A story that is impossible not to tell readers of "Friday"
This happened in August 1993. A group of seven tourists came to Irkutsk from Kazakhstan and went to the Khamar-Daban mountains. Only one girl was destined to return from there alive. Six people, including a female instructor, died at an altitude of 2204 meters. How everything happened today in "Friday".
We learned about this case in the emergency service of the Irkutsk region. While preparing an article about the dangers that may lie in wait for mushroom pickers and berry pickers in the summer in the forest, 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 look for dead tourists on Khamar-Daban. The story turned out to be so shocking that we asked a professional to tell the readers of Friday in all the details.
In August 1993, a group of tourists from Petropavlovsk, Republic of Kazakhstan arrived in Irkutsk by train, - says Leonid Izmailov, then the deputy head of the ZRPSS. - There were seven of them: three girls, three young men and their 41-year-old leader Lyudmila Ivanovna, master of sports in walking tourism. The group set off on the assigned route of the fourth category of difficulty through Khamar-Daban.
The tourists moved from the village of Murino along the Langutai River, through the Langutai Gates pass, along the Barun-Yunkatsuk River, then climbed the highest mountain of Khamar-Dabana Khanulu (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 path (about 70 kilometers) in about 5-6 days, the group stopped for a halt. The place where the tourists made a stop 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, - explains Leonid Davydovich. - Why the leader made the decision to stop here, and not go down 4 kilometers, to where the trees grow, where there is less wind and there is an opportunity to make a fire, is a mystery. Perhaps this was one of the tragic mistakes ...
And to start talking about the instructor's mistake, this is why: on August 18, 1993, the employees of the ZRPSS learned that six participants in the campaign were killed. Only 18-year-old Valentina Utochenko survived. The exhausted girl was noticed and taken by tourists from Ukraine, who were rafting down the Snezhnaya River. It was she who told the rescuers about how it all happened.
Probably few people remember that on August 3, 1993, a Mongolian cyclone came to Irkutsk and such an amount of precipitation fell that the whole Karl Marx Street was knee-deep in water. Then the pouring rain did not stop for about a day. Naturally, at that time there was also precipitation in the mountains, only there was snow and rain, - says Leonid Davydovich. - All this time the group was moving in the mountains, not giving themselves a rest.
It is worth noting that at the same time in the Khamar-Daban mountains there was another group from Petropavlovsk-Kazakh. Its leader was the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna. Even before the trip, mother and daughter agreed to meet at an agreed place, at the intersection of two routes in the mountains. Perhaps it was because of the haste that the group did not wait out the bad weather and kept moving forward. Apparently, when the tourists had no strength left, it was decided to make a halt. "How else to explain the decision of the leader to spend the night in an open place blown by a squally wind, when about 4 kilometers remained to the forest?" - argues Leonid Davydovich.
The rescuers will become aware of the tragedy that took place at the halt only two weeks after the incident - on August 18. From the meager stories of the surviving girl, they were able to imagine what exactly happened there.
On the night of August 4-5, snow and rain continued to fall in the mountains, the weather was very bad, with a piercing wind, - Leonid Davydovich describes what happened. “All this time, the tourists were freezing in a wet tent, unable to warm up by the fire. By the way, the guys' clothes were also wet, because they walked in the rain all day. As a result, on the morning of August 5, they set off, when suddenly at about 11 o'clock one of the guys started to foam from his mouth, bleeding from his 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 surprising that this death instilled panic not only in the 16-17-year-old participants in the hike, but also in the leader - an experienced woman, master of sports. It is difficult to explain what happened in the mountains - in front of Valentina Utochenko, who kept her composure, real madness was going on. “Denis began to hide behind the stones and run away, Tatyana banged her head against the stones, Victoria and Timur were probably 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 what was happening for a long time, tried to somehow reason with the remaining four, but everything was in vain - those who lost their minds were uncontrollable, they struggled and ran away from Valentina when she tried to take them from this place into the forest.
When the girl realized that all attempts to save the freezing distraught friends would not be crowned with success, she took her sleeping bag, a piece of polyethylene and went down a few kilometers down the slope. Where there is a forest, where the wind is not felt so. The girl spent the next night there, 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 the first death, the guys got wet and freezing, but did not even try to warm up, - says Leonid Izmailov. - Each of them had a sleeping bag and plastic wrap, but it remained intact - everything was dry and lay in backpacks. Why the manager did not take any action is inexplicable. How inexplicable is the general panic that came after the first death.
But, according to rescuers, Valentina acted absolutely correctly and logically. Having climbed the mountain in the morning and saw a terrible picture, the girl was not at a loss - she found a route map in the manager's things, collected food and went to seek salvation. 18-year-old Valya went down to the Anigta River, spent the night of August 7 there, and in the morning continued to move again.
After some time, the girl stumbled upon 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 wires had once been forwarded, turned out to be abandoned. But the tourist went out to the Snezhnaya River and moved downstream. Here the girl again had to spend the night, and the next day to continue looking for people. After another 7-8 kilometers, the emaciated Valya stopped. She stretched out her sleeping bag on the bushes by the water - this is how lost tourists indicate their presence.
It was here that she was noticed by a group of tourists from Kiev, who were rafting down Snezhnaya. The Ukrainians saw the banner, moored to the shore and took Valya with them, ”continues Leonid Davydovich.
The specialist notes that Valentina Utochenko was very lucky, because people are extremely rare in these places. The girl told what happened to her group, and at the first opportunity the tourists contacted the rescuers. “The 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 only possible to fly out on August 21, - recalls Leonid Izmailov. "But we failed to find a parking lot, although helicopters flew in search from Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk."
