The question of what really happened to a group of tourists on Mount Dead is still haunting very many. Books are written about what happened at the Dyatlov pass, films are made, and guesses are made on the forums. The tragedies, under similar circumstances that claimed the lives of six people in Transbaikalia 24 years ago, are devoted to a much smaller amount of materials, but this does not prevent us from drawing parallels between mystical stories that make their way to a shiver.
In 1993, only one girl returned from a trip to Transbaikalia, in which seven people went
Let it not bother you that many netizens are looking for “Kazakh” in search engines: the fact is that young people from Kazakhstan went on a trip to the picturesque places of Buryatia. Perhaps this is the first and perhaps the last reliable fact in this terrible story. The second - only one girl from the tourist group managed to survive. Everything else is a bizarre puzzle of fragments of the memories of rescuers, mean phrases dropped by the one that remained alive and not crazy, and hypotheses put forward by researchers and caring Internet users.
We do not undertake to judge which version - from testing biological weapons to banal hypothermia and the appearance of yeti - is true, we suggest you do it yourself, carefully studying the details of the tragedy.
Lyudmila Ivanovna Korovina, who led the group, was a world-class master of sports in pedestrian tourism
Stones, grass and wind
In August 1993, tourists from Petropavlovsk-Kazakhsky died in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Repeater peak - only 18-year-old Valentina survived from the seven members of the group. No doubt, anything happens in the mountains, but the mysterious circumstances of their death do not allow us to call the incident an accident.
From September to June, snow lies on the Khamar-Daban ridge, and there is no surprise at all with the message that snow fell on passes and plateaus in summer, and snowstorms occur in August.
Lyudmila Korovina’s group was clearly not lucky with the weather - a strong cyclone turned the hike into a real test, it got colder, it snowed for several days with rain. Tourists stopped at a halt on a rocky peak, they did not go down to the edge of the forest from a completely bare part of the mountains, where there were only stones and grass, because a gale-force wind started, and "the trees were breaking like matches."
“The strangest thing is that all night, even before their first death, the guys were wet and cold, but they didn’t even try to warm themselves,” said Leonid Izmailov, the former deputy head of the Trans-Baikal regional search and rescue service. - Each of them had a sleeping bag and plastic wrap, but it remained untouched - everything was dry and lay in backpacks. Why the leader did not take any measures is inexplicable. How inexplicable is the general panic that occurred after the first death. "
By the way, many researchers are sure that the location of the bodies of the dead at the Dyatlov pass is due to the same mental state.
If you read archival materials published after the tragedy in the local press, you might get the impression that the death of the participants in the campaign is the fault of the group leader. However, those who categorically disagree with Lyudmila Ivanovna and went camping with her (including those of the highest level of difficulty), and the very survivor, categorically disagree.
“Our instructor was of a very high rank, and all that happened was not her fault,” Valentina will nevertheless say in a very short interview (if literally two phrases can be called that), despite a completely understandable reluctance to communicate with the press.
On the morning of August 5, one of the guys - the tallest, strongest and strongest - became ill. Sasha got foam out of his mouth, blood poured from his ears. According to Vali, he died suddenly. After that, something unimaginable began to happen on the slope.
Around chaos reigned - the young people flatly refused to carry out the order of Lyudmila Ivanovna, who appointed an elder and ordered everyone to move to the forest. “Denis began to hide behind the stones and run away, Tatyana banged her head on the stones, Victoria and Timur probably went crazy. Lyudmila Ivanovna died of a heart attack, ”such data was recorded in the report on search and rescue and transportation operations from the words of the surviving girl (but we still ask the question how it was possible to determine the cause of death to an unprofessional, and even in a situation of mass psychosis?).
Everyone, except the group leader and Vali, had the same symptoms - tourists rolled on the ground, tearing their clothes and clutching their throats. In horror, she grabbed a sleeping bag and went downstairs alone ...
Agree, the details remind the story of the “Dyatlovites” who tried to run away from something terrible naked in the cold!
This tower helped Valentina find her place.
I closed my eyes to all the dead
“After only one day, Valya wandered through the woods, then climbed the Repeater, and from there went down the clearing to Snezhnaya, where she spent the night in an abandoned winter hut or hut (this is near the Bayri mouth). Then the watermen picked her up, ”wrote Alexei Livinsky, a lifeguard who personally took part in the search for the missing, at a forum of tourists.
The girl “was in a terrible state, and the people of Kiev (note on the site: the very water workers who noticed her on the river on August 8 and then helped her get home) poured half a mug of vodka to her. She had never drunk such doses before, but it helped. Valya came to her senses, talked about Tritrans, told how the guys from the group bite and throw their boots. She said that the morning of the day after the tragedy she got up from the forest zone to the place of the group’s death, she closed her eyes to all the dead and took Korovina’s card and products from her backpack, ”Alexey continued his story.
“The mass psychosis that happened to the group after the death of the first person can be explained by overwork, unpreparedness for such a turn of events, hypothermia. But it’s impossible to fully understand what happened. Indeed, at the same time there were people in the mountains who, like Korovina’s group, did not expect snowfall, but they all survived, ”Izmailov admitted.
“Do you think I want to remember this nightmare?” I had to leave, change my whole life. I don’t want to remember that, ”says Valentina.
