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Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident Hardcover – October 22, 2013
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The mystery of the bizarre deaths of elite Russian hikers in a 1959 tragedy on a deadly Ural mountain is the subject of Eichar&'s extensive investigation. Eichar, a film director and producer, tries to make sense of the puzzling tale of the dead students from Ural Polytechnic University; he sets off to interview the hikers&' relatives, investigators, and even a lone survivor. Following the search party&'s retrievals of the bodies, the questions deepen when the victims are discovered, insufficiently dressed for the frigid weather, shoeless, with violent injuries, including a horrible skull fracture, a leg torn away, and a tongue ripped out. With expert analysis of the remaining evidence, Eichar tries to answer why the hikers, seven men and two women, would go out into the bitter cold without warm clothing to meet certain death; curious, too, is that the contents of the tent were intact. Possible causes for the panic, according to Eichar and officials, are: an avalanche; mysterious armed men; even a fatal tiff by the males over the women. As the elements of this complicated tangle are compiled, the final wrap-up of the mountain tragedy is overwhelming, befitting a case defying explanation. (Nov.)
From Booklist
The Dyatlov Pass incident is virtually unknown outside Russia, but in that country, it’s been a much-discussed mystery for decades. In 1959, nine Russian university students disappeared on a hiking expedition in the Ural Mountains. A rescue team found their bodies weeks later, nearly a mile from their campsite, partially clothed, shoeless, three of them having died from injuries that indicated a physical confrontation. What happened here? There have been a lot of theories, ranging from misadventure to government conspiracy to freak weather to extraterrestrials, but no one has managed to get to the truth. Drawing on interviews with people who knew the hikers (and with the lone survivor of the expedition, who’d had to turn back due to illness), Russian case documents, and the hikers’ own diaries, Eichar, an American documentarian, re-creates the ill-fated expedition and the investigation that followed. The author’s explanation of what happened on Dead Mountain is necessarily speculative, but it has the advantage of answering most of the long-standing questions while being intuitively plausible. A gripping book, at least as dramaticas Krakauer’s Into Thin Air (1997). --David Pitt
More About the Author
Author Donnie Eichar is an acclaimed director, producer and writer of film and television. Donnie is a Florida native brought up amongst a family of storytellers. He currently lives in Malibu, CA.
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65 of 67 people found the following review helpful
By
CR
on October 22, 2013
Format: Hardcover
1 Comment
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The Dyatlov Pass incident is always cited as one of the great unsolved mysteries, and so I was excited when my wife gave me "Dead Mountain: The untold Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident" as a gift. However, I have to admit I was a little skeptical that the author would be able to "solve" the case or uncover any new details, since so many have tried over the last ~50 years. But once I started reading, I was immediately hooked. Mr. Eichar does an amazing job of transporting the reader back to a time and place shrouded with secrecy: Soviet Russia. As an American, it was fascinating learning about the life of these students and the people and places they encountered in their last days. The writing flows nicely and is kept interesting by the weaving in of the stories of the search party and families, as well as Mr. Eichar's journeys to Russia and encounters with survivors. Ultimately, it's Mr. EIchar's conclusion on the fate of these young people that is most important, and the author delivers here too. His thesis is new, fascinating, proven plausible, and about as terrifying as it gets.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries and/or outdoor adventure or is simply looking for a engaging true story...just don't try and read it before your next ski trip!
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries and/or outdoor adventure or is simply looking for a engaging true story...just don't try and read it before your next ski trip!
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67 of 75 people found the following review helpful
By
Tina Williams
on October 22, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition
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I first heard about this book while listening to Eichar's interview on Coast to Coast AM and immediately purchased the kindle and dove into the book as the interview was happening. It was worth everything just to get to the end to see his take on what happened. Though we'll never know for sure what exactly happened that devastating and deadly night, Eichar's conclusion is not only probable and heart wrenching, but also an incredible lesson.
Such a sad and tragic story but it's wonderful to see the lives of the 9 brave individuals and expert hikers be immortalized this way. Eichar was incredibly respectful to the 9 hikers and their families and shares the information in the most objective manner.
Such a sad and tragic story but it's wonderful to see the lives of the 9 brave individuals and expert hikers be immortalized this way. Eichar was incredibly respectful to the 9 hikers and their families and shares the information in the most objective manner.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By
Grant Fritchey
on January 5, 2014
Format: Hardcover
Vine Customer Review of Free Product
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While browsing the internet many years ago, I stumbled across the story of Dyatlov Pass and whatever the heck it was that happened there. It's the kind of mystery that endures, like who was Jack the Ripper, or what happened on the Mary Celeste. A group of experienced hikers make camp, then suddenly in the night, for no apparent reason, cut their way out of their tent, charge off into the frozen mountains half dressed and shoeless, run hundreds of meters from their tent, and die. How can you not be interested in the story. It's close to unheard of behavior. Toss in bits of mystery such as a strange lights in the sky, Soviet era paranoia, radiation, missing tongues, and it all gets even more fascinating.