At the same time, two more guys from Omsk were searched in the Khamar-Daban mountains. The fact that they were missing on August 17, the rescuers learned thanks to a participant in the hike, who independently reached Irkutsk to report on the lost comrades. The girl said that the leader of the group, 18-year-old Ivan Vasnev and 18-year-old tourist Olga Indyukova, went on reconnaissance and did not appear at the meeting place at the appointed time. After waiting a day, the remaining three, leaving a note and food 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, the search for the dead tourists was going on in the mountains. We took off on August 23, 24 and 25, - says Leonid Davydovich. - And on the 26th they finally found Ivan and Olga - they steadfastly waited for salvation at Snezhnaya, stretching out blue polyethylene on the shore. The guys were fine, they even had food in stock - Snickers and a can of canned meat.
By coincidence, having already taken Ivan and Olga on board, the rescuers also found the 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 away. Almost all of the victims were dressed in thin leotards, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexandra ... "
What happened on the plateau? Why, freezing, did the participants of the hike take off their shoes? Why did the woman lie on the dead guy? Why didn't anyone use sleeping bags? All these questions remained unanswered. The group was taken from the place of death by helicopter by rescuers from Buryatia. In Ulan-Ude, an autopsy was performed, 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 home. By the way, Lyudmila's daughter, without waiting for her mother's group at the appointed place, decided that the tourists simply did not have time for the agreed time, and calmly continued her hike. Later, when the route of the second category of difficulty was passed, the daughter of the deceased woman, together with her charges, returned to Kazakhstan, not even suspecting the misfortune.
We saw this group on August 5, ”says Leonid Davydovich. - We had to take the children out of Khamar-Daban, and the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna was there for the second day. It was at this time that tragic events were taking place with the group in another place of Khamar-Daban.
Leonid Davydovich says that it is very difficult to understand the reasons for the deaths of six people: “Of course, the weather was bad, but these are tourists - a prepared people, and the leader should know how to behave in such cases. In addition, the woman, in my opinion, made a serious mistake by pitching a tent in a wind-blown place far from the forest. And, as I understand it, the group was tired - Lyudmila was in a hurry to meet her daughter and spared no effort. A night spent in the wind in wet clothes and a damp tent has also done its job. "
What helped Valentina avoid the same fate? Probably character. We don't know her at all, and when we talked in August 1993, the girl was deep in herself - not every person can survive this. The main thing is that she did everything right, which saved her.
P.S. The names of the victims are not listed for ethical reasons.
Turned out to be the most persistent
"Friday" managed to find Alexander Kvitnitsky, a tourist from Kiev, who was part of the 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 friends, - the man recalls. - She said that they had a wonderful leader and that they were in a hurry to go through the route as soon as possible, so they were very tired. When bad weather came, they were all very cold, but did not descend from the ridge to wait out the bad weather, but walked all the time. They were even more tired of this. As she said, it all began with the death of the strongest participant in the campaign - a young strong guy. Valya said that the group leader considered him her son, because she raised him from childhood. The guy took his heart, and he suddenly died in front of everyone. Because of this, the leader lost her remaining strength, told everyone to go downstairs and leave her with this guy. The guys, of course, did not leave her, and she also died in front of their eyes. What happened 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 by the hand with her, but he broke free and ran away. And Valya, a strong village girl who is used to physical exertion, turned out to be the most persistent of all. She was as unbearably cold as the others, she, too, was numb as she walked, but she was saved by thoughts of her family. The girl thought what would happen to her mother if she did not return home. Taking a sleeping bag and polyethylene, Valya went down to the forest. There she waited out the bad weather, and when she returned, she saw that everyone was dead.
Later she reached the river and decided to wash her hair. She reasoned like this: if you are going to die, you need to look good before you die. By that time the weather had settled - the sun was hot. We noticed her on the river. Valya had a cold - we gave her antibiotics and other medicines. And when we continued the route along the river, we met Muscovites who were traveling to Irkutsk together with Vali's group. They were fishing on the shore, noticed the girl and began to ask where everyone else was and how they were doing. Valya told them everything that had happened - it was a shock for them, because during the journey they managed to become friends. Later, when the bodies were already found, our guys helped Valya buy train tickets and walked her home.
Is altitude sickness to blame?
Alexander Kvitnitsky, discussing the reasons for the death of the group, suggests that the group developed altitude sickness, which appears in high altitude conditions: “It can be assumed that due to oxygen deprivation, they could have had changes in the brain that cause different reactions, including on the heart, blood vessels, cause hallucinations and so on. But at the height at which that group was, altitude sickness almost never happens. "
This happened in August 1993. A group of seven tourists came to Irkutsk from Kazakhstan and went to the Khamar-Daban mountains. Only one girl was destined to return from there alive. Six people, including a female instructor, died at an altitude of 2204 meters. How it all happened today in "Friday".
The chief specialist of the Irkutsk Oblast rescue service, Leonid Izmailov, says: “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 is impossible to fully understand what happened. After all, at the same time in the mountains there were people who, like Korovina's group, did not expect a snowfall, but they all survived "
The Khamar-Daban ridge is one of the oldest mountains on the planet, stretching from west to east for more than 350 km. The ridge is located on the territory of 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 escaped in the mountains on Lake Baikal has a family and 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 it. ” However, Valentina noted: “Our instructor was of a very high rank, and everything that happened was not her fault. Then everything would be fine with us if there was the weather that the forecasters promised "
The old repeater tower helped Valentina Utochenko to orient herself and go to the Snezhnaya River, where tourists from Kiev picked her up
A resident of Kiev, Alexander Kvitnitsky, was part of a group that was rafting down the Snezhnaya River, they found Valya on the shore. The man says that he called Valentina a couple of times after the incident, but then realized that any reminders of the tragedy on Khamar-Daban 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 herself for "
We learned about this case in the emergency service of the Irkutsk region. While preparing an article about the dangers that may lie in wait for mushroom pickers and berry pickers in the summer in the forest, 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 look for dead tourists in Khamar-Daban. The story turned out to be so shocking that we asked a professional to tell it to the readers of Friday in all its details.
