Original subtitles

♪

gates: Tonight, our "Expedition Unknown" event

continues...

Woman: Two of them were missing their eyes,

and one of them was missing her tongue.

...As I investigate

the 60-year-old mystery of russia's dyatlov pass.

-Man: Mountain of the dead. -Gates: This is the spot?

I brave the frozen wilds of siberia

to to find out what killed nine hikers.

This is where things get really strange.

Was it a tragic accident or something even worse?

Man: We know that there was madness, chaos, and murder.

Gates: And a new discovery will turn this cold case

into a hot topic.

It says the case started on the 6th of February?

Is this a smoking gun?

♪

libecki: Yo!

♪

evan: Aah! Get it off me!

Are you okay?!

♪

my name is josh gates...

Ay, yi yi!

...Explorer...

(tires screech) ...Adventurer...

Oh, my god!

...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.

I gotta find an off-ramp around here. Ya!

With a degree in archaeology

and a passion for the unexplained,

I travel to the ends of the earth,

investigating the greatest legends in history.

Okay, let's punch it.

This is "expedition unknown."

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

the dyatlov pass incident -- it's a cold war thriller,

a spine-tingling tragedy, and one massive whodunit.

The details are now legendary.

In January of 1959, nine young russian hikers

established a wilderness club

and undertook an expedition to the frozen wilds of siberia.

The group is led by

russian engineering student igor dyatlov,

who, along with his friends,

meticulously documents the trip in diaries and in photos.

After a week, they make camp on the slopes

of the ominously named dead mountain.

The area will alter be renamed the dyatlov pass

after the group is never heard from again.

When a search party finally reaches the pass,

they find a bizarre, macabre scene.

The bodies of the hikers are frozen solid.

None are wearing their boots or their cold-weather gear.

Some are freakishly injured.

Less than a mile away, their tent remains intact,

but it appears to have been sliced open from the inside.

Their possessions are left behind.

Their stove is unlit.

The soviet government quickly cracks down on the story.

Archives and evidence are sealed away,

and the case is closed.

To get to the bottom of what really happened,

I've flown to the the siberian city of yekaterinburg

to meet with dyatlov pass historian yuri kuntsevich,

who gave me access to a rare piece

of physical evidence from the case...

What is this?

...A metal fragment found near the pass

that he believes could be from a missile fuel tank.

If true, it could confirm a theory

that a military weapon test resulted in the hikers' deaths.

Would it be possible for us to take a small piece to test it?

-(speaks indistinctly) -okay.

While we wait for the results of the test,

I boarded a train

for a 10-hour ride to join two specialists,

mounting an expedition to investigate the dyatlov case,

researcher teddy hadjiyska...

The more facts you learn, the weirder it gets.

...And explorer mike libecki...

I want to find out just what the hell happened to these guys.

... As they follow in the ill-fated footsteps

of the dyatlov group, testing the theories

that have sprung up to explain their deaths.

This is the 60th anniversary,

the exact week when they made the trip.

Gates: After driving to the edge of civilization

by military truck

and then transferring to snow mobiles

for an 80-mile journey,

we punch out above the forests

to the steep, exposed tundra of siberia.

Pretty sketchy.

You really have to bring your legs under the uphill side

to prevent the snowmobile from just rolling down the peak.

The already dangerous temperatures

are now turning deadly.

We travel in near whiteout conditions in the convoy

until we reach a forward base camp

that an advanced support team has erected just below the pass.

Okay, here we are.

We're a 30-minute hike away from reaching the site

where the dyatlov group set up their tent

for the last time

on February 1, 1959.

(wind whistling)

you have to cover your face every few minutes

or frostnip starts to set in almost immediately.

Just about every pocket on this coat and pants

and boats are filled with hand warmers and foot warmers,

and it's still not enough.

I'm reminded that 60 years ago, igor dyatlov and his friends

didn't even have insulated parkas.

They crafted homemade gear and hiked in leather boots.

This is the dead mountain.

(wind gusting)

gates: So this is the pass right here,

this low ground between the peak and the rise over there,

that they were trying to traverse?

Yes. This is the pass.

We're less than a kilometer from where the tent was.

Gates: Mike leads up onward to an exposed,

but relatively flat area on the side of the slope.

♪

alright, josh, this is the area

where they would've put the tent.

-This is the spot? -Libecki: Right here.

Gates: To stand in this spot is nothing short of emotional.

For teddy, it's the culmination

of a deep commitment to this case.

You made it. -Whoo!