Birds don't sing here
Livinsky recalls how the scene of the emergency looked like: “From a helicopter we saw a group. The clothes and backpacks were bright. The group lay on a clean slope of 200-250 meters (in a straight line, and not vertically) below the main ridge, towards the basin of the Snezhnaya River. 200-300 meters remained to the border of the forest. ”
“I don’t remember that there - at the place of the death of the group - birds, even crows, were singing or flying. This place is well-blown. The bodies were partially mummified, and there wasn’t even a cadaverous smell, ”he continues his terrible story, noting that all the guys had blue-violet faces. “The bodies are already swollen, everyone’s eye sockets are completely eaten out. Almost all the dead were dressed in thin tights, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexander ... ”- Izmailov’s words quoted in the press. An autopsy conducted in Ulan-Ude showed that all six died from hypothermia.
“She knew how to rally everyone, make a team. She believed in people, believed in people. Could make a person become who he really is, ”says Yevgeny Olkhovsky about Lyudmila Korovina
Eyewitness accounts
Journalists managed to find Alexander Kvitnitsky, a tourist from Kiev, who was part of a group that found Valentina on the Snezhnaya River. “It so happened that we were the first to whom Valya told about the death of her friends,” baikal-info.ru quotes his words. - She said that they had a wonderful leader and that they were in a hurry to quickly go the route, therefore they were very tired. When the weather came, they all froze very much, but did not go down the ridge to wait out the bad weather, but they walked all the time. We’re even more tired of this. ”
“Valya, a strong village girl who is used to physical activity, turned out to be the most persistent of all. She was just as unbearably cold as the rest, she was also numb on the go, but she was saved by thoughts about her relatives. The girl thought she would be with her mother if she did not return home. Taking a sleeping bag and polyethylene, Valya went down to the forest. There she waited for the bad weather, and when she returned, she saw that everyone was dead. Later she got to the river and decided to wash her hair. She reasoned like this: if you die, then you need to look good before death. By that time the weather had settled - the sun was burning. On the river, we noticed her. Valya had a cold - we gave her antibiotics and other medicines, ”said Alexander.
Snezhnaya River
We have no doubt that Valya really was a strong girl, it’s another matter that the other participants in the campaign, according to those who have traveled more than one route with them, were experienced tourists who did not go to the mountains for the first time, and clearly did not concede her training level.
So what could happen? In addition to hypotheses that the group saw something that it should not have seen - yeti, for example, assumptions about passing tests of a new weapon, which in the dashing nineties few would have surprised anyone, and guesses about the sudden onset of VVD (vegetative-vascular dystonia) exist and other versions.
Infrasound- this hypothesis is voiced by a member of the search group Nikolai Fedorov: “Our assumption is that there was an anticyclone and there was a strong wind. Magnetic vibrations began, huge air currents created the movement, which created infrasound, and it could affect the psyche. Separate rocks under strong winds can become infrasonic generators of great power, which causes a person to panic, unaccountable horror. According to the girl who survived, her friends were restless, her speech was confused. ”
The most famous and mysterious case of the death of tourists is considered to be the tragedy that occurred with the group of Dyatlov in early February 1959. Circumstances have not yet been clarified, and several dozen versions have been put forward.
This story is known throughout the world and formed the basis of several feature films and documentaries. However, few people know that a similar and no less mysterious and tragic story thirty years later occurred on one of the passes in Buryatia. In August 1993, a group of seven people arrived by rail from Kazakhstan to Irkutsk in order to go to the Khamar-Daban ridge.
Forecasters promised suitable weather for climbing, and the group went to the mountains. It consisted of three young men, three girls and a 41-year-old leader Lyudmila Korovina, who had the title of Master of Sports in Pedestrian Tourism. The Khamar-Daban range does not shake with its height. The highest point is 2,396 meters. Located on ledges, with peaked peaks and ridges, the ridge is one of the oldest mountains on our planet. These beautiful places are visited annually by thousands of tourists.
Valentina Utochenko The group advanced from the village of Murino to one of the highest mountains of the ridge with the name Hanulu. Its height is 2371 meters. Having traveled about 70 kilometers in 5-6 days, the tourists stopped at a halt between the peaks of Golets Yagelny (2204 m) and Tritrans (2310 m).
Weather forecasters, however, did not guess. For several days in a row it was snowing with rain and the wind was blowing. At about 11 a.m. on August 5, when tourists were about to leave the temporary parking lot, one of the guys became ill. Further, according to the only surviving Valentina Utochenko:
“Sasha fell, blood came out of his ears, foam came out of his mouth. Lyudmila Ivanovna Korovina stayed with him, appointed Denis as the eldest, told them to go down as low as possible, but not to enter the forest, then the guys Vika, Tanya, Timur began to fall and ride on the ground - symptoms like a suffocating person.
Denis said - quickly take the most necessary of the backpacks and run down. I bent over the backpack, pulled out a sleeping bag, raised my head: Denis fell and tears his clothes. She tried to drag her hand with him, but he broke free and ran away. I ran running downstairs without letting the sleeping bag out of my hands. Spent the night under a boulder hiding with a sleeping bag, it was scary. Trees fell along the edge of the forest from a hurricane. In the morning the wind died down, more or less dawn. Rose to the scene of the tragedy. "
Lyudmila Ivanovna was still alive, but she was practically unable to move, she showed in which direction Vale should go out and disconnected. Valya closed her eyes to the guys, packed her things, found a compass and went ...
