On August 10, 1960, two geologists disappeared in the North Baikal taiga. Until now, not the slightest trace of them has been found. There is not a single convincing reason for the disappearance of geologists. Until now, all the versions put forward look implausible. There are factors that don't fit into every version. So let's look at known facts, even minor details.
Leave and not return
That summer, the Uoyan geological expedition was working in the Severobaikalsk region, headed by Vladimir Dubchenko. Geologists carried out detailed exploration of mountain outcrops in the area. Around the base camp of geologists there is a century-old taiga. Nina S. was a young but experienced professional. After graduating from a geological technical school in Irkutsk, she was assigned to Yakutia; After successfully working there for three years, she returned to Buryatia.
She was originally from the Barguzinsky region. In the team, the young geologist was appreciated for his inexorable adherence to accuracy in the study of samples, descriptions, reports. In addition, she possessed a rare resourcefulness, ingenuity, which allowed her almost always to do with her own hands, with her head. Nina went to the Uoyan expedition as a senior geologist. It is worth mentioning that that summer Nina experienced a bereavement: her friend, Gennady Malygin, a graduate of Moscow University, while on the Sayan expedition, died after falling off a cliff (the mountain cut he discovered that summer in the Sayan Mountains is named after him).
Nina set off with 18-year-old Nikolai Troyan, a quiet, executive guy who knew a lot about geology and dreamed of going to the Irkutsk Geological Prospecting College. Let's note one more fact: that summer Nikolai also experienced a tragedy - his mother died.
On the morning of August 10, Nina received an assignment from the head of the party to make reconnaissance of the mountain outcrop at the point indicated on the field map and bring mountain samples from there. This site of mountain conglomerates was two kilometers from the base camp. What do we know about their route? On the way of the geologists flowed a shallow river Sinikta, which is easy to wade. Another river - Inakamit, which flows into Belaya Mama - is stormy, rapids, with large boulders.
But if you go around the river around the bend, then turn, walk another one and a half kilometers and go out into a narrow long canyon that looks like a rocky corridor, then a direct path opens half a kilometer to the designated place. Given that Nina knew field work well, everyone was confident that she would meet the one-day deadline and be back with an assistant by the end of the day. It was strictly forbidden to deviate from the route. But neither Nina nor Kolya returned to base camp either in the evening of that day or the next morning.
Searches on the first snow
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Although the geologists were worried about the lack of comrades, they went along the route of Nina S. only the next day. Unfortunately, time was lost. On the way, bad weather suddenly broke out, a strong piercing wind blew, a downpour began, turning into snow. The Evenki guides from the expedition (they lived 100 kilometers from Uoyan) went out in search with their dogs. They wondered at the early snow that had been falling for many hours. Such snowfall, in their opinion, has not happened in forty years.
The pouring rain and snow washed away every possible trace of the geologists. Sinikta spilled into a raging mountain river. Nevertheless, the participants of the search reached the designated point of the route, but did not see any fresh rock chips! It turns out that the missing geologists never made it to their destination.
Where did they go? The tireless walker and keen observer Sasha Ushakov tried to feel every meter, every blockage of logs on the rivers. No trace! Evenk search dogs did not help either - they stopped near the river. An urgent radiogram was sent to Ulan-Ude. A large group of experienced search engines and rescuers was urgently equipped from the capital of Buryatia. A helicopter was sent to help.
Four search teams searched for a long time, persistently, and even in different directions from the route of the missing geologists. Searched until early October. The search was resumed the next year and the third. After three years, the search commission was forced to voice the official version: they drowned in the river.
But this option did not suit everyone. So, Nina's father continued to look for his daughter for several more years in a row, leaving together with geologists on their expedition. Until the early 2000s, he came from the Barguzinsky district to Ulan-Ude to the geological department and asked if there was any news …
Unconvincing versions
Experienced geologists were not satisfied with the stereotyped versions of extinction, because they are not applicable to this case. For example, it has been hypothesized that geologists fell into a sinkhole. Say, the soil has settled there due to thawing of underground ice. But the geological structure of the area does not confirm this. Subsidence and movement of soil, landslides and the formation of underground voids are impossible there.