In August 1993, a group of tourists from Petropavlovsk, Republic of Kazakhstan arrived in Irkutsk by train, - says Leonid Izmailov, then the deputy head of the ZRPSS. - There were seven of them: three girls, three young men and their 41-year-old leader Lyudmila Ivanovna, master of sports in walking tourism. The group set off along the assigned route of the fourth category of difficulty through Khamar-Daban.
The tourists moved from the village of Murino along the Langutai River, through the Langutai Gates pass, along the Barun-Yunkatsuk River, then climbed the highest mountain Khamar-Dabana Khanulu (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 path (about 70 kilometers) in about 5-6 days, the group stopped for a halt. The place where the tourists made a stop 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, - explains Leonid Davydovich. - Why the leader decided to stop here, and not go down 4 kilometers, where trees grow, where there is less wind and there is an opportunity to make a fire, is a mystery. Perhaps this was one of the tragic mistakes ...
And to start talking about the instructor's mistake, this is why: on August 18, 1993, the employees of the ZRPSS learned that six participants in the campaign were killed. Only 18-year-old Valentina Utochenko survived. The exhausted girl was noticed and taken by tourists from Ukraine, who were rafting down the Snezhnaya River. It was she who told the rescuers about how it all happened.
Probably, few people remember that on August 3, 1993, a Mongolian cyclone came to Irkutsk and such an amount of precipitation fell that the entire Karl Marx Street was knee-deep in water. Then the pouring rain did not stop for about a day. Naturally, at this time in the mountains there was also precipitation, only there was snow and rain, - says Leonid Davydovich. - All this time the group was moving in the mountains, not giving themselves a rest.
It should be noted that at the same time in the mountains of Khamar-Daban there was another group from Petropavlovsk-Kazakh. Its leader was the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna. Even before the trip, mother and daughter agreed to meet at an agreed place, at the intersection of two routes in the mountains. Perhaps it was because of the haste that the group did not wait out the bad weather and kept moving forward. Apparently, when the tourists had no strength left, it was decided to make a halt. "How else to explain the decision of the leader to spend the night in an open place, blown by a squally wind, when there were about 4 kilometers to the forest?" - argues Leonid Davydovich.
The rescuers will become aware of the tragedy that took place at the halt only two weeks after the incident - on August 18. From the scant stories of the surviving girl, they were able to imagine what exactly happened there.
On the night of August 4-5, snow and rain continued to fall in the mountains, the weather was very bad, with a piercing wind, - Leonid Davydovich describes what happened. - All this time, the tourists were freezing in a wet tent, unable to warm up by the fire. By the way, the guys' clothes were also wet, because they walked in the rain all day. As a result, on the morning of August 5, they set off, when suddenly at about 11 o'clock one of the guys started to foam from his mouth, bleeding from his 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 surprising that this death instilled panic not only in the 16-17-year-old participants in the hike, but also in the leader - an experienced woman, master of sports. It is difficult to explain what was happening in the mountains - in front of Valentina Utochenko, who kept her composure, real madness was going on. “Denis began to hide behind the stones and run away, Tatyana banged her head against the stones, Victoria and Timur were probably 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 what was happening for a long time, tried to somehow reason with the remaining four, but everything was in vain - those who lost their minds were uncontrollable, they struggled and ran away from Valentina when she tried to take them from this place into the forest.
When the girl realized that all attempts to save the freezing distraught friends would not be crowned with success, she took her sleeping bag, a piece of polyethylene and went down a few kilometers down the slope. Where there is a forest, where the wind is not felt so. The girl spent the next night there, and in the morning she returned to the parking lot. By this time, everyone who remained on the mountain was dead.
The strangest thing is that all night, even before the first death, the guys got wet and freezing, but did not even try to warm up, says Leonid Izmailov. - Each of them had a sleeping bag and plastic wrap, but it remained intact - everything was dry and lay in backpacks. Why the manager did not take any action is inexplicable. How inexplicable is the general panic that came after the first death.
But, according to rescuers, Valentina acted absolutely correctly and logically. Having climbed the mountain in the morning and saw a terrible picture, the girl was not at a loss - she found a route map in the manager's things, collected food and went to seek salvation. 18-year-old Valya went down to the Anigta River, spent the night of August 7 there, and in the morning continued to move again.
After some time, the girl stumbled upon 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 wires had once been forwarded, turned out to be abandoned. But the tourist went out to the Snezhnaya River and moved downstream. Here the girl again had to spend the night, and the next day to continue looking for people. After another 7-8 kilometers, the emaciated Valya stopped. She stretched out her sleeping bag on the bushes by the water - this is how lost tourists indicate their presence.
It was here that she was noticed by a group of tourists from Kiev, who were rafting down Snezhnaya. The Ukrainians saw the banner, moored to the shore and took Valya with them, ”continues Leonid Davydovich.
The specialist notes that Valentina Utochenko was very lucky, because people are extremely rare in these places. The girl told what happened to her group, and at the first opportunity the tourists contacted the rescuers. “The 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 only possible to take off on August 21, - recalls Leonid Izmailov. "But we failed to find a parking lot, although helicopters flew in search from Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk."
At the same time, in the mountains of Khamar-Daban, two more guys from Omsk were searched. The fact that they were missing on August 17, the rescuers learned thanks to a participant in the hike, who independently reached Irkutsk to report the lost comrades. The girl said that the leader of the group, 18-year-old Ivan Vasnev and 18-year-old tourist Olga Indyukova, went on reconnaissance and did not appear at the meeting place at the appointed time. After waiting a day, the remaining three, leaving a note and food 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, the search for the dead tourists was going on in the mountains. We took off on August 23, 24 and 25, - says Leonid Davydovich. - And on the 26th they finally found Ivan and Olga - they steadfastly waited for salvation at Snezhnaya, stretching out blue polyethylene on the shore. The guys were fine, they even had food in stock - Snickers and a can of canned meat.
