Now, scientists say that it was an avalanche that killed the nine people who were trekking through the Ural Mountains, in a recently published report in Communications Earth and Environment.
In 1959, nine Russian hikers mysteriously went missing on the Ural Mountains near the summit known to locals of the country as "Dead Mountain.” Now 62 years later, the enigma may have been solved thanks to scientists, National Geographic reported.
The deaths of the nine citizens, seven men and two women led to a multitude of conspiracy theories in the decades following their incident, including that the hikers were abducted by aliens or killed by abominable snowmen, according to Live Science. Investigators at the time said the nine victims died of hypothermia due to “under the influence of a compelling natural force," but could never establish what that was.
Now, scientists say that it was an avalanche that killed the nine people who were trekking through the Ural Mountains, in a recently published report in Communications Earth and Environment.
"We do not claim to have solved the Dyatlov Pass mystery, as no one survived to tell the story," lead study author Johan Gaume, head of the Snow and Avalanche Simulation Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, told Live Science. "But we show the plausibility of the avalanche hypothesis [for the first time]."
During the initial investigation, the remains of the hikers were discovered in grim fashion. Nine of the team's bodies were found on the mountain slope, with some unclothed, suffering skull and chest wounds, missing their eyes, and in one case, missing a tongue, National Geographic reported.
The Soviet government did everything possible to keep the case quiet at the time, which led to various conspiracy theories and the story becoming modern Russian folklore.
While many still remain skeptical about the avalanche hypothesis, which was also taken into consideration after the initial investigation, scientists today say that it is a plausible theory.
"Dynamic avalanche simulations suggest that even a relatively small slab [of snow] could have led to severe but non-lethal thorax and skull injuries, as reported by the post-mortem examination," the researchers wrote.
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