Khamar-Daban incident

Last updated

Khamar-Daban incident
The Khamar-Daban incident map.png
Map of the hikers' route
Native nameГибель тургруппы Коровиной
Date5 August 1993
Location Khamar-Daban mountain range, Siberia, Buryatia, Russia
Coordinates 51°11′41″N103°58′06″E / 51.19472°N 103.96833°E / 51.19472; 103.96833
Type6 deaths
Cause hypothermia
Deaths6 hikers from Petropavl
  • 5 due to hypothermia
  • 1 due to a heart attack

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".

Contents

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.

Background

Khamar-Daban, a mountain range in southern Siberia, in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, was a popular tourist hiking spot. In the summer of 1993, Lyudmila Korovina of the Petropavl "Azimut" tourist club, [1] an experienced hiking instructor and a Master of Sports in hiking, planned a hiking trip to the Khamar-Daban mountains. [2] She was joined by six of her students: Aleksander "Sacha" Krysin, Tatyana Filipenko, Denis Shvachkin, Valentina "Valya" Utochenko, Viktoriya Zalesova and Timur Bapanov. Korovina had previous experience hiking in the Khamar-Daban area, and the students trained with her for the trip. [3]

Members of the hiking trip
Name (Romanization)Name in Cyrillic script BirthdateAgeSex
Lyudmila Ivanova KorovinaЛюдмила Ивановна Коровина21 November 195141Female
Tatiana Yurievna FilipenkoТатьяна Юрьевна Филипенко5 January 196924Female
Alexander Gennadievich KrysinАлександр Геннадиевич Крысин6 July 197023Male
Denis Viktorovich ShvachkinДенис Викторович Швачкин23 April 197419Male
Valentina UtochenkoВалентина Уточенко18 September 197517Female
Viktoriya ZalesovaВиктория Залесова23 October 197616Female
Timur Balgabaevich BapanovТимур Балгабаевич Бапанов15 July 197815Male

The trip

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. [4] Starting on 2 August 1993, their trip led from the village of Murino  [ ru ], 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. [1] Korovina's group was meant to cross paths with her daughter's on 5 August. [3]

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. [4]

The deaths

According to Valentina Utochenko, the sole survivor, while descending down the mountain, at the altitude of 2,396 metres (7,861 ft), [5] 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. [3] 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. [4]

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. [3] 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. [2] 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. [1] [6]

Search and discovery

Utochenko did not speak for several days. [1] The official search was conducted on 24 August, [7] led by Yuri Golius. [1] Because Utochenko had not been able to recount her version of events yet, it took two days to find the bodies using helicopters. [8] The hikers' bodies were noted to have been partially undressed. [9]

All of the dead hikers were found to have signs of bruised lungs. [4] An autopsy, carried out in Ulan-Ude, [1] concluded that Krysin, Filipenko, Bapanov, Zalesova and Shvachkin died of hypothermia, [10] and Korovina had a heart attack. [8] Protein deficiency due to malnutrition was listed as a contributing factor to their deaths. [10]

Theories

Multiple theories have been proposed to explain what caused the hikers' deaths. [4] Rescuers Valery Tatarnikov and Vladimir Zinov, who took part in the search operation for the bodies, claimed that it was impossible for the hikers to die of cold. Zinov suggested that they might have died of altitude sickness. [11] Tourist Vladimir Borzenkov and member of the search operation Nikolai Fedorov suggested that the hikers went mad due to infrasounds. [3] Yuri Golius, the leader of the search operation, blamed their deaths on Korovina's negligence, claiming she was starving her students, which caused them to have vitamin deficiency. [11] In a 2018 interview for Komsomolskaya Pravda , Utochenko denied the theory that Korovina might have been responsible for the deaths. She believes that the cause of the hikers' deaths was pulmonary edema. [6]

Hypothermia

The first explanation proposes that the hikers died in the exact way the autopsy report concluded they did: by succumbing to hypothermia after not being properly sheltered that night. [6] In severe hypothermia, there may be hallucinations and paradoxical undressing, in which a person removes their clothing, which would explain why the hikers were found partially undressed. [10]

Certain parts of Utochenko's story could have been unintentionally exaggerated by her, due to the fact that people who undergo a traumatic experience often misremember details of it. [7]

Military experiment

One theory suggests that the hikers might have stumbled upon a Russian military experiment conducted in the mountains and were killed so that the experiment would remain a secret. This theory was deemed uncredible due to the Khamar-Daban mountain range being a public area with many people traveling through it during tourist season, making it an unlikely place and time for conducting secret experiments. [4]

