An Unknown Compelling Force

The Dyatlov Pass incident

is the story of the death of nine student hikers

in the Ural Mountains.

It's often referred to as Russia's greatest mystery.

In 1959, after failing to report back,

nine students were found frozen to death

in sub polar conditions.

When I was working for the Moscow Times newspaper

and I came across the information

about the Dyatlov Pass mystery,

the difference between all kind of mysteries

and this particular one,

is that it's very well documented.

There is criminal case.

There are pictures.

There are diaries.

There are still witnesses who were there, a rescue party.

So one can still do investigation.

Found without their winter clothes

miles from their shredded tent

and with no sign of an avalanche or natural disasters.

Yet somehow, they suffered injuries

that crushed their bodies

and horrifically for some,

their tongues and eyeballs were missing.

It appears that the officials involved at the time

of the autopsies basically tried to sweep this entire thing

under the rug,

trying to make it look like some unfortunate accident.

Mysterious lights were seen in the sky

and the Russian KGB swarmed the site,

clouding the whole story in 60 years of mystery.

Today, there are two sides to this case.

What was reported by the official investigators at the time,

which seems almost willfully incomplete.

And then there's the years of conspiracy theories

of Soviet government coverups and military tests.

The cover-ups are so farfetched I think.

They're a way for people to explain

the unexplainable or the unexplained.

Whereas the reality is some cases are just tough to solve.

The story has inspired many Russian TV shows

and documentaries pedaling armchair theories

from alien visitors to the Russian Yeti.

With so many conflicting stories,

I've come to Russia to ask the question,

what is the true story of the Dyatlov Pass?

I became obsessed with this story after reading

the hundreds of bizarre and unusual theories.

Military coverups, UFOs

and even a Russian Yeti have been blamed.

But I soon realize the real story is even more sinister

than I ever could have imagined.

Using the hikers' actual photos and diaries,

this is what we know so far.

In January, 1959, a team of 10 young hikers

led by group leader, Igor Dyatlov,

began the doomed expedition deep into the Ural Mountains.

10 days into their journey,

and the team reaches the peak known to the locals

as the Dead Mountain.

Then, something goes terribly wrong.

In the middle of the night, for reasons unknown,

the hikers cut their way out of the tent.

Tracks showed they fled down the mountain

in freezing conditions

without winter clothes or boots.

Weeks after they were due to report back,

search parties were sent out, only to uncover the worst.

They were found more than a mile away,

each one suffering inexplicable injury.

Ranging from cuts and bruises to fractured skulls,

broken ribs and even a missing tongue.

The Soviet government closed the case

and sealed the records,

stating only that the hikers had frozen to death

for reasons unknown.

Renewed interest began more than 30 years later

after the fall of the Soviet Union.

And the original case file was released to the public.

Searching through hundreds of online articles,

I started to spot some inconsistencies.

That's when I found a group of Russians

dedicated to uncovering the truth.

I reached out to Yuri Kuntsevitch

founder of the Dyatlov Foundation

in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

I asked a lot of questions,

hardly expecting to receive a reply.

And then I did.

What started out as a somewhat obsessive Google search,

just got very real.

I think I've always been obsessed with trying to figure out

why things are the way they are.

And I don't like, we don't know, as an answer.

I've always loved exploring weird

and sometimes dangerous locations.

And I think that's what brought me

to documentary filmmaking in the first place.

I started my filmmaking career 20 years ago

in television news.

And I realized pretty early on,

if you want to get the real story,

you have to get out and talk to people.

And this story is driving me crazy.

I keep watching so many online videos and podcasts

all repackaging the same information.

But that's not an investigation.

It's not adding anything new to the story.

Before I decide if I should go to Russia,

I have someone closer to home that can help me understand

the hikers story.

Svetlana Oss is a Russian journalist,

now living in the US.

She broke what was probably the first English language story

on the Dyatlov group for the Moscow Times in 2007.

She has since written one of the most well-researched books

on the subject.

And I'm keen to learn more from her about this case.

There is so much behind the story.

There is so much information that need to be considered.

Some people believe that aliens killed them.

Some people believe it was American spies

who are responsible.

There are so many crazy stories

that it was sex responsible for some tension

among the group members and they just killed each other.

I think all these theories are pretty weird.

The unusual details in this case

have given rise to so many strange theories.

The first and perhaps most confusing

is that the criminal case appears to have begun

before the hikers were even reported missing.

This is a criminal case. I believe you have it.

It's a new cover.

Okay.

Some people believe that the very fact

that we can find six here says that the authorities

knew something before, that they wanted to hide something.

What's unusual is that the hikers

were not due to report back

until at the very earliest, the 12th of February.

So how could a case have been started

a week before anyone would have even suspected

they were missing?

For many, this has been one of the most compelling arguments

for Soviet government coverup.

But for me, it's proof that there's so much

that's misunderstood about this case.

There's another document in the file,

which we know from its detail

was clearly from an interview conducted in March,

but it was accidentally dated the 6th of February.

And it's this date that was copied in error

to the front cover.

A simple clerical error igniting years

of conspiracy theories.

But the mysteries certainly don't stop there,

and others are harder to explain.

I'm convinced more than ever

that if I want to find the truth, I have to go to Russia.

I keep telling myself it will be safe,

but without knowing what actually happened to the hikers,

how can I be sure?

Having filmed documentaries around the world,

I'm used to a certain amount of the unknown.

But this is my first time in Russia,

and certainly, my first time without a production team

or support.

Unsure how welcomed we would be

by the Russian government for investigating this case,

my cameraman and I have flown in under the radar

and told as few people as possible.

Easier for us to go unnoticed perhaps easier to go missing.

Yuri Kuntsevitch was just a young boy

when he attended the funerals of the hikers in 1959.

He himself joined the university's Explorers Club

and has since been on many winter expeditions,

including several to the Dyatlov Pass.

He's now at the very center of this story

as curator of the Dyatlov foundation.

His home office

has become a real life treasure trove of documents,

evidence and personal belongings from the hikers.

Some of which are at the very heart of the mystery.

Tell me, I know there is a famous flashlight

that was found on the tent.

Is this the flashlight?

So someone threw it on top of the scene.

That's unusual, isn't it?

The cameras found in the tent and on Zolotaryov,

along with several rolls of film,

give us some of the best evidence in the case.

Yet none are as mysterious as the famous 34th frame.

This last picture taken by the hikers

is just one of many strange details that have convinced Yuri

and his colleagues that this was no accident.

But if something scared them out of the tent,

why didn't they just return when the threat had passed?

Why would they leave behind their warm clothes and boots?