[00:00:00] It began with ambition nine students set out across the Euro Mountains. Smart, capable, determined. This wasn't a Sightsee trip, it was a test of endurance, a challenge that would prove their strength, discipline, and skill. They prepared for everything or so they thought the terrain was unforgiving. The weather turned colder.

[00:00:27] The snow fell harder. Still, they pushed on step by step into the white and then silence. No radio contact, no return.

[00:00:40] Nine hikers vanish in the frozen heart of the Soviet wilderness. All of them young, all of them skilled, all of them gone. No witnesses, no answers that make sense. Just a trail of confusing clues left behind in the snow and the questions they never stopped. Tonight, the house of six presents, tracks, tents, and

[00:01:07] ​

[00:01:07] Jenn: Welcome to the House of Syx. I'm Jen. I'm Jared. How exhausted are you right now? From everything that we're doing? It's been a nutty, nutty time. I have been not, we have been nonstop getting stuff ready to put this house in the market. What's missing behind us?

[00:01:25] Our backdrops are gone. Yeah. We just lost three viewers because of our backdrops. That's our, hopefully not our viewers. We could not lose. Hopefully not. My sister's gone. Yeah. What the hell with the backdrop loss. These guys are just in a gray cave. She only listens on Spotify, so she doesn't even watch.

[00:01:45] Yeah. She doesn't even know what I do. She doesn't see all the hilarious pictures that I put in. Yeah, that's which by the way, if you only listen on audio, you should check out the YouTube and follow and like, because it, I put in pictures and I add, I use ai. Oh, good. Yeah. Very good. To create pictures and they're hilarious.

[00:02:08] Yeah. The, the Holmes episode, when I was talking about his childhood, I put a picture of a little boy with a handlebar mustache it, and it was, it's good. Hilarious. Yeah. So, yeah, just, uh, it's been a week. Bear with us. Yep. Yep. I've, what did I do? I walked up here after all day working and I said, when are we fucking filming?

[00:02:30] Because I'm ready to go. Actually, you shouted it at me. Yeah. Not 'cause I was angry. Just 'cause we're gonna film. No, you just, this is what we're doing. And let's go. You're like we're filming. Yeah. Yeah. So here we are. Yeah, we're doing it. We're doing it. The podcast. So today's episode is a super mystery for the ages.

[00:02:56] You know how I like a good mystery? Unfortunately, it means that, some bad things happen to some people. People die. People die. In most of these episodes, I think people die. Yeah. But it's a really interesting mystery in a really interesting time period. In a really interesting place.

[00:03:17] Jared: Okay.

[00:03:17] Jenn: And it is the Dyatlov pass incident, uh, in Russia.

[00:03:24] Sure. That doesn't mean shit to me.

[00:03:28] What do you know about the Soviet Union? Uh, I mean, as a, gosh, how old was I? I mean, when, you know, not when, well, no, I mean when USSR was a, that a thing.

[00:03:41] Yeah. I mean, I remember that. Um, when did the Berlin Wall fall? Oh gosh. I mean, I remember it. I was watching it. Yeah. I should know this. I mean, I really was watching it. Remember Tom Broka was sitting on the wall? Yeah. It was Tom Broca was thing doing the broadcast. I don't remember it. They did this whole chunk.

[00:03:59] And pushed it over. Yeah, I remember. I think it was also, and this is not what the story's about, but um, I think it was also somewhat of an accident that he asked to them, that he had them bring down the wall. That I don't remember. I don't think it was supposed to happen right then. I think it was supposed to be more progressive.

[00:04:17] I don't remember. Remember that? I just remember the live broadcast, the wall fell. Yeah. So between, anyway, between that and uh, so that's what we know. I know about Gorbachev. Right. Remember I burnt my head on the, uh, fireplace and you called me Gorbachev 'cause I had a burnt place on my head. It was hilarious.

[00:04:33] He had this little like burn scar and his forehead and he is bald and I called him Gorbachev for like week. You just said I was bald. Oh. I mean you are bald. Yeah. No, we gotta do it. Did you forget?

[00:04:44] Anyway, so Jared's bald, so anyway, that was, uh, that was the time. But yeah, that's what we know about the USSR. It's really good stuff here. This is good because we're going in with a clean slate and I get to walk you through something that sounds like a horror movie.

[00:05:03] And maybe Yeti's, oh, you have me at Yeti. A few disclaimers. There are a number of Russian names and I do not speak Russian. I don't know any of it. I don't,, form my mouth in that way, so I'm gonna do my best. And you're going to get, uh, these names are going to be phonetically said Yeah. In a southern draw.

[00:05:29] Sorry. So you're saying you might have to pronounce them a few times to feel comfortable? Uh, so I don't sound like an idiot. Oh, well you're not an idiot, so there you go. Oh, thanks. Yeah. Yeah. , Also I would like to add that this case is some weird shit. And, because of that, so much of it has been sensationalized both.

[00:05:51] Intentionally and unintentionally, and I'm going to do my best to steer clear of that and try to tell this facts only. , I just find all that unnecessary and I don't believe that that is what should be done. So,

[00:06:05] Jared: roll,

[00:06:07] Jenn: roll.

[00:06:08] ​

[00:06:13] Jenn: As my usual, let's go back and give a little bit of Russian history here.

[00:06:19] So Russia's last real shot at democracy ended in 1917 with Czar Nicholas ii when he was overthrown during the Russian Revolution. And I would actually love to do an episode on the last of the Romanovs because it's very, very interesting, but that's not what this is about. After a messy power struggle, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, , which was a radical communist group, took over later that year and that's when things stopped trending towards the Democratic and started leading straight into authoritarianism.

[00:06:57] By 1922, Lenin and his crew had officially formed the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic. The U-S-S-R-A communist state in name, but functionally a one party dictatorship. The Communist party controlled everything. Government, press, economy, education, and even science. There were no real elections, no opposition party, no press freedom, just the illusion of choice and a whole lot of surveillance.

[00:07:28] And that didn't really change until the USS fell apart in 1991. I just found the date.