Nerve agents

Symptoms described by Utochenko bear resemblance to death by nerve agents. In particular, the frothing at the mouth and convulsing match death by a strong nerve agent. The bruising of the lungs could also be a sign of death by nerve gas, as contact with it might cause respiratory distress. Cardiac arrest is also caused by it, matching Korovina's cause of death. [4]

Novichok, a family of nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union and Russia up to 1993 and considered to be the deadliest nerve agents to exist, were reportedly tested in areas near Khamar-Daban. [4]

Contaminated water

Lake Baikal Baikal lakuaren M-ko muturra.JPG
Lake Baikal

The nearby Lake Baikal is known to be a "toxic waste dumping ground". If the waste was washed downstream, the hikers might have drunk the toxins in their water. Some toxins might not have been visible in a standard toxicology report. [7]

Mushroom poisoning

Another theory suggests that the hikers might have hallucinated and got sick due to a mushroom poisoning. Korovina was known to be a forager and she taught the art to her students. One of the hikers might have accidentally added poisonous mushrooms to their breakfast. They could also have been hallucinogenic mushrooms. In very rare cases, an overdose of psilocybin might cause psychosis, convulsions, cardiac arrest, and send a person into a coma. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulan-Ude</span> City in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia

Ulan-Ude is the capital city of Buryatia, Russia, located about 100 kilometers (62 mi) southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga. According to the 2021 Census, 437,565 people lived in Ulan-Ude; up from 404,426 recorded in the 2010 Census, making the city the third-largest in the Russian Far East by population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sayan Mountains</span> Mountain range in southern Siberia, Russia and northern Mongolia

The Sayan Mountains are a mountain range in southern Siberia spanning southeastern Russia and northern Mongolia. Before the rapid expansion of the Tsardom of Russia, the mountain range served as the border between Mongolian and Russian cultures and cultural influences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buryatia</span> First-level administrative division of Russia

Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. It borders Irkutsk Oblast and Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world to the north, Zabaykalsky Krai to the east, Tuva to the west and Mongolia to the south. Its capital is the city of Ulan-Ude. It has an area of 351,300 square kilometers (135,600 sq mi) with a population of 978,588. It is home to the indigenous Buryats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khamar-Daban</span> Mountain range in Russia

Khamar-Daban, is a mountain range in Southern Siberia, Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dyatlov Pass incident</span> 1959 unsolved deaths in the Soviet Union

The Dyatlov Pass incident was an event in which nine Soviet hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains between February 1 and 2, 1959, under uncertain circumstances. The experienced trekking group from the Ural Polytechnical Institute, led by Igor Dyatlov, had established a camp on the eastern slopes of Kholat Syakhl in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union. Overnight, something caused them to cut their way out of their tent and flee the campsite while inadequately dressed for the heavy snowfall and subzero temperatures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Bari</span> Russian mathematician

Nina Karlovna Bari was a Soviet mathematician known for her work on trigonometric series. She is also well-known for two textbooks, Higher Algebra and The Theory of Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Baikal Trail</span>

The Great Baikal Trail or GBT is a Russian non-profit environmental organization promoting the development of ecotourism, voluntary work, and ecological education. Based in Irkutsk, Russia, GBT is working to build hiking trails around Lake Baikal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Hood climbing accidents</span>

Mount Hood climbing accidents are incidents related to mountain climbing or hiking on Oregon's Mount Hood. As of 2007, about 10,000 people attempt to climb the mountain each year. As of May 2002, more than 130 people are known to have died climbing Mount Hood since records have been kept. One of the worst climbing accidents occurred in 1986, when seven high school students and two teachers froze to death while attempting to retreat from a storm.

Anna Elisabeth Johansson Bågenholm is a Swedish radiologist from Vänersborg, who survived after a skiing accident in 1999 left her trapped under a layer of ice for 80 minutes in freezing water. During this time she experienced extreme hypothermia and her body temperature decreased to 13.7 °C (56.7 °F), one of the lowest survived body temperatures ever recorded in a human with accidental hypothermia. Bågenholm was able to find an air pocket under the ice, but experienced circulatory arrest after 40 minutes in the water.

Kholat Syakhl, a transliteration of Mansi Holatchahl meaning "dead mountain" or "silent peak", is a mountain in the northern Ural region of Russia, on the border between the Komi Republic and Sverdlovsk Oblast near the northeast corner of Perm Krai.

The Southern Siberian rainforest is an area of temperate rainforest in South Central Siberia that occurs primarily along the Altai and Sayan mountain ranges in Khakassia and Tuva as well as a small area in the Khamar-Daban Mountains near Lake Baikal in Buryatia. The forest encompasses a total area of approximately 6,000 square kilometres (2,300 sq mi). The larger portion of the forest in the Altai and Sayan Mountains runs across a latitude range that encompasses between 51.5 degrees to 56 degrees north latitude, and a longitude range running between 86 degrees to 95 degrees east longitude. The region overlaps with the Golden Mountains of Altai World Heritage Site. Ecological zones range from hemiboreal forest to a forest-steppe ecotone and include a wider variety of plant species than surrounding areas.