By coincidence, having already taken Ivan and Olga on board, the rescuers also found the dead group from Kazakhstan. The helicopter landed, and everyone on board witnessed a terrible sight: “The picture was terrible: the bodies were already swollen, everyone's eye sockets were completely eaten away. Almost all of the victims were dressed in thin leotards, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexandra ... "
What happened on the plateau? Why, freezing, did the participants of the hike take off their shoes? Why did the woman lie on the dead guy? Why didn't anyone use sleeping bags? All these questions remained unanswered. The group was taken from the place of death by helicopter by rescuers from Buryatia. In Ulan-Ude, an autopsy was performed, 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 home. By the way, Lyudmila's daughter, without waiting for her mother's group at the appointed place, decided that the tourists simply did not have time for the agreed time, and calmly continued her hike. Later, when the route of the second category of difficulty was passed, the daughter of the deceased woman, together with her charges, returned to Kazakhstan, not even suspecting the misfortune.
We saw this group just on August 5, - says Leonid Davydovich. - We had to take the children out of Khamar-Daban, and the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna was there for the second day. It was at this time that tragic events were taking place with the group in another place of Khamar-Daban.
Leonid Davydovich says that it is very difficult to understand the reasons for the death of six people: “Of course, the weather was bad, but these are tourists - a prepared people, and the leader should know how to behave in such cases. In addition, the woman, in my opinion, made a serious mistake by pitching a tent in a wind-blown place far from the forest. And, as I understand it, the group was tired - Lyudmila was in a hurry to meet her daughter and spared no effort. A night spent in the wind in wet clothes and a damp tent has also done its job. "
What helped Valentina avoid the same fate? Probably character. We don't know her at all, and when we talked in August 1993, the girl was deep in herself - not every person can survive this. The main thing is that she did everything right, which saved her.
P.S. The names of the victims are not listed for ethical reasons.
Turned out to be the most persistent
"Friday" managed to find Alexander Kvitnitsky, a tourist from Kiev, who was part of the 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 friends, - the man recalls. - She said that they had a wonderful leader and that they were in a hurry to go through the route as soon as possible, so they were very tired. When bad weather came, they were all very cold, but they did not descend from the ridge to wait out the bad weather, but walked all the time. They were even more tired of this. As she said, it all began with the death of the strongest participant in the campaign - a young strong guy. Valya said that the group leader considered him her son, because she raised him from childhood. The guy took his heart, and he suddenly died in front of everyone. As a result, the leader lost her remaining strength, told everyone to go downstairs and leave her with this guy. The guys, of course, did not leave her, and she also died in front of their eyes. What happened 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 by the hand with her, but he broke free and ran away. And Valya, a strong village girl who is used to physical exertion, turned out to be the most persistent of all. She was as unbearably cold as the others, she, too, was numb as she walked, but she was saved by thoughts of her family. The girl thought what would happen to her mother if she did not return home. Taking a sleeping bag and polyethylene, Valya went down to the forest. There she waited out the bad weather, and when she returned, she saw that everyone was dead.
Later she reached the river and decided to wash her hair. She reasoned like this: if you are going to die, you need to look good before you die. By that time the weather had settled - the sun was hot. We noticed her on the river. Valya had a cold - we gave her antibiotics and other medicines. And when we continued the route along the river, we met Muscovites who traveled to Irkutsk together with Vali's group. They were fishing on the shore, noticed the girl and began to ask where everyone else was and how they were doing. Valya told them everything that had happened - it was a shock for them, because during the journey they managed to become friends. Later, when the bodies were already found, our guys helped Valya buy train tickets and walked her home.
Is altitude sickness to blame?
Alexander Kvitnitsky, discussing the reasons for the death of the group, suggests that the group developed altitude sickness, which appears in high altitude conditions: on the heart, blood vessels, cause hallucinations and so on. But at the height at which that group was, altitude sickness almost never happens. "
This happened in August 1993. A group of seven tourists came to Irkutsk from Kazakhstan and went to the Khamar-Daban mountains. Only one girl was destined to return from there alive. Six people, including a female instructor, died at an altitude of 2204 meters
taken from here: http://baikalpress.ru/friday/2010/41/008001.html pictures of Khamar-Daban are honestly removed from here: http://turizm-ru.livejournal.com/1520052.html
- In August 1993, a group of tourists from Petropavlovsk, Republic of Kazakhstan arrived in Irkutsk by train, - says Leonid Izmailov, then deputy head of the ZRPSS ( Transbaikal Regional Search and Rescue Service)... - There were seven of them: three girls, three young men and their 41-year-old leader Lyudmila Ivanovna, master of sports in walking tourism. The group set off on the assigned route of the fourth category of difficulty through Khamar-Daban.
The tourists moved from the village of Murino along the Langutai River, through the Langutai Gates pass, along the Barun-Yunkatsuk River, then climbed the highest mountain Khamar-Dabana Khanulu (2371 m), walked along the ridge and ended up on the watershed plateau of the Anigta and Baiga rivers. Having overcome this significant part of the route (about 70 kilometers) in about 5-6 days, the group stopped for a halt. The place where the tourists made a stop 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, - explains Leonid Davydovich. - Why the leader decided to stop here, and not go down 4 kilometers, where trees grow, where there is less wind and there is an opportunity to make a fire, is a mystery. Perhaps this was one of the tragic mistakes ...
And to start talking about the instructor's mistake, this is why: on August 18, 1993, the employees of the ZRPSS learned that six participants in the campaign were killed. Only 18-year-old Valentina Utochenko survived. The exhausted girl was noticed and taken by tourists from Ukraine, who were rafting down the Snezhnaya River. It was she who told the rescuers about how it all happened.
- Probably, few people remember that on August 3, 1993, a Mongolian cyclone came to Irkutsk and such an amount of precipitation fell that the whole Karl Marx Street was knee-deep in water. Then the pouring rain did not stop for about a day. Naturally, at that time there was 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 a rest.
