Expedition 2-12- July, 2025
24-07-2025
2-12 July, 2025, leader Oleg Taymen, video © Oleg Taymen
Group of 11 achieved all tasks for the trek:
- Erected a memorial plaque at the site of the tent on the 90th anniversary of Nikolay Thibeaux-Brignolle
- Reached Otorten, the final destination of the Dyatlov group
- Examined with a new professional class metal detector the sites of the tent and the Cedar
I'm happy to report that the expedition was a success in terms of goal achievement, and I'm starting to upload photos from it. Behind the scenes there are a lot of discussions going on about what we found and brought back from the pass. This includes tin cans, tin foil, rope, cartridges, tree cross section... The delay is not a result of procrastination, but my wish to spare you the anxiety of what it is in the photos. First, I want to confirm for myself. Samples have been submitted to Private Forensic Laboratory "Premium Expert" and Prof. Momchil Panayotov from the Dendrology Department of the University of Forestry, Sofia, Bulgaria. Please bear with me, especially since the Dendrology expert requested more reference samples from the birch trees in the area and Aleksander Konstantinov, who is going to the pass in August said that he will try to bring back some, and then I need to get them in the mail and submit for analysis. Every time you feel impatient remember this is a 66 years old cold case and that we are only now trying to analyze samples from the site where the bodies were found. The problem now is not only how deep the 1959 items are buried, but how much modern junk is on top of them.
Yekaterinburg
The cemeteries
The three tags you see on the photos are for my top supporters. I promised to take their tokens to the Dyatlov Pass. They gave me the words to put on the tags. I thought they will give me their names but each of them, independently, gave me words that describe the lives lost. In the notebook are the names of the members of my group headed to the pass in couple of days. The idea is that they wanted to pay their respects to the graves but they didn't have the time, we were gathering on the train station and headed to Ivdel the same day. My flights was a couple of days earlier so I cane meet with some friends and comrades in Yekaterinburg, so I did the trip to both Mihaylovskoe and Ivannovskoe cemeteries on behalf of the whole team. Kolevatov's photo fell, not as a result of a vandalism. Aleksey Koskin from the Dyatlov group foundation has it, it just fell. Then Koskin had to be admitted in a hospital for a planned surgery. It will soon be replaced. The poem above Yuri Yudin's photo was torn down, presumed vandalism.
Ganina Yama
Visiting this holy place with Ayna, my friend painter, who goes to the Dyatlov Pass every year to recharge. I also brought with me the list of our group. Ayna will go to the pass in August, with a second group. The Romanov family were murdered in the Ipatiev's house. Then their bodies were dumped in Ganina Yama, only to be moved again to another location nearby called Romanov's Memorial. The Ipatiev's house doesn't exists anymore, it was demolished in 1977. After the Romanov's were canonized in 2000 the Church on Blood was built on its place, and the altar stands over the execution site. At the moment the bodies are buried at Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg.
Dom knigi
Today our store at Anton Valek, 12 was visited by Teodora Hadjiyska, author of the book "1079: The Overwhelming Force of Dyatlov Pass"!
The researcher arrived from Austria and dropped by the House of Books before her sixth expedition to the site of the mysterious death of the Dyatlov group.
Teodora signed her book and shared details of the mysterious story.
Source: https://vk.com/domknigiekaterinburg?w=wall-33375717_28661
Yekaterinburg-Passazhirskiy
Every expedition to the Dyatlov Pass starts on a overnight (19:23-8:02) train from Yekaterinburg to Ivdel. Most of the participants met for the first time. Two last minute additions from Moscow turn out to be very suspicious. Their names were different, equipment, manners, not your usual hiker. We named them KGB from the start. At the station we were closely monitored not to take videos and there was always someone watching.
Ivdel - Vizhay - Ushminka River - Izba v Kedrovnike
First encounter with the mosquitos and flooded roads. The enchanted forest with moss called Witch's hair (ведьмины волосы) and fungus – Witch's butter aka Yellow brain. The bearded "veil" on conifers (fir, spruce) is the so-called usnea lichen, or "witch's hair". They are less common on birches. As explained by the Ministry of Ecology of the Moscow Region, the presence of such "fringe" indicates that the air around is being purified. "These lichens are considered indicators of air purity. Where they grow, the air is the cleanest," the experts assure. By the way, "witch's hair" is used in modern pharmacology: antibiotics based on usnic acid, which has excellent antiseptic properties, are produced from them. So this "potion" is useful in every sense.
