Podcasts about donnie eichar

Hank Harrison - Soaked in Bleach / Books The Dead : A social history of the Haight-Ashbury experienceFebruary 22From the archives the late Hank Harrison joined Ed Opperman to talk about the murder of Kurt Cobain. Why is no one taking his evidence forward?Hank Harrisonis a writer and researcher whose special areas of interest spread widely across a plethora of subjects, but unlike many other researchers, this hasn't dulled his attention to detail in any of them.The father of Courtney Love, he talks candidly to Ed Opperman about his estranged daughters' relationship with Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Cobain had a troubled life suffering from depression and the pressures of being the lead in one of the most iconic bands of the 1990s.Cobain died on April 5, 1994, and was found dead in his Denny-Blaine, Seattle homewith gunshot wounds. Cobain had previously been discharged from hospital and also received visits from Seattle PD as a matter of being a danger to himself. Calls requested from his wife, Courtney Love.Harrison details a story of twists and turns, of half-truths and outright lies that made up the investigation into the singers death and the ramifications that followed; he makes his case, as he does in his book, that Courtney Love had a great deal more to do with the tragedy than either the law or the mainstream media would report.In an almost bizarre symmetry, Denny-Blaine, Seattle is also known as ‘Harrison'.Hank Harrison died in February 2022 with the case still reverberating across the decades. Perhaps we will never know the truth of the matter. But we can, with Hank's legacy of research, make an educated guess.Soaked in Bleach is a 2015 American docudrama directed by Benjamin Statler, who co-wrote and produced it with Richard Middelton and Donnie Eichar.The film details the events leading up to the death of Kurt Cobain, as seen through the perspective of Tom GrantBooks The Dead : A social history of the Haight-Ashbury experience; The Dead by Hank Harrison (1980-10-24)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Welcome to the Halloween Episode! In episode 91, we first take a dive into one of history's greatest adventure mysteries--The Dyatlov Pass Incident which has been unsolved for over 65 years! In the middle of winter in 1959, 9 experienced hikers disappeared in the Ural Mountains and died under mysterious circumstances. Theories range from avalanche to yeti attack to murder by the KGB. In 2019, Russia re-opened the case and may have come to a new conclusion...with a little inspiration from Disney's Frozen... Next up, KT takes us through a brief history of witches--From their connection to mythology and folklore to why we have certain archetypes and visualizations of witches and the mass witch trials and hysteria all across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries ~~~~* Mentioned in the Episode: ⁠ ⁠Pictures of Slab Avalanche Theory⁠  ⁠Werewolf/Witch Trials ⁠ (Our previous episode number 90) ~~~~* The Socials and Patreon! Patreon-- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Best Buds Club!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠ - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@HighTalesofHistory  TikTok⁠- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@HighTalesofHistoryPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Facebook⁠ -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠High Tales of History or ⁠⁠@HighTalesofHistory YouTube - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠High Tales of History  Email—hightailingthroughhistory@gmail.com  ~~~~* Source Materials-- Dyatlov Pass-- ⁠"Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident" by Donnie Eichar⁠  ⁠ https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00081-8⁠  ⁠https://web.archive.org/web/20210129101315/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2021/01/has-science-solved-history-greatest-adventure-mystery-dyatlov/⁠ ⁠ https://www.history.com/news/dyatlov-pass-incident-soviet-hiker-death-mystery⁠  Witches-- ⁠ https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-witches⁠ ⁠ https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140925-where-do-witches-come-from⁠  ⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_(mythology)⁠  ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/journey-into-witchcraft-beliefs/⁠  ⁠https://www.britannica.com/topic/witchcraft⁠  ⁠https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-witches⁠  ⁠https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/⁠  ⁠https://www.tamuc.edu/tamuc-history-professor-busts-myths-about-the-salem-witch-trials/⁠ ⁠ https://www.readandcobooks.co.uk/blog/witchcraft-and-black-magic-history-witches/⁠  ~~~~* Intro/outro music: "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Welcome to the Halloween Episode! In episode 91, we first take a dive into one of history's greatest adventure mysteries--The Dyatlov Pass Incident which has been unsolved for over 65 years! In the middle of winter in 1959, 9 experienced hikers disappeared in the Ural Mountains and died under mysterious circumstances. Theories range from avalanche to yeti attack to murder by the KGB. In 2019, Russia re-opened the case and may have come to a new conclusion...with a little inspiration from Disney's Frozen... Next up, KT takes us through a brief history of witches--From their connection to mythology and folklore to why we have certain archetypes and visualizations of witches and the mass witch trials and hysteria all across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries ~~~~* Mentioned in the Episode: ⁠ ⁠Pictures of Slab Avalanche Theory⁠  ⁠Werewolf/Witch Trials ⁠ (Our previous episode number 90) ~~~~* The Socials and Patreon! Patreon-- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Best Buds Club!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠ - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@HighTalesofHistory  TikTok⁠- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@HighTalesofHistoryPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Facebook⁠ -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠High Tales of History or ⁠⁠@HighTalesofHistory YouTube - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠High Tales of History  Email—hightailingthroughhistory@gmail.com  ~~~~* Source Materials-- Dyatlov Pass-- ⁠"Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident" by Donnie Eichar⁠  ⁠ https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00081-8⁠  ⁠https://web.archive.org/web/20210129101315/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2021/01/has-science-solved-history-greatest-adventure-mystery-dyatlov/⁠ ⁠ https://www.history.com/news/dyatlov-pass-incident-soviet-hiker-death-mystery⁠  Witches-- ⁠ https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-witches⁠ ⁠ https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140925-where-do-witches-come-from⁠  ⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_(mythology)⁠  ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/journey-into-witchcraft-beliefs/⁠  ⁠https://www.britannica.com/topic/witchcraft⁠  ⁠https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-witches⁠  ⁠https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/⁠  ⁠https://www.tamuc.edu/tamuc-history-professor-busts-myths-about-the-salem-witch-trials/⁠ ⁠ https://www.readandcobooks.co.uk/blog/witchcraft-and-black-magic-history-witches/⁠  ~~~~* Intro/outro music: "Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

