Hikers from all over Russia followed the Dyatlov group's route

Get to the Mountain of the Dead and try to solve the mystery of the death of the Dyatlov group. In early February, a group of hikers from all over Russia followed the route of the students of the Ural Polytechnic University. During the hike, they even managed to conduct a number of experiments on the pass.

The remains of ski poles, a pot, rusty pliers, a folding knife and search probes - all these finds were discovered on the Dyatlov Pass exactly in the place where a group of Ural hikers died back in 1959. They are of great value to researchers, as they could have belonged to the students who went on the fatal hike in February.

In 2025, the expedition to the pass included 11 people from different cities of Russia. Their task was not only to accurately repeat the entire route of the Dyatlov group and reach the "Otorten" mountain, but also to conduct several important experiments. According to the records found in the criminal case materials, the hikers sewed an exact copy of the tent with a hanging stove and installed it on the slope of Kholat Syakhl, nicknamed by the indigenous Mansi people as the "Mountain of the Dead". With the help of such an experiment, the researchers tried to understand what made the students of the Ural Polytechnic University run out of a warm place to spend the night into thirty-degree frost.

"One of the experiments was to leave the tent alone on the slope and see what the elements would do to it. We left a Soviet flashlight, as the guys did according to the criminal case materials, on the slope of the mountain right next to the tent. It was in the on mode. And we went down to the cedar zone, where they ran away on the night from the 1st to the 2nd. And our surprise was great, because this flashlight could be seen from a kilometer away,” says expedition organizer Alexander Fedotov.

During the 11 days of the expedition, the group covered about two hundred kilometers. However, just like the Dyatlov group, they were unable to conquer Otorten due to bad weather. Nor were they able to answer many questions that worry the entire world. But they managed to recharge themselves with positive emotions, admire the views of wild nature and be imbued with the romance of tourism in abundance.

"The Dyatlov case lives on here too, maybe even through this tragic story with the Dyatlov group, people study and perceive that time. Not when you sit on the couch and look through everything on your phone, but when you yourself have been there, at least a little bit in their shoes, it all seems completely different to a person," says the head of the Dyatlov Group Memorial Fund, Alexey Koskin.

On March 18, a new expedition of snowboarders from all over Russia will set off for the Dyatlov Pass to once again overcome the legendary route, conquer “Otorten” and thereby honor the memory of the selfless Ural hikers.

Source: Vesti Ural RU