Where’s the one place you probably shouldn’t go on vacation with your friends? If you answered ‘the Dyatlov Pass,’ you are very correct. Your prize is never having a paranormal blog write about your mysterious disappearance.
Others aren’t quite so lucky. A group of eight went missing briefly this week after voyaging to the Dyatlov Pass, located in Russia’s northern Ural Mountains. They were originally scheduled to return home by Wednesday, but didn’t show up for their departure.
By visiting the strange site, the group reportedly intended to “pay tribute” to the original victims of what has come to be known as 1959’s Dyatlov Pass Incident. But it seems they may have gone too far in a few places.
“They were supposed to leave at eight o’clock this morning. But they have not returned yet and there is no contact with them.”
What’s notable here is that the original incident involved almost the same number of people, and even happened in the same month. In February 1959, nine Russian hikers died there under mysterious circumstances, and speculation about their demise has continued on to this day.
In fact, earlier this year a new research paper was published exploring a rather mundane explanation for the event. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the paper suggests that their untimely end was the result of “an unusually timed avalanche.” The idea, if you want, is called the Avalanche Hypothesis.
In regards to this new group of tourists, however, their story ended on a much better note. As it turns out, they were an unregistered group of hikers from Moscow. At some point during their trip, relatives lost contact with them, and reported them missing.
As one of the tourists later recounted, the weather became “unpredictable” and the group, which actually consisted of six tourists and three professional instructors, got stuck on a lake. They apparently couldn’t contact anyone because a nearby satellite dish was broken. The source for this information is understandably in Russian, so you might need a translator for that one. Long story short: They made it home safely.
