Dead Mountain
Ratings18
Average rating3.6
New York Times bestseller! — What happened that night on Dead Mountain? The mystery of Dead Mountain: In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened. As gripping and bizarre as Hunt for the Skin Walker: This New York Times bestseller, Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, is a gripping work of literary nonfiction that delves into the mystery of Dead Mountain through unprecedented access to the hikers' own journals and photographs, rarely seen government records, dozens of interviews, and the author's retracing of the hikers' fateful journey in the Russian winter. You'll love this real-life tale: Dead Mountain is a fascinating portrait of young adventurers in the Soviet era, and a skillful interweaving of the hikers' narrative, the investigators' efforts, and the author's investigations. Here for the first time is the real story of what happened that night on Dead Mountain.
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I friggin loved this book. It goes from zero to creepy-as-hell IMMEDIATELY, and then is really well paced throughout. The author brings in good supporting information at every turn, and when he finally draws his conclusion, he's not bombastic about it.
When nine hikers go missing, no one is worried - at first. But as days pass, it becomes clear that something has gone wrong. What isn't understood at the time is how wrong things could go, and the many decades that would go by without answers for the families.
As each family begins pressing for more information, there are many theories that being to crop up about what could have caused nine, healthy and experienced skiers to have such a cataclysmic accident, leaving no one alive. It seemed as though each of them were scared out of their minds as they ran into the frigid cold of the Russian winter.
But what went wrong? It seems that they knew what they were up against, had taken every precaution they could, and yet, their tent was still where it had been left, with huge gashes torn through the back of it.
Did someone attack them? Did they discover something they shouldn't? These are just a few of the questions that have plagued the cold case. No one knew. Answers were not forthcoming, and it seemed as though the government wanted to make the entire thing disappear, as quietly as possible.
I enjoyed this read. One of the areas I appreciated most was each of the theories being explored, and explained away. What the final theory was, actually makes sense, and I can see how that would have affected each of the persons on the mountainside that night. -- No -- I am not going to tell you the theory, you are going to have to read this book for yourself, and undertake the journey to not only understand these nine souls that were taken too soon, but the journey that the author undertook to discover as much as he could about what happened, and what could have gone so wrong.
Highly enjoyable, although a sad read in areas.
Super interesting book. I'm not sure I agree with the author's conclusion, but I acknowledge that it is plausible.