It should be noted that at the same time in the mountains of Khamar-Daban there was another group from Petropavlovsk-Kazakh. Its leader was the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna. Even before the trip, mother and daughter agreed to meet at an agreed place, at the intersection of two routes in the mountains. Perhaps it was precisely because of the haste that the group did not wait out the bad weather and kept moving forward. Apparently, when the tourists had no strength left, it was decided to make a halt. "How else to explain the decision of the leader to spend the night in an open place, blown by a squally wind, when there were about 4 kilometers to the forest?" - argues Leonid Davydovich.
The rescuers will become aware of the tragedy that took place at the halt only two weeks after the incident - on August 18. From the meager stories of the surviving girl, they were able to imagine what exactly happened there.
- On the night of August 4-5, snow and rain continued to fall in the mountains, the weather was very bad, with a piercing wind, - Leonid Davydovich describes what happened. - All this time, the tourists were freezing in a wet tent, unable to warm up by the fire. By the way, the guys' clothes were also wet, because they walked in the rain all day. As a result, on the morning of August 5, they set off, when suddenly at about 11 o'clock one of the guys started to foam from his mouth, bleeding from his 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 surprising that this death instilled panic not only in the 16-17-year-old participants in the campaign, but also in the leader - an experienced woman, a master of sports. It is difficult to explain what happened in the mountains - in front of Valentina Utochenko, who kept her composure, real madness was going on. “Denis began to hide behind the stones and run away, Tatyana banged her head against the stones, Victoria and Timur were probably 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 what was happening for a long time, tried to somehow reason with the remaining four, but everything was in vain - those who lost their minds were uncontrollable, they struggled and ran away from Valentina when she tried to take them from this place into the forest.
When the girl realized that all attempts to save the freezing distraught friends would not be crowned with success, she took her sleeping bag, a piece of polyethylene and went down a few kilometers down the slope. Where there is a forest, where the wind is not felt so. The girl spent the next night there, 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 the first death, the guys got wet and freezing, but did not even try to warm up, - says Leonid Izmailov. - Each of them had a sleeping bag and plastic wrap, but it remained intact - everything was dry and lay in backpacks. Why the manager did not take any action is inexplicable. How inexplicable is the general panic that came after the first death.
But, according to rescuers, Valentina acted absolutely correctly and logically. Having climbed the mountain in the morning and saw a terrible picture, the girl was not at a loss - she found a route map in the manager's things, collected food and went to seek salvation. 18-year-old Valya went down to the Anigta River, spent the night of August 7 there, and in the morning continued to move again.
After some time, the girl stumbled upon 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 wires had once been forwarded, turned out to be abandoned. But the tourist went out to the Snezhnaya River and moved downstream. Here the girl again had to spend the night, and the next day to continue looking for people. After another 7-8 kilometers, the emaciated Valya stopped. She stretched out her sleeping bag on the bushes by the water - this is how lost tourists indicate their presence.
- It was here that she was noticed by a group of tourists from Kiev, who were rafting down Snezhnaya. The Ukrainians saw the banner, moored to the shore and took Valya with them, ”continues Leonid Davydovich.
The specialist notes that Valentina Utochenko was very lucky, because people are extremely rare in these places. The girl told what happened to her group, and at the first opportunity the tourists contacted the rescuers. “The 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 only possible to take off on August 21, - recalls Leonid Izmailov. "But we failed to find a parking lot, although helicopters flew in search from Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk."
At the same time, two more guys from Omsk were searched in the Khamar-Daban mountains. The fact that they were missing on August 17, the rescuers learned thanks to a participant in the hike, who independently reached Irkutsk to report on the lost comrades. The girl said that the leader of the group, 18-year-old Ivan Vasnev and 18-year-old tourist Olga Indyukova, went on reconnaissance and did not appear at the meeting place at the appointed time. After waiting a day, the remaining three, leaving a note and food 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, the search for the dead tourists was going on in the mountains. We took off on August 23, 24 and 25, - says Leonid Davydovich. - And on the 26th they finally found Ivan and Olga - they steadfastly waited for salvation at Snezhnaya, stretching out blue polyethylene on the shore. The guys were fine, they even had food in stock - Snickers and a can of canned meat.
By coincidence, having already taken Ivan and Olga on board, the rescuers also found the 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 away. Almost all of the victims were dressed in thin leotards, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexandra ... "
What happened on the plateau? Why, freezing, did the participants of the hike take off their shoes? Why did the woman lie on the dead guy? Why didn't anyone use sleeping bags? All these questions remained unanswered. The group was taken from the place of death by helicopter by rescuers from Buryatia. In Ulan-Ude, an autopsy was performed, 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 home. By the way, Lyudmila's daughter, without waiting for her mother's group at the appointed place, decided that the tourists simply did not have time for the agreed time, and calmly continued her hike. Later, when the route of the second category of difficulty was passed, the daughter of the deceased woman, together with her charges, returned to Kazakhstan, not even suspecting the misfortune.
“We saw this group on August 5,” says Leonid Davydovich. - We had to take the children out of Khamar-Daban, and the daughter of Lyudmila Ivanovna was there for the second day. It was at this time that tragic events were taking place with the group in another place of Khamar-Daban.
Leonid Davydovich says that it is very difficult to understand the reasons for the death of six people: “Of course, the weather was bad, but these are tourists - a prepared people, and the leader should know how to behave in such cases. In addition, the woman, in my opinion, made a serious mistake by pitching a tent in a wind-blown place far from the forest. And, as I understand it, the group was tired - Lyudmila was in a hurry to meet her daughter and spared no effort. A night spent in the wind in wet clothes and a damp tent has also done its job. "
- What helped Valentina avoid the same fate? Probably character. We don't know her at all, and when we talked in August 1993, the girl was deep in herself - not every person can survive this. The main thing is that she did everything right, which saved her.
P.S. The names of the victims are not listed for ethical reasons.
Turned out to be the most persistent
"Friday" managed to find Alexander Kvitnitsky, a tourist from Kiev, who was part of the group that found Valentina on the Snezhnaya River. Alexander Romanovich shared his memories with us.