After six years of reading about this place,

I'm finally here.

Gates: The preemptive investigator in the world

on the dyatlov pass incident

had never been to the dyatlov pass until now.

For me, until now, it was academic.

-Right. -I was only reading about it.

Being in this spot, man, this is a story

that I have heard about for so long.

To actually be standing where it happened, it's really sobering.

The question now is to understand

how the hikers arrived at this very spot

and what happened to them next.

We know from their diaries that the night before they died,

they were camped in the forest down there.

Correct.

So the next day, they were gonna come through the pass,

and ultimately, they were trying to get to a mountain

that's over here, correct? -Correct.

Gates: Here's what we know for certain --

having stored much of their gear the day before

in a makeshift shelter,

the dyatlov group skis in the direction

of dtorten mountain,

heading along the ridge of this pass,

almost a mile above the tree line,

choosing this spot to camp.

They were experienced hikers, yet for some reason,

they chose a completely exposed area to pitch their tent.

Perhaps they tried for the peak

and got caught here late in the day.

Perhaps they were too tired to hike down

to the relative safety of the forest.

The tent was found on the 26th of February.

So what do you make of this?

You're the real outdoorsman here.

When you see this scene, what do you make of this tent?

The first thing that comes to mind

is the tent is still standing.

-Right. -It's not blown away.

It's not destroyed. The tent is sitting up.

Is this a place that you would pitch a tent?

It's a little exposed, but on an expedition like that,

you would bivvy for the night and keep moving.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

This was a category three expedition.

It had to have a certain number of cold nights,

which means without firewood around.

Gates: This could explain a long-standing mystery.

The stove was never assembled

because they never intended to start a fire.

Their diaries reveal they hadn't lit the stove

the night before either, and were warm enough without.

But something else had investigators stumped.

Right.

♪

people have said that these were something that they cut

so that they could escape the tent

and get out quickly for some reason.

Once again, we're faced with the one question that matters --

why did the dyatlov hikers leave their tent?

What scared them so badly that they cut their way

out of the only safety they had to run to almost certain death?

It just makes no sense.

Something made them run like mad, man. Something.

Gates: As we enter the next phase of our search,

we may finally find the answer.

♪

♪

gates: Alongside researchers teddy hadjiyska

and mike libecki, I finally reach the infamous dyatlov pass,

the place where nine hikers mysteriously died

exactly 60 years ago.

We're at the same spot where the group pitched their tent,

and in these frigid conditions,

we only have a limited amount of time

to investigate what happened here.

We've already put several theories to bed

and dissected the popular fringe theory

that the team was killed by a russian bigfoot,

based on a blurry photo.

In reality, it turns out to be

just another hiker from their group.

Along the way, we also found shelter

with the local mansi people,

who were once suspected in the case,

but who, in reality, assisted investigators

and were in no way tied to the crime scene.

At an abandoned gulag, we investigated the theory

that an escaped prisoner killed the hikers,

but no prisoners were reported missing,

and it's unthinkable that a fleeing convict wouldn't have

grabbed the hikers' money or warm clothes.

Now let's talk about one of the big theories here,

which is the avalanche theory.

Libecki: Yeah.

A lot of people have seen this photo.

They see snow on top of the tent.

They say, "well, they must've been hit by an avalanche.

And then it crushed the tent

and it drove them off into the night.

♪

I've been working with avalanche backcountry for 25 years,

and there's a lot of criteria,

a lot of variables to this equation.

The easiest one is to show you the slope.

-Okay. -So, I've got an inclinometer.

Gates: Mike takes out a device

used to measure the incline of the terrain at the campsite.

This is easily the steepest part of the slope right here.

Yes.

(beeping)

so, I'm gonna give it some favor.

You're looking at a max

of 25 degrees.

Okay.

It's got to be steep to have an avalanche here.

If you look up this ridge,

you're looking at 20, 25 degrees maximum.

There's no way this slope right here

is going to slide into an avalanche.

Gates: The question that remains, though,

is whether the higher slopes are steep enough

to have sent snow cascading down.

To find out, we're sending up a drone for a bigger picture.

Yo!

Gates: The area directly above the tent

continues to rise at a fairly gentle grade,

so we push the drone even higher.

The camera reveals that the rise eventually steepens

and tops out at 1,100 feet.

While it isn't exactly a cliff face,

it's still possible that a snow slide could occur here,

and the investigation photos do show some snow atop the tent,

which means the theory is technically still viable.

But an avalanche isn't the only way

the terrain could've killed the dyatlov nine.

