— The last observation at Dyatlov Pass raw eventually reassured Swiss scientists led by Alexander Puzrin about the avalanche version of the death of the Dyatlov group. her article They express their gratitude to you as one of Russia’s leading avalanche researchers. When did you first become interested in this subject?
– In 2013, the journalists of Komsomolskaya Pravda returned to our faculty, I gave them an interview, although they did not fit the version of the avalanche. There are about 70 versions, including frankly occult and delusional ones – cosmic energy clots, aliens and the like. Then I became interested in this story and it fascinated me as a glaciologist, even though my interests are in ice, not snow.
Victor Popovnin
From personal archive
When did you first come to the gate?
– In 2019, I was invited to participate in the KP expedition, Andrey Malakhov also flew there by helicopter for several hours, we lived in tents for a couple of days, then I was asked to find out if the avalanche version is at least. Is it somehow confirmed? At first, I also thought – the slope is soft, smooth terrain, what kind of avalanche could it be? I went there with a density meter, a snow probe. And at the place where the Dyatlovites’ tent was located, I conducted a snow study – how much and what kind of snow is accumulating.
– And at the same time, he went to the expeditionary pass of the Attorney General’s Office?
– It was a trip of four, Andrei Kuryakov from the Prosecutor General’s Office and two surveyors, and it coincided in time with our expedition. Our paths crossed by chance, right where the Dyatlovites’ tent was.
Later they stuck to some versions and didn’t have much contact with us at first. But when we sat at the table in the main camp in the evenings and had tea, we started to have more informal conversations, they became interested in different versions.
At first they didn’t believe in the avalanche but they were interested in talking to me and I gave them a little training program, enlightened them about the avalanche. They gave me a paper full of questions, then we corresponded with them by mail. Kuryakov was immersed in them, and then we communicated with him in a purely professional language, as I did with my students.
— What conclusions did you reach after the measurements?
“This whole mountain is full of stone protrusions; it snows in winter. Instead of the tent, I made a hole, looked at the stratification, measured the density of snow. Sometimes there can be ice crusts that appear during snow – wind, sunbathing, thawing, these crusts are a good gliding plane. I did not see crusts, but there was a clear stratification of dense and loose snow, and on contact with the ground there was a distinct deep frost – a special kind of snow, much looser than that accumulated from above, in which snowflakes turned into prisms, goblets, goblets.
Avalanches in the mountains often occur in this deep frost. At the same time, at the very surface there was a very dense snowboard – cooled snow, compressed by the wind.
Snow thickness varied greatly at the site of the tent and ranged from 90 to 180 centimeters, and nearby – more than 2 meters! They set up a tent where the tip of the stone mane ended. This fall coincided with a small hollow where the snow rolled first. And this relief acts as an avalanche transition zone that can originate from anywhere. I believe this difference in snow thickness comes down to precisely the length of the tent – some of it fell outside the trajectory of the avalanche body and the other below it. This is how I explain why everything is protected in one part of the tent and not in the other. The steepness of the slope at this place was 21-22°.
In avalanche science, the minimum angle of occurrence of an avalanche is considered to be 15°. When erecting a tent, the Dyatlovites made a niche, cut the slope, and this could be the main trigger of the avalanche process.
The location of the Dyatlov tent set up on a flat surface after making an undercut under a small ledge on the slope, 2021
Johan Gum, Alexander Puzrin
My goal was to confirm that there might be an avalanche condition triggering another chain of events. And I couldn’t find any arguments against it. As a field worker I noticed that avalanches are possible there, it’s an avalanche-prone slope.
– And then in January 2021, an article was published by Puzrin, proving the version of the avalanche and proving that the injuries of tourists do not contradict this. But can the mere observation of a real avalanche end the conflict?
– My competitors are always – how many times have we been here, we have never seen an avalanche, both tourists and locals, and by the way, Oleg Demyanenko, who witnessed the first avalanche this January. In the words of my teacher Georgy Tushinsky, the founder of Soviet avalanche science, I replied: “Avalves in the mountains occur when a person comes there.” A person himself can provoke an avalanche, on the other hand, if people do not go there, maybe dozens go there, but no one sees them. And when old folks somewhere say they don’t remember avalanches, I say old-timers sometimes don’t remember much, so it’s not an argument.
How did the first evidence of an avalanche appear?
