In the freezing winter of 1959, nine experienced hikers traveled deep into the Russian mountains.  When these hikers missed their deadline on what was supposed to be a brief journey,  a search and rescue attempt was sent into the mountains.  What the investigators discovered would become one of the most baffling and intriguing mysteries of all time, known today as the Dyatlov Pass Incident.

Rescuers would eventually find the hikers, all frozen and deceased, spread out across the mountain slope and woods.  For unknown reasons, at some point in the middle of the night the hikers had all run out of their tent into the freezing cold.  Their equipment and supplies were all found intact and undamaged.  Stranger still, the hikers had not even taken the time to properly dress before scattering away from the tent.  The bodies of the hikers would eventually be found in separate locations on the mountain. To further confuse the investigators, several of the bodies showed traumatic internal damage, without any outward wounds or signs of distress.

What exactly happened to those veteran hikers that night?  Were they chased out by a pack of veracious animals, or even violent humans?  Were they the unfortunate victims of a secret soviet military experiment? Or perhaps the mountain claimed them with an unstoppable avalanche.

Listen to this episode as we discuss of one of our favorite mysteries as we go over all the theories, both plausible and outlandish, and also dispel some of the myths and legends that are attributed to the Dyatlov Pass Incident.

Check out similar podcast at the Dark Myths Collective

Support Strange Matters over at our Patreon Page