One of the theories that's gained some traction

in recent years is the idea

that an extremely rare weather event took place here,

that maybe they were out here, they got caught in a blizzard

or really, really tough conditions

and extreme temperature drop,

and that maybe the winds whipped around this peak,

creating a kind of perfect storm

that spooked them out of the tent --

this infrasound idea.

Infrasound, or a karman vortex, is a rare,

low-frequency sound wave, in this case, generated by wind

wrapping around the peak that could lead to panic

and confusion on the part of the hikers.

Possible?

This whistling, this sound that drove them mad?

I mean, there's no evidence for that.

Right.

The phenomenon of infrasound has been observed in nature,

but has not been proven to induce panic

by those in its wake.

Plus, all nine of the hikers

would have to have been influenced.

Due to its highly theoretical nature,

I think we can cross infrasound off our list.

But we know the weather in siberia

doesn't need to get creative to kill people.

The only thing possible there for me

to think about is the wind.

Crazy 100-mile-an-hour winds? That's possible.

But anyone who's camped --

and you know this better than anybody --

anyone who's camped knows that tent is effectively a lifeboat.

If you get into really bad conditions,

you don't leave your tent.

And not only did our hikers leave the tent,

they weren't dressed in the right clothes.

I have been in tents with winds coming,

they've destroyed the tents.

As soon as you start hearing any wind,

you put everything on, you get ready immediately.

You cannot leave your boots, your clothes.

Right.

You know, when people talk about this story,

everybody has a theory,

but most of them sort of fall apart.

It's hard to come up with one explanation that satisfies

all of the strange aspects of this case.

And it only gets stranger when you consider

the scene that confronted investigators.

So, teddy, walk us through what they found inside the tent.

50 meters from the tent,

down the slope, were visible footprints...

♪

...Of hikers going down in their socks.

Gates: What we have to go on then are the bodies

that were found by the searchers.

They were found where?

They were found over a mile down to the tree line.

That's an incredible distance to traverse

with no shoes on in this weather.

It just confirms the madness, the adrenaline.

It almost seems like they were out of control.

Yeah.

So, let's do this --

let's go down to the area where those bodies were found.

Let's get off the side of the peak here.

-I want to do that. -Yeah, it's getting cold.

Gates: Okay, come on. Yeah, it's getting colder by the minute.

♪

with the temperature dropping and an entire camera crew

to move, we take the snowmobiles,

another life-saving luxury that the dyatlov nine didn't have.

But as we approach the tree line,

the terrain grows rough.

This section's tough! It's really bumpy.

Super easy to lose control.

Then the unthinkable happens.

♪

evan! -Evan: Aah! Get it off me!

You okay? Hey!

Are you okay?!

♪

gates: In the frozen mountains of siberia,

nine hikers died mysteriously in a case

that still baffles investigators after 60 years.

Researchers teddy hadjiyska, mike libecki, and I

are approaching the tree line

where the first of the hikers' bodies were discovered.

It's really bumpy! Super easy to lose control.

Then the unthinkable happens.

♪

evan! -Evan: Aah! Get it off me!

You okay? Are you okay?!

No! Get it off my leg!

Gates: My cameraman evan has flipped his snowmobile.

Go, go, go. Pick it up.

If he's broken his leg, the word emergency

doesn't begin to cut it.

(grunts) -evan: Get it off my leg!

Okay.

Are you okay?

My leg was trapped.

Gates: It's tough. It's so hard on this hill.

[bleep].

-Gates: Okay, you all right? -Yeah.

Okay. (exhales sharply)

(wind whistling)

after evan's close call, we walk the rest of the way

to where the first bodies were found.

When the searchers followed the footsteps

down here to the tree line, who did they find first?

They found the first two frozen bodies under a big cedar tree.

They found doroshenko and krivonischenko.

♪

...In a very strange pose with their arms stretched upwards.

So their arms are up like somebody yanked

their clothes off? -Correct.

Gates: Investigators theorize

that in a frantic bid for survival,

their fellow hikers took the dead men's jackets.

And their cause of death was what?

-Hypothermia? -And no other injuries to them?

Not that I'm aware of.

Gates: They froze to death,

though doroshenko and krivonischenko were discovered

near the remains of a campfire

built from branches gathered from the surrounding trees.

Their bodies had minimal clothes on and their socks were burned,

as if they had put their feet into the fire itself.

How desperate they must have felt.

Broken branches were found 15 feet up the cedar tree.