After some time, the girl came across an abandoned repeater tower at an altitude of 2310 meters, where she spent another night all alone. And in the morning the tourist noticed the pillars going down from the tower. Valentina realized that they should lead her to people, but the houses to which the wires had once been led were abandoned.
But Valentina went to the Snezhnaya river and moved downstream. On the sixth day after the tragedy, she was accidentally seen and picked up by a water tourist group. They had already sailed past, but decided to return, it seemed suspicious that the tourist did not answer their greetings. From shock for several days the girl did not talk. It is interesting that the daughter of Lyudmila Korovina with another tourist group went along the neighboring route and agreed to meet her mother at their intersection.
But when Lyudmila’s group didn’t come to the gathering point, Korovina Jr. thought that they were just late due to bad weather and continued on their way, after which she went home, not suspecting that her mother was no longer alive.
For some reason, the search dragged on, the bodies of tourists were found only when about a month had passed since the deaths of the guys and their leader !!!
The picture was terrible, rescuers recall. The helicopter descended, and everyone on board witnessed a terrible sight: “The bodies were already swollen, everyone’s eye sockets were completely eaten out. Almost all the dead were dressed in thin tights, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexander ... "
What happened on the plateau? Why, when freezing, did the trekkers take off their shoes? Why did a woman lie on a dead guy? Why didn’t anyone use sleeping bags? All these questions remained unanswered.
An autopsy was performed in Ulan-Ude, which showed that all six died from hypothermia, and the investigation agreed that the cause of the tragedy was the error and incompetence of the group leader. That's just the facts say the opposite!
Looking through tourist routes, I came across an article about how six tourists died a strange death. The only girl who did not fall into a frenzy survived.In August 1993, a group of tourists from Kazakhstan: three girls, three young men and their 41-year-old leader Lyudmila Korovina, a master of sports in hiking, set out on the fourth difficulty route via Hamar-Daban.
They moved from the village of Murino along the Langutai river, through the Langutai Gate pass, along the Barun-Yunkatsuk river, then climbed the highest mountain of Khamar-Daban Hanulu (2371 m), passed along the ridge and ended up on the watershed plateau of the Anigta and Baiga rivers. Having overcome this significant part of the journey (about 70 kilometers) in about 5-6 days, the group stopped for a halt. The place where tourists arranged a parking lot is located between the peaks of Golets Yagelny (2204 m) and Tritrans (2310 m).
Here's what the latter looks like:
This is a completely bare part of the mountains - there are only stones, grass and wind. It is unclear why the leader decided to stop there, and not go down to the trees, where there is less wind and there is an opportunity to build a fire.
On August 3, 1993, a cyclone came to the region and there was such a rainfall that in Irkutsk the whole Karl Marx Street was knee-deep in water. Heavy rain did not stop for about a day. From August 3 to 5, it snowed in the mountains with rain, and the group moved without rest. Apparently, when the tourists no longer had the strength, it was decided to halt. Tourists froze in a wet tent and clothes, not having the opportunity to warm themselves around the fire.
In the morning, Lyudmila Korovina saw that it had snowed, and immediately realized what this threatened to a tired and frozen group. She immediately instructed to immediately curl up and go down to the edge of the forest. They began to collect things, rolled up tents. And then there was a tragedy. On the morning of August 5, they were on their way, when at about 11 o’clock, in front of everyone, 24-year-old Alexander Krysin, foam started to flow from his mouth, blood poured from his ears, and he died suddenly.
Korovin gave the only true command - all tourists must immediately go down to the forest. But she herself remained next to the body of the deceased guy. The group began an organized descent to the forest, but then for some reason they returned back. What they saw terrified them - the group leader died.
The panic began. According to Valentina Utochenko, “Denis began to hide behind stones and run away, Tatyana banged her head on stones, Victoria and Timur probably went crazy. Lyudmila Ivanovna died of a heart attack. "
Valentina tried somehow to reason with the remaining four, but everything was in vain - they pulled themselves out and ran away when she tried to lead them from this place into the forest. She even tried to drag someone's hand with her, but he broke free and ran away.
When she realized that all attempts to save the freezing distraught friends would not succeed, she took her sleeping bag, a piece of polyethylene and went down a few kilometers down the slope, where she spent the next night, and in the morning she returned to the parking lot. By this time, all those remaining on the mountain were dead. The strangest thing is that all night, even before their first death, the guys were wet and cold, but they did not even try to warm themselves. Each of them had a sleeping bag and plastic wrap, but it remained untouched - everything was dry and lay in backpacks.
Having climbed the mountain in the morning and saw a terrible picture, the girl was not taken aback - she found a route map in the manager’s belongings, collected food and went down to the Anigte river, where she spent the night of August 7, and continued moving again in the morning.
After some time, she came across an abandoned relay tower at an altitude of 2310 meters, where she spent another night all alone. And in the morning the tourist noticed the pillars going down from the tower. Valentina realized that they should lead her to people, but the houses to which the wires had once been forwarded turned out to be abandoned. But the tourist went to the Snezhnaya river and moved downstream. Here the girl again had to spend the night, and the next day to continue the search for people. After another 7-8 kilometers, the exhausted Valya stopped. She stretched out her sleeping bag on the bushes by the water - this is how stray tourists signify their presence. It was here that she was noticed by a group of tourists from Kiev who took Valya with them.
