Review of "Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident" by Donnie Eichar

The Dyatlov Pass Incident, in which nine Soviet mountaineers perished in mysterious circumstances, has been the subject of speculation since it occurred in February 1959. Investigators - including professionals and amateurs - have suggested many explanations, but the truth probably won't be known unless someone invents a time machine.

In a nutshell: In the winter of 1959, a group of ten Soviet college students and graduates embarked on an expedition from Yekaterinburg to the Ural Mountains. One student dropped out for health reasons, leaving nine adventurers to continue the journey.




Ural Mountains

All the hikers/skiers were highly experienced, and their route was rated as the highest difficulty, Grade III.


Soviet hikers on the expedition to the Ural Mountains


Mountaineers on their way to the Ural Mountains

Ten days into the trip, in early February, the mountaineers set up camp: a tent, stove, etc. That night, an unknown incident sent the hikers rushing from the tent into the darkness and freezing cold.

When the mountaineers failed to return home, search parties were sent out. The rescuers found a tent full of supplies....but devoid of people. Oddly, the back of the tent was rent by knives, (apparently) to provide an escape hatch.


Damaged tent found by search party.

The bodies of the hikers were found over time, some distance from their campsite, in dispersed locations. The corpses were half-dressed, with little or no outerwear, and (usually) without shoes.


The hikers' bodies were found in the snow

Autopsies determined that the mountaineers died from hypothermia and/or other injuries. One victim had a skull fracture and one was missing a tongue. In addition, the hikers' garments showed higher than normal levels of radiation.

The calamity, known as the Dyatlov Pass Incident, was named for the hike leader, Igor Dyatlov.


Expedition leader Igor Dyatlov

Many people have theorized about what happened that February night, including things like: avalanche, windstorm, radiation exposure, escaped-prisoner attack, death by shock wave or explosion, death by nuclear waste, UFOs, aliens, a vicious bear attack, a freak winter tornado, potent moonshine that caused instant blindness, murder to silence the hikers about something they saw, and more.

American film producer, writer, and director Donnie Eichar was captivated by Dyatlov Pass Incident and spent years doing research in an attempt to discover what REALLY happened to the Dyatlov party.


Author Donnie Eichar

Eichar shares his story in this book, noting: "All facts are derived from the criminal case files in the Soviet archives, the hikers' own journals and photographs, and interviews conducted in Russia with the hikers' friends and family, as well as with those involved in the search efforts."

In the winter of 2012, Eichar, along with some Soviet companions, even set out to retrace the Dyatlov group's final steps, "to piece together the truth of this half-century-old Russian mystery."

Eichar's narrative tells three connected stories in alternating chapters:

◙ The 1959 journey of the hikers, as determined from their diaries, pictures, and interviews with Yuri Yudin. Yudin started out on the expedition with the Dyatlov party, but turned back towards the end, because of severe pain from his rheumatism.






Photos from the hikers' expedition

◙ The work of the rescuers searching for the hikers, and what happened after they found the bodies. Hint: the Soviet government tried VERY hard to downplay the incident.


Some of the rescuers sent to search for the missing hikers


Memorial for the deceased hikers

◙ Eichar's two visits to Russia, and his 2012 attempt to 'reproduce' the mountaineers' expedition. Finally, Eichar shares his theory about what ACTUALLY happened, but I won't say what Eichar thinks.


Donnie Eichar

I will say Eichar's theory sounds very iffy to me; I think we'll have to wait for that time machine.

The book is well-written, informative, and interesting, with many photos that enhance the story. I'll admit, however, that I found the chapters about the original expedition and the search operations more compelling than Eichar's personal journey.

 Rating: 4 stars

Review of "The Resistance Man: A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel" by Martin Walker

In this 6th book in the 'Bruno, Chief of Police' series, Bruno investigates a murder and a series of robberies. I'm a fan of the Bruno series but this book isn't one of my favorites.

*****



Benoit Courreges, Chief of Police of St. Denis, France, is known as Bruno to everyone in the tight little community. Bruno loves to garden, play tennis, ride horses, socialize with friends, have romances, and of course, keep the peace in St. Denis.

As the story opens, a French resistance fighter from WWII has died of old age, and he's found clutching two bills from a decades old train robbery. The theft is infamous because, at the end of the war, the French resistance stole a HUGE fortune being transported for safekeeping....and the money has never been found.

Besides the natural death, St. Denis is experiencing a crime wave. For one thing, a gay man has been viciously beaten to death; for another thing, there have been a series of robberies. The stolen goods aren't the usual computers and televisions, but instead things like antique furniture, valuable paintings, expensive bottles of wine, and so on. The thieves apparently know when the homeowners are out of town, and simply drive up in a van and make off with the loot.

There's no obvious connection between the natural death of the resistance fighter; the horrific murder of the homosexual man; and the thefts of high-end goods, but Bruno senses a thread connecting them. So far so good.