[00:07:34] Jared: There you go. Yeah.

[00:07:35] Jenn: But going back, it's 1959. Stalin's been dead for about six years, but the Soviet Union is still stuck in his shadow.

[00:07:45] The terror purges are over, but the fear is still pretty much baked in. , Nikita Khrushchev is in power now. He's not Stalin, but he's not really soft either. He's trying to modernize things just enough to keep the whole machine from falling apart and to look good. He talks about reform because it sounds good.

[00:08:05] So he denounces Stalin's worst atrocities, but it's still a one party top down surveillance heavy state. , Where speaking too freely. Could cost you your job or your life.

[00:08:17] And the Soviet government in the 1950s, think of it like a giant bureaucratic spiderweb. Everything flows from the communist party. No elections that we would recognize. There's no real opposition. You had the central committee at the top, the KGB was all up in your business, and there were layers of red tape going everywhere in between.

[00:08:41] And it wasn't just about control. It was about control of the narrative. And Khrushchev is trying to play both sides. He's trying to show the world that the USS is modern and powerful, while still cracking down on descent at home. He's launching satellites, building nukes, of course, and preaching all about Soviet superiority.

[00:09:03] But he's also watching his back because every single decision is political. Every move has to toe the party line. This is also the beginning of the space race and the height of the Cold War. The US and the USSR are locked in a quiet arms race and an ideological standoff. Every citizen is being watched, every institution is expected to fall in line.

[00:09:28] The KGB had eyes everywhere. N neighbors, coworkers, or classmates could all be an informant against you.

[00:09:36] Jared: I'm with the

[00:09:37] Jenn: KGB.

[00:09:39] What year are we talking about now? We still, we are in the 1950s. That's what I thought. So you caught, my reason I'm asking is because I didn't really realize that the Cold War considered starting back that far. Right? It was the height of the Cold War. Right? Cold War, yeah. You know, I think of a lot of the things you talked about, the space race.

[00:09:58] I mean, this is, you know, dating myself, but the, the, the space race, the Cold War, and all of that, uh. Everything, at least those terms were still used in the eighties. Right. Definitely. Where I was, you know, I was in my early teens. Yep. And, yeah. So that, anyway, that, uh, just made me think about it. Well, we landed on the moon in the sixties.

[00:10:23] Sure. So we had to get to that point. But we were in space well before that. Yeah. So at the end of the fifties and into the sixties, we were worried about getting to space ahead of Russia. Right. Technically speaking, Russia made it to space first. They did. I knew that the cosmonauts made it to space first.

[00:10:44] We made it to the moon first. Yeah. Woo. That was a big deal. Yeah, it was. It was. I'm just saying a big deal, saying in the end like, what the fuck did that accomplish? I watched a really awesome documentary, uh, about Neil Armstrong and John Glenn and, and all of those guys, and all of them said the same thing.

[00:11:05] That going to space was the best thing that happened in their entire lives. Yeah. I I don't doubt that. I'm not trying to downplay that. Yeah. It's more of, I, I, yeah, I, yeah. People say, what an asshole that I said that, but I don't think so. I mean, I mean, they said it even over like their children's births and their weddings, like it was the best thing that, that's an asshole in itself.

[00:11:27] It's re They also said that they got a true perspective of what humanity and what it is like to be a human on earth by seeing the earth from best seeing earth. Yeah, sure. Space. I it that it, it was just awe inducing. Yeah. It was the greatest thing they'd ever done or seen. I don't wanna go to space.

[00:11:47] Here's the thing, we don't belong in space, eh? We belong in space more than we belong in the ocean. We don't belong in the ocean, we do not belong in space. We belong on dirt. How are we gonna get to, you know, star Trek days? We don't. Yeah, we do not. Yeah. We're not supposed to be in space. Gotta find a place to live eventually when this planet goes to hell, because climate change is real.

[00:12:17] Well, I mean, then the sun's just gonna, you know, uh, we're gonna be dead anyways because that's billions of years from Well, no, not you and I. So we're good. I'm in, in general. We just got off track. Sorry about that. Anyways, back to the space racing Cold War. We're moving on from the space race. All right, so the culture of surveillance and fear was not abstract.

[00:12:40] It was deeply personal. Imagine knowing that anything you say or do even in private could be reported against you. Your job, your education, even your family safety could be threatened by a single comment. Neighbors were informing on neighbors, professors, on students, family members. People disappear, and the official story never really changes.

[00:13:05] The truth if it exists is a state secret, and that kind of pressure just doesn't make people compliant. It makes them complicit. That's insecure assholes everywhere. Information does not flow freely. Newspapers are state run science, culture arch are all filtered through a political lens.

[00:13:26] So even something as simple as a hiking trip had to be approved, logged, and verified through official channels. You can't just go off running around doing whatever you want. This is not the land of the freak.

[00:13:36] Jared: Clearly,

[00:13:38] Jenn: science and physical strength were treated like proof of Soviet superiority. That's why hiking and mountaineering were encouraged as nationalistic.

[00:13:47] Even ideological pursuits, groups like Dyatlov's were idealized. They were smart, disciplined, athletic students from technical universities showing off the endurance and glory of the Soviet mind and body. Sure, but it was also a time of intense secrecy. Government documents were classified, military experiments were never disclosed, and the idea of an open, honest investigation into anything even remotely embarrassing to the state not happening, especially not if it involved , strange deaths in a remote region.

[00:14:26] Foreshadowing. Yeah. You notice I'm not saying much 'cause I'm like scared to, 'cause we're talking about Russia. They're listening. Yeah. Everybody's listening. Whatever. Everybody's listening. Yep. Being from the western world, I think it's really difficult to understand what a life like that would even look like.

[00:14:45] Jared: Yeah.

[00:14:46] Jenn: Our freedoms are ingrained into us. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to be silent, right to bear arms.

[00:14:53] All of these things are just ingrained into our very being. And I just cannot imagine what that would be like. Yeah. I say yeah, because I a hundred percent agree. I, I mean, we just don't have that concept. I watch the news. I watch the news enough to go, you know, as much as. I might think that this country's a little sideways odd right now.