On August 26, rescuers from a helicopter discovered a dead group from Kazakhstan. “The picture was terrible: the bodies were already swollen, everyone’s eye sockets were completely eaten out. Almost all the dead were dressed in thin tights, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexander ... "
This happened in August 1993. A group of seven people arrived in Irkutsk from Kazakhstan and went to the mountains of Hamar-Daban. Only one girl was destined to return alive from there. Six people, including a female instructor, died at an altitude of 2204 meters. About how everything happened today in Friday.
Leonid Izmailov, the chief specialist of the emergency rescue service of the Irkutsk region, says: “One can explain the massive psychosis that happened to the group after the death of the first person, overwork, unpreparedness for such a turn of events, hypothermia. But it’s impossible to fully understand what happened. Indeed, at the same time there were people in the mountains who, like Korovina’s group, did not expect snowfall, but they all survived ”
The Khamar-Daban Range is one of the oldest mountains on the planet, stretching from west to east for more than 350 km. The ridge is located in the Irkutsk region and Buryatia. Thousands of tourists visit it every year.
We managed to find Valentina Utochenko on the Internet. Now the girl who has escaped in the mountains on Lake Baikal has a family, children. And Valentina has no desire to talk about that story: “Do you think I want to remember this nightmare? I had to leave, change my whole life. I don’t want to remember that. ” However, Valentina noted: “Our instructor was of a very high rank, and everything that happened was not her fault. “Then everything would have been fine if the weather had been promised by weather forecasters.”
The old repeater tower helped Valentina Utochenko navigate and go to the Snezhnaya River, where tourists from Kiev picked it up
A resident of Kiev, Alexander Kvitnitsky, was part of a group rafting along the Snezhnaya River, they discovered Valya on the shore. The man says that he called up Valentina a couple of times after what happened, but then he realized that any reminders of the Hamar-Daban tragedy hurt the girl, and refused to communicate: “We often remember Valya. She is a real smart girl - she did everything right. She has nothing to blame ”
We learned about this case in the emergency rescue service of the Irkutsk region. When preparing an article about the dangers that may lie in wait in the summer in the forest of mushroom and berry pickers, the chief specialist of the service Leonid Izmailov casually mentioned this story. In August 1993, Leonid Davydovich and his colleagues from the Trans-Baikal Regional Search and Rescue Service (ZRPSS was reformed in the late 1990s) had to search for dead tourists on Hamar-Daban. The story turned out to be so shocking that we asked the professional to tell it to the readers of Friday in all details.
In August 1993, a group of tourists from Petropavlovsk, the Republic of Kazakhstan, arrived in Irkutsk by train, ”says Leonid Izmailov, then deputy head of the ZRPSS. - There were seven of them: three girls, three young men and their 41-year-old leader Lyudmila Ivanovna, a master of sports in pedestrian tourism. The group set off on the designated route of the fourth category of difficulty via Hamar-Daban.
Tourists moved from the village of Murino along the Langutai river, through the Langutai Gate pass, along the Barun-Yunkatsuk river, then climbed the highest mountain of Khamar-Daban Hanulu (2371 m), passed along the ridge and ended up on the watershed plateau of the Anigta and Baiga rivers. Having overcome this significant part of the journey (about 70 kilometers) in about 5-6 days, the group stopped for a halt. The place where tourists arranged a parking lot is located between the peaks of Golets Yagelny (2204 m) and Tritrans (2310 m). “This is a completely bare part of the mountains - there are only stones, grass and wind,” Leonid Davydovich explains. - Why the leader decided to stop here, and not go down 4 kilometers to the place where the trees grow, where there is less wind and there is an opportunity to make a fire, is a mystery. This was probably one of the tragic mistakes ...
And the reason for talking about the instructor’s mistake was why: on August 18, 1993, the ZRPSS employees became aware that six participants in the campaign were killed. Only 18-year-old Valentina Utochenko survived. Tourists from Ukraine, rafting along the Snezhnaya River, noticed and exhausted the girl. It was she who told the rescuers about how everything happened.
Probably few people remember that on August 3, 1993, a Mongolian cyclone came to Irkutsk and there was such rainfall that the whole Karl Marx Street was knee-deep in the water. Heavy rain then did not stop for about a day. Naturally, at that time there were also precipitation in the mountains, only there was snow and rain, ”says Leonid Davydovich. - All this time the group moved in the mountains, not giving themselves rest.
It is worth noting that at the same time in the mountains of Khamar-Daban there was another group from Petropavlovsk-Kazakh. Her leader was the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna. Even before the trip, mother and daughter agreed to meet at the appointed place, at the intersection of two routes in the mountains. Perhaps it was because of the rush that the group did not wait for the weather and kept moving forward. Apparently, when the tourists no longer had the strength, it was decided to halt. “Otherwise, how to explain the decision of the leader to spend the night in an open place, purged by a squally wind, when about 4 kilometers remained before the forest?” - argues Leonid Davydovich.
