The death of a group of tourists led by Igor Dyatlov in the region of the Ural Mountain of the Dead in February 1959 can without exaggeration be called the greatest mystery of the 20th century. But there were other similar stories. One of them is the tragedy in Buryatia, which happened in August 1993.
Fatal Tritrans
A group of six young people, residents of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kazakhsky, led by 41-year-old Lyudmila Korovina, did not imagine what the weather would be like for them on the hike.
Usually snow in the area of the Khamar-Daban pass lies from September to June, but this time the August cyclone brought a strong cold snap, it snowed and rained for several days in a row. By that time, the tourists, who were in a hurry to pass the route as soon as possible, were very tired and frozen. The hurricane wind forced them to make a halt on the rocky summit of the Retranslator peak (another name is Tritrans), at an altitude of 2204 meters.
On August 4, the whole day, the group collected and harvested the golden root that grew in these places. On the morning of August 5, one of the guys - 24-year-old Sasha, the tallest, strongest and strongest - froth from his mouth, blood gushed from his ears. He died in front of his comrades.
Lyudmila Korovina decided that she had to leave urgently. She appointed Denis as the head of the group, and ordered everyone to start an organized descent towards the forest, while she herself remained next to the body of the deceased guy.
But the guys for some reason passed halfway and, according to the only survivor, 18-year-old Valentina Utochenko, began to behave inappropriately. They rolled on the ground, tore at their clothes, threw their shoes, bit, grabbed at the throat. It seemed that only two - Korovina and Utochenko - were not infected with general madness.
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Valentina's Adventures
Valya tried unsuccessfully for some time to take her comrades away from the terrible place. Finally, realizing that it was useless, she grabbed her sleeping bag and threw herself down. During the day, she wandered through the forest, then returned to the place where she left the group.
By that time, all her comrades were already dead, with the exception of Korovina. But she lay exhausted and could not move. With the last of her strength, she showed the girl in which direction to go out, and passed out. Valentina closed her eyes to the dead, took out a map of the area, a compass and food supplies from her backpack and set off.
The girl went down the clearing to the Snezhnaya River. On August 8, there, on the shore, she was picked up by a group of tourists from Kiev who were rafting down Snezhnaya. Valya was in an almost insane state, she did not speak because of the shock. Only a few days later, she was finally able to tell about what happened.
Investigation
The bodies of the dead were found only a month later. Rescuers first saw the scene of the tragedy from a helicopter. One of them, Aleksey Livinsky, drew attention to the fact that there were no birds in this place, even crows did not fly. Since the area was well blown by the winds, the corpses were partially mummified. The faces of all the dead were blue-violet.
Here is the description given to the press by the then deputy head of the Trans-Baikal Regional Search and Rescue Service Leonid Izmailov:
“The bodies are already swollen, everyone's eye sockets are completely eaten away. Almost all of the victims were dressed in thin leotards, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexandra …"
The corpses were taken to Ulan-Ude. An autopsy showed that hypothermia was the cause of death of all six. Unsurprisingly, naked people died in the cold. But why did they all undress, which prompted them to do this?
Korovina was a very experienced instructor - this was confirmed by everyone who was personally acquainted with her and went hiking under her guidance. Well, let's say, after the first death, the group was seized by panic. But why did everyone react that way? Because of bad weather, hypothermia, overwork? But there were other tourist groups in the mountains at that time, who found themselves in exactly the same conditions. And nothing of the kind happened to them. And why did Valentine not succumb to panic?
Hypotheses
Many hypotheses have been put forward. The most plausible: tourists fell victim to altitude sickness when hallucinations appear against the background of oxygen starvation. However, the group was not in the mountains for the first day, and the place where they died was not so high.
One of Lyudmila Korovina's students, Evgeny Olkhovsky, suggested that the guys could have been poisoned by ozone accumulated during a thunderstorm. This could lead to pulmonary edema and rupture of blood vessels.
Some believe that poisoning with "burned" alcohol or other foods could have occurred. Hence, perhaps, the foam on the lips of Sasha, who died first. But tourists who knew Korovina claim that she always had a dry law in her groups. And hardly anyone would have lugged heavy bottles of alcohol with them. And if there were symptoms of poisoning, would the pathologists have missed it?
A member of the search group, Nikolai Fedorov, believes that infrasound could be the culprit for the death of tourists. The rescuer assumes that the strong wind caused magnetic vibrations, set in motion powerful air currents. And the surrounding rocks became the generator of infrasound.
A person is not able to hear infrasonic vibrations, but can react to them with uncontrolled panic. According to Valentina, her comrades were very restless and their speech was confused.
There are also more fantastic assumptions put forward by ufologists, conspiracy theorists and researchers of the paranormal. In particular, the fact that Tritrans is a "dead" zone, the deceased tour group could collide with the Yeti or get into the test zone of secret weapons.
To date, just as in the case of the Dyatlovites, the reason for the strange behavior that ultimately led to the death of six people has not been clarified. Valentina Utochenko left her hometown long ago, she now has a family, an ordinary life. She tries not to remember that tragedy once again.
Irina Shlionskaya