From the archives the late Hank Harrison joined Ed Opperman to talk about the murder of Kurt Cobain. Why is no one taking his evidence forward?Hank Harrisonis a writer and researcher whose special areas of interest spread widely across a plethora of subjects, but unlike many other researchers, this hasn't dulled his attention to detail in any of them.The father of Courtney Love, he talks candidly to Ed Opperman about his estranged daughters' relationship with Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Cobain had a troubled life suffering from depression and the pressures of being the lead in one of the most iconic bands of the 1990s.Cobain died on April 5, 1994, and was found dead in his Denny-Blaine, Seattle homewith gunshot wounds. Cobain had previously been discharged from hospital and also received visits from Seattle PD as a matter of being a danger to himself. Calls requested from his wife, Courtney Love.Harrison details a story of twists and turns, of half-truths and outright lies that made up the investigation into the singers death and the ramifications that followed; he makes his case, as he does in his book, that Courtney Love had a great deal more to do with the tragedy than either the law or the mainstream media would report.In an almost bizarre symmetry, Denny-Blaine, Seattle is also known as ‘Harrison'.Hank Harrison died in February 2022 with the case still reverberating across the decades. Perhaps we will never know the truth of the matter. But we can, with Hank's legacy of research, make an educated guess.Soaked in Bleach is a 2015 American docudrama directed by Benjamin Statler, who co-wrote and produced it with Richard Middelton and Donnie Eichar.The film details the events leading up to the death of Kurt Cobain, as seen through the perspective of Tom GrantBooks The Dead : A social history of the Haight-Ashbury experience; The Dead by Hank Harrison (1980-10-24)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Today, Chris and Sarah talk about some of their favourite short stories and short story collections and what they think makes a good short story. They also discuss what they're currently reading. including discussions of death row and missing Russian mountaineers. Do you read short stories? Love or loathe? Books/stories mentionedHow Not To Be A Boy by Robert Webb Half A Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang Notes On An Execution by Danya Kukafka The Five by Hallie Rubenfeld After The Eclipse by Sarah Perry Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar [about the Dyatlov Pass incident] The Merchant at the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K Le GuinAfter We Walked Away by Erika L. Satifka All The Acorns On The Forest Floor by Kim HooperIf You Were A Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky Storyland by Catherine McKinnon [only available outside of Australia via Amazone/Book Depository]Off by Aimee Bender Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri [short story was Nobody's Business]David Mitchell: Slade House, Cloud Atlas, and The Bone ClocksSupport The Bookcast ClubYou can support the podcast on Patreon. Our tiers start at £2 a month. Rewards include early access to the podcast, monthly bonus episodes, tailored book recommendations and books in the post.  If you would like to make a one-off donation you can do so on Ko-fi.  A free way to show your support is to mention us on social media, rate us on Spotify or review us on iTunes.NewsletterSign up to our monthly newsletter for more book recommendations, reviews, new releases, podcast recommendations and the latest podcast news.Get in touchTwitter | Instagram | Website | Voice messageWe encourage you to support independent bookshops or libraries. You can find a list of independent bookshops to support on our website, many of which do home delivery.Support the show

What caused 9 young hikers to perish in the Siberian Wilderness? Was it a Slab Avalanche? Maybe Soviet Military Weapons Testing? Could it have been “ZEE KGB WAITING FOR NO ONE”?! Possibly an Alien Invasion or a Russian Yeti attack!? Strap in kids for the graphic & terrifying mystery of the Dyatlov Pass Incident! Don't forget to follow @serialkillers_seltzer & @fit_momicorn for photos & updates! Cheers Witches! Resources: https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/science/article/has-science-solved-history-greatest-adventure-mystery-dyatlov https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident https://allthatsinteresting.com/dyatlov-pass-incident I'm listening to Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar, narrated by Donnie Eichar on my Audible app. Try Audible and get it here: https://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B00IO4RVQ0&source_code=ASSORAP0511160006 Commercials: Lucky 13's https://protectyourink.com/ Code: Wells for 25% your entire order Pure romance https://pureromance.com/KaleeWells https://takecareof.com/invites/kwweym Here's a code so you can get your first order 50% off! kwweym https://www.freskincare.com/KALEEW KALEEW for 25% off your entire order https://www.buckedup.com/ WELLS20 for 20% off your entire order --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Nos volvemos a juntar en esta ocasión para analizar el libro Dead Mountain de Donnie Eichar basado en sus investigaciones en los sucesos ocurridos en el paso Diatlov. El club lo formamos Marcus Polvoranca, Carmen, Andres, Javier Blanco, Isaac Campos, Sheila Gutierrez y Miguel Linares. ¿Quieres formar parte del club? Mandanos un mail a misteriosenviernes@gmail.com

What is the Dyatlov Pass incident? Well, as we’ll find out, it was when nine Russian hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains between February 1st & 2nd in 1959, under supposed uncertain circumstances. The experienced trekking group, who were all from the Ural Polytechnical Institute, had established a camp on the slopes of Kholat Syakhl, in an area now named in honour of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. During the night, something caused them to cut their way out of their tent and attempt to flee the campsite while not being dressed for the heavy ass snowfall and subzero temperatures. Subzero was one of my favorite Mortal Kombat characters… god I loved that game. After the group's bodies were grusomly discovered, an investigation by Soviet authorities determined that six of them had died from hypothermia while the other three had been killed by physical trauma. One victim actually had major skull damage, two had severe chest trauma, and another had a small crack in the skull. Was all of this caused by an avalanche or from something nefarious? Four of the bodies were found lying in running water in a creek, and three of these had soft tissue damage of the head and face – two of the bodies were missing their eyes, one was missing its tongue, and one was missing its eyebrows. It’s eyebrows! The Soviet investigation concluded that a "compelling natural force" had caused the untimely deaths. Numerous theories have been brought forward to account for the unexplained deaths, including animal attacks, hypothermia, avalanche, katabatic winds, infrasound-induced panic, military involvement, or some combination of these. We’ll discuss all these in further detail later on. Recently, Russia has opened a new investigation into the Dyatlov incident in 2019, and its conclusions were presented in July 2020: Simply put, they believe  that an avalanche had led to the deaths of the hikers. Survivors of the avalanche had been forced to suddenly leave their camp in low visibility conditions with inadequate clothing, and had died of hypothermia. Andrey Kuryakov, deputy head of the regional prosecutor's office, said: "It was a heroic struggle. There was no panic. But they had no chance to save themselves under the circumstances." A study published in 2021 suggested that a type of avalanche known as a slab avalanche could explain some of the injuries. However, we’ll run through everything and you can come to your own conclusion.   Ok, let’s dive into the details of the event. In 1959, the group was formed for a skiing expedition across the northern Urals in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union. According to Prosecutor Tempalov, documents that were found in the tent of the expedition suggest that the expedition was named for the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and was possibly dispatched by the local Komsomol organisation.Which was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union, which was sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Igor Dyatlov, a 23-year-old radio engineering student at the Ural Polytechnical Institute; now Ural Federal University, was the leader who assembled a group of nine others for the trip, most of whom were fellow students and peers at the university.Ok, so they were mostly students. Each member of the group, which consisted of eight men and two women, was an experienced Grade II-hiker with ski tour experience, and would be receiving Grade III certification upon their return. So, this trekk was like a test. I hated tests. Especially ones that could KILL YOU! At the time, this was the highest certification available in the Soviet Union, and required candidates to traverse 190 mi. The route was designed by Igor Dyatlov's group in order to reach the far northern regions of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the upper-streams of the Lozva river. The route was approved by the Sverdlovsk city route commission, which was a division of the Sverdlovsk Committee of Physical Culture and Sport. They approved of and confirmed the group of 10 people on January 8th, 1959. The goal of the expedition was to reach Otorten, a mountain(6.2 mi north of the site where the incident took place. This path, taken  in February, was estimated as a Category III, the most difficult time to traverse.   