounged through what they had, what they were already wearing. And for some reason couldn't go back to the tent to get anything. And couldn't go back to the tent, yeah. I think we have to remember as well that this was likely in the middle of the night. It was probably pitch black, very dark environment, maybe even a snowstorm, I believe.

So I doubt once they got split up, I don't think that they would have been able to go back to each other to like loot each other to find like collect shoes and stuff like that. I think once they got split up, I think that was probably it. That's my presumption because it's at the middle of the night. I guess they could shout to each other and stuff like that. And maybe that's why one of the guys climbed the tree was to see where all the other people were.

I guess it's possible. If I remember correctly, isn't the leading theory that it was an avalanche that got them all out of the tent and forced them into this frenzy going in all kinds of different directions?

I believe that's the leading theory, yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the one that most find to be the most credible. Zaneta also displayed numerous abrasions and bruises, particularly on her face and hands. She bore a jagged wound with missing skin on the back of her right hand, near the base of her third finger, and a long red bruise measuring 29 by 6 centimeters. It was evident on the right side of her waist, prompting speculation that it may have been caused by a baton. Her cause of death was attributed to hypothermia resulting from a violent accident.

See, again, the injuries are just so inconsistent with one another. An even bruise across the hip is weird, you know?

Yeah, it's just all of these abrasions and bruises and all of that. Like it just doesn't make sense for the situation that they found themselves in unless they were fighting one another or fighting like a bear, I guess. They were fist fighting a bear, like boxing, throwing hands and stuff. I don't mean to get ahead, but I do. If I remember correctly, one of the bodies was like chewed up and all of that, which I mean, leads to a bear theory.

Yeah, well also if they were out here for like a week, right, you know, an animal could have came by later, you know, chewed them up. Yeah, that's true. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the cause, yeah. On March 5th, Rustem Slobodin was discovered approximately 480 meters from the cedar tree, found face down, oriented towards the tent, covered in 50 centimeters of snow. Rustem appeared to be better dressed compared to his previously discovered bodies.

His attire included a long-sleeve undershirt, regular shirt, sweater, two pairs of pants, four pairs of socks, and one felt Valinka boot on his right foot. He wore a watch that stopped at 8.45 a.m. Among his belongings were 310 rubles, his passport, two shoe insoles tucked into his sweater, small folding pocket knife, pencil, pen, comb, box of matches, and one cotton sock. So he had a lot on him. He had a ton of stuff on him.

He should have put the cotton socks somewhere, like maybe over his hand or something like that, maybe. Maybe that was his idea and it just didn't work out. Yeah. It's just such an eclectic mix of equipment that they all ended up having at the end. It's so strange. And again, one boot and two shoe insoles tucked under his sweater as well. Yeah.

Slobodin's injuries were predominantly concentrated on his face and hands, featuring abrasions and bruises, some of which, similarly to Dyatlov, mirrored the patterns often associated with hand-to-hand combat. He had swelling on both sides of his face, traces of blood discharged from his nose, and a fracture of the frontal bone of his skull was identified during forensic examination. Forensic pathologist Boris Vazrazhidin...

Boris suggested that his skull fracture may have been caused by a blunt object. Medical assessments also indicated that the possibility Slobodin experienced a loss of coordination due to shock following a blow, potentially speeding up his death to hypothermia.

Yeah, so, okay, let's operate under the assumption that an avalanche did occur. I guess the force from an avalanche could be consistent with those kinds of injuries and bruising, because it's basically being hit by a blunt object, right? If you're hit with that much snow, with that much force. Or, I mean, there's a lot of debris in avalanches, too. Could have got hit by, like, a limb or something. Yeah, tree branches and stuff being carried down.

We'll probably get into it eventually, but with an avalanche, if an avalanche did occur and that's what instigated the whole scenario, I would have assumed they would just be buried instead of just impacted. So that's the issue, right? A lot of the stuff was buried, like a few of the bodies in the tent and stuff like that, but why were some of them just above? What could have happened is there was an avalanche that made them all run away and then they can't get back to their gear because it's under the snow now.

I guess that's possible, but wasn't the equipment found above the snow eventually? The tent wasn't, right? They said it was under snow and they had to recover it. Oh, right. And some of the equipment was above. And it had also been a week, so some of it could have melted or evened out since then or something like that. Yeah, true. But in the middle of the night, they probably couldn't find it. Yeah, I don't think they would have found their tent and stuff in the middle of the night anyway. Yeah.

Yeah, even if I also this is the second time someone has injuries consistent with hand to hand combat. I feel like that has to just be a mistake of the time that doesn't make any sense under these circumstances. Like assuming like they panic, they run from the tent. I don't see them going like, you know, fucking fisticuffs like pugilist and settling their differences like that. I don't think they started fighting each other.

At least not like a physical hand-to-hand fight. Well, just theoretically, if these two... Not to insult the dead, but if these two were... They were afraid they were going to starve to death, freeze to death, something like that. There could have been a fight. Someone's like, we should stay here. No, we should go. They start yelling. Maybe they do get into a quick fight. I don't think they killed each other, but maybe a few punches or something, right? I think it's also important to add at this point that...

a lot i think half of them were intoxicated oh they were drunk yeah i think i think a few of them were drunk um or at least that might lead to it a little bit that would explain a little more if there was like a fight or something that broke out but we're talking about post post uh accident what if the fight occurred beforehand as well we don't know

The events leading up to the accident. That's a really good point. Yeah, it could have happened before they ever even needed to hustle out of the tent. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because they've been drinking and partying all night. They've been drinking the night before. Then an avalanche shows up. So, yeah, they could have got to a fight, you know, hours before they had to ditch. Yeah, we don't know that it's necessarily caused by the incident that led to the end. Yeah. Yeah.

The presence of an icy bed beneath Slobodin's body formed from the hardening of falling snow suggested that his body retained some warmth at the time of his fall. While bruises and scratches were attributed to last-minute agony, uncertainty surrounds how he sustained injuries to his exposed hands and legs. In the cases of Doroshenko, Kolmogorova, and Slobodin, liver mortis spots were detected on the upper surfaces of their bodies, leading to speculation that their bodies may have been turned over post-mortem.

However, some interpretations suggest that Vaz Rodini may have mistaken frostbite erythema for liver mortis. So, yeah, I guess they're calling into question the coroner's report there. It could be liver mortis or it could be frostbite erythema. Either way...

There's the question there of were these bodies turned over and looted maybe, potentially. And the two bodies by the cedar tree, they also had those same... They were found in that same situation where the question was were they turned over after they had died. So a lot of the bodies have that. Interesting, okay.

The din provided shelter from the cold winds constructed with cedar branches to minimize contact with the snow, effectively creating a makeshift bed. The manner in which they were found suggests a rational attempt at survival with efforts made to preserve themselves and endure the ordeal. Yeah, can you read this one? You skipped over that one.

Oh, you're right. Whoops. Yeah, I was like, oh, yeah, that makes more sense. What did? Answer the question. Search efforts persisted for two months until May 5th. A Manse native accompanied by his dog stumbled upon a peculiar trail marked by cut branches. Following this trail for 50 meters, they came across torn clothing. This area had been previously searched, but the heavy snowfall had obscured the evidence. Here, in a makeshift den nestled within a ravine, the bodies of the remaining four hikers were discovered.

So that's the den. I just went ahead on. Yeah. So, so there were four survivors that actually were cognizant enough and okay enough to create a makeshift den from branches and stuff like that to try to, um, you know, wait out the storm or whatever. Man, that's terrifying.

I didn't know that. I didn't know that there were four. This shows how long it's been since I've looked at it, but I'd forgotten at least that there were four far enough away that it looks like they had set up some kind of shelter, which certainly implies they could not get back to the tents. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, they didn't know what direction to go in or anything like that, I'm assuming.

Ludmilla was discovered on her knees, her face and her chest pressed against a rock. She was wearing multiple layers of clothing, including a short-sleeved shirt, long-sleeved shirt, two sweaters, one of which belonged to Krivishchenko, and later tested positive for radiation. Underwear, long socks, two pairs of pants, the outer layer damaged by fire and torn, a hat and two pairs of warm socks. It appears that Ludmilla had torn one of the sweaters and cut it into two pieces in an attempt to protect her feet from freezing.

Fourth.

So there's an interesting... A lot of people ran wild with this one in particular, with Ludmilla, about her tongue. Because the coroner's report says the tongue was missing. People obviously took that to mean it was removed, like it was cut out. She was silenced, effectively. And then they take that in a conspiratorial direction, believing that it was torn out. That's not...

what I understand the coroner's report to actually say, it just says it was missing, which I feel like if it was torn out, there would be some, some level of, um, you know, abrasion or something like that. Some, some level of evidence that the coroner could point to, to say that it was removed. Whereas when he says missing, I assume it to mean from something like decomposition or something like that. Yeah. I think that's much more likely.

Yeah. And we've got to remember at this point, the bodies were there for a few months, I think. Yeah. Birds pluck out her eyes, something like that. Yeah. I think it's just way more likely that they've just decomposed. Decomp to that degree. We already have that soft tissue decomposition around her eyes, eyebrows, nose bridge and left cheekbone, stuff like that. And I think in that situation, the eyeballs and the tongue would probably be the first to go. The heart hemorrhaging is interesting, though.

Like, unless... I'm not aware of it, it might be, but... Unless that's a symptom of, like, late-stage hypothermia, what kind of trauma would she have experienced that caused heartbleed, you know? A significant force, I would think. Yeah. And she also suffered multiple broken ribs, which indicates to me force as well. Yeah, so she was hit pretty hard by something, I would think. Yeah.

Which could explain that. It sounds like a car crash injury. That's wild. It really does, yeah. Which again, avalanche maybe. Yeah, could be. Alexander Kolvator and Semyon Zolotaryov were discovered embracing each other, presumably in an effort to conserve body heat.

Zola Taryov was found adorned in layers of clothing including two hats, a scarf, long-sleeved shirt, black sweater, coat, underwear, two pairs of pants, and skiing pants. Additionally, he carried a copy of the newspaper, coins, and a compass. He also wore socks and a pair of handmade leather shoes. He also had a camera hanging around his neck, although the film was damaged by melting snow, prompting questions about why he carried the camera during the initial departure from the tent. He was also clutching a pen and paper in his hands.

Damn, if only he wrote what happened. That would be so fucking helpful. If only we could get photos from that camera, dude. Yeah, he was definitely taking photos at the end to document, no doubt. You reckon? Yeah, 100%. He has the camera around his neck. He's got a pen and paper. Yeah.

There are some photos that were recovered from the film, from the film, from the camera, from Zola Taurov's camera that we'll get into eventually. But most of them were obviously degraded. I imagine the more recent photos were the ones that were degraded and the ones that survived were the earlier ones, considering how film would be wrapped around itself. True, yeah.

Zolotirov's injuries included missing eyeballs and soft tissue around his left eyebrow. He also suffered from multiple broken ribs and an open wound on the right side of his skull, exposing bone. Ouch. This is another brutal one. Enough for us to show bone. And I assume they know the difference between, like you said, pre- and post-mortem. So, man, gosh, that's brutal.

It always gets me whenever I hear about two people dying in each other's arms. It's so tragic. I'll take these next two quotes and then you can continue on. So these quotes are from the forensic investigator Boris Vozrozdeny who was...

interviewed about this situation, the case. So this question is, how is it possible to explain the cause of the damage to Dubinia and Zolotaryov? Is it possible to combine them into one cause? And Boris replies saying, I think the character of the wounds on Dubinia and Zolotaryov

A multiple fracture of the ribs on Dubinia were bilateral and symmetrical, and on Zolotarov were one-sided. Both had hemorrhaging into the cardiac muscle with hemorrhaging into the pleural cavity, which is evidence of them being alive when injured. These wounds, especially appearing in such a way without any damage to the soft tissue of the chest, are very similar to the type of trauma that results from the shockwave of a bomb.

Which is, that's a lot of force for him to directly be like, these guys might've been bombed. That's probably like the most apt explanation that this guy can come up with basically.

That would explain a lot of the injuries away, especially all the hands bruising and tearing. You hold your hands up to cover your face or something. It's not inconceivable to me, especially with military bases and stuff like that in the area, I'm assuming. What are the chances they blew up something in the fire? Because most of the body, most of the carnage was around that, right? The fire that was found? That was near the cedar tree. Yeah, that wouldn't have been it. You're right. You're right. That wasn't near the... Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

Yeah, I think if it was some kind of bomb, that would have been the main impetus of the events in the first place, not something that happened later on once they had left. So this next question is, how long could Dubinia and Zolotaryov have lived? And Boris, the forensic investigator, replies, Dubinia died 10 to 20 minutes after the trauma.

Wow. So, yeah, well, she could have been conscious. Sometimes it happens that a person with a wound to the heart, for example, a serious knife wound,

So, she... Like, the forensic investigators, like, her injuries are consistent with someone who probably died pretty quickly after the events. Yeah.

So she was one of the ones that was found, though, in that kind of makeshift cabin or whatever it was. Makeshift shelter. Did Benio's in the makeshift shelter? Oh, wait, no, she wasn't, was she? Yeah, no, no, she was. It's Ludmilla. Yeah, she was the one who was leaned up with her tongue removed and everyone thought that was her. Wait, hold on. If she only lived 10 to 20 minutes after the heart injury...

How did they have time to set that shit up? Maybe they set it up and then brought her body in. That's possible. It also could have been. Yeah, I guess. It also could have been maybe this. I don't know what series of events would have led to this, but I mean, that goes for the whole case. They get away from the tent site. They go set up the shelter. And then after the shelter set up, she receives the injury to her heart.

But I have no idea what that could have been, right? Unless someone was physically hunting them through the woods or something. Yeah, I just don't see that...

being as likely as her receiving the injury in the first place that, you know, gave everyone else their injuries. They said they found her on her knees, right? Like, leaned up against a rock. That's a weird way to, like, set up your friend. Like, your friend's dead, you bring her body back, and you're like, here, it's like you're talking with us. Just lean up against that, yeah. Well, no, it says Leon Miller was discovered on her knees, her face and chest pressed against a rock, which, to me, that doesn't sound like a natural position for her to put herself in. Unless she was, like, winced over in pain or something. Yeah.

Yeah. Again, she bled out in like 10 minutes, according to the... The forensic investigator says that she likely died 10 to 20 minutes after the trauma. The trauma itself. We don't know when that trauma happened. You can't bleed out of your heart for like days, right? It's a pretty serious injury. He does say that she could have been conscious after the trauma.

Like after she got hit in the heart, maybe she had 10 to 20 minutes to be awake and then she dies. Yeah. Cause otherwise you get hit like that. You're knocked out and then you die after you're knocked out. Yeah.

God, this case is so complex in terms of all these different moving pieces. What would have blown up? Because now I'm saying, yeah, bomb sounds like it, because that explains a lot of the burns and the cuts and stuff like that. But what would have blown up? Was one of them like, oh, cool, I brought this bomb, guys. Let's throw it in the campfire. Okay, so there's an element. I highly recommend people in the audience check out Lemino's video. I remember that his main...

hypothesis or theory was that the tent had a stove inside yep I remember that what if the stove blew up oh those things yeah those little pressurized metal ones used to do that if you didn't like air it out properly let me know his main theory and I'm sorry to the audience that we're this is just the course of a natural conversation I would have liked to talk about the theories all up at the end once we got through the end but it's just more

more engaging for us this way i guess um lemino's main theory is that a fire was caused in the tent from their makeshift stove thing uh and then they left but as we're discovering right now a lot of these injuries are more consistent with what we would think would be some kind of explosion it would depend on what kind of stove it was too right yeah what if the stove exploded though that would kind of

give both the best of both sides right it would but how would it be an explosion like if it's a little portable stove i don't think it'd be an explosion big enough to injure all 10 of them at once right well so i just went to his video to skim through his conclusion another thing is he was talking about like the smoke inhalation and stuff like that like it's a lot more than just like the blast it's just everything that came after right i guess i wonder if

I don't know. Let's keep reading. Let's see more injuries and stuff. So, Alexander Kolvatov was discovered wearing a sleeveless shirt, long-sleeved shirt, sweater, fleece sweater, and badly damaged ski jacket with a burnt hole on the left side. His jeans were unbuttoned, unzipped, and he wore shorts and two pairs of pants. He lacked shoes, but he wore knitted wool socks with an additional sock on the right foot and three on the left. Among his belongings were a key safety pin, blank paper, and two packets of pills. Furthermore...

The waistband of his sweater and the lower parts of his trousers tested positive for radioactivity. His eyebrows were missing, skull exposed, and he had an open wound behind his ear, a deformed neck bleeding behind the left knee, and macerated fingers and feet. His skin was tinged a gray-green-purple. Okay, that's the second... The first time I was gonna let the radiation thing go...

Because I thought maybe it was like, well, one of them worked at a nuclear plant. Maybe that's what they mean. But what is the second mention of his clothes were radioactive? I mean, all things are radioactive. Everything's radioactive. Yeah. Yeah. But that's not what they're testing for. I know. But I don't think we know specifically how radioactive they are. But it's enough to make a note of. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably not pertinent to what happened here.

Yeah, I guess. They just brought their Iranian tin fish. It was the Soviet Union. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right. It was the Soviet Union during the 50s, and they had a habit. I got these clothes from Chernobyl, yeah. They have a habit of reactors exploding and stuff like that, so who knows. Yeah, sure, I don't know.

And then the final hiker, Nicolay, was enveloped in multiple layers of warm clothing, including sheepskin fur jackets. And additionally, he donned a pair of felt Van Linky boots in his right pocket.

Yes.

Thank you, investigators. Very insightful. Why didn't I think of that? I think they thought probably an avalanche or something similar to that was probably the most likely scenario here. The word compelling is so funny. Like, it beat them to death and cut them up and froze them. It's, like, quite compelling, really. Like, this is really interesting, actually. Very persuasive.

I thought I was also laughing during Charlie's reading of that because when it says tucked in his pocket was coins, a comb, and pieces of paper, I thought it said coins, a bomb, and pieces of paper. Just a pack of sweet four. Yeah, we just cracked the case right there and no one bothered to read that. Yeah, the medical examiner looks over his own notes. How could I have been a fool so blind? One of the bodies was discovered with about 20 sticks of dynamite for some reason.

Yeah. Oh, we're now meeting the 10th unnamed traveler. He was all dynamite Terry. He just loved eating dynamite and setting on fires. So maybe. All right. So let's now go over some of the most popular theories, even though the whole burning down, like the fire or the stovetop thing is not included here in the theories. We're going to talk about that eventually, because I think that's my favorite theory as well.

But let's go over some of the other theories that people have been talking about the most. One of the biggest ones is military testing. So some speculate that the hikers inadvertently stumbled upon a military testing area.

So that's...

I don't think that's really compelling evidence of anything, though. Because it's 2008. That could have been at any point after. It could have been, yeah. It could have been between 70 years, yeah. What are you thinking about? I'm sorry. They may have been hit by a predator drone and you're laughing about that? It's not funny! It's...

Why on earth would the USSR target like nine kids with a ballistic missile? They were too experienced at hiking.

The implication was that it was an accident, but I do like the idea that they're just getting up their kill streak. It's the most extreme use of force ever. You're just around the campfire getting drunk with your boys, and then a predator missile just flies in.

there's no there's no tactical precedence for that there's no way to prepare that's just hey they were getting closer though they were hiking in the military base's direction maybe the idea i mean it is i guess it is possible that maybe the russians were just doing weapon testing like let's fire a missile into this random mountainside it's like oops there were hikers on it right i guess that's possible

Because that's also my theory with the similar event. How unlucky. How unlucky do you have to be? But how unlucky! Your tent is where the random missile goes to. That would also explain the avalanche that ensued afterwards, right?

Yeah, although if it was a ballistic missile, surely they would have been able to tell that from the environment. Well, they also would have, as you mentioned here, there would have been a lot more evidence of that kind of shit happening, as opposed to a rogue piece of metal from 2008.

Correct. Correct. And like ballistic missiles, like sure. Back in, back in like the 50s, 60s, it wasn't like it is today. You just kind of pick a spot and send a rocket. Right. And they were testing a lot of those. They did fire them a lot because the technology was new at the time. But maybe if like everything was buried in snow, like maybe the missile caused a big avalanche. Right.

That's what led to some of the damage we saw. So a lot of the evidence of it was covered up, maybe. But gosh, just the concept of bad luck layering. You camp out right in the missile testing ground. I think if the missile actually hit anywhere near them as well, they would have just instantly been killed. It couldn't have been on them, because they'd be dead. But if it was, say, 100 feet away...

you know that would explain the injuries the force of the shockwave yeah and there's a note here the presence of radioactivity on the hikers clothing potentially supports this theory as well I guess you can get radioactive they weren't firing nukes at them it's just a mini nuke

They were shooting like bat boys at him. It's like the Fallout 4 bat system. They just like walk onto him up a mountainside.

Oh, gosh. However, like Charlie said, the absence of any other individuals or evidence of equipment at the site raises doubts about this explanation. It would be pretty difficult to completely conceal all traces of people and machinery involved in this. Additionally, the scattered distribution of the bodies across the landscape, including some found in a makeshift den, cast pretty severe uncertainty on this theory.

Yeah, I don't... I'm going to give this one a 3 out of 10. I'll give it a bit... I'll give it a bit higher because maybe it... I don't think it hit them directly, but maybe it hit nearby, you know, injured some of them or something like that. I'll give it like a 5 or something like that. It was also very funny how when I started laughing, Charlie was like my dad. He was like, what? What's so funny? Why are you laughing at that? I think what happened here is a tragedy. These kids were hit by a ballistic missile and you're laughing. You're...

You gotta find the humor in these situations, I think, wherever it can be found. Speaking of humor, do you want me to take the next one? Yeah, I do. Yeah, absolutely. So, some theories suggest that a UFO encounter instilled so much fear in the hikers that they abandoned their tent and hesitated to return.

Reports of particular of peculiar orbs in the sky emerged with both rescue and military search teams purportedly witnessing similar phenomena multiple times during their efforts. Even geologists working 70 meters from the tragedy site claimed to have observed similar sites. Although these accounts were subsequently omitted from official records, they persist in reports. So this image that's here, I know that it's here because it's like a, uh, a, uh,

evidence, so to speak, or leaning towards the idea of a UFO. This is one of the most interesting pictures I think I've ever seen.

Because you have a group of people who their disappearance is such a thing of mystery, right? And then you go through the camera of one of their survivors. And one of the only surviving pieces of evidence is a blurred, broken picture of some kind of light, right? Most likely a fire. But what, like if we had this picture in better quality, it could provide so many explanations, right? But instead we just have to guess off of what it is. That is terrifying. It's so fascinating.

Yeah, I don't think it's UFO lights. I'll tell you that much. No, of course not. Of course not. But it's interesting that it's like... Yeah, it's probably a ghost. It's like we have the evidence, but someone drew over it, right? Like we're holding the map in our hand, but it's been scratched out. It's so...

Ah, it's so interesting. The same with any other of his pictures that he probably took that night. I wish he had wrote something down, at least. I wish one of them had wrote something down with all the paper and pens they were carrying. Let's just assume that the stove theory is the correct one, which, after skimming through the Lumino video again, it seems like that's a lot more watertight than I remembered it being, more so than the avalanche theory. But let's assume that's real. What is he going to write down? Like, fuck, the stove exploded. I don't think that'd be one of the first things he'd think to state. Yeah.

Well, yeah, I mean, I would if I was in that situation. Really? Yeah, no, if I had a pen and a paper, I would write an intro story to my eventual Red Thread episode. Oh, I see. To whom it may concern, we're sitting around a fire. We're cooking up a great steak. Bang. Pain hurts. I look at the reflection in the stovetop. I see Jeffrey Epstein. LAUGHTER

No, but I would. You're in a tent. The stove explodes. You're also Epstein. This is the Red Thread. I'm your host. Welcome to the Red Thread.

brought to you by our sponsors yeah no I would absolutely um I would absolutely like if I knew I was gonna die I would want to leave answers for my family and stuff and if I had a pen and paper I'm just passing time I guess I would although they're also it's in the dark too yeah it's in the dark it's drunk they're probably also confused they may have thought they actually did get bombed like they may not know it was a stove that exploded that would also explain why they blew it up if they were drunk and no one was watching the stove um yeah

But one of them did die with pen and paper in their hands, so maybe in his final moments he was trying to. Man, that's tragic. Even if he wasn't trying to write the events of what happened, maybe if he was just trying to write, like, I'm sorry, mom. But he couldn't? Or whatever, but he couldn't? Aw, dude. Because of frostbite? Yeah. Frostbite, maybe the pen didn't work, it's too cold out there or something, who knows, but... Oh yeah, how do pens work in the cold? Can they do that? Do you need, like, astronaut's pens? What in the fuck? Why would you need an astronaut's pen? LAUGHTER

I don't know, maybe the cold is similar to space. I don't think, I think he means like a sealed pen. I don't think he means literally one that was like in space. So I meant like a pen designed for this specific situation of working in the cold. Like how astronauts have pens that are designed specifically to work in space. Yeah, yeah. I just don't think you could do that with a pen like in that kind of temperature. Like if you've got it to the point where it's like frostbite temperature, the ink will just freeze and I doubt it'll work. You need like a pencil. Yeah.

Yeah, just bring a pencil. Man, imagine having the pen and paper and you can't write. Isn't that... gosh, that's sad. Or just pull up your phone and go into the Notes app and then write it down. Yeah, there you are. Did we recover their iPhones? Where's that forensic evidence? Check their Find My iPhone. Maybe that'll help us find them quicker. Damn it, they were just a few decades too early.

Everyone be quiet. I'm trying to listen to hear the phone vibrate. All right. So the photo itself is basically just like a blue...

black picture with a few light orbs. That's so frustrating and so cool at the same time. So much mystery to that, man. Yeah, it is. But it reminds me of, instead of UFOs, it really does remind me of those, like, you know, the ghost videos from, like, Ghost Adventures and stuff like that where they capture ghost orbs on the camera and they're like, oh my god, it's a ghost! It's the ghost of a 130-year-old nun or something. And they come up with some really cool stories. What it likely is is that it's just dust. It's probably just dust.

a dust speck I mean yeah but it could also be like the camera was out of focus and he was trying to take a picture of what this picture probably is it's just them around a fire or something before you know anything went wrong but man it's so interesting

It is. All right. So the next one is hypothermia or paradoxical undressing. So paradoxical... Jesus. Paradoxical undressing is a phenomenon observed in up to half of hypothermia-related deaths involving...

involves victims removing their coats, sweaters, and trousers before succumbing to cold temperatures. As the body cools, vasoconstriction occurs, causing blood vessels to narrow and redirect blood away from the body's periphery to maintain core temperature. This can lead to a loss of mental clarity, with the victim perceiving a false sensation of warmth on their skin and consequently feeling overheated, prompting them to disrobe. Which doesn't... This one's not really...

Relative, really, because they were all fully clothed. They had a lot of clothes on. They were trying to clothe at least, yeah. Yeah. Many of the hikers were found in varying stages of undress, leading to speculation that they may have experienced paradoxical undressing. However, this raises the perplexing question of how they initially found themselves in such a vulnerable state.

So I guess it's just an explanation of why they died of hypothermia. Paradoxical undressing is commonly observed with hypothermia cases, but it takes like two weeks. Maybe not two weeks. It takes a few days at least. Because every time that happens, it's someone who's been in the cold for days on end, and they get so cold that what happens is your body gets this final burst of adrenaline right before death, and you become this kind of meandering...

madman almost so someone's out there for weeks trying to fight the cold and then they rip off all their clothes and die so that doesn't happen in like 20 minutes or anything yeah i don't this one it doesn't even explain why they would get into this situation in the first place like obviously they probably only got hypothermia after they left the tent in the in the initial stage doesn't explain much there but another thing that could potentially explain why they left left the tent is

Arctic Hysteria, also known as Piblock Talk

...which encompasses a wide range of behaviours... ...including disorientation, time loss... ...insensitivity to cold weather... ...trance-like walking... ...aggression and amnesia... ...among others... ...it is commonly observed in Arctic regions... ...particularly among Inuit women... ...while the exact cause remains elusive... ...some researchers attribute... ...pibloctoc... ...to the extreme cold temperatures... ...and prolonged darkness... ...prevalent in these Arctic areas...

So kind of like a mild form of hysteria, like just generalized. Well, not mild at all. Sorry, a full case of hysteria. It's a very slight case of hysteria. Just a little bit of hysteria. Yeah, just a little wonky, a little weird. Hysteria born from being in the Arctic region. So the footsteps leading away from the tent were described as being calm, like just normal footsteps that led away from the tents.

Um, which I guess could be a sign of trans life walking, maybe? Yeah, but not like... It's not like they went crazy. Also, the other issue with this, Arctic hysteria primarily seen among Inuit women. Okay, that means people who have been out in the cold for days and weeks of, like, being cold before they got to this point, right? So...

You've got that versus all these people got injured in the span of like a few minutes, ran from their tent. Again, same as the paradoxical undressing. It's not like they were out there long enough to undergo that. You can maybe argue that with the people who got away and built a den, but not the people who died face down 20 feet away from the tent. What if, though, like some form of hysteria took over in the initial circumstances and that's what caused like the main...

explosion or the main burning down of the tent from the stove. Maybe someone just started beating the shit out of the stove and causing it to create the fire. Maybe either drunkenly or... Well, they were on a hike, so I don't think they were out long enough

okay so if that were the case if they got out there and then they started getting cold for like you know a day or more and they started to lose their minds get hysteric I don't think they build a tent I don't think they keep track of their watches and they don't you know they don't do everything they're supposed to and then like mess with the stove it sounds more like an event happens and they die for more immediate injuries rather than slow death to the elements yeah I mean they died to the elements but not slowly right

Yeah, especially with the situations like where her heart was damaged so much that she died within 20 minutes. Yeah, yeah. Like, if we have an injury like that, there's no way these people died of several days of exposure. Yeah, yeah.

All right, so Charlie, do you want to take the next one? Yeah, so this, I even Googled it just now because I was curious. This one's the Yeti theory. So one of the final photos taken on Theobald Brignol's camera, that's Nicolai. There's a dark figure that's seen advancing through the forest and many believe it's a Yeti. And the group had been joking about the Yeti before they died.

And looking at the pictures, this actually, these are the photos, like these are the real photos? I think so, yeah. There's no, I don't think so. No, they're not. Yeah. There's absolutely no way. They're definitely not the real photos, Jackson. There's no shot. If this is the real photo, I am going to become a Yeti truther for the rest of my life. Yeah, I'd also be like, that's definitely the fucking Yeti. That is the most Yeti image I've ever seen in my life. Who could you be another camper?

No, what? That? That naked man crawling with his arms hunched over like that? That's just another camper? Oh my gosh! Hold on, I'm looking at... It is real, yeah. It is definitely real. Yeah, it looks like it is. Nuh-uh. But so, this source says this was during the hike, likely another hiker. Shut up. No, it's not. That's the Yeti. I don't know. That definitely does look like a fucking Yeti.

Bro, that is the Yeti. The one. What are you talking about? The most compelling evidence here is just a footnote about a Yeti. That is the most Yeti thing I've ever seen. Forget the rest of this episode. It's the Yeti. That is the most Yeti thing I've ever seen. I've changed my stance entirely. I am following a different religion now. I'm a different person entirely.

Okay, so let's pretend that this is the Yeti. Yeah, what do you mean pretend? We don't need to pretend. They saw it in the hike leading up to this situation. Why would they then comfortably settle down in their tents and just start drinking alcohol and stuff like that if this was the Yeti?

What are you going to do? Like you see the Yeti and you take a picture. I mean, we have to go home now. Why is it not a good point? No, no, no, no, no. That wasn't sarcastic. I was like, no, that's actually a really good point.