<i>Devils Pass</i> 2013 found footage horror film directed by Renny Harlin

Devil's Pass is a 2013 horror film directed by Renny Harlin, written by Vikram Weet, and starring Holly Goss, Matt Stokoe, Luke Albright, Ryan Hawley, and Gemma Atkinson as Americans who investigate the Dyatlov Pass incident. It is shot in the style of found footage.

<i>Kholat</i> (video game) 2015 survival horror video game

Kholat is an survival horror game developed by IMGN.PRO, in which the player controls a protagonist who is tracing the steps of a group of nine Russian college students who went missing in February 1959 on Kholat Syakhl. The game is based on the Dyatlov Pass incident, a true event that involved ten Russian students, nine of which went missing on Kholat Syakhl and were found dead in the time span of four months. Холатчахль is a transliteration in Russian of Holatchahl, meaning "Dead Mountain" in Mansi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Buryatia</span>

The Republic of Buryatia is a federal subject of Russia which, according to the IMF, was an emerging economy in 2011.

Donnie Eichar is an American film producer, director and author. He wrote the book Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident in 2013. He is also known for producing the TV series Killing Fields, the documentary film Soaked in Bleach, and the TV series The Buried Life.

The Siberian Solar Radio Telescope (SSRT) is a radio telescope located in the Russian republic of Buryatia designed for solar observation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yuba County Five</span> 1978 deaths and disappearance in California

The Yuba County Five were a group of young men from Yuba County, California, United States, each with mild intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions, who were reported missing after attending a college basketball game at California State University, Chico, on the night of February 24, 1978. Four of them—Bill Sterling, 29; Jack Huett, 24; Ted Weiher, 32; and Jack Madruga, 30—were later found dead; the fifth, Gary Mathias, 25, has never been found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dzhida (river)</span> River in Russia

The Dzhida is a river in the south of Buryatia, Russia, a left tributary of the Selenga. It is 567 kilometres (352 mi) long, and has a drainage basin of 23,500 square kilometres (9,100 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chivruay Pass incident</span> 1973 death of ten Soviet ski hikers

The Chivruay Pass incident is the death of ten ski hikers in the Lovozero Massif in the Soviet Union between 27 and 28 January 1973. The trekking group, who were all from the Kuibyshev Aviation Institute, had been hiking the slopes of Lovozero Massif in an area of Chivruay Pass.

<i>An Unknown Compelling Force</i> 2021 American documentary film

An Unknown Compelling Force is a 2021 American documentary film about the Dyatlov Pass incident, an event in which a group of nine Soviet hikers, led by Igor Dyatlov, died in the northern Ural Mountains between February 1 and 2, 1959, under uncertain circumstances. The film is written and directed by Liam Le Guillou.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Zharov, Vladimir; Radionova, Tatyana; Aktinov, Leonid (9 March 2013). "Buryatia Dyatlov Pass". dyatlovpass.com. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  2. 1 2 Кораблева, Виктория (6 March 2024). "Группа Коровиной: загадочная смерть туристов в южном Прибайкалье". techinsider.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Штурма, Яна (3 March 2022). "«Бурятский перевал Дятлова». Что погубило тургруппу Людмилы Коровиной". Газета.Ru (in Russian). Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "The Khamar Daban Incident: Horror on the Mountain Slopes of Soviet Russia". Morbid Kuriosity. 22 November 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  5. Yegorov, Oleg (25 February 2019). "Beyond the Dyatlov mystery: 2 other creepy tragedies in the Russian mountains". Russia Beyond. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 ВАРСЕГОВА, Наталья (25 July 2018). "Что произошло на бурятском «перевале Дятлова»". kp.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Mullins, Natasha (23 March 2021). "The Most Credible Theories Regarding The Khamar Daban Incident". The Mystery Box. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  8. 1 2 Петровская, Алена. "Трагедия в горах Хамар-Дабана: какую тайну скрывает «бурятский перевал Дятлова»". woman.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  9. Саган, Наташа (29 September 2017). "Популярный российский портал рассказал о «бурятском перевале Дятлова»". Информ Полис (in Russian). Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  10. 1 2 3 "Группа туристов загадочно исчезла в горах. Нашли только одну выжившую". Onliner (in Russian). 24 January 2024. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  11. 1 2 ВАРСЕГОВА, Наталья (1 July 2018). "Отчего погибли туристы на бурятском «перевале Дятлова»". kp.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 10 May 2024.