On January 23rd, 1959 the Dyatlov group was issued their route book which listed their course as following the No.5 trail. At that time, the Sverdlovsk City Committee of Physical Culture and Sport listed approval for 11 people. The 11th person was listed as Semyon Zolotaryov who was previously certified to go with another expedition of similar difficulty (that was the Sogrin expedition group). The Dyatlov group left the Sverdlovsk city (today called Yekaterinburg) on the same day they received the route book.   The members of the group were Igor Alekseyevich Dyatlov, Yuri Nikolayevich Doroshenko, Lyudmila Alexandrovna Dubinina, Georgiy (Yuri) Alexeyevich Krivonischenko, Alexander Sergeyevich Kolevatov, Zinaida Alekseevna Kolmogorova, Rustem Vladimirovich Slobodin, Nikolai Vladimirovich Thibeaux-Brignolles, Semyon (Alexander) Alekseevich Zolotaryov, and Yuri Yefimovich Yudin   The group arrived by train at Ivdel, a town at the centre of the northern province of Sverdlovsk Oblast in the early morning hours of January 25, 1959. They took a truck to Vizhai, a little village that is the last inhabited settlement to the north. As of 2010, only 207 really, really fucking cold people lived there. While spending the night in Vizhai, and probably freezing their baguettes off, the skiers purchased and ate loaves of bread to keep their energy levels up for the following day's hike. On January 27, they began their trek toward Gora Otorten. On January 28, one member, Yuri Yudin, who suffered from several health ailments (including rheumatism and a congenital heart defect) turned back due to knee and joint pain that made him unable to continue the hike. The remaining nine hikers continued the trek. Ok, my first question with this is, why in the fuck was that guy there, to begin with??  Diaries and cameras found around their last campsite made it possible to track the group's route up to the day before the incident. On January 31st, the group arrived at the edge of a highland area and began to prepare for climbing. In a wooded valley, they rounded up surplus food and equipment that they would use for the trip back. The next day, the hikers started to move through the pass. It seems they planned to get over the pass and make camp for the next night on the opposite side, but because of worsening weather conditions—like snowstorms,  decreasing visibility... large piles of yeti shit—they lost their direction and headed west, toward the top of Kholat Syakhl. When they realised their mistake, the group decided to set up camp there on the slope of the mountain, rather than move almost a mile downhill to a forested area that would have offered some shelter from the weather. Yudin, the debilitated goofball that shouldn’t have even been there speculated, "Dyatlov probably did not want to lose the altitude they had gained, or he decided to practice camping on the mountain slope."   Before leaving, Captain Dyatlov had agreed he would send a telegram to their sports club as soon as the group returned to teeny, tiny Vizhai. It was expected that this would happen no later than February 12th, but Dyatlov had told Yudin, before he departed from the group, that he expected it to actually be longer. When the 12th passed and no messages had been received, there was no immediate reaction because, ya know… fuck it. Just kidding, these types of delays were actually common with such expeditions. On February 20th, the travellers' worried relatives demanded a rescue operation and the head of the institute sent the first rescue groups, consisting of volunteer students and teachers. Later, the army and militsiya forces (aka the Soviet police) became involved, with planes and helicopters ordered to join in on the search party. On February 26th, the searchers found the group's abandoned and super fucked up tent on Kholat Syakhl. The campsite undoubtedly baffled the search party. Mikhail Sharavin, the student who found the tent, said “HOLY SHIT! THIS PLACE IS FUCKED UP!”... No, that’s not true. He actually said, "the tent was half torn down and covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group's belongings and shoes had been left behind." Investigators said the tent had been cut open from inside. Which seems like a serious and quick  escape route was needed. Nine sets of footprints, left by people wearing only socks or a single shoe or even barefoot, could actually be followed, leading down to the edge of a nearby wood, on the opposite side of the pass, about a mile to the north-east. After approximately 1,600 ft, these tracks were covered with snow. At the forest's edge, under a large Siberian pine, the searchers found the visible remains of a small fire. There were the first two bodies, those of Krivonischenko and Doroshenko, shoeless and dressed only in their tighty whiteys. The branches on the tree were broken up to five meters high, suggesting that one of the skiers had climbed up to look for something, maybe the camp. Between the pine and the camp, the searchers found three more corpses: Dyatlov, Kolmogorova, and Slobodin, who died in poses suggesting that they were attempting to return to the tent. They were found at distances of 980, 1,570, and 2,070 ft from the tree. Finding the remaining four travellers took more than two frigging months. They were finally found on May 4th under 13 ft of snow in a ravine 246 ft further into the woods from the pine tree. Three of the four were better dressed than the others, and there were signs that some clothing of those who had died first had been taken off of their corpses for use by the others. Dubinina was wearing Krivonishenko's burned, torn trousers, and her left foot and shin were wrapped in a torn jacket.   Let’s get into the investigation. A legal inquest started immediately after the first five bodies were found. A medical examination found no injuries that might have led to their deaths, and it was concluded that they had all died of hypothermia.Which would make sense because it was colder than a polar bear’s butthole. Slobodin had a small crack in his skull, but it was not thought to be a fatal wound. An examination of the four bodies found in May shifted the overall narrative of what they initially believed transpired. Three of the hikers had fatal injuries: Thibeaux-Brignolles had major skull damage, and Dubinina and Zolotaryov had major chest fractures. According to Boris Vozrozhdenny, the force required to cause such damage would have been extremely high, comparable to that of a car crash.Also, the bodies had no external wounds associated with the bone fractures, as if they had been subjected to a high level of pressure. All four bodies found at the bottom of the creek in a running stream of water had soft tissue damage to their head and face. For example, Dubinina was missing her tongue, eyes, part of the lips, as well as facial tissue and a fragment of her skullbone, while Zolotaryov was missing his friggin eyeballs, and Aleksander Kolevatov his eyebrows. V. A. Vozrozhdenny, the forensic expert performing the post-mortem examination, judged that these injuries happened after they had died, due to the location of the bodies in a stream. At first, there was speculation that the indigenous Mansi people, who were just simple reindeer herders local to the area, had attacked and murdered the group for making fun of Rudolph. Several Mansi were interrogated, but the investigation indicated that the nature of the deaths did not support this hypothesis: only the hikers' footprints were visible, and they showed no sign of hand-to-hand struggle. Oh, I was kidding about the Rudolph thing. They thought they attacked the hikers for being on their land.  Although the temperature was very low, around −13 to −22 °F with a storm blowing, the dead were only partially dressed, as I mentioned.  