Yes, hypothermia makes people act wierd. :yep:

Personally, I don't believe they went "nuts", as is pointed out in various sites they acted pretty rational after they were driven out of the camp. Making fire, climbing a tree possibly to scout the camp or trying to make out where they were (in panic they might have lost direction).

Once the two who left the pine tree towards the camp failed to return and some of the rest being already dead or dying, the remaining 4 deemed the camp unsafe and started to wander deeper into the woods in hopes to find either another group or a shelter, but ended up falling into the ravine in the dark. :hmmm:

I'm really thinking the entire incident was mishap after mishap. What initially started the hikers to spook and run remains a mystery to me. I read some believe CO levels inside the enclosed tents began the process of dilusional thinking. This lead to abandoning the camp thus allowing hypothermia to take it's toll mentally. There is a lot of irrational thinking going on and this is easily explained by hypothermia.

Daleks!!! Sorry, couldn't resist!

Did not know this incident and mystery, it gives me shivers down the spine.

And how about something ingested, that could trigger the first dilusional thinking.
PS: Well, the second page refers The Toxic Snow Theory but was not quite what I thought

Only skimmed through the pages interesting read I must say.

For our russian speaking members I found this site:
http://infodjatlov.narod.ru/

Seems to be alot of stuff there, including maps and what not.

Lots of photos too from either the rescue team or from the camera the team had with them that was found:
http://www.infodjatlov.narod.ru/foto.htm

Interesting stuff on the Russian site! Again, as with the English site, it raises a lot more questions than answers. One of the versions I read, the possibility that this was caused by testing of at least three "volume" (i.e. fuel-air?) bombs in the general area actually has some pretty interesting/compelling things going for it, particularly in terms of an alternate timeline (suggesting that the whole thing in fact took place not at night but in the morning, by daylight) and explanation for the group's behaviour as in fact totally rational (leaving the tent for lower ground after having it brought down on their heads by the first blast) and the injuries received being mostly non-fatal in themselves (consistent with what a pressure wave and being tossed into solid objects such as tree branches would cause) but enough to make surviving the cold without help impossible. It also suggests that the ones that died from injuries were in fact blasted into the ravine while trying to escape.

Not sure if I entirely buy it since there's obviously too many open questions, but also not an irrational one, surprisingly enough.

Panic. The group mentality. I would bet somebody got spooked and the group followed suit. This fits the avalanche theory. Maybe somebody thought the whole mountian was coming down on them and got panicked. Instead of thinking, the flight instinct came into play. They were probably so convinced that there was going to be an avalanche that they ran for the woods, in hopes to find cover behind the trees. when they heard nothing, they probably climbed that tree to see if there were signs of either an impending incident, or one that had already occurred. but by now ti was too late, and they died trying to get back to shelter.

Or if a second jet is passing and you think another avalanche is about to bury you, it'd give you reason to scramble up a tree real quick and try to hang on real tight.

Good point! :up:

If it was an animal attack/scavenger, why was only one person attacked/scavenged from? From what I gather the people died in groups (in the ravine, by the pine tree and on their way to the tent respectively). If it was bears, fox, etc, wouldn't they take a piece out of the entire group (more to take...?)

Not to mention bite marks, which weren't reported.

Also, IIRC (not 100% sure), there was very little external marks of injury except for Dubinina's missing tongue. :hmmm: