This eerie story took place in 1959. Ten students of the Sverdlovsk Polytechnic Institute set off on a difficult hike in the Ural Mountains. Only one of them returned home. The remaining nine died under unexplained circumstances. Officially, the cause of the death of young people was named some unknown natural force, which the students could not overcome.
Tourists were killed on Mount Holatchakhl on the way to the top of Otorten. There is an ancient legend about these places among the Mansi. According to this legend, an ancient terrible goddess lives on Mount Holatchakhl, demanding sacrifices. And the latter should be nine. The deceased group of Dyatlov consisted of exactly nine people. The tenth participant, Yuri Yudin, was forced to return home due to illness at the beginning of the campaign. From the Mansi, the name Holatchakhl is translated as "mountain of the dead", and Otorten - as "do not go there."
Many enthusiasts consider the circumstances of the death of students to be very strange. The fact is that the Dyatlovites at night, for some unknown reason, simply cut their tourist tent from the inside with knives, ran out of it naked and rushed down the slope towards the Lozva River. At the foot of the mountain of the dead, their bodies were later found by rescuers. On many of them, investigators later discovered strange injuries, which were simply impossible to explain by an ordinary fall or, for example, a fight.
There are very different versions of why the Dyatlov group actually died. Most researchers agree that the test of a secret weapon was the cause of the tragedy. The fact is that at about the same time when the students died, many local residents observed strange glowing balls in the sky over the Ural ridge. According to enthusiasts, these were the latest Soviet missiles launched from a secret test site. According to this version, the vapors of the spilled fuel, a sodium cloud and a blast wave became the reason for the death of students.
Another popular version of the death of students is an avalanche. The Urals are, of course, not the Himalayas. Spectacular descents of huge masses of snow from the peaks do not happen here. However, small movements of snow layers in these relatively low mountains are quite common. Rescuers found the tent of the dead Dyatlovites on the very slope of the pass connecting Kholatchakhl with another peak. Moreover, as many researchers suggest, in order to put it, the students had to cut the snow layer a little. The snow that moved during the night may have caused injuries to several members of the group.
The conflict with the Mansi is another relatively realistic version of the death of the Dyatlovites. In those places where students went on a hike, there are many natural objects sacred to representatives of this nationality. In addition, the local Mansi, several years before the death of the group, dealt with a woman-geologist for entering one of the mountains they revered. At first, the version that the students were killed by local hunters was also adhered to by the investigators involved in the group's case. However, later this assumption was not confirmed. The fact is that the mountains Kholatchakhl and Otorten, despite the existing legend, are not sacred to the Mansi. In addition, no traces were found near the tent, including those from hunting skis.
Since the circumstances of the death of tourists were indeed extremely strange, after the declassification of the case in 2009, many and completely mystical versions of what happened on the network appeared. So, for example, assumptions were made that students were killed by aliens. This version appeared due to the fact that glowing balls were seen at the place of the death of tourists. Also, some Internet users considered the possibility of killing the Dyatlovites by a Bigfoot. The legend of the Mansi became the basis for such assumptions. Extravagant researchers have suggested that the locals took this still-not-found large representative of the primate genus for a bloodthirsty god who requires victims.
Thus, there are many versions of the reasons for the death of the Dyatlov group. But until now, no one knows what happened to the students. Even the most realistic versions have a number of inconsistencies and are questioned by many researchers. Perhaps someday the real reasons for the deaths of nine young, full of strength people will be clarified. But at the moment, the secret of the Dyatlov group has not been revealed and continues to be one of the strangest and most incomprehensible mysteries of the past century.