Journalists reporting on the available parts of the inquest files claim that it states: Six of the group members died of hypothermia and three of fatal injuries. There were no indications of other people nearby on Kholat Syakhl apart from the nine travellers. The tent had been ripped open from within. The victims had died six to eight hours after their last meal. Traces from the camp showed that all group members left the campsite of their own accord, on foot. Some levels of radiation were found on one victim's clothing. To dispel the theory of an attack by the indigenous Mansi people, Vozrozhdenny stated that the fatal injuries of the three bodies could not have been caused by human beings, "because the force of the blows had been too strong and no soft tissue had been damaged". Released documents contained no information about the condition of the skiers' internal organs. And most obviously, There were no survivors. At the time, the official conclusion was that the group members had died because of a compelling natural force.The inquest officially ceased in May 1959 as a result of the absence of a guilty party. The files were sent to a secret archive. In 1997, it was revealed that the negatives from Krivonischenko's camera were kept in the private archive of one of the investigators, Lev Ivanov. The film material was donated by Ivanov's daughter to the Dyatlov Foundation. The diaries of the hiking party fell into Russia's public domain in 2009. On April 12th, 2018, Zolotarev's remains were exhumed on the initiative of journalists of the Russian tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. Contradictory results were obtained: one of the experts said that the character of the injuries resembled a person knocked down by a car, and the DNA analysis did not reveal any similarity to the DNA of living relatives. In addition, it turned out that Zolotarev's name was not on the list of those buried at the Ivanovskoye cemetery. Nevertheless, the reconstruction of the face from the exhumed skull matched postwar photographs of Zolotarev, although journalists expressed suspicions that another person was hiding under Zolotarev's name after World War II. In February 2019, Russian authorities reopened the investigation into the incident, yet again,  although only three possible explanations were being considered: an avalanche, a slab avalanche, or a hurricane. The possibility of a crime had been discounted.   Other reports brought about a whole bunch of additional speculation. Twelve-year-old Yury Kuntsevich, who later became the head of the Yekaterinburg-based Dyatlov Foundation, attended five of the hikers' funerals. He recalled that their skin had a "deep brown tan". Another group of hikers 31 mi south of the incident reported that they saw strange orange spheres in the sky to the north on the night of the incident.Similar spheres were observed in Ivdel and other areas continually during the period from February to March of 1959, by various independent witnesses (including the meteorology service and the military). These sightings were not noted in the 1959 investigation, and the various witnesses came forward years later. After the initial investigation, Anatoly Gushchin summarized his research in the book The Price of State Secrets Is Nine Lives. Some researchers criticised the work for its concentration on the speculative theory of a Soviet secret weapon experiment, but its publication led to public discussion, stimulated by interest in the paranormal.It is true that many of those who had remained silent for thirty years reported new facts about the accident. One of them was the former police officer, Lev Ivanov, who led the official inquest in 1959. In 1990, he published an article that included his admission that the investigation team had no rational explanation for the incident. He also stated that, after his team reported that they had seen flying spheres, he then received direct orders from high-ranking regional officials to dismiss this claim. In 2000, a regional television company produced the documentary film The Mystery of Dyatlov Pass. With the help of the film crew, a Yekaterinburg writer, Anna Matveyeva, published a docudrama of the same name. A large part of the book includes broad quotations from the official case, diaries of victims, interviews with searchers and other documentaries collected by the film-makers. The narrative line of the book details the everyday life and thoughts of a modern woman (an alter ego of the author herself, which is super weird) who attempts to resolve the case. Despite its fictional narrative, Matveyeva's book remains the largest source of documentary materials ever made available to the public regarding the incident. Also, the pages of the case files and other documentaries (in photocopies and transcripts) are gradually being published on a web forum for nerds just like you and i!. The Dyatlov Foundation was founded in 1999 at Yekaterinburg, with the help of Ural State Technical University, led by Yuri Kuntsevitch. The foundation's stated aim is to continue investigation of the case and to maintain the Dyatlov Museum to preserve the memory of the dead hikers. On July 1st 2016, a memorial plaque was inaugurated in Solikamsk in Ural's Perm Region, dedicated to Yuri Yudin (the dude who pussed out and is the sole survivor of the expedition group), who died in 2013.   Now, let’s go over some of the theories of what actually took place at the pass. Avalanche On July 11 2020, Andrey Kuryakov, deputy head of the Urals Federal District directorate of the Prosecutor-General's Office, announced an avalanche to be the "official cause of death" for the Dyatlov group in 1959. Later independent computer simulation and analysis by Swiss researchers also suggest avalanche as the cause.   Reviewing the sensationalist "Yeti" hypothesis , American skeptic author Benjamin Radford suggests an avalanche as more plausible: “that the group woke up in a panic (...) and cut their way out the tent either because an avalanche had covered the entrance to their tent or because they were scared that an avalanche was imminent (...) (better to have a potentially repairable slit in a tent than risk being buried alive in it under tons of snow). They were poorly clothed because they had been sleeping, and ran to the safety of the nearby woods where trees would help slow oncoming snow. In the darkness of night, they got separated into two or three groups; one group made a fire (hence the burned hands) while the others tried to return to the tent to recover their clothing since the danger had passed. But it was too cold, and they all froze to death before they could locate their tent in the darkness. At some point, some of the clothes may have been recovered or swapped from the dead, but at any rate, the group of four whose bodies was most severely damaged were caught in an avalanche and buried under 4 meters (13 ft) of snow (more than enough to account for the 'compelling natural force' the medical examiner described). Dubinina's tongue was likely removed by scavengers and ordinary predation.” Evidence contradicting the avalanche theory includes: The location of the incident did not have any obvious signs of an avalanche having taken place. An avalanche would have left certain patterns and debris distributed over a wide area. The bodies found within a month of the event were covered with a very shallow layer of snow and, had there been an avalanche of sufficient strength to sweep away the second party, these bodies would have been swept away as well; this would have caused more serious and different injuries in the process and would have damaged the tree line. Over 100 expeditions to the region had been held since the incident, and none of them ever reported conditions that might create an avalanche. A study of the area using up-to-date terrain-related physics revealed that the location was entirely unlikely for such an avalanche to have occurred. The "dangerous conditions" found in another nearby area (which had significantly steeper slopes and cornices) were observed in April and May when the snowfalls of winter were melting. During February, when the incident occurred, there were no such conditions. An analysis of the terrain and the slope showed that even if there could have been a very specific avalanche that found its way into the area, its path would have gone past the tent. The tent had collapsed from the side but not in a horizontal direction. Dyatlov was an experienced skier and the much older Zolotaryov was