[00:15:21] Yeah. Odd. Uh, not right now. I mean, for quite a bit. Um, that, um, yeah. Um, we're still lucky. We're still lucky. We're still, we're still lucky. We're still extremely free to, we're still lucky to basically, as long as you're not hurting anybody. Right. And because this is not a political podcast, we won't talk about our political beliefs. Yeah. So, but that, all of those things aside, and no matter how you. What category you fall in right now.

[00:15:47] We're still all incredibly free to Yeah. To be and do whatever we want. I mean, you and I both wanna move to Italy, but that's a different story. It's not. That's just 'cause we wanna retire just because we wanna live in a villa in Italy. Right? Yeah. And drink wine all day. And drink wine and make olive oil or whatever people do, whatever Italy, whatever it takes to make money and just live in Italy.

[00:16:05] Yeah. Yeah. Italy. If you know anybody call me. Yeah.

[00:16:11] So this is the world that our hikers came from. A place where loyalty was not optional, where facts were flexible and where a mysterious disappearance in the mountain wasn't just a tragedy, it was a threat to the image of Soviet perfection. And that part's important. These students were not rebellious, they were not fringe, they were model Soviets.

[00:16:37] They were engineering students, physically elite. Their trip was officially sanctioned. So what happened out there was not just tragic, it was politically inconvenient.

[00:16:48] ​

[00:16:53] Jenn: Let's talk about the people at the center of this situation. The group was made up of 10 hikers, eight men and two women. These were not weekend campers. They were experienced, methodical, and officially cleared to make this journey. Their leader was Igor dla. That's the easiest name in here. Sorry. Here we go.

[00:17:13] Sorry. Here we go. We with the names. Here we go. Igor was 23 years old engineering student at Ural Polytechnical Institute. Known for being serious, meticulous, and highly competent he had completed similar tracks before and was respected enough to lead others. the Dyatlov group was aiming to earn the highest hiking certification in the Soviet Union, A grade three to qualify. They had to trek over 300 kilometers in 16 days or more across dangerous terrain in the winter, 300 kilometers.

[00:17:45] Do you know how long that is? No. In miles 14. Do you really not? No. Yeah, three oh kilometers. And I'm gonna be proven wrong here. So you split, there's a US conversion. Okay. You split in half, what's half of 300? One 50, right? I could do, then you take over the first two digits. 30. 30. So you add that 180, 180.

[00:18:09] And then really it's approximation. I'm sure I'll be proven wrong, but it's so, it's around, honestly, it's around a hundred and anywhere. 182 to 185 miles. That's a shit ton. So it's like, I don't understand how they can make this, that how, how they can make it that far in six days. No, no, no. 16 days or more.

[00:18:31] 16 days. Sorry to, to pass a certification. Let's redo. They have to be at there. 16 plus days. Let's redo that. We can redo that because I don't wanna be, I'm an idiot that day. No, it's good. I don't think you're an idiot. So No, we don't have to. Really that's, I mean, you just didn't hear me. I wanna prove into Miles in case someone, I do wanna make that point that, you know, if someone know, doesn't know kilometers to miles.

[00:18:51] That's a good point. That's insane. That is, and I don't know why didn't convert this to Miles, because here in Amira we do not use the metric system. Yeah. Unfortunately. And in fact, as I've just proven, uh, I only know the Imperial system. Yeah. I cannot convert to do, you know, metric, you know why I no kilometers to a miles per hour.

[00:19:13] I mean mile, I mean to miles, miles per hour. 'cause of miles per hour. But because of all the, because of all the UK channels I watch because of a car. Oh, yep. Yeah. Yep. That makes sense. That's the only reason. The Nuremberg. The Nuremberg Burging. The Burging Nuremberg. Nope. No life. I knew you were going do that.

[00:19:36] You knew I had to do it. You did. You did. Back to the Dyatlov group. This was their capstone, like a thesis for wilderness survival, the kind of certification that proved that you were a lead, that you could be trusted to lead future expeditions into even rougher territory.

[00:19:56] Most of the group had completed lower level certifications already, and this was like the final boss hike trip. I'm gonna assume this is like larger than a Boy Scout progression. You're not getting your patches. You're getting far more than that.

[00:20:12] This was much bigger than a Boy Scout hike, I think. I don't think they get patches. Yeah. They get to be the awesomest hikers in the Soviet Union. Yeah, right. Whatever. Get to get to live or not, sorry. The expedition was meant to be a trek through the Northern Ural Mountains, which is what was then this fur la Oh, blast of the Soviet Union.

[00:20:38] Oh boy. Oh boy. I'm pretty sure that was wrong. No. I'll give it to you though. I'm just gonna keep going though. Their destination was a remote peak called Mount Otorten. The Dyatlov group was not deep in Siberia, but they were close. They were on the skirts of Siberia. The Ural Mountains mark the boundary between Europe and Asia, and this tragedy unfolded just on the European side.

[00:21:05] Cold, remote, and wild, but not quite Siberia. Okay. But I imagine it looks like whatever we think si, Siberia does. I I was gonna say probably fill in looks the same. Frozen, white tundra, I don't know. Yeah. Dangerous. Somewhere where I wouldn't be. Yep. Ever.

[00:21:19] The group departed by train on January 23rd, 1959. Middle of winter of course. From what is now Berg. Then traveled by Truck and sled until they reached Vizhay, the last inhabited settlement before the wilderness. And at this point, everything was going according to plan.

[00:21:40] All, regular stuff. On January 27th, the group officially began their journey on foot. The next day, January 28th, Yuri Den, who suffered from chronic health issues including rheumatism and sciatica, turned back due to the increasing pain in his joints. And this decision proved to save his life.

[00:22:02] Hey, what the fuck is he doing out there? Come on, I You got health issues, dude. What are you doing? Fism? You should not be in on Siberian wilderness, especially you not even getting a boy count patch. He said his goodbye to his friends, unaware that it would be the last time that he would see any of them again, the remaining nine hikers pushed forward.