And I'm the one fighting you saying, even if you see a Yeti like five days into the trip, I mean, depending on how far they were, it could have been quicker to keep going to finish the trek, right? Than to turn around. So like you get the picture, what are you going to do? You still have to survive the rest of the trip out there. Yeah. But you've got copious amounts of paper and pens and now you're in the comfort of your tent by a fire. Oh, I'm sorry, Jackson. I thought the pens didn't work. I thought the pens didn't work. I thought that's the whole thing we did.

No, I'll give you that they might not work outside in the, you know, biting cold and stuff like that, but I'm assuming they would work next to, like, the stovetop inside. You know what happens? If we go out into the woods and I get a picture of Bigfoot, I'm not writing down anything. We're getting hammered around the campfire, okay? That is the only means of recourse we have, okay? Because I'm having an existential crisis. I'm a different person at that point. Like...

I want this to be the Yeti. I think it's the Yeti, gentlemen. It's the Yeti. It got rambunctious and caused a ruckus. Why does every video I see... I have seen so many videos of the Dealtapads. I've never seen that picture before.

Why do people not think- Only because people are like "It's clearly a hiker" It's clearly the Yeti, what are you- I'm being gaslit right now by the entirety of YouTube. That is a Yeti. What are you talking about? What's a hiker gonna look like though? It doesn't- Like that Yeti doesn't even look that big. And aren't Yetis white?

No, no, no. See, this is where you're exposing your lack of Yeti knowledge. They can come in brown, red, or white, depending on the region. They're a race of people that exist among the mountains. If that's a hiker, where's his backpack, by the way? He's facing the camera. It's just all shrouded. Oh, fuck. Wait, you're right.

Don't win Charlie back over Don't win Charlie back over This is the most clear Don't let the backpack take you away Charlie This is the most clear evidence Of a daddy I've ever seen in my life Really zoom into the photo and look Those look like trousers to me Not like fur It looks like pants Shit

Damn it, I'm back on the side of logic. No, that is absolutely... Look how he's holding his hands. He's literally doing the stereotypical Bigfoot pose. Yeah, he's right. I'm on the Yeti train now. He's in Yeti pose mode.

shut up you're being sarcastic that is the most this is i believe in the yeti now i it was a joke before but i mean at this time like there's a second there's a second photo there and i looked at it for as long as i could with the arrows were pointing at it and i can't see the yeti that it's

uh apparently making out also audio listeners this is all on screen on video if you want to check it out or just open the document not while you're driving though if you're audio listening on your commute don't look at these unless you want to look at the yeti because it's really important right now so it's pretty important i do i feel

This has to be fake. I don't like... It's not fake. It's real. It's real. I don't want to, like, shit on the idea of it being a Yeti, because it is fun, and I really... I would like it to be a Yeti. I just don't... I don't see it specifically there when you zoom in. Well, let's go on to the ones that don't have as much compelling evidence as the Yeti, such as Cold War Spies.

Okay.

The two mainly believed to be involved were Semyon Zolotarov and Yuri Krivonishchenko.

The Krivishenko's background working in a nuclear facility potentially made him a target for recruitment. Zolotaryov, with his military experience, including involvement in a risky engineering unit, may have served as backup. Suspicion arises from the presence of radioactive clothing, as it seems unlikely that Krivishenko would retain garments from his prior nuclear cleanup duties. The scenario suggests that Western operatives would rendezvous with the hikers along the route

posing as tourists to receive the radioactive items. However, something presumably went wrong, leading the agents to assault the group. This theory faces significant scrutiny. Questions arise about the risk of exposing undercover operatives to unknown individuals and the choice of bludgeoning over firearms when hunting rifles were legally available. Also, the extensive injuries inflicted on the hikers appear inconsistent with typical human-on-human violence, as suggested by forensic experts. Yeah, I think that one's a load of malarkey. I think that's just hooey.

Yeah, I think it's just born from the era, really. Like, spies were big at the time. So you want to see it. Yeah. The next one's the real big logical one. The big one. It better be the Yeti again, in that case. Well, it's the avalanche, which could have been caused by the Yeti. Yeah, the Yeti's just... The Yeti avalanche. Yeah, we can't rule out that these are all the avalanche and the Yeti are potentially... You're mocking me. You're mocking me right now, Jackson, and I don't appreciate it. I would like to believe...

They could coexist. The Yeti was a KGB agent and after the nuclear arms... Now you're definitely mocking me. You are 110% mocking me. He's absolutely mocking you. I'm not. You know what? Maybe the Yeti didn't even have anything to do with their deaths. Maybe they just died after seeing the Yeti by complete coincidence, but that picture was a Yeti. He was just a whimsical traveler. It was...

Howdy-o, neighbor! Imagine that, imagine fucking, you spot the Yeti on your little hike and then you get hit by a ballistic missile that night. They were so excited they got this great evidence of the Yeti, irrefutable, bomb. Maybe that's why they got bombed!

Maybe that's why they got bombed. They're like, the KGB's like, holy shit, they saw the Yeti. It's like the chance equivalent of getting struck by lightning eight times at once. Like, you see a Yeti and then a random ballistic missile. The fucking Yeti launched the ballistic missile. He's got a fucking face. Could you imagine that, like, not to make light of their final moments, but could you imagine if that's what happened? Their final moments, the guy's like, what was that? Like, what the fuck?

Oh my gosh. Jesus Christ, the Yetis got air-to-surface missiles. He's got a little military base, a little Yeti military base out in the Ural Mountains. I will also say that as we were setting here,

I was pulling up pictures of it and I found pictures of their bodies for one they're pretty brutal but the one who had the camera around his neck he was like half he's frozen half holding the camera like it's right on his neck and he's got a hand on it so it's like it's like he was clutching that thing for his final moments and he took a lot of pictures that night it looks like none of them were developed well because of the cold but it looks like he was trying to take pictures of something maybe each other

Yeah, probably each other would be my guess. So the avalanche theory, this is the most prevalent one. So it's conjectured that the group disoriented by poor visibility during a snowstorm veered further west than intended. Rather than descending to a forested area to set up camp, they chose to cut into a slope and pitch tents for the night, likely to avoid losing the altitude they had gained during the day.