studying for his Masters Certificate in ski instruction and mountain hiking. Neither of these two men would have been likely to camp anywhere in the path of a potential avalanche. Footprint patterns leading away from the tent were inconsistent with someone, let alone a group of nine people, running in panic from either real or imagined danger. All the footprints leading away from the tent and towards the woods were consistent with individuals who were walking at a normal pace. Repeated 2015 investigation[edit] A review of the 1959 investigation's evidence completed in 2015–2019 by experienced investigators from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) on request of the families confirmed the avalanche with several important details added. First of all, the ICRF investigators (one of them an experienced alpinist) confirmed that the weather on the night of the tragedy was very harsh, with wind speeds up to hurricane force,(45–67 mph, a snowstorm and temperatures reaching −40 °C. These factors weren't considered by the 1959 investigators who arrived at the scene of the accident three weeks later when the weather had much improved and any remains of the snow slide had settled and been covered with fresh snowfall. The harsh weather at the same time played a critical role in the events of the tragic night, which have been reconstructed as follows: On 1 February the group arrives at the Kholat Syakhl mountain and erects a large, 9-person tent on an open slope, without any natural barriers such as forests. On the day and a few preceding days, a heavy snowfall continued, with strong wind and frost. The group traversing the slope and digging a tent site into the snow weakens the snow base. During the night the snowfield above the tent starts to slide down slowly under the weight of the new snow, gradually pushing on the tent fabric, starting from the entrance. The group wakes up and starts evacuation in panic, with only some able to put on warm clothes. With the entrance blocked, the group escapes through a hole cut in the tent fabric and descends the slope to find a place perceived as safe from the avalanche only 1500 m down, at the forest border. Because some of the members have only incomplete clothing, the group splits. Two of the group, only in their underwear and pajamas, were found at the Siberian pine tree, near a fire pit. Their bodies were found first and confirmed to have died from hypothermia. Three hikers, including Dyatlov, attempted to climb back to the tent, possibly to get sleeping bags. They had better clothes than those at the fire pit, but still quite light and with inadequate footwear. Their bodies were found at various distances 300–600 m from the campfire, in poses suggesting that they had fallen exhausted while trying to climb in deep snow in extremely cold weather. The remaining four, equipped with warm clothing and footwear, were trying to find or build a better camping place in the forest further down the slope. Their bodies were found 70 m from the fireplace, under several meters of snow and with traumas indicating that they had fallen into a snow hole formed above a stream. These bodies were found only after two months. According to the ICRF investigators, the factors contributing to the tragedy were extremely bad weather and lack of experience of the group leader in such conditions, which led to the selection of a dangerous camping place. After the snow slide, another mistake of the group was to split up, rather than building a temporary camp down in the forest and trying to survive through the night. Negligence of the 1959 investigators contributed to their report creating more questions than answers and inspiring numerous conspiracy theories. In 2021 a team of physicists and engineers led by Alexander Puzrin published a new model that demonstrated how even a relatively small slide of snow slab on the Kholat Syakhl slope could cause tent damage and injuries consistent with those suffered by Dyatlov team. Ok, what about the Katabatic wind that I mentioned earlier? In 2019, a Swedish-Russian expedition was made to the site, and after investigations, they proposed that a violent katabatic wind was a plausible explanation for the incident. Katabatic winds are a drainage wind, a wind that carries high-density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity. They are somewhat rare events and can be extremely violent. They were implicated in a 1978 case at Anaris Mountain in Sweden, where eight hikers were killed and one was severely injured in the aftermath of katabatic wind. The topography of these locations were noted to be very similar according to the expedition. A sudden katabatic wind would have made it impossible to remain in the tent, and the most rational course of action would have been for the hikers to cover the tent with snow and seek shelter behind the treeline. On top of the tent, there was also a torch left turned on, possibly left there intentionally so that the hikers could find their way back to the tent once the winds subsided. The expedition proposed that the group of hikers constructed two bivouac shelters, or just makeshift shelters, one of which collapsed, leaving four of the hikers buried with the severe injuries observed. Infrasound Another hypothesis popularised by Donnie Eichar's 2013 book Dead Mountain is that wind going around Kholat Syakal created a Kármán vortex street, a repeating pattern of swirling vortices, caused by a process known as vortex shedding, which is responsible for the unsteady separation of flow of a fluid around blunt bodies. which can produce infrasound capable of inducing panic attacks in humans. According to Eichar's theory, the infrasound generated by the wind as it passed over the top of the Holatchahl mountain was responsible for causing physical discomfort and mental distress in the hikers. Eichar claims that, because of their panic, the hikers were driven to leave the tent by whatever means necessary, and fled down the slope. By the time they were further down the hill, they would have been out of the infrasound's path and would have regained their composure, but in the darkness would have been unable to return to their shelter. The traumatic injuries suffered by three of the victims were the result of their stumbling over the edge of a ravine in the darkness and landing on the rocks at the bottom. Hmmm...plausible. Military tests In another theory, the campsite fell within the path of a Soviet parachute mine exercise. This theory alleges that the hikers, woken up by loud explosions, fled the tent in a shoeless panic and found themselves unable to return for their shit. After some members froze to death attempting to endure the bombardment, others commandeered their clothing only to be fatally injured by subsequent parachute mine concussions. There are in fact records of parachute mines being tested by the Soviet military in the area around the time the hikers were out there, fuckin’ around. Parachute mines detonate while still in the air rather than upon striking the Earth's surface and produce signature injuries similar to those experienced by the hikers: heavy internal damage with relatively little external trauma. The theory coincides with reported sightings of glowing, orange orbs floating or falling in the sky within the general vicinity of the hikers and allegedly photographed by them, potentially military aircraft or descending parachute mines. (remember the camera they found? HUH? Yeah?)  This theory (among others) uses scavenging animals to explain Dubinina's injuries. Some speculate that the bodies were unnaturally manipulated, on the basis of characteristic livor mortis markings discovered during an autopsy, as well as burns to hair and skin. Photographs of the tent allegedly show that it was erected incorrectly, something the experienced hikers were unlikely to have done. A similar theory alleges the testing of radiological weapons and is based partly on the discovery of radioactivity on some of the clothing as well as the descriptions of the bodies by relatives as having orange skin and grey hair. However, radioactive dispersal would have affected all, not just some, of the hikers and equipment, and the skin and hair discoloration can be explained by a natural process of mummification after three months of exposure to the cold and wind. The initial suppression by Soviet authorities of files describing the group's disappearance is sometimes mentioned as evidence of a cover-up, but the concealment of information about domestic incidents was standard procedure in the USSR and thus nothing strange.. And by the late 1980s, all Dyatlov files had been released in some manner. Let’s talk about Paradoxical undressing International Science Times proposed that the hikers' deaths were caused by hypothermia, which can induce a behavior known as paradoxical undressing in which hypothermic subjects remove their clothes in response to perceived feelings of burning warmth. It is undisputed that six of the nine hikers died of hypothermia. However, others in the group appear to have acquired additional clothing (from those who had already died), which suggests that they were of a sound enough mind to try to add layers.   