[00:22:24] Their plan was to move north from Vizhay through increasingly remote mountainous terrain, reach Mount Otorten, and then loop back and return to Vizhay. By February 12th, they kept a detailed log of their journey, diary entries, photos even posed group shots along the trail, spirits were high. The tone of their entries in these diaries is confident in their even some humorous little notes.

[00:22:52] They progressed through the forest and made steady gains through increasingly difficult terrain, and by February 1st, they had reached the base of Colo Cycle, a neighboring mountain whose name means Dead Mountain in Mancy, which is a local tribe. That's foreshadowing right there. There we shouldn't

[00:23:13] Jared: be here.

[00:23:13] Jenn: Don't go to Dead Mountain. It's dead. Their next stop was supposed to be Otorten, but this is where things began to go sideways due to worsening weather, snow, high winds and near white out conditions. The group unintentionally drifted west of their planned route. Visibility was poor, and in the confusion they began ascending the slope of coot cycle instead of heading towards their next waypoint, which was Mount Oton.

[00:23:46] They were not really lost. They were just to skew just a little bit. Yeah, sure. Have you ever been white out conditions? No. Have you? Yeah, I have one time. I just, I mean, 'cause my point is I get this, is this your Tahoe sit? It was my Tahoe. I don't have to get into it, but yeah, it's just, yeah, but I mean, really, what is that like mean you can't see shit.

[00:24:04] Everything's white. And you were skiing, like you were actively skiing on and off? No. Well, this is even before that, but yeah, this is even before that when the blizzard hit. Yeah. I've never seen, you cannot, when everything's white already and then white in front of you because it's, you know, snowing that hard.

[00:24:20] Like you cannot see anything scary as hell. Scary. I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm sort of an indoor kind of girl and I don't like the outside. Yeah. I like the illusion of sitting outside. Mm-hmm. But there are bugs out there. Oh, boy. And snow. Ew. No, I don't. No, I don't, I don't do that. I wanna be warm.

[00:24:51] Mm-hmm. You, it's dangerous. It's very dangerous. Yeah. I can't even, I have not seen anything like that. I live, we live in Atlanta, right? I did not experience white else here. That does not happen. So they weren't lost by any means. They were just slightly askew. Once they realized that they were off course, they made a calculated decision.

[00:25:17] They set up camp right there on the exposed slope. And let me just break down the conditions so you get a full scope of what this is.

[00:25:26] The temperatures were estimated between negative 13 degrees Fahrenheit and negative 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

[00:25:32] Jared: Nope.

[00:25:33] Jenn: Which is negative 25 to negative 30 degrees Celsius. That feels wrong. Winds were 30 to 50 mile per hour gusts. Common on exposed slopes, the windchill could easily drop to negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower? No, no, no. I've never been anything that cold and nor should you be visibility near zero at times due to the snow. Snow depth was over five feet. In some places.

[00:25:58] The sunlight was extremely limited. Only about six to seven hours per day. And other factors, whiteouts drifting snow near constant wind exposure and total lack of natural wind breaks on the slope. Yeah. The group set up camp on the eastern slope of Coot cycle. I still feel like I'm saying that wrong, but that's okay. We're just moving on. And they were fully exposed to the elements and about a mile away from the protection of the forest tree line. At first glance, this seems really strange because why would you move away from the protection of the forest?

[00:26:34] That's where your shelter is. Yeah. , Now you're stuck in this wind and blowing snow with no natural barrier. If it was the Yeti's, they said they had to live in the forest. That's Bigfoot. Oh. I think Yeti lives in the snow. I don't know. Maybe they both do. Maybe they're pals. Well, they neither one are living anywhere 'cause they're not real.

[00:26:58] Oh. Well shit, shit. On my parade, I'm shitting on everybody's parade. Why would they pitch a tent on the edge of this barren IC incline? That seems kind of crazy. And there are a few theories. Some say it was due to the deteriorating weather. They may have lost visibility in the snowstorm and then decided to stop where they were rather than risk navigating through not knowing, white, knowing what the hell they were.

[00:27:21] Right, right, right. And getting even rough force or where go. Right. Other states intentional Dyatlov wanted the group to train for these extreme conditions. That was the whole point of this trip in the first place. So camping on a challenging slope, slope. Slope may have been part of the test. There's also the possibility of a navigation error.

[00:27:41] They might have thought they were closer to their intended waypoint, Mount Otorten than they actually were. With loads of, with low visibility snow drifts and shifting landmarks. Even it's experienced hikers can misjudge distance in direction. Uh, yeah. But here's what's important.

[00:27:59] Whatever the reason, however, they got there, they pitched that tent deliberately. They took the time to dig out a flat space, anchor the tent, and prepped for the night. This was not panicked, it was not rushed. It was calm and controlled. And contrast to that, between the order of the tent set up and the chaos that followed is the part that makes this story so awful and haunting.

[00:28:24] Oh shit. What would you have done? Would you have camped on that fricking slope? There's no way I would've done that. Trees safety, I'm gonna go, well, I'm going to go that if it truly was still white out conditions, not because I'm an expert of that. Uh, that I would've gone, you know what, we can't see a damn thing, and this could get worse.

[00:28:47] We could go to more of a ser, a severe slope. We've got to do this now. Or we might really, we might walk off the side of an edge. I don't know the side of an edge. We might walk off an edge. I don't know. Yeah. Well, I mean, the thing about it is, is they, they knew where the forest was. They just hiked away from it.

[00:29:07] Understand. So they could have just immediately turned back and gone straight back to the forest. Sure, sure. Yeah. It was about a mile. Well, if, if dude wanted to make it more challenging, well, he is just a dick. It's challenging enough. Well, that was the whole point though. Uh, no. Fuck that guy

[00:29:22] In any event, this was the last night that any of them were alive. There you go. Yeah. Well done.

[00:29:29] ​

[00:29:34] Jenn: on February 12th, 1959, this is the date the group was supposed to return back to Visa and send word to their sports club back in Spared Loves. But when nothing came through, there was no telegram, no update, no one panicked.