Someone may have climbed it to gather fuel for the fire.

So, who did the searchers find next?

Same day, they found two more bodies.

They found dyatlov and kolmogorova.

♪

they were frozen in poses

that seemed like trying to get back to the tent.

And the cause of death here, also hypothermia?

Yeah, that was the cause of death,

but they had some more injuries than the first two bodies.

They started showing some wounds on the knuckles

and some missing skin on their faces.

And kolmogorova had on her waist elongated-shaped bruise,

as if she was hit with something.

Uh-huh. Okay.

Dyatlov and kolmogorova were found frozen to death

in a path facing back toward the tent,

almost a mile away.

It's easy to imagine that they were frantically

trying to return to their shelter,

but succumbed before they made it.

When investigators continued, though, they made a discovery

that didn't seem to fit in with that theory.

Then they found slobodin.

♪

he was in a straight line between kolmogorova and dyatlov.

And his state?

Slobodin had a fractured skull.

-He had a fractured skull? -Yes.

Now, coming down here,

there's some real steep inclines, ravines.

We've seen lots of sharp rocks.

Do you think it's possible that the fractured skull

is just an injury he sustained from a fall?

Anyone can take a fall and crack their head open.

Right.

But it's -- gosh, it's a tough one because a human

that didn't want them alive could've did it as well.

To me, the size of the fracture matches the butt of a rifle.

♪

-it's suspicious. -Yeah.

So, that's five of them.

And then some time goes by

before the other four are found, right?

-Two months later. -Two months later.

They were actually found in the water, right?

Correct.

Gates: The last four bodies were found over 200 feet

from the cedar tree.

They were in a frozen creek under a dozen feet of snow

that had follow during then more than two months

that they went undiscovered.

Dubinina, kolevatov,

zolotaryov, and thibeaux-brignolles

had much different, much more severe injuries

than the rest of their comrades.

And this is where things get really strange.

Yeah, three of them had traumas that the pathologist

that did the autopsies described like being hit by a car.

-So major trauma. -Hadjiyska: Major trauma.

A rib cage that had 12 ribs broken.

Caved-in skull.

Gates: Some believe that the trauma to their chest

was the result of the weight of the snow.

But not all of their injuries can be explained that way.

Two of them were missing their eyes,

and one of them was missing her tongue.

You have to keep in mind this is two months later.

The tongue and eyes is simple to me --

it's insects or a rodent just eating it.

It's one of the most dramatic and gruesome details

of this whole affair, but, really, in some ways,

I think it actually is, maybe, one of the most explainable.

Just being left out here,

animals could certainly have gotten to them.

The source of the hikers' injuries

is one of the many matters of debate

among dyatlov researchers.

To some, it is evidence of being attacked.

But what if the group was scared out of their tent

by something more indirect?

♪

the final photos on the hikers's cameras

may suggest an explanation.

Let's talk about these lights.

There are some strange images

at the very end of a few of the camera reels.

We see what looks like the tops of heads,

like they're looking at some sort of flash in the sky.

♪

there's another photo that looks like

maybe they didn't get the lens cap off fast enough.

So, where there other reports from around that time

of weird lights in the sky?

Many. Even in the case files,

there are at least three light events in the sky

seen by people and reported.

Other people saw strange lights in the sky?

Correct. Gates: Some have suggested

that the pictures show actual ufos.

However, all but one of the photos in question

are recovered from water-damaged cameras,

so they aren't exactly proof

that e.T. Visited siberia in 1959.

Mike believes the other eyewitness reports, though,

and thinks that the lights in the sky

have a more earthbound explanation.

And so, what are we talking about here?

Are we talking about shooting stars?

Are we talking about a missile launch?

Maybe a weapon test of some kind?

I personally think it's some kind of missile launch,

chemical weapons testing.

Gates: It may be that the ufos,

rather than being alien spacecraft,

were missiles being tested in the area.

In 1959, the same year that dyatlov group died,

the soviets began production on the r-12 dvina missile,

capable of carrying a 2.3 megaton nuclear warhead,

traditional explosives, or a chemical weapons payload.

Yuri kuntsevich, back in yekaterinburg,

gave me a piece of metal from what some believe

is the fuel tank of a rocket that killed the dyatlov group.

It's really compelling.

It certainly makes a lot of the puzzle pieces fit together.

They saw something that startled them,

that got them out of the tent.

It explains the photographs.

It might explain that they ran into somebody

and saw something they should not have been there to see.