Rescuers will only become aware of the tragedy that broke out at rest two weeks after the incident - on August 18. According to the meager stories of the surviving girl, they were able to imagine what happened there.
On the night of August 4-5, it continued to snow in the mountains with rain, the weather was very bad, with a piercing wind, ”Leonid Davydovich describes the incident. - All this time, tourists were freezing in a wet tent, not having the opportunity to warm themselves around the fire. By the way, the guys’s clothes were also wet, because all day they walked in the rain. As a result, on the morning of August 5, they were on their way, when at about 11 o’clock one of the guys blew foam out of their mouths, blood poured from their ears - in front of everyone’s eyes, 24-year-old Alexander became ill, and he died suddenly.
Further in the group, complete chaos began. It is amazing that this death instilled panic not only in the 16-17-year-old participants of the campaign, but also in the leader - an experienced woman, a master of sports. It is difficult to give an explanation of what happened in the mountains - in the eyes of Valentina Utochenko, who kept her composure, a real frenzy was happening. “Denis began to hide behind the stones and run away, Tatyana banged her head on the stones, Victoria and Timur probably went crazy. Lyudmila Ivanovna died of a heart attack ”- such data is recorded in the report on search and rescue and transportation operations from the words of the surviving girl.
Valentina, as rescuers say, watched for a long time what was happening, tried to somehow reason the remaining four, but all was in vain - the lost ones were uncontrollable, they pulled themselves out and ran away from Valentina when she tried to take them from this place to the forest.
When the girl realized that all attempts to save the freezing distraught friends would not succeed, she took her sleeping bag, a piece of polyethylene and went down a few kilometers down the hill. Where there is a forest, where the wind is not so felt. There the girl spent the next night, and in the morning returned to the parking lot. By this time, all those remaining on the mountain were dead.
The strangest thing is that all night, even before their first death, the guys were wet and cold, but did not even try to warm themselves, ”says Leonid Izmailov. - Each of them had a sleeping bag and plastic wrap, but it remained untouched - everything was dry and lay in backpacks. Why the leader did not take any measures is inexplicable. How inexplicable is the general panic that occurred after the first death.
But, according to the rescuers, Valentina acted absolutely correctly and logically. Having climbed the mountain in the morning and saw a terrible picture, the girl was not taken aback - she found a route map in the things of the leader, gathered food and went to seek salvation. 18-year-old Valya went down to the Anigte River, spent the night there on August 7, and continued moving again in the morning.
After some time, the girl came across an abandoned repeater tower at an altitude of 2310 meters, where she spent another night all alone. And in the morning the tourist noticed the pillars going down from the tower. Valentina realized that they should lead her to people, but the houses to which the wires had once been forwarded turned out to be abandoned. But the tourist went to the Snezhnaya river and moved downstream. Here the girl again had to spend the night, and the next day to continue the search for people. After another 7-8 kilometers, the exhausted Valya stopped. She stretched out her sleeping bag on the bushes by the water - this is how stray tourists signify their presence.
It was here that a group of tourists from Kiev, rafting along Snezhnaya, noticed her. Ukrainians saw the flag, moored to the shore and took Valya with them, ”continues Leonid Davydovich.
The specialist notes that Valentina Utochenko is very lucky, because in these places people are extremely rare. The girl told what happened to her group, and at the first opportunity, tourists contacted rescuers. “Information came to us from Alexander Kvitnitsky, a Ukrainian tourist, on August 18 at about one in the afternoon. A helicopter was immediately ordered to go in search of the dead, but for various reasons it was possible to fly out only on August 21, ”recalls Leonid Izmailov. “But it was not possible to find a parking, although helicopters from Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk flew in search.”
At the same time, two more guys from Omsk were searched in the mountains of Khamar-Daban. The fact that they disappeared on August 17, the rescuers became aware of thanks to a participant in the campaign, who independently reached Irkutsk to report on her lost comrades. The girl said that the head of the group, 18-year-old Ivan Vasnev and 18-year-old tourist Olga Indyukova went for reconnaissance and did not show up at the meeting place at the appointed time. After waiting a day, the remaining trinity, leaving a note and products in place, went to the people.
Together with two guys from Omsk, who were taken aboard the helicopter already on Snezhnaya, we went in search of the lost. In parallel, in the mountains were searching for dead tourists. We flew out on August 23, 24 and 25, ”says Leonid Davydovich. - And on the 26th they finally found Ivan and Olga - they staunchly waited for rescue at Snezhnaya, stretching the blue polyethylene on the shore. The guys were fine, they even had food in stock - Snickers and a can of stew.
By coincidence, having already taken on board Ivan and Olga, the rescuers discovered a dead group from Kazakhstan. The helicopter descended, and everyone on board witnessed a terrible sight: “The picture was terrible: the bodies were already swollen, everyone’s eye sockets were completely eaten out. Almost all the dead were dressed in thin tights, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexander ... "
What happened on the plateau? Why, when freezing, did the trekkers take off their shoes? Why did a woman lie on a dead guy? Why didn’t anyone use sleeping bags? All these questions remained unanswered. From the place of death, the group was taken by helicopter rescuers from Buryatia. An autopsy was performed in Ulan-Ude, which showed that all six died from hypothermia. By this time, relatives of the missing tourists arrived in the capital of Buryatia, who eventually took the bodies back to their homeland. By the way, Lyudmila’s daughter, not waiting for her mother’s group in the appointed place, decided that the tourists simply didn’t have time for the agreed time, and calmly continued her hike. Later, when the route of the second category of difficulty was completed, the daughter of the deceased woman returned to Kazakhstan with her wards, not even suspecting the misfortune.