Keith McCloskey, who has researched the incident for many years and has appeared in several TV documentaries on the subject, traveled to the Dyatlov Pass in 2015 with Yury Kuntsevich of the Dyatlov Foundation and a group. At the Dyatlov Pass he noted: There were wide discrepancies in distances quoted between the two possible locations of the snow shelter where Dubinina, Kolevatov, Zolotarev, and Thibault-Brignolles were found. One location was approximately 80 to 100 meters from the pine tree where the bodies of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko were found and the other suggested location was so close to the tree that anyone in the snow shelter could have spoken to those at the tree without raising their voices to be heard. This second location also has a rock in the stream where Dubinina's body was found and is the more likely location of the two. However, the second suggested location of the two has a topography that is closer to the photos taken at the time of the search in 1959. The location of the tent near the ridge was found to be too close to the spur of the ridge for any significant build-up of snow to cause an avalanche. Furthermore, the prevailing wind blowing over the ridge had the effect of blowing snow away from the edge of the ridge on the side where the tent was. This further reduced any build-up of snow to cause an avalanche. This aspect of the lack of snow on the top and near the top of the ridge was pointed out by Sergey Sogrin in 2010. McCloskey also noted: Lev Ivanov's boss, Evgeny Okishev (Deputy Head of the Investigative Department of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Prosecution Office), was still alive in 2015 and had given an interview to former Kemerovo prosecutor Leonid Proshkin in which Okishev stated that he was arranging another trip to the Pass to fully investigate the strange deaths of the last four bodies when Deputy Prosecutor General Urakov arrived from Moscow and ordered the case shut down. Evgeny Okishev also stated in his interview with Leonid Proshkin that Klinov, head of the Sverdlovsk Prosecutor's Office, was present at the first post mortems in the morgue and spent three days there, something Okishev regarded as highly unusual and the only time, in his experience, it had happened. Donnie Eichar, who investigated and made a documentary about the incident, evaluated several other theories that are deemed unlikely or have been discredited: They were attacked by Mansi or other local tribesmen. The local tribesmen were known to be peaceful and there was no track evidence of anyone approaching the tent. They were attacked and chased by animal wildlife. There were no animal tracks and the group would not have abandoned the relative security of the tent. High winds blew one member away, and the others attempted to rescue the person. A large experienced group would not have behaved like that, and winds strong enough to blow away people with such force would have also blown away the tent. An argument, possibly related to a romantic encounter that left some of them only partially clothed, led to a violent dispute. About this, Eichar states that it is "highly implausible. By all indications, the group was largely harmonious, and sexual tension was confined to platonic flirtation and crushes. There were no drugs present and the only alcohol was a small flask of medicinal alcohol, found intact at the scene. The group had even sworn off cigarettes for the expedition." Furthermore, a fight could not have left the massive injuries that one body had suffered.   Ace’s Depot http://www.aces-depot.com   BECOME A PRODUCER! http://www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast   Find The Midnight Train Podcast: www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com www.facebook.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.twitter.com/themidnighttrainpc www.instagram.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.discord.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.tiktok.com/themidnighttrainp   And wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.   Subscribe to our official YouTube channel: OUR YOUTUBE

First Draft Episode #195: Jennifer Donnelly Jennifer Donnelly, New York Times bestselling author of A Northern Light, Revolution, These Shallow Graves, and The Tea Rose series (incl. The Tea Rose; The Winter Rose; The Wild Rose) and Waterfire Saga series (incl. Deep Blue; Rogue Wave; Dark Tide; Sea Spell), Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, among others, who is back with the New York Times bestselling Stepsister. Jennifer talks about being raised on bedtime stories about life under the Hitler regime; how to deep-dive into writing a historical novel; and the joy of being obsessed. Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode Learn more about The First Draft Listener Club The New York Teen Author Carnival When Jennifer visited Portobello Road in East London, she felt like she was stepping back into the London of Charles Dickens (author of Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities), artist William Hogarth, Jack the Ripper (learn more with The Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Phillip Sugden), The Labour Movement, the London Dock Worker Strike Simon Lipskar of Writer’s House was interested in Jennifer’s first crack at writing a novel, which was 1,100 words(!) Sally Kim, VP and Editor in Chief at Putnam, was then at St. Martin’s, when she purchased Jennifer’s first book Steven Malk at Writer’s House became Jennifer’s agent to sell A Northern Light and subsequent books Jennifer’s mom bought her a copy of An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, and that sparked the obsession that led to A Northern Light. (Non-fiction accounts of the murder of Grace Brown include Adirondack Tragedy: The Gillette Murder Case of 1906, written by Joseph W. Brownell and Patricia Enos; and Murder in the Adirondacks: An American Tragedy Revisited, by Craig Brandon.) The murder case of Laci Peterson, documented in true crime novel A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation by Catherine Crier Jennifer was stopped short by a New York Times article about the heart of Louis Charles, Dauphin of France, the imprisoned son of the king of France who was toppled by the French Revolution. The story was likely either “Genetics Offers Denouement To Mystery of Prince's Death,” by Suzanne Daley, or “MEANWHILE : Learning from a heart stilled by revolution,” by Catherine Field. Jennifer was inspired by “Savage Beauty,” the Met’s retrospective of fashion designer Alexander McQueen’s work Jennifer’s short story in Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All led her to explore the themes of beauty and how we reinforce those standards on young women in Stepsister I blow up Maurene Goo’s spot (author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, The Way You Make Me Feel, and her newest, Somewhere Only We Know) getting obsessed with the Supernatural TV show (listen to Maurene’s First Draft episodes here, here, and here) I’m obsessed with The Dyatlov Pass Incident, which was covered in Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar   Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!

This week on Cracked Spines, Amelia and Sarah fail to finish the actual book they were supposed to read for reasons of varying validity, so Sarah walks Amelia through the other unhappy time in the mountains book she's read lately--the tale of the tragic Dyatlov Pass incident where nine Russian hikers met mysterious ends on a freezing night. Spoiler: it probably wasn't yeti. But spoiler part two: I mean we can't rule it out.