Donny Eichar wrote the book as a combination travelogue and history. We get to see both his adventures in traveling to Russia to visit the people and locations and the history of what happened to the hikers. It's a unique resource in English because Mr. Eichar was able to talk to people who were there, either the lone Dyatlov group survivor, or many of the people who took part in the search and investigation. And if you read through much of the stuff on the internet about Dyatlov pass, this resource clears up tons of bad information. At first, I wasn't crazy about the travelogue nature of the book, but after a while, it does grow on you. It makes it more fun to both discover what happened, and to discover how we discover what happened (assuming that makes sense). The book is well written and the information is laid out in a logical fashion. All the photos from the original expedition are wonderful to see. Many of the myths around the mystery are absolutely explained away in clear and unequivocal fashion. But...
Mr.Read more ›
Donny Eichar wrote the book as a combination travelogue and history. We get to see both his adventures in traveling to Russia to visit the people and locations and the history of what happened to the hikers. It's a unique resource in English because Mr. Eichar was able to talk to people who were there, either the lone Dyatlov group survivor, or many of the people who took part in the search and investigation. And if you read through much of the stuff on the internet about Dyatlov pass, this resource clears up tons of bad information. At first, I wasn't crazy about the travelogue nature of the book, but after a while, it does grow on you. It makes it more fun to both discover what happened, and to discover how we discover what happened (assuming that makes sense). The book is well written and the information is laid out in a logical fashion. All the photos from the original expedition are wonderful to see. Many of the myths around the mystery are absolutely explained away in clear and unequivocal fashion. But...
Mr.Read more ›
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By
jaxine
on October 28, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition
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Wow this was one of the best books I have read for a long time, and to know it was true made it even better. The Author wrote this so well, he did an outstanding job on his research, The passion he put into this book was so real, I like the fact that he added pictures of the hikers and the maps so we could be a part of his adventure Outstanding work!!
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By
Dr Markway
on May 7, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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2 Comments
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The author does an excellent job of humanizing this tragedy and make no mistake it WAS a tragedy; the death of 9 vibrant young people at the beginning of their lives. For this, the author is to be congratulated.
What the author does NOT do is help in understanding what happened to them. The incident is considered a mystery, because experts of many stamps and varieties cannot figure out what happened. The author himself gives away his spectrum of considered possibilities by eliminating anything paranormal or "unscientific" in the sense of what we currently find acceptable in science. This is a sort of prima facie declaration of what bucket of possibilities he is willing to consider. In short the truth as he is willing to accept it or interpret it.
Spoiler alert. The author concludes that what was responsible was subsonic sound created naturally by the site. However, the searchers/rescuers spent months at the site and experienced nothing similar. In addition, arctic recovery teams were horrified and mystified by the condition of the bodies. Several of the bodies appeared to have been burned or exposed to radiation. This the author attributes to a post death suntan. Again, if this is at all usual you would expect that VERY experienced search and rescue teams (frankly, primarily body recovery crews) would have seen this before.
One thing that would have been extremely valuable was a topographic map of the site and the location of the bodies as found upon it. This was missing and I had to interpret from what I read and came up with entirely different conclusions as to who left the tent and when: (the team was in arctic conditions of sub 40 degree Fahrenheit with some wind) and leaving the tent for any distance improperly prepared meant certain death.Read more ›
What the author does NOT do is help in understanding what happened to them. The incident is considered a mystery, because experts of many stamps and varieties cannot figure out what happened. The author himself gives away his spectrum of considered possibilities by eliminating anything paranormal or "unscientific" in the sense of what we currently find acceptable in science. This is a sort of prima facie declaration of what bucket of possibilities he is willing to consider. In short the truth as he is willing to accept it or interpret it.
Spoiler alert. The author concludes that what was responsible was subsonic sound created naturally by the site. However, the searchers/rescuers spent months at the site and experienced nothing similar. In addition, arctic recovery teams were horrified and mystified by the condition of the bodies. Several of the bodies appeared to have been burned or exposed to radiation. This the author attributes to a post death suntan. Again, if this is at all usual you would expect that VERY experienced search and rescue teams (frankly, primarily body recovery crews) would have seen this before.
One thing that would have been extremely valuable was a topographic map of the site and the location of the bodies as found upon it. This was missing and I had to interpret from what I read and came up with entirely different conclusions as to who left the tent and when: (the team was in arctic conditions of sub 40 degree Fahrenheit with some wind) and leaving the tent for any distance improperly prepared meant certain death.Read more ›
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