We saw this group on August 5th, ”says Leonid Davydovich. - We had to take out children from Hamar-Daban, and there the second day was the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna. Just at that time, tragic events took place with a group in a different place in Hamar-Daban.
Leonid Davydovich says that it’s very difficult to understand the reasons for the deaths of six people: “Of course, the weather was bad, but these are tourists - they are trained people, and the leader must know how to behave in such cases. In addition, the woman, in my opinion, made a serious mistake by setting up a tent in a purged place away from the forest. And, as I understand it, the group was tired - Lyudmila was in a hurry to meet her daughter and did not spare her strength. The night spent in the wind in wet clothes and a damp tent also did its job. ”
What helped Valentina avoid the same fate? Probably a character. We don’t know her at all, and when we talked in August 1993, the girl was deep in herself - not everyone can survive this. The main thing is that she did everything right, which saved her.
P.S. The names of the victims are not indicated for ethical reasons.
It turned out to be the most persistent
Friday managed to find Alexander Kvitnitsky, a tourist from Kiev, who was part of a group that found Valentina on the Snezhnaya River. Alexander Romanovich shared his memories with us.
It so happened that we were the first to whom Valya told about the death of her friends, ”the man recalls. - She said that they had a wonderful leader and that they were in a hurry to quickly go the route, therefore they were very tired. When the weather came, they all froze very much, but did not go down the ridge to wait out the bad weather, but they walked all the time. From this even more tired. As she said, it all started with the death of the strongest participant in the campaign - a young strong guy. Valya said that the leader of the group considered him his son, because she brought up from childhood. The guy took his heart, and he suddenly died in front of everyone. From this, the leader lost her remaining strength, told everyone to go down, and leave her with this guy. The guys, of course, did not abandon her, and she also died before their eyes. What was next, we could not make out: Valya described everything as an attack of mass madness. Despite her attempts, it was simply impossible to organize further movement with the remaining team. She even tried to drag someone's hand with her, but he broke free and ran away. And Valya, a strong village girl who is used to physical activity, turned out to be the most persistent of all. She was just as unbearably cold as the rest, she was also numb on the go, but she was saved by thoughts about her relatives. The girl thought she would be with her mother if she did not return home. Taking a sleeping bag and polyethylene, Valya went down to the forest. There she waited for the bad weather, and when she returned, she saw that everyone was dead.
Later she got to the river and decided to wash her hair. She reasoned like this: if you die, then you need to look good before death. By that time the weather had settled - the sun was burning. On the river, we noticed her. Valya had a cold - we gave her antibiotics and other medicines. And when they continued the route along the river, they met Muscovites who traveled to Irkutsk with a group of Vali. They fished on the shore, noticed a girl and began to ask where everyone else was and how they were doing. Valya told them everything that happened - it was a shock for them, because during the trip they managed to make friends. Later, when the bodies were already found, our guys helped Vala buy train tickets and escorted them home.
Blame mountain sickness?
Alexander Kvitnitsky, discussing the causes of the death of the group, suggests that the group developed a mountain sickness that appears in high altitude conditions: “It can be assumed that, due to oxygen starvation, they could have changes in the brain that cause various reactions, including affecting on the heart, blood vessels, cause hallucinations and more. But at the height at which that group was, mountain sickness almost never happens. "
A story that cannot be told to readers of "Friday"
This happened in August 1993. A group of seven people arrived in Irkutsk from Kazakhstan and went to the mountains of Hamar-Daban. Only one girl was destined to return alive from there. Six people, including a female instructor, died at an altitude of 2204 meters. About how everything happened today in Friday.
We learned about this case in the emergency rescue service of the Irkutsk region. When preparing an article about the dangers that may lie in wait in the summer in the forest of mushroom and berry pickers, the chief specialist of the service Leonid Izmailov casually mentioned this story. In August 1993, Leonid Davydovich and his colleagues from the Trans-Baikal Regional Search and Rescue Service (ZRPSS was reformed in the late 1990s) had to search for dead tourists on Hamar-Daban. The story turned out to be so shocking that we asked the professional to tell it to the readers of Friday in all details.
In August 1993, a group of tourists from Petropavlovsk, the Republic of Kazakhstan, arrived in Irkutsk by train, ”says Leonid Izmailov, then deputy head of the ZRPSS. - There were seven of them: three girls, three young men and their 41-year-old leader Lyudmila Ivanovna, a master of sports in pedestrian tourism. The group set off on the designated route of the fourth category of difficulty via Hamar-Daban.
Tourists moved from the village of Murino along the Langutai river, through the Langutai Gate pass, along the Barun-Yunkatsuk river, then climbed the highest mountain of Khamar-Daban Hanulu (2371 m), passed along the ridge and ended up on the watershed plateau of the Anigta and Baiga rivers. Having overcome this significant part of the journey (about 70 kilometers) in about 5-6 days, the group stopped for a halt. The place where tourists arranged a parking lot is located between the peaks of Golets Yagelny (2204 m) and Tritrans (2310 m). “This is a completely bare part of the mountains - there are only stones, grass and wind,” Leonid Davydovich explains. - Why the leader decided to stop here, and not go down 4 kilometers to the place where the trees grow, where there is less wind and there is an opportunity to make a fire, is a mystery. This was probably one of the tragic mistakes ...