[00:29:52] Delays were common. I mean, the weather sure was, was expected, so nobody freaked out. By February 16th. Four days later, some friends and family started to worry, but officials in university contacts just pretty much urged patients, they'd trained for this. They were likely to just slow down by the snow and waiting it out in the storm.

[00:30:14] Jared: Be fine.

[00:30:15] Jenn: They will be fine. It's fine. February 20th. Another four days goes by and the family has run out of patients. They're done. Yeah. They, along with the Ural Polytechnical Institute, demand a formal search. Volunteer groups are organized and eventually the Soviet Army joins in bringing in helicopters, search dogs and cold weather specialist.

[00:30:41] Is that meteorologist? No. Oh, okay. I would assume these are like mountain people. Oh, oh. Different type of cold weather specialist. Yeah. Not, I know how you feel about meteorologist. Right, right. I know that you want to be one and like at heart you are one. Yeah, right. But no, not the type mo guy. It's fucking cold out here.

[00:31:02] No, not that type. You would be Jim Kori in Thunder Snow. That would be you, eh, Jim Kori, man. That, dude, that was the best day of his life. So Weatherman stood, that was the best day of his life. I'm gonna link to that video. In the show notes because that was the best day of that man's life, and you should go see it on February 26th.

[00:31:23] Searchers spot the tent. It's half collapsed and nearly buried in snow, but what stops them is how it was left later. Forensics show that the tent has been slashed open from the inside, not unzipped, not torn by the wind, but cut from within. And I actually looked this up because I was like, how would they know?

[00:31:47] Yeah. That it was cut from the inside out and it was the way that the fiber were.

[00:31:53] Jared: Yeah, that's what I figured. Yeah. Yeah, sure. That's nuts.

[00:31:55] Jenn: Sure. By the way, inside the tent, their gear is still there. Clothing, shoes, food diaries, cameras. It looks like they left in a hurry and didn't take anything that would help them survive in the cold.

[00:32:09] Footprints are found some barefoot, some in socks, some in only one shoe lead away from the tent and down the slope towards the tree line. No sign of pursuit, no avalanche so they could see the footprints. So that was still clear. This is just footprints fading in the snow and over the next few days, bodies begin to turn up, but not all in one place.

[00:32:35] Now small aside, I do not like to go into graphic descriptions of death and I will not. There are some details that I think are there, are important to the story and I will provide them and I will try to be respectful as possible. I will not give links to death, photos or Bo nothing like that. I did view some by accident on

[00:32:59] Dyatlov of pass.com, which is a fantastic site wealth of information that, on this case. , So you can find them if you want to, but I straight up will not show any depictions of that. I just, uh, I, I freaking can't,

[00:33:12] so I'm gonna try to get through this quickly. The first two found are Yuri Cenko and Yuri Doko discovered beneath a large cedar tree about a mile from the tent. Their barefoot, wearing only their underwear and their remains of a small fire nearby. Their hands are badly burned from direct contact with.

[00:33:36] Some believe they got too close in a desperate attempt to stay alive. Others argue the burns may have occurred in the final moments before death, or even afterward when the body no longer can react the way it should to pain. It's one of the many details that, yeah, yeah. More questions than answers. But the official cause for death for both are hypothermia.

[00:33:57] Okay? The cedar tree itself is damaged, its lower. Branches are snapped up to five meters high, and some branches have skin and blood on them, and it's believed that the two men may have climbed it either to escape something, get up high to look for their tent, or maybe firewood, because there was, there were remains of a fire.

[00:34:18] So all very strange. Three more bodies are found in a line between the cedar tree and the campsite. It's almost looks like they were trying to crawl back to the tent. And this was Igor Dilo. Zenida Coma. Guava O, sorry. And Rustin Slobodin. All three appeared to have died trying to return to the tent.

[00:34:44] They were better dressed than the first two who were down to their skis, but not by much. Only one of them has on one boot, another, no shoes at all. Slow bit has a fractured skull, possibly from a fall, but there's no major external trauma, just skull fracture and again, the cause of death for all three are hypothermia, then nothing.

[00:35:09] We don't know where the rest of them are, and it's silence. It takes over two months until May before the final four are found. About another 250 feet from the cedar tree. They're discovered in a ravine buried under 13 feet of snow, deeper into the woods. These four are dressed more warmly. Some are wearing clothing from the others that have already passed, suggesting that they scavenged what they could after the others had died, and a tragic but rational survival response, obviously.

[00:35:44] But furthermore, they had already built a makeshift shelter. So here's what was found. Cedar branches were laid down like bedding, scraps of clothing arranged in a way that suggests they were trying to preserve body heat. Some of them were wearing others' clothes, as said before, indicating , an attempt to stay warm after those individuals had died.

[00:36:06] , The den was located in a wooded ravine, which is not the best shelter in the world, but far more protected than the slope where the tent was right. Nikolai Tebo has a major skull fracture, severe enough to be fatal, and his cause of death is massive Cranial trauma, L banina is missing her tongue eyes and part of her lips.

[00:36:32] Okay. Her tongue? Yes. Oh, and wait, sorry. Her lips and part of her lips and her eyes. Okay. Yep. She has most multiple broken ribs and internal bleeding. Her cause of death is chest trauma with internal hemorrhaging.

[00:36:50] Jared: Okay.

[00:36:51] Jenn: Alexander OV has a twisted neck. It's not fatal. It's, it's not like a broken, it is twisted and his injury is potentially postmortem, it's hard to say.

[00:37:04] And there are signs of soft facial tissue, but there's no clear lethal injury and his cause of death is hypothermia. Sure. And then we have Symon Zov, he's the oldest in the group and he has extensive rib fractures on one side, enough to crush his chest cavity. And that's what his cause of death is.

[00:37:28] Okay. He has no external wounds though. These are all internal. Doesn't makes no sense. I know , the forensic expert at the time stated that the chest injuries would've required a force similar to a car crash.