After this the story gets overcomplicated (for me).

One story line is historical, harking back to WWII, the Nazis, the Vichy government, and France's development of nuclear weapons.

Another story thread involves an upcoming election in France, and 'corrupt politicians' who'd lie and manipulate to stay in office. (What else is new, right?)

The main theme of the book is Bruno's investigation of the murder and the robberies, and this comes to involve a CORNUCOPIA of characters that are hard to keep straight.

During his investigation, Bruno has to work with his former girlfriend Isabelle - a police detective who's ambitious and on her way up. The relationship has fizzled out, but Bruno is haunted by memories of the affair. In any case, Bruno now has a new girlfriend Pamela - a wealthy Scottish horse owner who spends a lot of time in St. Denis.

Not exactly connected to Bruno's romances, there's a lot of chitchat about people (both gay and straight) wanting to have children and start families.

By the latter part of the novel, I was struggling to remember who's who, and to put the various parts of the tale together. On the upside, I did like the dinner parties organized by Bruno and his friends - with food that sounds delicious - and I liked Bruno's new puppy Balzac, who' very cute and sweet.



Rating: 3 stars     

Review of "Dead Mountain: A Nora Kelly Thriller" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

 

 

In this 4th book in the 'Nora Kelly' series, archaeologist Nora Kelly repatriates Indian remains and works with FBI Agent Corrie Swanson to solve an old mystery.

The book works fine as a standalone.

*****

Fifteen years ago, in 2008, nine young hikers - seven men and two women - didn't return from a winter expedition in the snow-covered Manzano mountains of New Mexico.



When search parties were sent out, the rescuers found the mountaineers' tent - containing their backpacks, outerwear, equipment, and other belongings - with no one inside. Oddly, the back of the tent had been sliced open from the inside, like an escape hatch.



A search of the area turned up the dispersed bodies of six hikers, four men and two women, who'd (apparently) fled the tent barefoot or in socks, wearing very little clothing.



The unfortunate adventurers suffered terribly: some were burned, some were missing body parts, some had broken bones, and they'd all been exposed to mild radiation. It appears the hikers fled the tent in a panic, and no one could explain why. Theories included space aliens; bigfoot; bears; foreigners; and so on. To add to the intrigue, three of the mountaineers weren't found at all, and their fate remained a mystery. Until now.....



In the present, two rowdy frat boys are careening through the New Mexico mountains in a blizzard; they crash their vehicle and hole up in a cave.



The boys get drunk and high, and when they lie down to go to sleep, the woozy guys find they're lying on top of two sets of human remains.



To investigate the cave and the remains, the FBI sends a new(ish) agent called Corinne Swanson (Corrie)......



......who's being mentored by Special Agent Clay Sharp.



The cave is near the home of an Indian tribe called the Pueblo of Isleta, which leads Corrie to wonder about the bones in the cave.



In fact, Corrie "could see right away, from the deep mahogany color of the bones, that they were old - almost certainly prehistoric." Suspecting the bones are Native American, Corrie calls her friend, Santa Fe archaeologist Nora Kelly, to examine the skeletons.



Nora determines the bones are indeed the remains of Pueblo Indians, and by law, the skeletons belong to the tribe. Nora makes it her business to repatriate the remains, against the express orders of the obnoxious, publicity-hungry local sheriff, and this causes all manner of trouble.



Meanwhile, a whole other mystery emerges. In the back of the cave, beyond the Indian bones, Nora found the bodies of two of the male hikers who disappeared in 2008. One young man seems to have viciously stabbed his companion, then killed himself. This leads to the re-opening of the 2008 case, with Corrie as lead investigator, guided by her mentor.



Of course one hiker is still missing, the one who had the diary and camera, and Corrie makes it her number one priority to find him.

In the meantime, the families of the nine dead hikers have a support group, and they've convinced themselves there's been a cover up. The group demonstrates and agitates to be told 'the truth', and in fact they're not entirely wrong.



It seems 'higher ups' are trying to quash Corrie's current investigation, perhaps because Kirtland Air Force Base - which is the largest storage facility for nuclear weapons in the world - occupies the entire northern part of the Manzano mountains.

In any case, Corrie ignores the order to stop investigating, and she and Nora proceed on their own.



This leads to an exciting, action-packed climax, and to the truth about what really happened. I found the novel engaging, though one important plot point is too unrealistic in my view. Still, this is fiction, and I'll acknowledge author's license.

In the afterword, the authors explain that this story was inspired by a REAL LIFE occurrence called the Dyatlov Pass Incident, in which nine Soviet hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains in early February 1959. The Soviet occurrence was very like the plot of this book, and though professional and amateur sleuths investigated the Dyatlov case ad infinitum - and had many theories - the tragedy has never been satisfactorily elucidated. An American documentary filmmaker, Donnie Eichar, wrote a book about the Dyatlov Pass Incident, called Dead Mountain.

 

Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident

 Rating: 3.5 stars