The version of the bear attack also looks untenable. Geologists usually leave some of their equipment for colleagues to find their trail. In a critical situation, a geologist must throw aside a heavy hammer, which beats off pieces of rock.
Nikolai Troyan had a radiometer. The bear could not carry away these items! A criminal version was also offered. But traces would have been found in this case, especially since there is not a single settlement in the wild taiga for hundreds of kilometers.
As the experienced geologist A. Siritsyn said, nothing can be lost in nature. Sooner or later, the taiga will reveal the lost traces of a person. Nature is honest and open to humans. It is only in human society that it is difficult and sometimes impossible to find the missing, since the culprit will try to cover up the traces of his crime.
Failure of space and time
One version of the disappearance of geologists at that time was not considered seriously. Although not long before the emergency happened an interesting fact. A month before the disappearance of Nina and Nikolai on the same expedition, a strange incident happened to a young geologist, a graduate of the Irkutsk geological prospecting college. He went with the Evenki guides to get meat for the expedition's needs (moreover, to the same area where the geologists would disappear in a few weeks).
The Evenks with meat were already returning to the base camp. The young geologist came last. During a conversation with the hunter in front, he fell silent. Evenk looked back … The geologist fell through the earth as if! They searched for him for three days. Only on the fourth day the guy was seen on the other side of the stormy river. They were also surprised how he found himself on the other side. It is hardly possible to cross the rapids mountain river - it can be carried away by the current. And the strangest thing is that the found geologist claimed that he “was alone for only three or four hours”. After that, the young man left geology forever.
Recall that history contains evidence of the disappearance of people, unexplained by natural causes. According to the theory of "worm holes", instantaneous movements in space and in time are possible. American astrophysicist Kip Thorne and the famous English scientist Stephen Hawking, who were confined to a wheelchair, wrote about this.
And the Kiev resident of the researcher of time Anatoly Beach has developed a hypothesis according to which time is the energetic state of matter. The consequences of this hypothesis make it possible to explain the phenomena of poltergeist, teleportation, spontaneous combustion and disappearance of objects and people. According to Beech's hypothesis, natural formation is a "cloud of time." Possessing its own time, it either slowly drifts, then instantly moves in space and time.
Couldn't Nina and her companion also find themselves in such a “wandering locality”? Maybe they teleported many years ago to the past or the future? Their disappearance could have been facilitated by a special psychological state: not long before that, both had suffered a heavy loss of loved ones.
Snowman
Let's consider another version. In 1990, Professor B. F. Porshnev from the USSR Academy of Sciences reported that the "Bigfoot" lives in remote areas of the eastern part of Siberia, in the mountain taiga - judging by the stories that geologists have heard from local old-timers. American researcher Ivan Sanderson pointed out: "There are cases when the" Bigfoot "carried a man on his shoulder, once even in a sleeping bag."
These mysterious creatures are credited with the ability to influence the weather. Let's remember that on the day of the search the weather turned badly. Also, according to some testimonies, the snowmen have the ability to disappear: the chains of footprints of the Bigfoot in the snow suddenly ended …
And further. The "snow" people note developed extrasensory abilities. Acting on the human psyche, they cause anxiety and intense fear. The hypnotic suggestion of the "Bigfoot" can explain the strange behavior of people from the camp, when they were in no hurry to search for the missing.
The mystery of the disappearance of geologists remains unsolved. In conclusion, we note that S. Nina went down in the history of Russian geology. Her name is immortalized in the name of one of the mountain springs - a tributary of the Inakamit River. A memorial sign has been installed at the site of the alleged death. A book was even published with an artistic version of this disappearance.