Background: Part 2 of our Special on Dyatlov Pass:  On January 27, 1959, a group of outdoor enthusiasts, known as "tourists" in Russia, consisting of seven men and two women, mostly students and graduates of the Ural Polytechnical Institute (which is now the Ural Federal University) left the village of Vizhay in the northern Ural Mountains on a two-week ski trek, through a region called Sverdlovsk Oblast, the "gateway to Siberia" in Russia.  In Russia a "tourist" is a serious outdoorsman. The goal was to reach Otorten Mountain at the end of their journey.  Their planned route would rank as a "Category III," the most difficult classification for a hiking expedition in winter, which if successful, would qualify them as "Masters of Sport."  On February 1st as they started to move through a mountain pass on their last leg of the trip, bad weather and decreasing visibility forced them off course, and the group decided to make camp on the eastern slope of a small mountain called Kholat Syakhl by the indigenous Mansi peoples, which translates to "Dead Mountain" due to the area's lack of wild game.  Sometime during the night of February 2nd, the group suffered an unimaginably terrifying ordeal, sealing their fate.  When they hadn't been heard from by February 20th, a search party was formed to look for the missing youths.  On February 26th the search party reached their camp and what they found would bring more questions than answers.  It appeared as though something had scared the hikers so badly, that they panicked and ripped a hole in the side of their tent in order to escape, shoeless, into - 20º F (-29º C) snowfall.  It was determined by Soviet authorities that the group had met with a "compelling unknown force" causing them all to flee and ultimately die of exposure with some also suffering significant internal injuries such as broken ribs and fractured skulls.  There have since been many theories put forth as to what this force actually was, but we may never know what was so horrific that it caused this group of experienced adventurers to take leave of their senses and take their chances in the deadly wilderness.  Following the incident, the mountain pass was named "Dyatlov Pass" in honor of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. Tonight's Quote: "An unknown compelling force should be considered the cause of the hiker's deaths." - Lev Ivanov, Lead Prosecutor, Dyatlov Pass Incident Show Links: (Links work best in iOS on iTunes or on our webpage at astonishinglegends.com) Archive of a very comprehensive website about the whole Dyatlov story Supplemental documentation and analysis of the incident Dyatlov Pass on Wiki Terrific archive of all the photos from the group, in English and Russian Forum on the Dyatlov incident - in Russian - you'll need a browser that can translate Donnie Eichar's "Authors at Google" interview about his book, "Dead Mountain" Book Review of "Dead Mountain" Song: Pixies "Wave of Mutilation" from the album, "Doolittle" YouTube vid about Dyatlov - text pulled from Wiki entry but has good photos Interesting story about a family living isolated for 40 years in Siberia Russian Yeti at Dyatlov? Snowboarder Bigfoot Incident Nazi UFO's Foo Fighters More on the Foo Fighters Even more on Foo Fighting The Actual Foo Fighters (Because you were expecting that right?)   Credits: Episode 024 - "Dyatlov Pass (Part 2)" Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle.  Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved. 

Background: On January 27, 1959, a group of outdoor enthusiasts, known as 'tourists' in Russia, consisting of seven men and two women, mostly students and graduates of the Ural Polytechnical Institute (which is now the Ural Federal University) left the village of Vizhay in the northern Ural Mountains on a two-week ski trek, through a region called Sverdlovsk Oblast, the "gateway to Siberia" in Russia.  In Russia a 'tourist' is a serious outdoorsman. The goal was to reach Otorten Mountain at the end of their journey.  Their planned route would rank as a "Category III," the most difficult classification for a hiking expedition in winter, which if successful, would qualify them as "Masters of Sport."  On February 1st as they started to move through a mountain pass on their last leg of the trip, bad weather and decreasing visibility forced them off course, and the group decided to make camp on the eastern slope of a small mountain called Kholat Syakhl by the indigenous Mansi peoples, which translates to "Dead Mountain" due to the area's lack of wild game.  Sometime during the night of February 2nd, the group suffered an unimaginably terrifying ordeal, sealing their fate.  When they hadn't been heard from by February 20th, a search party was formed to look for the missing youths.  On February 26th the search party reached their camp and what they found would bring more questions than answers.  It appeared as though something had scared the hikers so badly, that they panicked and ripped a hole in the side of their tent in order to escape, shoeless, into - 20º F (-29º C) snowfall.  It was determined by Soviet authorities that the group had met with a "compelling unknown force" causing them all to flee and ultimately die of exposure with some also suffering significant internal injuries such as broken ribs and fractured skulls.  There have since been many theories put forth as to what this force actually was, but we may never know what was so horrific that it caused this group of experienced adventurers to take leave of their senses and take their chances in the deadly wilderness.  Following the incident, the mountain pass was named "Dyatlov Pass" in honor of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. Tonight's Quote: "I wonder what awaits us in this hike? Will anything new happen?" - Zina Kolmogorova from her last diary entry. Show Links: (Links work best in iOS on iTunes or on our webpage at astonishinglegends.com) Archive of a very comprehensive website about the whole Dyatlov story Dyatlov Pass on Wiki Terrific archive of all the photos from the group, in English and Russian Russian website about Dyatlov Forum on the Dyatlov incident Donnie Eichar's "Authors at Google" interview about his book, "Dead Mountain" Book Review of "Dead Mountain" Song: Pixies "Wave of Mutilation" from the album, "Doolittle" YouTube vid about Dyatlov - text pulled from Wiki entry but has good photos Interesting story about a family living isolated for 40 years in Siberia Russian Yeti at Dyatlov? Part 1 of "Golden Symphony" Ellorsith on BandCamp Credits: Episode 023 - 'Dyatlov Pass (Part 1)' Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle.  Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved. 

