Dead Mountain : The Dyatlov Pass Incident: Book Report 2
Dec 31, 2013 15:54:19 GMT -5
Fossilman and 1dave like this
Post by elementary on Dec 31, 2013 15:54:19 GMT -5
Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar
As stated in my prior book review, I'm fascinated by stories where people are pushed to their limit in the wilderness.
I'm also partial to mysteries, especially those that border on the paranormal. Now I'm not a believer in Bigfoot and Nessie (see upcoming book report) but the stories that honest people tell about their encounters can inform you about how normal people can experience extraordinary phenomenon.
I ran into this tragedy a few years ago in a book of unexplained mysteries. It intrigued me, but I distrusted the sensationalized story as it appeared. Then, a few weeks ago, a found this book sitting on the side of a table at Barnes and Noble, obviously out of place, set there by a browser who either didn't want it or was coming back to it. Their loss; I bought it. It took me three days to read it.
The story's basic facts:
In 1959, 10 Russian hikers in the Southern Ural mountains undertake a brutal winter hike over a rarely trekked mountain in hopes of raising their hiking certification from a Level II to Level III. All are experienced and young (except for one late addition.) To document their journey, they take turns writing in their journal and photograph each stage of their adventure in a way that will lead to their hiking certification.
They are all educated - affiliated with the Ural Polytechnic Institute and are studying various scientific disciplines.
One, on the last day of travel before the major part of the hike is to take place, turns back due to health reasons. The others go on.
Within a couple weeks, they will be reported missing. When they are found, they are all dead, scattered frozen across the landscape. They are found without their shoes and their tent is cut open from the inside. Some are huddled together while others are found in frozen stream bed. Some died from exposure. Others from violent injuries. A few show heightened levels of radiation on their clothes. One is missing her tongue.
While the searchers are hunting, strange lights are seen in the sky. The hikers last photograph contains only blurs and what looks to be a bright light source. After the investigation ends, the Russian government shuts down hiking permits for this region for three years.
It is a mystery, one that the author, Donnie Eichar (a documentary film maker) came across and obsessed over, one that led to two trips to Russia in hopes to go beyond all the other poorly documented books and stories written about this incident, and becomes the first Westerner to make the journey to where the tragedy occurred during the winter.
Eichar's book makes an effort to downplay the eerie aspect of the case and focuses on the students - their goals and their preparations, their youth and their experiences along the way, and those who hunted for them. He wants to find a cause to a mystery that has intrigued UFO enthusiasts, Cold War researchers, mystery buffs, and serious hikers.
The story splits between the student's journey, the search parties actions, and the experiences and investigation of Eichar himself. The chapters rotate between these three views, and as the book progresses, each moves ultimately to the physical location and what is revealed there. Death to the students, recovery for the rescuers, and finally, possibly an explanation for Donnie Eichar.
You may ask - is there some final revelation that answers finally the question of these student's deaths? There may be, and I'm not so sure of its viability, but Eichar did find a new wrinkle that goes beyond conspiracies, UFOs, mass hysteria and such. And whatever the case, his detailed description of what could have happened to those young people at the end of their life is a somber one.
An excerpt can be found here:
www.amazon.com/Dead-Mountain-Untold-Dyatlov-Incident/dp/1452112746
Read the book.
Lowell
As stated in my prior book review, I'm fascinated by stories where people are pushed to their limit in the wilderness.
I'm also partial to mysteries, especially those that border on the paranormal. Now I'm not a believer in Bigfoot and Nessie (see upcoming book report) but the stories that honest people tell about their encounters can inform you about how normal people can experience extraordinary phenomenon.
I ran into this tragedy a few years ago in a book of unexplained mysteries. It intrigued me, but I distrusted the sensationalized story as it appeared. Then, a few weeks ago, a found this book sitting on the side of a table at Barnes and Noble, obviously out of place, set there by a browser who either didn't want it or was coming back to it. Their loss; I bought it. It took me three days to read it.
The story's basic facts:
In 1959, 10 Russian hikers in the Southern Ural mountains undertake a brutal winter hike over a rarely trekked mountain in hopes of raising their hiking certification from a Level II to Level III. All are experienced and young (except for one late addition.) To document their journey, they take turns writing in their journal and photograph each stage of their adventure in a way that will lead to their hiking certification.
They are all educated - affiliated with the Ural Polytechnic Institute and are studying various scientific disciplines.
One, on the last day of travel before the major part of the hike is to take place, turns back due to health reasons. The others go on.
Within a couple weeks, they will be reported missing. When they are found, they are all dead, scattered frozen across the landscape. They are found without their shoes and their tent is cut open from the inside. Some are huddled together while others are found in frozen stream bed. Some died from exposure. Others from violent injuries. A few show heightened levels of radiation on their clothes. One is missing her tongue.
While the searchers are hunting, strange lights are seen in the sky. The hikers last photograph contains only blurs and what looks to be a bright light source. After the investigation ends, the Russian government shuts down hiking permits for this region for three years.
It is a mystery, one that the author, Donnie Eichar (a documentary film maker) came across and obsessed over, one that led to two trips to Russia in hopes to go beyond all the other poorly documented books and stories written about this incident, and becomes the first Westerner to make the journey to where the tragedy occurred during the winter.
Eichar's book makes an effort to downplay the eerie aspect of the case and focuses on the students - their goals and their preparations, their youth and their experiences along the way, and those who hunted for them. He wants to find a cause to a mystery that has intrigued UFO enthusiasts, Cold War researchers, mystery buffs, and serious hikers.
The story splits between the student's journey, the search parties actions, and the experiences and investigation of Eichar himself. The chapters rotate between these three views, and as the book progresses, each moves ultimately to the physical location and what is revealed there. Death to the students, recovery for the rescuers, and finally, possibly an explanation for Donnie Eichar.
You may ask - is there some final revelation that answers finally the question of these student's deaths? There may be, and I'm not so sure of its viability, but Eichar did find a new wrinkle that goes beyond conspiracies, UFOs, mass hysteria and such. And whatever the case, his detailed description of what could have happened to those young people at the end of their life is a somber one.
An excerpt can be found here:
www.amazon.com/Dead-Mountain-Untold-Dyatlov-Incident/dp/1452112746
Read the book.
Lowell