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In February 1959 a group of hikers disappeared in the remote Ural Mountains of Western Siberia. A search party found their tent weeks later, abandoned along with all of their equipment. Frozen bodies were found 1,500 meters away, mysteriously underdressed for the weather conditions: most weren’t wearing shoes or gloves, and some were just in their sleeping clothes. Even stranger, three of the hikers had suffered major internal trauma — broken ribs and a fractured skull — and two were wearing clothes contaminated with radioactive substances.

Nonetheless, the lead Soviet investigator closed the criminal case into the hikers’ deaths, concluding that an “overwhelming force” is what drove them from the tent. Theories ranging from rare weather events to conspiracy to UFOs have developed ever since, to explain what is now called the Dyatlov Pass incident. But two plausible theories, each involving an “overwhelming force” may finally explain what happened that night.

It could have been a delayed slab avalanche. The hikers dug a platform into the slope of Kholat Syakhl to pitch the tent, and a scientific model published in January 2021 demonstrates that this, combined with strong downslope winds that accumulated snow above the tent, triggered a deadly slab avalanche. This type of avalanche can occur even in places not known for avalanches and can cause injuries consistent with the ones some of the hikers sustained.

It also could have been a strong “katabatic wind,” a powerful wind that travels down a mountain slope, picking up speed under the force of gravity. In this scenario, a strong wind can become near-hurricane level very suddenly. If this happened the night of the incident, it could explain why the hikers would have abandoned their tent so quickly, as the powerful wind would potentially tear the tent apart. The mysterious internal injuries that some sustained are explained by a snow den the hikers dug for shelter collapsing on top of them.

Both theories offer potential solutions for what drove the hikers to suddenly abandon their tent, and why some were so severely injured. Ultimately though, since there were no survivors, many of the questions surrounding the case will likely never be answered.

Further reading:
For all things Dyatlov: dyatlovpass.com

Mechanisms of slab avalanche release and impact in the Dyatlov Pass incident in 1959, by Johan Gaume & Alexander M. Puzrin
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00081-8

The Swedish-Russian Dyatlov Pass Expedition 2019, by Richard Holmgren
https://www.arcdoc.se/se/blogg/dyatlov-expedition-new-theory-41712449

Avalanche Dynamics: Characteristics of Snow Avalanches in Motion, by University of Washington Press via CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
https://archive.org/details/WaSeUMCEMC4178AvalancheDynamics

Note: The headline on this piece has been updated.
Previous headline: What killed 9 Soviet hikers in 1959?

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In February, extreme cold and an unusual winter storm left millions of Texans in the dark. Many went without power or water, in subzero temperatures, for nearly five days. It was a disaster; dozens died. But even though that storm hit much of the country, the power outages were mostly limited to Texas. That’s because Texas is on its own electrical grid, separate from the rest of the country, which means it can’t easily get power from other states in an emergency.

But Texas’s grid itself is not what failed. Power went out across Texas in the first place because energy sources across the state were unprepared for severe weather. And that didn’t have to happen; Texas had been warned about this exact scenario, and had actually experienced versions of it twice in the last 30 years. But they didn’t prepare.

Now the rest of the US faces the same issue. Climate change is making severe weather disasters more and more frequent. And the American energy system is not ready for it.

Read more about what happened in Texas and about the US electrical grid: https://www.vox.com/22289517/texas-storm-uri-weather-power-outage-snow

And check out more coverage of the Texas power crisis from the Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-extreme-weather/

Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what’s really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.

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