[00:37:42] Jared: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:42] Jenn: Like massive injuries. But there were no bruises and no cuts. There were no external injuries.

[00:37:48] There were all internal. Mm-hmm. Nothing on the outside could explain what had happened within, however, the depth of the ravine could not explain the extensive damage. 13 feet is not enough, does not equal car crash injuries. Right, right. And here's what makes this even stranger. There were no signs of a struggle.

[00:38:07] No defensive wounds, no evidence that they fought against an attacker. Just disarray. Now some of the missing facial features like Lud, Mila's, face, tongue, and eyes could have been caused by scavengers after death. That's a normal part of the circle of life. And the burning on the hands of the others by the trees could possibly be by getting too close to the fire, the lack of clothing.

[00:38:36] Could be caused by a phenomenon called paradoxical undressing, where hypothermia confuses the brain and tricks victims into believing that they're overheating. But still, it doesn't explain all of it. It doesn't explain the injuries, not the, the fact that were all split up, not the barefoot dash into the freezing night, the right fleeing the tent like that, it just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

[00:39:04] Something fricking happened out there, but what? Yeah,

[00:39:08] ​

[00:39:13] Jenn: so now we get to it. To theories, what could have possibly driven nine experience hikers to flee their tent in the middle of the night into Sub-Zero temperatures without shoes or proper clothing? I have no fucking clue. Sorry. Fast forwarding. I have no clue. I'm baffled.

[00:39:29] I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you some ideas. Some are plausible, others

[00:39:35] Jared: not so much. Okay.

[00:39:37] Jenn: All of them are attempts at making sense of this mystery. Sure. Let's start with the most straightforward avalanche.

[00:39:46] Jared: Okay.

[00:39:46] Jenn: The avalanche theory suggests the group heard or felt the beginning of a snowslide and panicked cut their way outta the tent, possibly because their entrance was blocked by snow and ran down slope to escape danger.

[00:40:00] Some of the injuries like fractured skulls, broken ribs could be consistent with heavy snow impact and the disarray of the site that, that that could match the chaos of fleeing a life threatening collapse of snow. But there are problems. First, the slope angle where they camped was only about 15 degrees, which is not steep enough for a natural avalanche.

[00:40:24] Second, when searchers found the tent weeks later, it was still partially standing. They spotted it. They could see, well, they never would've found the tent, period. They could have troop, probably not. They just would've walked right over the top of it. Not like you would just randomly dig and snow as a tent here as a 10.

[00:40:38] Nobody would've done that. Exactly. And third, there were footprints leading away very clear and orderly, and they were not consistent with people fleeing in a panic. There you go. Never would've found the footprints either. I like the theory. Don't get me wrong. It makes the most sense. It makes the most sense.

[00:40:53] But now when you add those other two, yeah. Next we have catabolic wind.

[00:40:58] Jared: Okay. No clue what that, Mr.

[00:41:00] Jenn: Meteorologist should know this. Nope. Although it is a rare meteorological event involving sudden violent downdrafts of cold air sweeping down a mountainside.

[00:41:13] Kind of like wind avalanche. I didn't know what that was called, but okay. Wind avalanche. I've seen it. Not personally. Sorry, that was stupid. I'm not like people, like how much does he fucking ski? I haven't skied in 10 years anyway. No, I've seen videos of that, but I didn't know what it was called. Yeah, I didn't know what it was going.

[00:41:28] Tobo wind. Now this could have caused the tech to collapse. It could have created terrifying noise and pressure leading the hikers to think that this was an actual avalanche and they were in danger and they needed back there. You wouldn't hear wind. Gimme a break. Apparently you can. It's very loud, eh, whatever.

[00:41:46] Anyways, this is more plausible than the avalanche, right? And it's been observed in similar mountain environments, but still no sign of tent damage, no attempt to return once the danger had passed, right? Like this wouldn't kill them. You go rip and open a tent. 'cause I hear some wind coming down the mountain.

[00:42:04] It's a panic. Next we have military testing or secret weapons. Here's, we're gonna take a turn here until like KGB. Yeah. Some believe the hikers were accidental casualties in a secret Soviet weapons test. This area was actually not far from military test zones.

[00:42:24] Okay. Radioactive traces were found on some of the clothing. The levels were higher than background radiation, but not high enough to be dangerous on their own. Somebo had burns. There were signs of internal trauma with no external wounds, almost like a pressure wave. Maybe they witnessed something that they weren't supposed to.

[00:42:46] They were at the wrong place. Wrong time during a classified test of, I dunno, like sonic weapons or gamma ray parachute mines. Death beams. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what the Soviets were doing on this one. They were some crazy shit. This does sound crazy, but this is during the Cold War. Paranoia was not unwarranted at this point in time.

[00:43:08] Now here's the thing about, I just wanna, I pinpointed on the radioactive traces that were higher than background traces. 'cause radioactive materials everywhere around this. Right. It's just super low. Well, all of these students were at Ural Poly. Right. They played with this stuff on a daily basis. Oh, okay.

[00:43:29] Okay. They were, it, it could be found with their stuff. Gotcha. And, but the thing about it is that that makes it extremely plausible to me that it could have just been on their school stuff. Right. And they touched it and it got into their bag. Right. Right. Meant nothing to this. Case. I don't, I don't think it means anything.

[00:43:46] I really don't. Furthermore, no, that's about, they were around it all the time then. Yeah. Yeah. It totally plausible. And the burns that were found on the men by the trees, there were remains of a fire behind this had nothing to do with radioactive material, in my opinion. Yeah. It just wasn't Number four in infrasonic panic.

[00:44:04] Here we go. This one comes from a man named Donnie Eker, an author who suggested a meteorological phenomenon called infrasound, which might have triggered irrational fear. Infrasound is low frequency sound waves generated by wind hitting the mountain's topography, which could have created vibrations felt in the body, but not heard in some lab studies.

[00:44:33] This has been linked to nausea, dread, and even hallucination. The idea is that something triggered primal panic. The group fled, tried to regroup and then succumbed to exposure before making it back.