Eight decades after Jules Verne's death, his great-grandson opened a family safe and discovered an unpublished manuscript. In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review some of Verne's remarkable predictions for the 20th century and consider why he never published the novel. We'll also discuss listeners' ideas about the mysterious deaths of nine Soviet ski hikers in 1959 and puzzle over how a man's breakfast turns deadly. Sources for our feature on Jules Verne's Paris in the Twentieth Century: Arthur B. Evans, "The 'New' Jules Verne," Science-Fiction Studies, March 1995. Brian Taves, "Jules Verne’s Paris in the Twentieth Century," Science-Fiction Studies, March 1997. Jules Verne, Paris in the Twentieth Century, 1863. Sources for listener mail: "'Partially Digested' Human Head, Leg Found Inside Shark Caught by Filipino Fishermen," Fox News Latino, Nov. 12, 2014 (accessed May 8, 2015). Donnie Eichar, Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, 2013. Jason Zasky, "Return to Dead Mountain," Failure Magazine, Feb. 1, 2014. Greg's article on animal infrasound appeared in the January-February 2004 issue of American Scientist. This week's lateral thinking puzzle comes from Jed's List of Situation Puzzles, suggested to us by listener David Morgan. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. And you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

On February 1, 1959, something terrifying overtook nine student ski-hikers in the northern Ural Mountains. In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll recount what is known about the incident at Dyatlov Pass and try to make sense of the hikers' harrowing final night. We'll also hear how Dwight Eisenhower might have delivered the Gettysburg Address and puzzle over why signing her name might entitle a woman to a lavish new home. Sources for our feature on the Dyatlov Pass incident: Donnie Eichar, Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, 2013. "Yuri Yudin," Daily Telegraph, April 30, 2013, 25.   Here's the investigators' description of the hikers' tent as it was discovered: "Tent site is located on the Northeastern slope of mountain 1079 (Kholat Syakhl official term) meters at the mouth of river Auspiya. Tent site is located 300 meters from the top of the mountain 1079 with a slope of 30°. Test site consists of a pad, levelled by snow, the bottom of which are contains 8 pairs of skis (for tent support and insulation). Tent is stretched on poles and fixed with ropes. On the bottom of the tent 9 backpacks were discovered with various personal items, jackets, rain coats, 9 pairs of shoes. There were also found men's pants, and three pairs of boots, warm fur coats, socks, hat, ski caps, utensils, buckets, stove, ax, saw, blankets, food: biscuits in two bags, condensed milk, sugar, concentrates, notebooks, itinerary and many other small items and documents, camera and accessories to a camera. The nature and form of all (...) lesions suggest that they were formed by contact with the canvas inside of the tent with the blade of some weapon (presumably a knife)." This is the final exposure in hiker Yuri Krivonishchenko's camera. Possibly the image was exposed on the final night, or possibly weeks afterward, inadvertently, by technicians. Lead investigator Lev Ivanov wrote that the hikers' cameras gave him "abundant information based on negative density, film speed ... and aperture and exposure settings," but that they did not "answer the main question -- what was the reason of escape from the tent." Here's journalist Oliver Jensen's rendering of the Gettysburg Address in "Eisenhowese." Jensen provided his original to Dwight Macdonald for his 1961 collection Parodies: An Anthology. "The version below is the original as given me by Jensen, with two or three variations in which The New Republic's version [of June 17, 1957] seemed to me to have added a turn of the screw": I haven’t checked these figures but 87 years ago, I think it was, a number of individuals organized a governmental set-up here in this country, I believe it covered certain Eastern areas, with this idea they were following up based on a sort of national independence arrangement and the program that every individual is just as good as every other individual. Well, now, of course, we are dealing with this big difference of opinion, civil disturbance you might say, although I don’t like to appear to take sides or name any individuals, and the point is naturally to check up, by actual experience in the field, to see whether any governmental set-up with a basis like the one I was mentioning has any validity and find out whether that dedication by those early individuals will pay off in lasting values and things of that kind. Well, here we are, at the scene where one of these disturbances between different sides got going. We want to pay our tribute to those loved ones, those departed individuals who made the supreme sacrifice here on the basis of their opinions about how this thing ought to be handled. And I would say this. It is absolutely in order to do this. But if you look at the over-all picture of this, we can't pay any tribute -- we can't sanctify this area, you might say -- we can't hallow according to whatever individual creeds or faiths or sort of religious outlooks are involved like I said about this particular area. It was those individuals themselves, including the enlisted men, very brave individuals, who have given this religious character to the area. The way I see it, the rest of the world will not remember any statements issued here but it will never forget how these men put their shoulders to the wheel and carried this idea down the fairway. Now frankly, our job, the living individuals’ job here, is to pick up the burden and sink the putt they made these big efforts here for. It is our job to get on with the assignment -- and from these deceased fine individuals to take extra inspiration, you could call it, for the same theories about the set-up for which they made such a big contribution. We have to make up our minds right here and now, as I see it, that they didn’t put out all that blood, perspiration and -- well -- that they didn’t just make a dry run here, and that all of us here, under God, that is, the God of our choice, shall beef up this idea about freedom and liberty and those kind of arrangements, and that government of all individuals, by all individuals and for the individuals, shall not pass out of the world-picture. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was submitted by listener Tyler St. Clare (conceived by his friend Matt Moore). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. And you can finally follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

This week, on the tower of technobabble, We discuss just how funky a bot can be, go into some time travel conundrums, and then revisit the Dyatlov Pass incident and its surprising revelations. Then, we end up revisiting how Homeless Hank, the Bigfoot corpse, might have gotten a new lease on life. Or maybe its just another scam in a long line of scams. Probably that. Show Notes: Historical Perspectives - Return to the Dyatlov Pass Just What Did Slaughter Nine Hikers in Siberia in 1959? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401175/Dyatlov-Pass-Indicent-slaughtered-hikers-Siberias-Death-Mountain-1959.html “Dead Mountain” by Donnie Eichar http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1452112746/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d4_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0JR9S1JYXV12FPE1XD4M&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846 Mysterious Universe podcast with “Dead Mountain” author Donnie Eichar http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2013/11/10-18-mu-podcast/ Infrasound (not to be confused with “Brown Noise”) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound How to make a vortex: http://toweroftechnobabble.com/tower/vortex.jpg Various photos of the Dyatlov Pass Hikers: http://therealevidenceoftheparanormal.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-dyatlov-pass-accident-attack.html Bigfoot Roundup: Homeless Hank Lives! (although he’s dead). And he’s going on tour! Unless he doesn’t! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/05/bigfoot-hunter-rick-dyer-creature-image_n_4538307.html ’10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty' Judges Skeptical of Hunter's New Claims (and we’re skeptical of the 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty, but that’s for next week): http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/-10-million-dollar-bigfoot-bounty--judges-skeptical-of-hunter-s-new-claims-004013134.html A Summary of the Latest Bigfoot kerfuffle: http://blog.roadtrippers.com/uncovering-the-dirty-secrets-behind-the-latest-dead-bigfoot-story/ Why this guy might not be above reproach (from 2008):  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080820-bigfoot-body.html And, finally, The Repeater’s photo essay: http://toweroftechnobabble.com/tower/hankfaces.jpg

On today’s Daytime Confidential podcast, The Morning Jolt’s Larry Flick graciously shares his interview with General Hospital’s Jason Thompson. During the must-hear episode Flick asks Thompson to weigh in on GH’s controversial decision to have Lisa (Brianna Brown) use Robin’s (Kimberly McCullough) HIV positive blood as a weapon. Robin’s status has been an important part of GH’s legacy and he shares the concern he and McCullough felt, when they first learned what was going to happen. Thompson and Flick then discuss the project that keeps him busy, when he’s not on the GH set, Unknown Compelling Force. Uncovering the truth behind the true story of Russian hikers–whose mysterious deaths were listed as “An Unknown Compelling Force” and classified by the Russian government–has become a passion project for Thompson. Hear him recount some of the stories told by the hiker’s families and why he and director Donnie Eichar want to help bring them closure. This is an interview you won’t want to miss!