In 2019, the Russian public prosecutor's office reopened the case from the archives granting Johan Guam, the director of the Snow and Avalanche Simulation Laboratory in Switzerland, an opportunity to investigate the mystery. Guam concluded that an avalanche had struck the tent during the night, catching the hikers off guard while they slept. This theory also supported by Russian public prosecutors. Guam and Alexander Puzrin, a geoengineer at ETH Zurich,

embarked on a further analysis by developing two models to reconstruct the purported avalanche event. An analytical model was utilized to estimate the time required to trigger an avalanche, while a numerical model was assessed the potential impact of the avalanches on the human body. They published their findings in January 2021, ultimately concluding the incident to a slab avalanche. This occurs when a bonded layer of snow is lying on top of a weaker layer in a large area. They can only be triggered when there is an angle of 30 degrees or more on the slope and

and when there is additional load added to the top layer. It can explain why the hikers left their tent and some of the injuries that had occurred. An essential factor in this is the presence of katabatic winds. Katabatic winds. Katabatic, yeah.

are the air currents driven downhill by gravity's force these winds have the ability to deposit snow uphill accumulating above the tent a crucial prerequisite for a slab avalanche researchers believe that the avalanche likely occurred several hours after the group had established their camp and here's a quote from alexander puzrin if they hadn't made a cut in the slope nothing would have happened that was the initial trigger but that alone wouldn't have been enough

The katabatic wind probably drifted the snow and allowed an extra load to build up slowly. At a certain point, a crack could have formed and spread, causing the snow slab to release. So when people say, like, avalanche, obviously you have these ideas of, like, these enormous, like, mountains, mountains worth of snow, like, falling down, like, rushing down. My understanding is it doesn't necessarily have to be that. It can just literally be an avalanche is, like, a bunch of snow above the ten has just fallen, like,

like drifted down one big drifted down the hill yeah it drifted down the hill and then landed on the tent it doesn't have to be this giant cataclysmic event it's because they also because they cut into this like this area in the snow and then there was like a ridge line above them of snow that has then fallen down on top of them creating an avalanche effect also looking at pictures right now of where they pinched the tent it looks like it's a pretty steep slope

Yeah, it definitely is on a slope. 100%. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like... What's it called when it's just, like, mud and, like, dirt and stuff? Landfall? No. What's it called?

Oh, mud slides? Mud slides? Yeah, something like that. Where, like, obviously some mud builds up at the top and then becomes unstable and then falls down through the slope down onto the, you know, flat area below, creating damage for, like, houses and stuff like that. Kind of like a similar effect, ostensibly, what I imagine here. You can continue.

So their findings attracted significant attention and interest, yet it appeared that Russia was not as enthusiastic about this research as others. The prevailing sentiment was that mysteries like this one lose their allure when explained by boring scientific reasons. Then why the fuck did you go to the scientists then? Yeah, what the fuck? Soviet authorities seemed reluctant to disclose details likely to prevent the proliferation of conspiracy theories. Johan Guam, a cross-country skier himself, recognized the potential distress this theory could cause

especially to the families of the deceased, as it implies that the hikers had inadvertently brought about their own tragedy through their actions.

I guess that kind of makes sense. I'm sure they would just want... I'm sure they just want answers, though, at the end of the day. Yeah, I feel like answers would be most important. It's not like he's calling them stupid. This is also in 2021. This happened 70 years ago. If they had children, or, like, nephews or whatever, they're, like, 85. I think the 85-year-old can bear to hear, oh, well, actually, it was an avalanche. No, I'm kidding.

It's okay. You're not saying that they like ate each other or something. Like it's a fine explanation. There's nothing like nefarious here. Yeah.

I think they're trying to hide the Yeti. They're trying to hide the Yeti. Ironically, yes. Yeah, correct. What am I saying? There are objections to this theory. Some argue that the slope would not have been steep enough to trigger an avalanche. Additionally, the conditions were not conducive to an avalanche formation as there was no snow cover on the slope and no wind that night with no evidence of snow transferred by wind. Locals adamantly asserted that they had never observed any signs of an avalanche in the past.

Guam and Puzran conducted further investigations collaborating with Victor Popovnin, a leading snow avalanche researcher at Moscow State University. Popovnin's snow measurements in winter 2019 aligned with those used by Guam and Puzran in their tests. Guam and Puzran embarked on expeditions to Dyatlov Pass

employing drones to measure slope angles above the hiker's tent site while they detected traces that could potentially indicate an avalanche nearby they were unable to conclusively confirm it however during their third expedition to the area the winds were so strong it could turn snowmobiles they were able to capture evidence of two recent snow slab avalanches at the pass thereby corroborating their theory

That part made me mad where it's like, oh, they said it wasn't windy that night. Like, okay, were you there? Were you at that specific pass on the mountaintop? Shut up. And it's not like you'd be making notes of it being windy because I imagine that's so fucking common. It's not like you'd be writing down wind on that night, you know? Well, wait, aren't there like scientific...

What do you call them? Like scientific instruments used to measure wind areas? Yeah, but they didn't have one set up in that cavern in the 1950s. Yeah, exactly. And it's not like you can like... Especially not if they were throwing ballistic missiles at it. Because isn't the evidence of what that one that there was a piece of metal from a missile found in the region?

Yeah. Yeah, so, like, this wasn't an area they were, like, you know, had scientists out, you know, keeping weather documents up and stuff like that. Maybe. But also, they said that there's no evidence of snow transfer by wind as well. I'm assuming that's how they would have maybe figured it out. But then it says that the two of them went out a third time and they found evidence of two recent avalanches. So... No, yeah, no, this is after. So, they...

So the original objections are because there was no evidence of snow transfer by wind on that night in 1950. Like once they found the site the previous day or whatever, like I'm assuming you could tell how windy a place is based on like the impact of the snow and they didn't see any snow transfer, leading them to believe that there was no wind. But Guam and Pozran in the 2020s or whatever, they,

were able to prove that the area is capable of these kinds of snow slabs. Yeah, I think their theory makes a ton of sense. Just to close it off, here's another quote from Puzrin.

The fact that the Russian scientific community accepted our findings and that our hypotheses were confirmed by recent field expeditions means a great deal to me. Not because we can confirm the exact series of events that led to this tragedy over 60 years ago, we'll never be absolutely certain what happened to the members of that group, but because it reaffirms my faith in science. For me personally, this whole experience has been about standing up for the scientific method as a valuable, reliable way of explaining natural phenomena.

Which I think makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I mean, that's absolutely a correct opinion in this situation. But it doesn't explain the Yeti, so I'm not interested. I'm being mocked.

I'm not mocking you, no. Both of you are. I like that kind of attitude. All theories are accepted here. Yeah, that's what the guy who has one theory and nothing else says. That is an outstatement. That is cheating. I don't appreciate it. Look, I don't know if the Yeti had anything to do with their disappearance. I think the avalanche theory is most likely, but they saw a Yeti. They absolutely...

