Last month we talked about the Dyatlov Pass incident, which was a tragedy where nine hikers died in 1959 under mysterious circumstances. I just stumbled on another hiking tragedy, this time in Siberia which happened in 1993. Again deaths happened under mysterious circumstances. On 5 August 1993, six Kazakhstani hikers died in the Khamar-Daban mountain range under uncertain circumstances. The event has been likened to the Dyatlov Pass incident, earning it the name "Buryatia's Dyatlov Pass".
The six hikers who died were members of a seven-person hiking group led by Lyudmila Korovina; Valentina Utochenko was the group's sole survivor. Despite the police receiving a report, no formal search was carried out until 24 August. It took two days for helicopters to locate the remains, because Utochenko had not yet been able to recount her version of what had happened. According to an autopsy report, all of the victims died of hypothermia, except Korovina, who died from a heart attack.
The group of seven hikers, led by Korovina, arrived in Irkutsk by train in August 1993. Korovina's hiking group was one of three in the area, one of which was being led by her daughter, Natalia. Starting on 2 August 1993, their trip led from the village of Murino along the Langutai river, through the Langutai Gates pass, along the Barun-Yunkatsuk river, up the Khanulu mountain and along its ridge, ending on the watershed plateau of the Anigta and Baiga rivers. Korovina's group was meant to cross paths with her daughter's on 5 August.
The first two days of the hike turned out to have gone better than the group had planned, with them making good time up Retranslyator peak, however, on 4 August, as they were beginning their descent, they were hit with an unexpected rainstorm. Korovina decided to make camp in an exposed location, with the group failing at an attempt to build a fire that night. They managed to build a fire in the morning of 5 August and ate breakfast together before continuing their path.
According to Valentina Utochenko, the sole survivor, while descending down the mountain, at the altitude of 2,396 metres (7,861 ft), Krysin, who was at the back of the group, started screaming. He was bleeding from his eyes and ears, frothing at the mouth. He fell to the ground convulsing and then went still. Korovina ran up to him, trying to get him to gain consciousness. A moment later, she cried out, having the same symptoms as Krysin. She convulsed and then collapsed on top of Krysin. Filipenko, who had gotten to Korovina first, was the next to collapse, grabbing at her throat as though she couldn't breathe. She crawled over to a nearby rock and bashed her head against it until she went limp. Zalesova and Bapanov started to run. While running, they collapsed and died throwing up blood and clawing at their own throats, tearing their clothes off. Utochenko and Shvachkin hurried away, but shortly after Shvachkin also collapsed convulsing.
Utochenko ran down the mountain, set up a tent for the night under tree cover and fell asleep. On the next day, she returned to the site of her friends' death to retrieve supplies she needed from their bodies. For four days, she followed power lines down the mountain in hopes that someone would find her. She found a river and started following it. On 9 August, she was found by a group of Ukrainian kayakers, who took her to the nearest police station where a report was filed.
Like the Dvylatov pass incident, theories started on what happened. Hypothermia is the most likely explanation, but theories also arose like military experiment, nerve agents, or mushroom poisoning. It is yeat another mystery that may never be solved. However, after reading and learning about this story, I will never go hiking in Russia...