[00:44:48] The look at my face is, this is bullshit. I think it's one of the few that tries to explain the psychological response without a physical threat, but they went so insane. Like lab studies have shown it's been linked to nausea, dread, and hallucination. Yeah. Not sheer out panicking death. Well, right, and I see the way the mind works.

[00:45:14] Could there be some type of that? But you're telling me it hit every one of them equally and they all just went, yeah. What's the one guy that's like, guys, guys, guys, guys, guys. One or two guys, or even three, like whatever that goes, what are you doing? Not just, everybody goes Well. Yeah, I don't even wanna bring this up, this theory, but I'm gonna say it anyways yet because some, some not yet.

[00:45:41] Dammit. Wait, wait. Your turn. This one is that there was some local violence and, , an attack caused by the Maney tribe. Early theory suggested the hikers were attacked by the Mancy, which is an indigenous people native to this region of the Urals And the group, you know, possibly the group had trespassed on sacreDyatlovnd and were punished for it by the local tribe.

[00:46:06] Uh. This does not even deserve to be mentioned. I'm only bringing it up 'cause you'll read it no matter. Sure. Where you look up this case. Sure. , The Maney were known to be peaceful and there's no history of violence with or conflict with outsiders. There was no evidence of a struggle, no defensive wounds, no other footprints except the, the group of hikers.

[00:46:28] If it was an attack, why would they leave valuables food and all their gear behind? Yeah. , This plays into xenophobic tropes, painting indigenous people as violent or superstitious when they have done zero to earn any of this suspicion. And most of this theory is rooted in Cold War paranoia and cultural ignorance.

[00:46:51] Yeah. And not hurting, you know, in the whole hurting people from the inside out. It's whatever's, it's a disgusting theory. It's gross. So next theory is that it was an animal attack. Wolves, bears, Wolverines have even been mentioned. , Maybe it spooked the hikers. They freaked out and then got attacked and killed by animals.

[00:47:15] Okay. There is no proof of animal tracks, princes tears. Well, yeah, they would've done more. It's not even worth, it's, it, they would've done more damage than any of this tension. Also, a wolverine, I don't think could do this to all of these people, maybe one person, but it's a pretty, it's a smaller animal.

[00:47:36] I think the only animal that could do that would be a polar bear. And frankly, these people would all be eaten if it was a polar bear. Yeah. And I don't even know if polar bear is in the Urals Yeah, polar bears are in the Urals and Hugh Jackman wasn't even alive then. So, shut up. You're done. That's funny.

[00:47:54] All right. Theory number seven is that there is internal conflict. The group. Broke apart from the inside out. A fight, psychotic break person just snaps and loses their absolute shit. Yeah. This is dumb because again, no defensive wounds. , There's nothing in the hiker's journals or pictures that were left behind that supports this.

[00:48:18] They were very close knit. They were experienced, they were in good spirits. And this is stupid. This is stupid. Now what? Now the next theory. You can say it now. Yeti. Yeti. Or let's just go the whole supernatural realm. Aliens. Aliens, whatever. Interdimensional. I don't know. Cos core dinosaurs. Oh no. Nothing.

[00:48:43] Dinosaurs. Yeah. Wrong. No. . Some eyewitnesses in nearby areas reported strange lights in the sky. Some say the injuries were too bizarre to be human caused, eh, the tent slash feels like horror movie situation, but there is no evidence that a Yeti exist, that aliens are in the Urals in the fifties beaming up hikers.

[00:49:10] Sure. This is dumb. This is dumb.

[00:49:15] That's, that's, that's all of the theories. That's it outta theories. None of these exper, none of these explain everything. Each one of them has gaps. Each one of them leaves something out, and in the end, we may never know. Yeah. But that aside, what do you think? I honestly, I knew this question was coming.

[00:49:37] Yeah. What do you think? It's, I don't, I, I don't have anything. I don't, I really don't. Okay, let's go through avalanche. No, it's just not, no, only a portion of that makes sense, but again, no. If the, if the, the snow didn't cover some of the injuries stack, but in the panic and everything, like if I hear an avalanche, I get like, I do get it.

[00:50:00] They would rip open the tent going, Hey guys, there's no time to find the zipper or whatever. I got, you know, like, just Right. Boop. The rest of it doesn't, it wouldn't, but, and they would've gone back and they would've set the step, the, the rest of it doesn't happen. Right? It just doesn't. Right. Catabolic wind, maybe mostly No, no, no.

[00:50:17] Bullshit. No human attack. No animal attack. No. No. All the animal injuries were postmortem, in my opinion, no. Would've, it would've been way more brutal than that. Paranormal, dumb in infrasonic, infrasound. Panic, even dumber. Yeah. The only thing. That makes sense to you.

[00:50:36] No, you're going for little kgb. The only thing that makes sense is that to me, yeah. I think something caused an initial panic. Yeah. There was a boom, a sound, an explosion, whatever. Something caused a panic. They cut their way out. They panicked. They fled, they discovered, they get out of the tent. And I think somebody saw them.

[00:51:02] Jared: Right.

[00:51:03] Jenn: And then I think, I think the first, it's makes sense to me that the first five were left to the ailments and died of exposure. And then I think the other four that were found in the ravine were found and killed.

[00:51:16] Jared: Okay.

[00:51:17] Jenn: That's what I think.

[00:51:18] Jared: Sure.

[00:51:19] Jenn: It doesn't really make sense. I'm acknowledging that, but that's the only thing that makes more sense.

[00:51:24] I'll give that No, I'll give you that. I'll give you that. I mean, I've got, I've got no defining. Answer, but, um, that explains to me if the, if the original people that were found outside in the elements, that's why there were no other footprints because they, they died like that and then the others snow covereDyatlovter.

[00:51:50] Any footprints. Okay.

[00:51:50] Jared: Okay.

[00:51:51] Jenn: I don't know.

[00:51:52] Jared: Sure.

[00:51:53] Jenn: It's still doesn't, yeah, it's

[00:51:54] Jared: baffling.