And the reason for talking about the instructor’s mistake was why: on August 18, 1993, the ZRPSS employees became aware that six participants in the campaign were killed. Only 18-year-old Valentina Utochenko survived. Tourists from Ukraine, rafting along the Snezhnaya River, noticed and exhausted the girl. It was she who told the rescuers about how everything happened.
Probably few people remember that on August 3, 1993, a Mongolian cyclone came to Irkutsk and there was such rainfall that the whole Karl Marx Street was knee-deep in the water. Heavy rain then did not stop for about a day. Naturally, at that time there were also precipitation in the mountains, only there was snow and rain, ”says Leonid Davydovich. - All this time the group moved in the mountains, not giving themselves rest.
It is worth noting that at the same time in the mountains of Khamar-Daban there was another group from Petropavlovsk-Kazakh. Her leader was the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna. Even before the trip, mother and daughter agreed to meet at the appointed place, at the intersection of two routes in the mountains. Perhaps it was because of the rush that the group did not wait for the weather and kept moving forward. Apparently, when the tourists no longer had the strength, it was decided to halt. “Otherwise, how to explain the decision of the leader to spend the night in an open place, purged by a squally wind, when about 4 kilometers remained before the forest?” - argues Leonid Davydovich.
Rescuers will only become aware of the tragedy that broke out at rest two weeks after the incident - on August 18. According to the meager stories of the surviving girl, they were able to imagine what happened there.
On the night of August 4-5, it continued to snow in the mountains with rain, the weather was very bad, with a piercing wind, ”Leonid Davydovich describes the incident. - All this time, tourists were freezing in a wet tent, not having the opportunity to warm themselves around the fire. By the way, the guys’s clothes were also wet, because all day they walked in the rain. As a result, on the morning of August 5, they were on their way, when at about 11 o’clock one of the guys blew foam out of their mouths, blood poured from their ears - in front of everyone’s eyes, 24-year-old Alexander became ill, and he died suddenly.
Further in the group, complete chaos began. It is amazing that this death instilled panic not only in the 16-17-year-old participants of the campaign, but also in the leader - an experienced woman, a master of sports. It is difficult to give an explanation of what happened in the mountains - in the eyes of Valentina Utochenko, who kept her composure, a real frenzy was happening. “Denis began to hide behind the stones and run away, Tatyana banged her head on the stones, Victoria and Timur probably went crazy. Lyudmila Ivanovna died of a heart attack ”- such data is recorded in the report on search and rescue and transportation operations from the words of the surviving girl.
Valentina, as the rescuers say, watched for a long time what was happening, tried to somehow reason with the remaining four, but all was in vain - those who lost their minds were uncontrollable, they pulled themselves out and ran away from Valentina when she tried to take them from this place to the forest.
When the girl realized that all attempts to save the freezing distraught friends would not succeed, she took her sleeping bag, a piece of polyethylene and went down a few kilometers down the hill. Where there is a forest, where the wind is not so felt. There the girl spent the next night, and in the morning returned to the parking lot. By this time, all those remaining on the mountain were dead.
The strangest thing is that all night, even before their first death, the guys were wet and cold, but did not even try to warm themselves, ”says Leonid Izmailov. - Each of them had a sleeping bag and plastic wrap, but it remained untouched - everything was dry and lay in backpacks. Why the leader did not take any measures is inexplicable. How inexplicable is the general panic that occurred after the first death.
But, according to the rescuers, Valentina acted absolutely correctly and logically. Having climbed the mountain in the morning and saw a terrible picture, the girl was not taken aback - she found a route map in the things of the leader, gathered food and went to seek salvation. 18-year-old Valya went down to the Anigte River, spent the night there on August 7, and continued moving again in the morning.
After some time, the girl came across an abandoned repeater tower at an altitude of 2310 meters, where she spent another night all alone. And in the morning the tourist noticed the pillars going down from the tower. Valentina realized that they should lead her to people, but the houses to which the wires had once been forwarded turned out to be abandoned. But the tourist went to the Snezhnaya river and moved downstream. Here the girl again had to spend the night, and the next day to continue the search for people. After another 7-8 kilometers, the exhausted Valya stopped. She stretched out her sleeping bag on the bushes by the water - this is how stray tourists signify their presence.
It was here that a group of tourists from Kiev, rafting along Snezhnaya, noticed her. Ukrainians saw the flag, moored to the shore and took Valya with them, ”continues Leonid Davydovich.
The specialist notes that Valentina Utochenko is very lucky, because in these places people are extremely rare. The girl told what happened to her group, and at the first opportunity, tourists contacted rescuers. “Information came to us from Alexander Kvitnitsky, a Ukrainian tourist, on August 18 at about one in the afternoon. A helicopter was immediately ordered to go in search of the dead, but for various reasons it was possible to fly out only on August 21, ”recalls Leonid Izmailov. “But it was not possible to find a parking, although helicopters from Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk flew in search.”