Bear country
Our group split into two. The more ambitious ones had plans to go to Otorten, so they pushed forward. Bears are roaming the forests of the Northern Urals. We constantly noticed their fresh tracks. What startled us was that we saw bear tracks on top of the tracks left by our friends. This meant that between them and us, the bears were walking along the road, stepping into the bushes when we approached, and watching us. But the exhaustion from dragging the heavy backpacks and some vodka made us fall asleep like a stone. And the weirdest realization - the sun never sets down in July in the Northern Urals. The nights are white. The last four photos from this sequence are taken in the dead of night. One essential piece of equipment, the headlight, turned out to be obsolete.
Dyatlov Pass
Each of the members of our group was carrying one tangerine for the Dyatlov group. The Otorten group didn't stop to place theirs so initially only 6 tangerines were photographed and they were gone the next day. I was explained that in the orthodox tradition the food on the graves is an offering for forgiveness that the visitors to the memorials can help themselves to. So it is ok that they disappeared, this is not disrespectful. Bikers and ATVs were swarming the Dyatlov Pass. The sky was foreboding. The tokens and Gates Nation's commemorative plate are hidden in the outlier. They are your connection to the Dyatlov Pass.
Happy 90th anniversary Tibo
On July 4th, 2025, we erected this sign at the site of the tent where presumably Thibeaux-Brignolle took his last breath. The sign was prepared and brought to the pass by Oleg Taymen to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Nikolay Thibeaux-Brignolle, the "joker" of the Dyatlov group. Note the date - July 4th. This is not a mistake. In the city of Osinniki, Thibeaux-Brignolle's birth is listed in medical archives as July 4th. Oleg Taymen found out through a friend who works for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The explanation is that after the birth of a child, it is necessary to register it immediately, and it is not always easy to go to the city after giving birth, especially without a car. But the mother had complications, and the hospital recorded the real date of birth, and not the one that the mother later gave at the registry office. According to Oleg, even Nikolay might not have known his real date of birth. In his personal file Nikolay wrote by hand July 5th as his date of birth. In his HR records the date is June 5th.
Otorten
July 8, 2025, video © Pavel Zorin
The final destination of the Dyatlov group that they didn't live to see. On July 8, 2025, Natalya Syryaykina, Alexander (Sasha) Krasheninnikov, Evgeniy (Zhenya) Nefyodov, Vlad Gusev, Pavel Zorin and Georgiy (Gary) Kudryash ascended to Otorten 1182, spending a night in the modules. They planned to go down to Lunthusaptur (Goose nest lake) 855 but the weather was bad and they decided to take shelter in the modules.
Отортэн is the distorted name of Вот-Тар-тан-Сяхыл (Mt Vot-Tar-tan-Syakhyl) meaning "The Windy Mountain", which is located several kilometers to the north and is inferior to Mt Otorten in height. Mansi call it Лунт-Хусап (Lunt-Khusap) meaning "Goose Nest" or Лунт-Хусап-Сяхыл (Lunt-Khusap-Syakhyl) meaning "Goose Nest Mountain". There is a Mansi legend that after the global flood, one goose survived on the peak of this mountain.
Zhenya's dream came true - to touch with his both hands the two pillars of the Otorten portal. This way he closed the circle of the worlds. Not everyone can do this, Zhenya is tall with very long hands. God bless everyone to be able to fulfill his dream. And God forbid if this is not yours to happen.
Thinking of the Dyatlov group, there is still a nagging question - how can we be sure they didn't reach Otorten? On February 27, 1959 Akselrod's group found on Otorten a note from Jul 26, 1956, left by the Gudkov hiking group from the Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University. It is considered that if Dyatlov reached Otorten they would have taken this note and left theirs. But how can one be sure where to search for a note?
The camp
We set up camp close to the creek where the bodies were found in 1959. From here, we were going to Kholat Syakhl, other peaks in the area, the tent location, Otorten, and to the Cedar. It rained every day, but not heavy rain. The Russians have a word for heavy rain, "ливня", and what we had was not it. It didn't rain as much as the previous year, August 2024. The mosquitoes were merciless. We had to envelop ourselves in smoke at all times to repel them. I still smell the campfire on some of my clothes and gear.
The Cedar
The area of the Cedar was my main point of interest this year. Many asked me how come the cedar fell in the winter when the ground is frozen. I am showing that the roots of the fallen cedar are still in the ground, and it broke where it was sticking out from the ground because of the wind and snow, but mainly because it was old and rotten inside. The needle rust on the Cedar is a fungal disease. We dug up cartridges, rope, tin cans and tin foil. I will get into details for each of our findings in my following publications. The analysis of the tree cores is expected to be available by the end of August 2025. The additional samples are supposed to be brought by the next expedition which will arrive at Yekaterinburg on August 9.