“It turned out 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 go through the route as soon as possible, so they were very tired. When bad weather came, they were all very cold, but they did not descend from the ridge to wait out the bad weather, but walked all the time. They were even more tired of this. As she said, it all started with the death of the strongest participant in the campaign - a young strong guy. Valya said that the group leader considered him her son, because she raised him from childhood. The guy grabbed his heart, and he suddenly died in front of everyone. Because of this, the leader lost her remaining strength, told everyone to go downstairs and leave her with this guy. The guys, of course, did not leave her, and she also died in front of their eyes. What happened 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 by the hand with her, but he broke free and ran away. And Valya, a strong village girl who is used to physical exertion, turned out to be the most persistent of all. She was just as unbearably cold as the others, she, too, was numb as she walked, but she was saved by thoughts of her family. The girl thought what would happen to her mother if she did not return home. Taking a sleeping bag and polyethylene, Valya went down to the forest. There she waited out the bad weather, and when she returned, she saw that everyone was dead.
Later she reached the river and decided to wash her hair. She reasoned this way: if you are going to die, you need to look good before you die. By that time the weather had settled - the sun was hot. We noticed her on the river. Valya had a cold - we gave her antibiotics and other medicines. And when we continued the route along the river, we met Muscovites who were traveling to Irkutsk together with Vali's group. They were fishing on the shore, noticed the girl and began to ask where everyone else was and how they were doing. Valya told them everything that had happened - it was a shock for them, because during the journey they managed to become friends. Later, when the bodies were already found, our guys helped Valya buy train tickets and walked her home.
Is altitude sickness to blame?
Alexander Kvitnitsky, discussing the reasons for the death of the group, suggests that the group developed altitude sickness, which appears in high altitude conditions: “It can be assumed that due to oxygen deprivation, they could have had changes in the brain that cause different reactions, including on the heart, blood vessels, cause hallucinations and so on. But at the height at which that group was, altitude sickness almost never happens. "
We managed to find Valentina Utochenko on the Internet. Now the girl who escaped in the mountains on Lake Baikal has a family and children. And talk about that story u
Valentina has no desire: “Do you think I want to remember this nightmare? I had to leave, change my whole life. I don’t want to remember it. ” However, Valentina noted: “Our instructor was of a very high rank, and everything that happened was not her fault. Then everything would be fine with us if there was the weather that the forecasters promised "
An old relay tower helped Valentina Utochenko to orient herself and go to the Snezhnaya River, where tourists from Kiev picked her up
The most famous and mysterious case of the death of tourists is the tragedy that happened to the Dyatlov group in early February 1959.
The circumstances have not yet been clarified, and several dozen versions have been put forward. This story is known all over the world and formed the basis of several feature and documentary films. However, few people know that a similar and no less mysterious and tragic story thirty years later took place on one of the passes in Buryatia.
In August 1993, a group of seven tourists arrived in Irkutsk from Kazakhstan by rail to go to the Khamar-Daban ridge. Forecasters promised suitable weather for the ascent, and the group went to the mountains. It consisted of three young men, three girls and 41-year-old leader Lyudmila Korovina, who had the title of master of sports in walking tourism. The Khamar-Daban ridge does not shake with its height.
The highest point is 2,396 meters. Situated on terraces with pointed peaks and ridges, the ridge is one of the oldest mountains on our planet. Thousands of tourists visit these beautiful places every year. Valentina Utochenko The group moved from the village of Murino to one of the highest mountains of the ridge called Khanulu. Its height is 2371 meters.
Having covered about 70 kilometers in 5-6 days, the tourists stopped for a halt between the peaks of Golets Yagelny (2204m) and Tritrans (2310m). Weather forecasters, however, did not guess. For several days in a row, it snowed and rained and the wind blew. At about 11 o'clock on August 5, when the tourists were about to leave the temporary parking lot, one of the guys became ill.
Then, according to the only survivor, Valentina Utochenko, Sasha fell, blood began to flow from his ears, foam came from his mouth. Lyudmila Ivanovna Korovina stayed with him, appointed Denis the senior, said to go down as low as possible, but not to enter the forest, then the guys Vika, Tanya, Timur began to fall and roll on the ground - symptoms like a choking person, Denis said - we quickly take the most necessary out of the backpacks and running down, bent over the backpack, pulled out the sleeping bag, raised her head. Denis fell and tore his clothes on, tried to drag the hand with him, but he broke free and ran away. She ran downstairs without letting go of the sleeping bag. I spent the night under a boulder, hiding with my head in 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 place of the tragedy, Lyudmila Ivanovna was still alive, but she practically could not move, showed in which direction Valya to go and passed out, Valya closed her eyes to the guys, packed her things, found a compass and went ...
After some time, the girl stumbled upon an abandoned relay tower at an altitude of 2310 meters, where she spent one more 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 wires had once been forwarded, turned out to be abandoned. But Valentina went to the Snezhnaya River and moved downstream, on the sixth day after the tragedy she accidentally saw her and was picked up by a water tour group. They had already sailed past, but decided to return, it seemed suspicious that the tourist did not answer their greetings.
From the shock, the girl did not speak for several days. It is interesting that the daughter of Lyudmila Korovina with another tour group walked along the next route and agreed to meet with her mother at their intersection. But when Lyudmila's group did not come to the collection point, Korovina Jr. thought that they were simply late due to bad weather and continued on their way, at the end of which they went home, not suspecting that their mother was no longer alive.
For some unknown reason, the search dragged on, the bodies of tourists were found only when about a month had passed since the death of the guys and their leader !!! The picture was terrible, rescuers recall. The helicopter landed, and everyone on board witnessed a terrible sight: “The bodies are already swollen, everyone's eye sockets are completely eaten away.