[00:51:55] Jenn: It's absolutely, I, I don't think we'll ever know. I mean, and fact of the matter is if there are, or were ever any government papers associated with this, they're never going to, and they're never gonna be released or anything expose it.

[00:52:07] Exactly. I mean, the Russian government today is not exactly known for being open.

[00:52:12] Jared: Yeah.

[00:52:15] Jenn: Please don't come after me.

[00:52:16] ​

[00:52:21] Jenn: The mystery of the Dyatlov past didn't just spark theories, it became a cultural phenomenon in Russia. It is part of the national psyche now a mix of state suspicion, wilderness fear, and Soviet error.

[00:52:35] Tragedy. It's not just a story. People know it's story. People tell to warn, to question to wonder. There are memorials, books and documentaries and even films ranging from investigative deep dives to full blown horror movies. Hollywood took a stab at it in a movie called The Devil's Pass, which was crazy, inaccurate.

[00:52:58] It, it was a mess. It was stupid. Uh, it's awful. And that's not just in Russia. This obviously, we're talking about it on this podcast. It is spilled into western pop culture, especially in online forums and YouTube channels.

[00:53:14] Jared: Hmm.

[00:53:14] Jenn: The hiker's photos, there are graining, black and whites of smiling young adults in the snow.

[00:53:19] They've become haunting symbols. So we just gotta, we just gotta wrap up here 'cause I think, you know, we start, we turn all of these stories into legends and we obsess over the how and the why and we comb over autopsy reports.

[00:53:36] I do. And you know, zoom in on blurry photos and try to analyze angles of tent flaps and like it's gonna hold some sort of hidden truth. And I think we risk losing the people at the heart of the story. And this is one of the few international stories that ever really stuck with me. I don't know why I'm not interested in things that happen outside of the US 'cause so many interesting things do happen.

[00:54:03] But be that as it may, I think it's one of those that. Doesn't feel like so much like a ghost story or something that's not real. I think that's why I get so emotional. 'cause there's like, the people at the heart of this we're not random hikers. They were real people. In fact, they were brilliant students, athletes, engineers.

[00:54:25] They were to go do something, right? Right. They were going to be something right in the world. They were not reckless, they were exceptional. And, you know, they trained for this. They were pushing the boundaries. They tr they were trying to prove something about human strength, endurance, and even Soviet pride, which to them was very, very important

[00:54:44] Jared: for sure.

[00:54:44] Sure.

[00:54:45] Jenn: And instead of being remembered, instead of being remembered for their ambitions and their achievements, they become characters in a horror story. , The trauma and the violence that they experience just doesn't even make sense. Oh. Sorry. All right. I'm sad,

[00:55:14] but you know, I think sometimes that's why I keep going back to stories like this 'cause they're not, because the scariest thing isn't the mystery. It's that we just will never know.

[00:55:28] Jared: No,

[00:55:34] Jenn: sorry.

[00:55:42] Now my nose is running. So that is today's case. The Dyatlov of past incident. I got really, , emotional there at the end. I really love weird history and mysteries and true crime.

[00:55:58] But when I start thinking about the people, I get flick limped. Are you normally an emotional person in life? Yeah. Are you okay? Am I, I

[00:56:11] Jared: don't know.

[00:56:13] Jenn: I am an emotional person. I have emotional outbursts all the time. They're just usually not sad outbursts. There you go. I do not cry. Takes a special thing to hit your heart it to express that it has hit my heart.

[00:56:27] There you go. There you go. Yeah. I'm not a warm and fuzzy. That's you. Yeah. You're the warm and fuzzy. You're not a cold bitch. I just don't mean that. But yeah, I mean, some would disagree with you. Well, I don't, so, um, thank you. There are a few documentaries that I would recommend that I normally don't bring up on the episodes, but there are some really good ones that I really like.

[00:56:50] One of them is called an Unknown Compelling Force, , from 2021 and the other also filmed in the same year is Cold Case Dyatlov. And then, , dyatlovpass.com is a deep dive, archival and expedition focused resource aiming to uncover and share the original materials and context behind this mystery, unfiltered by sensationalism.

[00:57:13] And that was the main source for today's episode. And I think that anybody that is interested in this should go check them out. There's some really, really awesome things out there. Cool. What do you think? No, it is a, um, I, I mean, we're not that many episodes in, but I always have a theory if it's something like this, I don't have shit.

[00:57:38] This is a tough one. I don't have shit. This was a tough one. This is a, this is a great story for someone that, maybe I'll say that honestly. I mean, I, I would assume that a lot of people don't know anything about this story. 'cause why would they, right. Not unless it's just your thing, but. So it was a good story.

[00:57:57] Sorry, I was gonna go down this whole deep path. There's no reason to. So yeah. It was a good story. Yep, yep, yep. And if you would like to get a little bit more from the House of Syx, you can go to patreon.com/houseofsyx and join our Keyholder tier and check out our bonus materials. I put up polls for silly little things that are out there, and little commentary.

[00:58:24] There's some behind the scenes stuff out there. Yeah. So if you'd like to check out some more, you can check us out on TikTok and YouTube. You can find us @houseofsyx. Do it? Yeah. We need subscribe. Subscribe and like, Hey, we're up to like seven or eight now. Eight. Yeah. Woo. Woo.

[00:58:43] We just getting this off the ground. Yep. Yep. So please like review, rate, subscribe. Thumbs up. All the aboves. All of the aboves. Yeah. Love to. We're just having fun here. We love to, we're just having fun here. Yep. Yep. And we'll be back next week. We drop episodes every Tuesday and we'll be back with another mystery.

[00:59:04] I have no idea what it's gonna be. I have not decided. It could be something witchy, it could be something different than that. I don't know. I don't know. But please join us next time. All right. Had a good time. Thanks. Bye. Bye.

[00:59:04] Snow fell soft on Ural ground. Nine went up, but none came down. Boots and coats, they left behind. What made them flee? Will never find.

[00:59:15] ​

[00:59:20] Over the pass, they climbed so high into the dark Siberian sky. Something came with teeth or flame. But no one lived to name its name.

[00:59:30] ​