The Dyatlov Pass Mystery: What Really Happened in the Urals?

Now on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/57DWFx0n8eUmRyAMGTnWIOIn February 1959, nine experienced Soviet hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains after apparently cutting their way out of their tent and fleeing into temperatures of around minus 27 degrees Celsius, some without shoes or adequate clothing. Their bodies were discovered over the following months with injuries that raised questions which have never entirely disappeared: crushed ribs, skull fractures, traces of radiation on clothing, reports of strange lights in the sky and circumstances that seemed difficult to reconcile with a single explanation. In this episode, Dyatlov Pass researcher and author Keith McCloskey discusses the expedition, the search, the condition of the bodies and the theories that have followed the case for decades—from avalanche and hypothermia to Soviet military activity, secret experiments and more unusual possibilities. McCloskey argues that almost every proposed solution explains part of the evidence while leaving another part unresolved, which is why the Dyatlov Pass incident remains one of the twentieth century's most persistent mysteries.