– In the winter of 2021, from the tent of the Dyatlov group, the guide Dmitry Borisov took a photo from a great distance of the neighboring slope, where a kind of rut, not even an avalanche, appeared. it was an optical effect or a shadow from a cloud. In September I went to the arcade with a group of Swiss filmmakers, we were making a digital terrain model from the drone. Then, sitting by the fire, I looked at that picture and said that in principle it looked like an avalanche. Then Oleg came up with the idea to come to this place in the winter and check it out.
– As a result, they left, they witnessed an avalanche descending only half an hour ago. Have you seen these pictures?
— Yes, it was a real snowfall. This is called a precedent. If it happened now, it could happen at another time. The relief of that slope, its steepness, and exposure to wind and sun are similar, so if the necessary conditions arise in the winter of 1959, an avalanche may arrive there.
Avalanche imaged on January 29, 2021
Johan Gum, Alexander Puzrin
– And not necessarily the same?
– The problem with many journalistic materials is that the avalanche is depicted as a majestic phenomenon accompanied by a cloud of snow. But a classic avalanche can have various manifestations, it is any movement of snow with a gravitational character. A dust avalanche is only caused by dry powder snow. Wet avalanches do not form clouds at all. There are avalanches of plates that aren’t even snowballs, and that kind of snowboard, that’s a purely scientific term, a layer of compacted snow. A crack is formed and the entire layer goes down, a frontal slip occurs – the so-called hornet. The board moves when there is a violation of continuity conditions for any reason. The mechanical reason is that they are more often replaced in this way by skiers, freeriders.
The main cause of the avalanche itself when a person is involved is to correct an avalanche slope.
There was a well-known researcher in the USA, Edward LaChapelle, who was the first in the world to artificially cause avalanches, riding on skis and always abandoned them. In fact, the Dyatlovians did the same by cutting the slope.
– Big mistake?
– Yes. We must remember that avalanche science was still in its infancy at the time, few groups went there, and they didn’t think the slope was avalanche-prone. Second, they were able to pitch a tent in an extreme situation when caught in a snowstorm and had no other choice. It was a mistake, but 60 years later it’s easy for us to sit on the couch and reason, and I wouldn’t say that somehow discredits the tourist experience.
Digital elevation model showing local tilt angle, 2022
Alexander Puzrin
– And can the board move a meter or two away while crushing the tourists?
– Of course, it’s the same as if an Icarus flew over you, since a cubic meter of such snow would weigh 400 kg!
Opponents say that serious injuries, including broken ribs fixed on some tourists’ bodies, will not allow them to walk a kilometer from the tent to the forest. What does your experience say?
– Indeed, coroner Eduard Tumanov believes that a person cannot live with such injuries, that is, if he took them in a tent, he would not have walked this kilometer. He was with us on the slope and I told him that everyone’s wounds are different. Two of them had broken ribs, one had the most serious injury – a broken skull. But a man can walk with broken ribs.
In the history of mountaineering, there are numerous cases where climbers were injured while climbing, descended to the base camp, and some continued to climb while at the summit. Broken ribs can puncture the pleura, damage the lungs, but in principle this may not prevent movement.
We have a helipad at our base in the Caucasus, and injured tourists are often brought in. People die and they keep moving themselves, unless of course it’s a broken leg. But the main thing is that in a state of passion a person not only acts inadequately, but can also overcome pain, especially when it comes to saving his own life. Also, the shock of pain may not act immediately, and comrades can especially help the injured. Most likely, they ran because they were afraid of a second avalanche, and this is a completely competent desire.
The chest injuries of the Dyatlovites are fully explained by the abdominal pressure, the intensity of which I measured.
As for the punctured skull, it is hardly necessary to explain it with some kind of butt blow.
The man was lying, a huge mass of snow fell on him, and next to him lay an object – a ski binding, a camera, an ax, a kettle and not snow, but the pressed skull broke. with a heavy mass of snow against it.
– Not every tourist dies, scientists write scientific articles, especially in the journal Nature. Did this case introduce anything new to science?
– He did not give anything fundamentally new to science. But Swiss scientists have shown that they are very well aware of the science of snow and the basic science of avalanche formation, and this is the first example of the use of medical aspects in a glaciological article – a kind of “force material” of the human body.
I believe the avalanche seen recently by the men proves that avalanches descended on the pass, and this may have been the root cause of the death of the Dyatlov group. Naturally, it wasn’t the avalanche that killed them, but the frostbite, but it was the avalanche that brought them out of the tent, which might explain everything that happened to them afterwards.
Source: Gazeta
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