Saying our goodbyes
I learned that fir trees have very shallow root systems and they easily tip over from the wind and snow, even in winter when the ground is frozen. Also you will see a random cedar that had his lower branches broken and cut exactly like the Cedar.
Cartridges
Spent brass cartridges from a small-bore rifle were found at a decent depth. Two meters from the entrance to the tent and three meters from the cedar. Judging by the striker's impact, the cartridges were fired from the same weapon. There are three cartridges in total.
It is very strange that the shooter fired right at the entrance to the tent, on the slope of Khalat Syakhl and below, right next to the cedar.
Version 1: The searchers shot in 1959
Askinadzi said that during their shift only Kurikov had a small-bore rifle and he killed a large wood grouse with it. But, judging by the photo, during their shift not only Stepan Kurikov had a gun, but also someone from Blinov's group.
Stepan Kurikov was definitely at the tent site and at the cedar.
But! Why did Stepan need to shoot at the cedar and at the tent site is a big question. It is unlikely that the animal or game ran to these places under the shot.
Version 2: The participants of the Dyatlov group were shooting.
For example, as an option, they gave each other sound signals.
The list of equipment did not include a small-bore rifle, but we know that most groups of that time tried to take weapons with them on long hikes for additional food by hunting hares and birds. As a rule, they took either a small-bore rifle or a shotgun. A small-bore rifle + cartridges is much lighter in weight. The Dyatlov group took a gun with them to Sayan and accidentally shot Lyuda Dubinina in the leg. Everyone knows about this incident. Slobtsov told it. Perhaps, after this tragic carelessness, the hikers got a scolding in the UPI hiking section and began to hide the presence of the gun, hiding it in a backpack, not adding it to the list of things and not photographing it with a camera.
Version 3: the hikers brought a small-bore gun and shot near the cedar and the site of the tent.
In 1963 and 1966, two UPI hiking groups visited the cedar. But they did not know the exact location of the tent.
The fact is that both the location of the tent and the cedar itself were forgotten for decades and only 12 years ago these places were found correctly. The cartridges are very old.
Найдены отстрелянные латунные гильзы от мелкашки. На приличной глубине.. В двух метрах от входа в палатку и в трёх метрах от кедра. Судя по удару бойка, гильзы стреляны из одного оружия. Всего гильз три.
Очень странно, что стрелок стрелял именно у входа в палатку, на склоне Халатчахля и внизу, прям рядом с кедром.
Версия 1: стреляли поисковики в 1959 году
Аскинадзи сказал, что в их смену только у Курикова была мелкашка и он убил из неё большого глухаря. Но, судя по фото, ружьё в их смену не только у Степана Курикова, но и у кого то из группы Блинова.
Вот на фотографии добытые куропатки, которых якобы добыли поисковики последней, шестой смены, ударом палки:
Степан Куриков точно бывал и на месте палатки и у кедра.
Но! Зачем нужно было Степану стрелять именно у кедра и именно у места палатки - это большой вопрос. Маловероятно что именно в эти места и прибежал зверь или прилетела дичь под выстрел.
Версия 2: Стреляли участники похода группы Дятлова.
Например, как вариант, подавали друг другу звуковые сигналы.
В списке снаряжения мелкашки не было, но мы знаем, что большинство групп того времени старались брать с собой оружие в длительные походы для дополнительного питания при помощи охоты на зайцев и птицу. Как правило, брали либо мелкашку, либо дробовик.. Мелкашка+патроны - это гораздо легче по весу. В Саяны Дятловцы брали с собой ружьё и случайно прострелили дробью ногу Люде Дубининой. Все знают об этом случае. Его рассказывал Слобцов. Возможно, после этой трагической неосторожности, туристы получили нагоняй в турсекции УПИ и стали скрывать наличие ружья, пряча его в рюкзаке, не внося в список вещей и не фотографируя на камеру.
Версия 3: мелкашку принесли туристы и стреляли у кедра и у места палатки.
В 1963 и в 1966 году кедр посещали две туристические группы УПИ. Но, они не знали, где точное место палатки.
Дело в том, что и место палатки и сам кедр были забыли на целые десятилетия и только 12 лет назад были найдены правильно эти места. Гильзы очень старые.
Rope
This rope was found standing vertically in the ground next to the cartridges i.e. at the roots of a big cedar 3m from the Cedar. Some refer to the tree as the "young" cedar. The rope can not be dated. It is only interesting to know that nylon ropes were used in the 50s and that they might have survived to this day. Examples:
Ski trek to Sayan Mountains, Siberia, 1958, category 3, the list of equipment includes a nylon rope.