At the same time, two more guys from Omsk were searched in the mountains of Khamar-Daban. The fact that they disappeared on August 17, the rescuers became aware of thanks to a participant in the campaign, who independently reached Irkutsk to report on her lost comrades. The girl said that the head of the group, 18-year-old Ivan Vasnev and 18-year-old tourist Olga Indyukova went for reconnaissance and did not show up at the meeting place at the appointed time. After waiting a day, the remaining trinity, leaving a note and products in place, went to the people.
Together with two guys from Omsk, who were taken aboard the helicopter already on Snezhnaya, we went in search of the lost. In parallel, in the mountains were searching for dead tourists. We flew out on August 23, 24 and 25, ”says Leonid Davydovich. - And on the 26th they finally found Ivan and Olga - they staunchly waited for rescue at Snezhnaya, stretching the blue polyethylene on the shore. The guys were fine, they even had food in stock - Snickers and a can of stew.
By coincidence, having already taken on board Ivan and Olga, the rescuers discovered a dead group from Kazakhstan. The helicopter descended, and everyone on board witnessed a terrible sight: “The picture was terrible: the bodies were already swollen, everyone’s eye sockets were completely eaten out. Almost all the dead were dressed in thin tights, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexander ... "
What happened on the plateau? Why, when freezing, did the trekkers take off their shoes? Why did a woman lie on a dead guy? Why didn’t anyone use sleeping bags? All these questions remained unanswered. From the place of death, the group was taken by helicopter rescuers from Buryatia. An autopsy was performed in Ulan-Ude, which showed that all six died from hypothermia. By this time, relatives of the missing tourists arrived in the capital of Buryatia, who eventually took the bodies back to their homeland. By the way, Lyudmila’s daughter, not waiting for her mother’s group in the appointed place, decided that the tourists simply didn’t have time for the agreed time, and calmly continued her hike. Later, when the route of the second category of difficulty was completed, the daughter of the deceased woman returned to Kazakhstan with her wards, not even suspecting the misfortune.
We saw this group on August 5th, ”says Leonid Davydovich. - We had to take out children from Hamar-Daban, and there the second day was the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna. Just at that time, tragic events took place with a group in a different place in Hamar-Daban.
Leonid Davydovich says that it’s very difficult to understand the reasons for the deaths of six people: “Of course, the weather was bad, but these are tourists - they are trained people, and the leader must know how to behave in such cases. In addition, the woman, in my opinion, made a serious mistake by setting up a tent in a purged place away from the forest. And, as I understand it, the group was tired - Lyudmila was in a hurry to meet her daughter and did not spare her strength. The night spent in the wind in wet clothes and a damp tent also did its job. ”
What helped Valentina avoid the same fate? Probably a character. We don’t know her at all, and when we talked in August 1993, the girl was deep in herself - not everyone can survive this. The main thing is that she did everything right, which saved her.
P.S. The names of the victims are not indicated for ethical reasons.
It turned out to be the most persistent
Friday managed to find Alexander Kvitnitsky, a tourist from Kiev, who was part of a group that found Valentina on the Snezhnaya River. Alexander Romanovich shared his memories with us.
It so happened that we were the first to whom Valya told about the death of her friends, ”the man recalls. - She said that they had a wonderful leader and that they were in a hurry to quickly go the route, therefore they were very tired. When the weather came, they all froze very much, but did not go down the ridge to wait out the bad weather, but they walked all the time. From this even more tired. As she said, it all started with the death of the strongest participant in the campaign - a young strong guy. Valya said that the leader of the group considered him his son, because she brought up from childhood. The guy took his heart, and he suddenly died in front of everyone. From this, the leader lost her remaining strength, told everyone to go down, and leave her with this guy. The guys, of course, did not abandon her, and she also died before their eyes. What was next, we could not make out: Valya described everything as an attack of mass madness. Despite her attempts, it was simply impossible to organize further movement with the remaining team. She even tried to drag someone's hand with her, but he broke free and ran away. And Valya, a strong village girl who is used to physical activity, turned out to be the most persistent of all. She was just as unbearably cold as the rest, she was also numb on the go, but she was saved by thoughts about her relatives. The girl thought she would be with her mother if she did not return home. Taking a sleeping bag and polyethylene, Valya went down to the forest. There she waited for the bad weather, and when she returned, she saw that everyone was dead.
Later she got to the river and decided to wash her hair. She reasoned like this: if you die, then you need to look good before death. By that time the weather had settled - the sun was burning. On the river, we noticed her. Valya had a cold - we gave her antibiotics and other medicines. And when they continued the route along the river, they met Muscovites who traveled to Irkutsk with a group of Vali. They fished on the shore, noticed a girl and began to ask where everyone else was and how they were doing. Valya told them everything that happened - it was a shock for them, because during the trip they managed to make friends. Later, when the bodies were already found, our guys helped Vala buy train tickets and escorted them home.
Blame mountain sickness?
Alexander Kvitnitsky, discussing the causes of the death of the group, suggests that the group developed a mountain sickness that appears in high altitude conditions: “It can be assumed that, due to oxygen starvation, they could have changes in the brain that cause various reactions, including affecting on the heart, blood vessels, cause hallucinations and more. But at the height at which that group was, mountain sickness almost never happens. "
