In the Ural mountains, near the tragic Dyatlov Pass site, an avalanche was documented for the first time, providing the initial physical trace that supports the avalanche theory of the incident. The photographs were captured in January 2022, according to Oleg Demyanenko, a participant from the last expedition to the Dyatlov Pass affiliated with socialbites.ca.
“The scene is almost like a geomorphologist’s playground”, Demyanenko noted. “There is so much snowfall that it occasionally shifts into avalanches. We arrived at a moment when a micro avalanche had fallen roughly 15 to 20 minutes earlier, and we were able to record the convergence path. About half an hour later, signs of the avalanche disappeared under a raging blizzard, yet we documented the sequence. The ground’s unique aerodynamics seems to fling snow through a funnel at high speed, creating a sparse accumulation that quickly densifies in this spot.”
During the 2021 Dyatlov Pass excursions, participants observed a dark formation on a slope adjacent to the site of the historic deaths. What was first mistaken for a cloud shadow later appeared in video footage. A subsequent expedition, which observed an avalanche in January 2022, returned to the pass to investigate the origin of this dark spot.
Demyanenko explained that the slope in question sits higher than the site of the original tragedy, and the new findings demonstrate for the first time that the area can be prone to avalanches. This long-standing assumption that the region could not experience such events had been a matter of debate for years.
“Of course the likelihood is extremely small, perhaps one in ten thousand, that the same conditions could re-create the exact setup at the tent site. Yet the team confirmed that the area is potentially avalanche-prone. Even when most observers insist that such events cannot occur here, avalanches do occur in this region”, he stated. The expedition’s results were published by Swiss researchers in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, underscoring the evidence for avalanche activity in this area.
The Dyatlov Pass lies in the Northern Urals, a stretch between Mount Holatchakhl and an unnamed elevation, both marking a landscape steeped in mystery. The pass bears the name of Igor Dyatlov, a student whose group perished in February 1959 under circumstances that remain contested. Until recently, there had been no documented proof linking avalanches to the event, fueling decades of speculation and inquiry. This new field observation adds a tangible data point to the discussion, prompting renewed inquiry into how such natural processes interact with historic routes and the safety of high-altitude expeditions. Researchers emphasize that while unlikely, avalanche risk in this terrain is real and must be accounted for in future fieldwork and analysis. The collecting of objective evidence continues to shape the understanding of what happened at this remote site, inviting ongoing discussion among scholars, climbers, and local authorities alike.”