Almost all of the victims were dressed in thin leotards, while three were barefoot. The leader was lying on top of Alexandra ... ”What happened on the plateau? Why, freezing, did the participants of the hike take off their shoes? Why did the woman lie on the dead guy? Why didn't anyone use sleeping bags? All these questions remained unanswered. In Ulan-Ude, an autopsy was performed, which showed that all six died from hypothermia, and the investigation agreed that the tragedy was caused by the mistakes and incompetence of the group leader. But the facts say the opposite!
There were seven of them: three girls, three boys and their 41-year-old group leader, a master of sports in hiking. The group set off on the assigned route of the fourth category of difficulty through Khamar-Daban. Only one person returned ...
"The Mystery of the Dyatlov Pass". The film with that name was released last week. The speech in the tape is about one of the most mysterious secrets of the Urals - the death of the tourist group Igor Dyatlov in February 1959. However, no less terrible story happened 20 years ago in Buryatia, on the Khamar-Daban pass. In 1993, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Retranslator peak (Mount Tritrans), almost the entire tourist group died. Only one participant of that fateful campaign survived.
"Inform Police" tried to restore the history of the tragic events in Khamar-Daban according to people who were involved in the search for the tour group and who were investigating the incident. In the course of work on the material, the correspondents were surprised at how much the details of the tragedies converged.
A bit of history
We will not particularly retell the mysterious events that happened to the tourists from the Dyatlov group. The incident on the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl (translated from Mansi as "Mountain of the Dead") was widely reported in the media, they tried to reconstruct the events at the "Battle of Psychics", a documentary, and now a feature film, was shot based on the incident.
However, all versions (a blow from a secret weapon, tourists went crazy, killed by the military, fell under an avalanche, poisoned with poisons) are only hypothetical. Nobody knows what happened on Mount Holotchakhl. Whoever is interested in this story can find on the Internet a lot of documentary evidence, photographs, artistic versions and scientific hypotheses.
So this fatal peak is not deprived of attention. But this cannot be said about the incident on Khamar-Daban, where six people from Petropavlovsk-Kazakhskiy died. During the investigation, we had to collect material literally bit by bit. Unfortunately, few details are known. And the only surviving participant of the fatal campaign, which we managed to find through social networks, did not answer our questions. Apparently, it is simply hard for her to remember what happened in the rainy August 1993 in the mountains of Buryatia.
A series of strange deaths
There was little media coverage of the tragedy at Tritrans Peak. Of the local publications, only one of the Irkutsk newspapers wrote about the state of emergency. But in Kazakhstan they talked a lot about this event. Therefore, in terms of the chronology of the emergency, we will rely on their messages.
In August 1993, a group of tourists arrived by train from Petropavlovsk-Kazakh.
This is a completely bare part of the mountains, there are only stones, grass and wind, - the words of Leonid Izmailov, the former deputy head of the Trans-Baikal regional search and rescue service, are quoted on the forum.
For several days it was snowing and raining over the mountains. Exhausted, the group took a break. Below, at a distance of four kilometers, lies the edge of the forest. Why the tourists did not descend into the forest is still a mystery.
On the morning of August 5, they got ready to go, when suddenly at about 11 o'clock one of the guys started to foam from his mouth, bleeding from his ears. In front of everyone's eyes, Alexander K-in felt bad, and he died suddenly, - said Leonid Izmailov.
After that, according to the surviving Valentina U-ko, complete chaos began in the group. “Denis began to hide behind the stones and run away, Tatyana banged her head against the stones, Victoria and Timur were probably crazy. Lyudmila Ivanovna died of a heart attack ”- such data were recorded in the report on search and rescue and transportation operations from the words of the surviving girl.
And here is how Kazakh athletes describe what happened on the forum:
“After a while, two girls fall at once, begin to skate, tore off their clothes, grab at their throats, the symptoms are the same, the boy falls behind them. The girl and the guy remain, decide to leave the essentials in their backpacks and run down. The girl bent over her backpack while she was laying it out, raises her head, the last guy with the same symptoms is rolling on the ground. The girl ran downstairs. I spent the night under a stone, on the edge of a forest zone, trees felling nearby like matches. I got up back in the morning. "
“Separating from the group and not knowing how to escape, the tourists died one by one from hypothermia and exhaustion. Stretched out on the slope and died one after another. "
“I read about it a few years ago on some website ... A hypothesis was put forward about the effect of infrasound: strong wind, specific relief”.
"I heard a version about poisoning with some kind of gas ...".
Seeing the dead, Valentina went in search of people. She was rescued by Ukrainian water tourists. They first sailed past, but decided to return - it seemed to them suspicious that the girl did not answer their greetings. The girl did not speak for several days. The corpses were removed almost a month later, they were buried in zinc - the weather, animals and birds did a good job ...
The picture was terrible, rescuers recall. Almost all of the victims were dressed in thin leotards, while three were barefoot. What happened on the plateau? Why, freezing, did the participants of the hike take off their shoes? These questions remained unanswered. In Ulan-Ude, an autopsy was performed, which showed that all six died from hypothermia.
So, it is worth taking some conclusions. The events at Mountain of the Dead and Tritrans Peak have a number of similar details. But there are also differences.
Similarities and differences of incidents.
Dyatlov group.
Time and place of the emergency: February 1959, Ural Mountains, the slope of Mount Kholatchakhl.
Number: 10 people. Killed 9. 1 survived (because of illness he was forced to interrupt the ascent and returned).
Judging by the reports from the emergency site, the group left the parking lot in panic, as if they were terribly frightened by something. The tent was cut open from the inside, personal belongings were thrown.
The bodies were found in various places. The impression was that the Dyatlovites simply fell dead. Many were not wearing outerwear.
On the dead were found strange lifetime injuries of internal organs. The experts explained the trauma of external organs (absence of eyes, tongue) by the fact that the bodies had been in the forest for a long time and could become prey for animals.
The official version of death: a spontaneous force, which people were unable to overcome. For all the victims, it was concluded that death came from exposure to low temperatures (freezing).
