Review by Booklist Review
The Dyatlov Pass incident is virtually unknown outside Russia, but in that country, it's been a much-discussed mystery for decades. In 1959, nine Russian university students disappeared on a hiking expedition in the Ural Mountains. A rescue team found their bodies weeks later, nearly a mile from their campsite, partially clothed, shoeless, three of them having died from injuries that indicated a physical confrontation. What happened here? There have been a lot of theories, ranging from misadventure to government conspiracy to freak weather to extraterrestrials, but no one has managed to get to the truth. Drawing on interviews with people who knew the hikers (and with the lone survivor of the expedition, who'd had to turn back due to illness), Russian case documents, and the hikers' own diaries, Eichar, an American documentarian, re-creates the ill-fated expedition and the investigation that followed. The author's explanation of what happened on Dead Mountain is necessarily speculative, but it has the advantage of answering most of the long-standing questions while being intuitively plausible. A gripping book, at least as dramaticas Krakauer's Into Thin Air (1997).--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The mystery of the bizarre deaths of elite Russian hikers in a 1959 tragedy on a deadly Ural mountain is the subject of Eichar's extensive investigation. Eichar, a film director and producer, tries to make sense of the puzzling tale of the dead students from Ural Polytechnic University; he sets off to interview the hikers' relatives, investigators, and even a lone survivor. Following the search party's retrievals of the bodies, the questions deepen when the victims are discovered, insufficiently dressed for the frigid weather, shoeless, with violent injuries, including a horrible skull fracture, a leg torn away, and a tongue ripped out. With expert analysis of the remaining evidence, Eichar tries to answer why the hikers, seven men and two women, would go out into the bitter cold without warm clothing to meet certain death; curious, too, is that the contents of the tent were intact. Possible causes for the panic, according to Eichar and officials, are: an avalanche; mysterious armed men; even a fatal tiff by the males over the women. As the elements of this complicated tangle are compiled, the final wrap-up of the mountain tragedy is overwhelming, befitting a case defying explanation. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In 1959, nine young Russians set off on a doomed ski trip in the wintry Ural Mountains, never to return. Eichar, a television documentary producer, investigates the mysterious events leading to the untimely deaths of these experienced outdoor adventurers, whose frozen bodies were found later by search parties, some with severe -injuries and one lacking a tongue. The author ably pieces together a detailed chronicle of this haunting incident, using official case files, interviews, journals, and other evidence. Through his research into the many bizarre and seemingly unexplainable aspects of the tragedy, he attempts to rule out previously suggested causes such as an avalanche, an attack by a native tribe, Soviet weapons testing, and even aliens. While -recreational readers will appreciate the drama and poignancy of Eichar's solid depiction of this truly eerie and enduring mystery, pickier researchers may question the lack of bibliography or notes to indicate exact sources, which makes the accuracy of his re-creation of certain events difficult to judge. VERDICT Best suited to fans of outdoor adventure or survival tales or to general nonfiction readers who appreciate the allure of an engrossing real-life enigma. Readers may also want to consider Keith McCloskey's Mountain of the Dead: The Dyatlov Pass Incident, published last month (but which was not seen by this reviewer).-Ingrid Levin, Salve Regina Univ. Lib., Newport, RI (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An American documentary filmmaker drops into the well of one of Soviet Russia's greatest mysteries. Eichar, who has shot everything from short documentaries to TV pilots, applies a documentarian's eye to this thorough but inconclusive investigation into one of the East's most controversial tragedies. "The Dyatlov Pass Incident" is quite famous in some circles, especially in Russia and the Baltics, but little-known outside the former Iron Curtain. In 1959, nine young hikers suddenly disappeared in the northern Ural Mountains. When the group was finally found, six had died of exposure, while three were found to have traumatic, blunt-force injuries. One girl was missing her tongue. None were fully dressed, as if they had fled suddenly in the dead of night. It was a gruesome scene, made more so by a flood of conspiracy theories. Were they murdered by the military after witnessing some kind of secret test? Was it UFOs or just an avalanche? The final report by investigators, which is murky at best, blames "an unknown compelling force." Eichar marries the short story of the students' lives with the procedural tale of the official investigation and then integrates his own amateur investigation. In an interesting twist, the author managed to track down Yuri Yudin, the sole survivor of the expedition, who had turned back due to his rheumatism, saving his life. Yudin, who passed away earlier this year, was mischievous with the serious young scholar: "Do you not have mysteries in your own country that are unsolved?"; "Which picture do you want to paint? The one rooted in the Revolution, or that of the Iron Curtain?" The author deftly explores theories common and uncommon, the most off-putting being an infrasonic wave known to cause hallucinations and disorientation. It's not a revelatory portrait of the incident, but for Western readers, it's a well-told and accurate whodunit. A sad tale of tragedy and investigatory enigmas from the wilds of Soviet Union.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