Ski trek to Sayan Mountains, Siberia, 1959, category 3, the list of equipment includes a nylon rope.
When more items that can be dated are found a rope could indicate the tent was hanged there. For this particular piece of rope is hard to say when it was left. It is not deep enough to be of interest. We found it only because its end was showing from the ground.
Trees
After receiving the results from the dead cedar i.e. its last ring being from 1958, my next step was to find two trees where the tent could have been hung between. This year we went on location in July. Mosquitos were ferocious, but we trampled the ferns and where the dead cedar trunk was missing a piece I saw another fallen tree, a birch. I am thinking it could have been a domino effect. I cut a piece from the dead birch and the sample is already with the dendrolog, prof. Momchil Panayotov. He told me that he needed more reference samples from birch trees in the area. When I followed the trunk of the birch tree I found two standing up birches that the tent could have been hung between. I didn't have an increment borer with me. There was a second expedition going in August and I asked Sasha Konstantinov to bring a borer with him and take cores from the two birch trees where I think the tent was. One of the trees has marks similar to what Maslennikov mentioned in 1959. The core from this tree will only be a reference. The other birch has two trunks and one of them is broken. I know from prof. Momchil Panayotov that if he has reference samples from the same type of trees in the area he can tell what year that trunk broke. The cores from the birch trees are still in Yekaterinburg. I am trying to send them to Sofia asap.
Tin cans
We have two birch trees 7m apart, where the 4.5m tent could fit perfectly. We found tin cans and tin foil very close to these trees. The two birches are 11m and 16m from the Cedar, and the tin cans were found behind some bushes 25 m from the Cedar. It looked like a good place to leave your trash if the tent was between the birch trees. But even I could get excited because the tin cans were not found deep enough, and one of the lids had a pull tab (also known as Easy Open). I collected everything and took it with me for further analysis, as the tin cans appeared to be quite old. For the time being, I thought my toughest task was to distinguish between the objects left by the searchers and the hikers in 1959. Now I know that my work will be much more difficult. There was a slim chance that someone could have brought a chocolate to the trek wrapped in a tin foil. Chocolate divides easily. Fact check:
"The famous "Vdohnovenie" («Вдохновение» meaning Inspiration), became the first chocolate in the USSR divided into portioned pieces. The idea came to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers Kosygin during his visit to France, where he spied the idea of dividing the bar into pieces. In the same 1967, such chocolate began to be produced and sold in our country."Source
Was there a tin foil-wrapped chocolate in the USSR in 1959?
"The "Gvardeisky" («Гвардейский» meaning Guard) chocolate is named so for a reason. The history of its creation goes back to the years of the Great Patriotic War. In 1942, a recipe for a new chocolate bar was developed in honor of the victory of the Red Army forces in the Battle of Moscow. By the way, the chocolate wrapper, or rather the foil, played a major role in the defense of besieged Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. The workshops of the "Red October" and "P.A. Babayev" factories cut the foil into small pieces to throw (shoot or scatter) them when our planes flew over the front line territory. The small foil interfered with the fascists' radar installations." Source
Although pull tabs (aka Easy Open) were introduced in the USSR much later, sources say 2004, we were joking that we might have proved Rakitin's theory.
After analyzing the label on the tin foil, it became apparent that the items most probably were left by someone in 2016. My good friend Aleksander Aleeksenkov (Shura), the most experienced hiker and Dyatlov group incident researchers, confirmed that these are their cans and tin foil, which they burned before leaving the forest. When I asked why you set camp so close to the Cedar, his answer was: "Our goal was to try to find a spot near the cedar in winter that is good to set camp. We pitched a tent on this clearing because this was the most convenient place around the Cedar." I kept reading this sentence over and over. This is exactly the place where I think the tent was, but I arrived to it through other logic, I found it in summer, looking for trees where to hang the tent. Shura was looking for an area big enough to set camp that was even in winter conditions, close to a river, with enough firewood. The wind they measured was 11m/s or 25 mph (Weather.gov). This wind can knock down old, rotten trees. Two different expeditions 9 years apart arrived at the same place for the Dyatlov group's tent. I know, I know, it is all very circumstantial, but it has logical integrity. I will keep going there and unearthing more evidence. So far, there is nothing that contradicts my theory.
Aleksander Alekseenkov (Shura) camp in 2016
Sasha Konstantinov brought back cores from the two birches. The samples are still in Yekaterinburg. I am working on getting them shipped asap for analysis.
Shura, Shamil, Ayna and Sasha, August 2025
To Be Continued...