Korovina's group
Time and place of the emergency: August 1993.
Number: 7 people. Killed 6. 1 tourist survived.
Based on reports on Kazakh forums, the group panicked. The reason is the sudden death of a tourist.
The bodies were found in almost one place. Some had no outerwear.
No injuries were found on the bodies. The official version of the death: the tourists froze.
The tourists are frozen
In the days of August 1993, the rescuer Yuri Golius, well-known in Buryatia, is in charge of the search for the bodies of the dead tourists. Here's what he said:
Specialists of our control and rescue service served climbers, hikers and ski tourists. All organized tourist groups with a route sheet and a route book were registered in the Committee for Civil Defense and Emergencies. Including the group of Lyudmila Korovina, who led a group of children from Kazakhstan.
In 1993, the country hosted the so-called "Turiada" - massive hikes in forests and mountains. The group of Lyudmila Korovina also took part in them. By the way, at that moment on Khamar-Daban, but her daughter was in the other group. The mother and daughter agreed in advance to meet at a certain place, but the second group did not manage to come in time.
I was in Kyren when I was informed that water tourists brought a girl from a group lost in the mountains to Slyudyanka. I met with Valya U-ko. The girl was in a state of shock. Nevertheless, I asked her to give an explanatory note. According to her, before the onset of the fateful night, the group collected and dried the golden root at the pass all day. The whole day there was a cold rain with snow, a strong wind was blowing. Exhausted tourists were very cold and hungry.
The version of what happened on the fatal morning of August 5 was mentioned above. Now about what happened next.
The girl took the sleeping bag and went down the slope. She spent one night in the forest, and the next morning she climbed the pass, closed the eyes of her dead comrades. After that, she walked along the ridge, saw the pillars going down from a nearby relay tower, went down to the Snezhnaya River and moved downstream. There she was noticed by tourists, - says the lifeguard.
Specialists from Chita and Gusinoozersk joined Yuri Golius's detachment, and an investigator from the prosecutor's office was in one of the helicopters. When the team from Irkutsk arrived, the bodies of the tourists were found. About a month has passed since the death of the guys and their leader.
According to Yuri Golius, the cause of death of tourists was hypothermia and loss of strength.
Unfavorable coincidence of circumstances
Exactly five years after the tragedy, Vladimir Zharov, a well-known journalist and experienced traveler in Buryatia, walked alone along the fatal route.
There was much unclear about this incident. Therefore, I decided to completely repeat the route of the Kazakh group and investigate what had happened on the spot, - Vladimir Zharov told Inform Police.
He timed his trip to the 5-year date of the death of the group.
I walked along the Langutai River in the same way, through the Langutayskie Vorota pass and went to the top of Tritrans, on the slope of which the group died, - says Zharov.
Inspection of the place of emergency made it possible to draw certain conclusions.
We can talk about a whole chain of tragic circumstances. The most important thing, of course, is the weather. August 1993 was very rainy. Later, the Kazakh athletes who came to the place of the death of the group could not believe in any way - it's summer outside, the heat is at 30 degrees, and our people freeze to death. However, this is most likely the case, - says Vladimir Zharov.
It was raining almost all the days when Korovina's group walked the route.
Imagine a cold rain pouring down day and night. Clothes and tents are wet. It is difficult to light a fire. On Khamar-Daban and in normal weather it is difficult to do, everything is damp. And here it rains for several days! Therefore, the guys were tired and cold by August 5, - says Vladimir Zharov.
Food, which was only enough for the so-called "external heating" of the body, did not save from the cold either. There were a number of other reasons as well. For example, many wondered why the group stopped on the slope, and did not begin to climb to the top, where there was a special platform. There was firewood, a place to rest. It took only 30 minutes to walk to this point. But the group stopped on a bare slope. According to Vladimir Zharov, the reason could be the inaccuracy of the map.
It was 1993. The maps were not as accurate as they are now. The spread between the data on the map and what was in reality was 100 meters. And in the mountains 100 meters is already a lot, - the journalist explains.
It is possible that the experienced group leader Lyudmila Korovina simply did not find her way in the coming twilight. Or maybe she took pity on the tired guys and stopped, not reaching the top, blown by the winds.
In the morning Lyudmila Korovina saw that it had snowed. She was an experienced traveler and immediately understood how this threatened the tired and frozen group. Immediately she gave the order - to immediately fold up and go down to the edge of the forest. The guys did just that. We packed our things and rolled up the tents. And then the tragedy happened. In front of everyone, the oldest student Alexander suddenly fell and died, - says Zharov.
It was a shock. The strongest and oldest of the guys died, the one who could make a fire, chop branches, help carry heavy things, the support and hope of the leader Lyudmila Korovina. It is not hard to imagine what feelings she could have overwhelmed at that moment. After all, she was responsible for the life of each member of the youth group. Korovin gives the only correct command - all tourists must immediately go down to the forest. But she herself remains next to the body of the deceased guy.
What happened next is difficult to find out now. A group of teenagers began an organized descent to the forest. But then they suddenly returned. Why? Did the group leader call them? Or did they themselves decide not to leave Lyudmila Korovina on the snowy slope? But what the children saw plunged them into horror - the leader of the group died.
Further actions of the guys are shrouded in mystery. On the forums, they say that teenagers have fallen into despair. Only Valentina U-ko did not lose her composure, and she tried to take over the management of the group. She tried to calm down the tourists, demanded to execute the last command of Korovina - to go to the forest. She dragged them by the arms, pushed them in front of her.
But, apparently, they did not obey her. The girl, realizing that all her actions were useless, went to the edge of the forest alone. In the morning, she found that all the other members of the group were dead.
Inspection of the place of emergency, says Vladimir Zharov, showed that hypothermia was the cause of death. In this he completely agrees with Yuri Golius.
I don't see mysticism here, - said the traveler. - It was an unfavorable combination of circumstances.
Vladimir Zhapov, Tatiana Rodionova, Leonid Aktinov