Could be unrelated, but they definitely saw one. You're alright as long as we admit that they saw a Yeti that day. As long as you admit. As long as the Yeti's in the final statement. Yes, yes. The Yeti was there. Was it related? Probably not, but it was there when this happened. Maybe. Maybe.

maybe they made friends with the yeti on their expedition and he was there at the scene of the crime and then he just legged it out afterwards and then he took all the shoes he took all the shoes yeah he was a shoe robbed them yeah he robbed he wrote he grave robbed his friends and maybe that's why the government shot a ballistic missile at him they weren't targeting the hitchhikers they were like oh there's another yeti you gotta wipe him out the hitchhikers

I'm sorry, I don't even know where that word came from. I pulled that one right out of the ether. The government, the Russian government. What? Hitchhikers were never a part of the story. They're not even adjacent. There wasn't even a road near there. Oh, maybe because you were thinking hikers. Yeah, yeah, that's what it was. They weren't targeting the hikers. The government was targeting the Yeti, and that's what happened. Yeah, yeah.

So what if the Yeti was like stealing their shoes or whatever while they were asleep and then they woke up and the Yeti like freaked out knocking over the uh knocking over the stovetop thing causing a fire and then that's how the fire started and maybe like in the future there's an avalanche. The Yeti had never seen a fire before so it freaked out. Yeah.

I'm still getting the hints that I'm being mocked right now I still have this itchy feeling that you're making fun of me I don't abide by it I don't appreciate your tone sir there's no mocking I love it I actually would love to believe in it I would I like the idea that the yeti's never seen fire though that's great he's just so blown away this is so cool

Anyway, let's go ahead and wrap this up with our personal theories, I guess. What do you guys think is the most likely? I...

So after going back to the Lamino video and like scrubbing through the stove theory, I really think that makes a lot of sense for like the burns and like the really big impact wounds and all of that. But like the slab avalanche theory still is very clearly super logical. It's just, I think the stove explains away a lot of those mysterious injuries that the avalanche I don't think would cause in the same way. Okay, wait, it could be both, right? The avalanche happens causing the stove to, you know,

be the cause of the fire and stuff like that still. Oh, true. I guess that could, they could coexist. And it gives the kind of, um, the, it leads into them having the impacts, impact force injuries still. Because my issue with the stove one was, I just don't see how they got those initial, like big injuries, you know, like the big, um, the heart injury and stuff like that, just from a fire from the stove. Like, what do you mean? Like, how would you get like a massive concussion, uh,

injuries blunt force trauma from a stove fire you'd get burns you wouldn't get like a heart bleed from a fire no no no but like but the impact from the stove exploding is what would cause it yeah but i feel like we would see evidence of an explosion in that situation not necessarily not if it immediately gets buried by snow how would you even trace an explosion from the remains of the

Like, even if it's buried by snow, you get the snow off. Well, the tent was shredded, right? Yeah, like, the tent had a bunch of, like, fucking holes in it. So it was described as, like, knife streaks, which I guess could be torn apart from an explosion, too, maybe. Yeah, like fragments. Oh, man. Yeah, so I think the most likely situation is either the avalanche or the fire or maybe both. I don't think any other theory is quite as strong or rational as those two.

I just, I go, I flip flop between the both of them. And I guess it's possible that it could be a combination of them as well. I think what happened is there was some kind of immediate impact, either that be the explosion or an avalanche. There was some event that caused a lot of serious injuries really fast and they couldn't get back to their tent. So explosion or an avalanche or both. And then I think that, you know, a few of the lone survivors, maybe, uh,

kind of trickled out from there maybe the two died by a tree and the girl took their shirts and then she dies to her injuries in the woods the last four make it to a den all of them die off one by one and also unrelated they saw the yeti so i think that's uh i think that's what happened yeah that was a good summation of where we all stand yeah as agents of a die like they're slowly fading out they just see the yeti in the distance it

It's like, you know those old movies where there'd be like a narrator, storyteller figure who's sitting next to the characters like, and so our heroes traveled on their journey, blah blah blah. So it's like you have them dying in a hole trying to write a message to their mom, very sad, and the camera pans over and there's just a yeti with his legs crossed next to a tree. And with this ends the tale of our heroes, tragically lost to the wood. Yeah.

He's playing a guitar. He's playing the mandolin that got stolen from that guy. I wonder if they found the mandolin, yeah. No, the Yeti was playing it. Keep up, Jackson. What did you guys think of it? Was it more interesting than you remember? I mean, it's always been interesting, and it's still interesting, and it always will be.

Yeah, this is actually way more interesting than I remember, because I remember looking at it when I was going to make a video and being like, oh, it just kind of looks like an avalanche. I'll do Camar de Bon. That seems more nuanced. But seeing some of the... thinking about some of the injury details of, like, the fist bruising and, like...

Her body propped up on a rock and stuff like that. It makes me ask a lot more questions. This may be worth a second look if I want to make a video on this. Yeah, you should do that. This is very fast. I mean, if nothing else, we've done it here, so that's good. But this is, yeah.

Very interesting. Maybe there's still new ground to tread. I like this case a lot. I mean, I don't like that people died, but I like looking at it a lot. No, it's a very interesting, peculiar situation. True crime YouTuber moment. I like this a lot. I'm glad this happened because it makes me entertained. Yeah, getting into dangerous territory there.

But that's going to do it for this Red Thread episode. I think we've gone over everything and I don't think there's really much more we can add in terms of theories and stuff like that. That's going to do it for this one. Thank you very much for joining us for Red Thread. Let us know your thoughts below. I'm going to put up a poll on the audio platforms. What should the poll be? I think it's going to be about which are the situations, like which are the conspiracies or theories is the most

Most likely, so you can vote on what you think. If you all don't vote Yeti, I swear. Oh, you're going to be so disappointed if that's the case. Actually, no, you don't have to, because that may not be why they disappeared. I get that, but they saw it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay, I'll put two options. I'll do Yeti deadly and then Yeti friendly. Yeah, Yeti passive, Yeti... Yeah.

So you can vote on those over at the audio platforms. Go check them out. Links below. And thank you very much for watching. And thanks to the sponsors for sponsoring this episode. Remember to share it around. Share it with some friends, like-minded friends who like this kind of stuff. And feel free to rate us on the platforms. It really does help a lot. Thank you very much. And we'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks, everyone. Bye-bye. Thank you for watching. See you later.

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