There's one more peculiar detail

that gives credence to the idea of a weapon test.

There are reports of radiation, high levels of radiation.

They did find some radiation on their clothes, right?

And were they highly irradiated?

Yeah, quite a lot.

We have a geiger counter.

I'd like to take some samples from down here in the tree line,

see if we can detect any elevated radiation.

If this was a significant event,

some of that radiation might still be detectable.

Correct.

We'll see if we can find any evidence to back the theory up.

Okay, let's do it. Come on.

Any explosion of a 1950s soviet missile,

even one with a non-nuclear or a chemical weapon payload,

will have left traces that could still be detected today.

We set out into the forest with our geiger counter.

Radiation is measured in a unit called sieverts.

0.5.

Let's get close to some of these older trees,

see if they have anything to tell.

Normal background radiation from the earth

is about 0.15 microsieverts.

If a missile was tested here,

it should spike our geiger counter

well above that amount.

♪

(geiger counter clicking)

0.11. 0.16.

(clicking continues)

0.22.

0.33! Look at that.

♪

♪

gates: Deep in siberia, I'm testing the theory

that a missile strike or weapons test

may have been the cause of the deaths

of nine russian hikers in 1959...

0.11. 0.16.

....By measuring the radiation levels in the trees.

0.22.

(geiger counter clicking)

0.33! Look at that.

(clicking continues)

0.33 -- like, we're past chest x-ray territory.

It's significant.

Let's see if this tree actually has more to tell.

If there is radiation

or if there is actually even evidence of chemicals,

it might be trapped inside the rings of the tree.

♪

gates: Deep inside these trunks may be a record

of what happened here 60 years ago.

In order to read it, we have to get a core sample.

♪

and there's the core.

♪

so, somewhere in this timeline

is the night that those hikers died.

We'll take it back to the lab,

see if they can find anything inside of it.

Gates: We core a variety of trees

until the effort has used up the last of our daylight.

We need to get to shelter soon or risk getting caught

in the same extreme conditions that killed the dyatlov nine.

(wind rushing)

♪

it's about 30 below,

and the wind is blowing at 35 miles an hour.

The wind chill is negative 68 degrees.

(wind rushing)

we hurry back to our tent below the ridge.

Okay, so, this is nighttime in the dyatlov pass.

It's pretty real out here.

-Mountain of the dead. -Yeah.

(rushing continues)

gates: This is the closest we can come to experiencing

what the dyatlov group felt 60 years go.

Obviously, the wind's blowing like hell

because there's really no shelter from it here.

Why on earth would you walk out of that tent?

This is madness, man. I can't even imagine --

I mean, they were barefoot.

Right. What -- what happened?

Something gave them no choice.

I think they did what they did under duress.

You feel they were compelled to leave that tent?

I'm certain.

Why?

They were not actually scared out of the tent,

but they went out looking at the sky.

To look at what, though?

There are a lot of accounts of light events in the sky.

And the fact that one of them was found

with camera around his neck,

to me, speaks that

they were trying to shoot a photo of something.

And we do have this strange photo

from one of the cameras that could be a ball of light.

And so, let's say they came out to see something in the sky.

Then what happened?

And then somebody assaults them and confronts them.

You think that somebody at that point

comes up to them and confronts them?

More than one person.

Gates: The theory that teddy offers here,

that a person, or people, prevented the dyatlov group

from returning to the safety of their tent,

checks a lot of boxes about the incident,

but there is still a major issue.

The initial search party

didn't identify any footprints known to come from outsiders,

and no physical evidence was ever recovered

of anyone else at the site.

For me, that's a deal-breaker.

♪

now, what about you?

What do you think happened to them out here?

It's got to be chemical-weapons testing.

That's what you think?

I think they were testing bombs,

and I think they ingested chemicals.

They got contaminated.

I think that chemicals drove them mad.

So, you don't think somebody forced them out of the tent --

you think that it got in their system,

drove them crazy, and they fled the tent?

And then maybe they couldn't find their way back to the tent.

Gates: Mike's theory is possible.

♪

and we may be able to verify it by testing our core samples.

So, a difference of opinion.

One that maybe they saw something in the sky,

which also could've been a weapon test.

Could be.

But that then they ran into somebody who forced them away.

And you think that maybe they lost their minds

and just decided to leave.

I think they went insane, man.

All we know for sure is that, in this spot 60 years ago,

they left that tent.

We know that there was madness, chaos, and murder.

Let's do the smart thing and get back inside the tent

and get warm. Alright, let's go.

Here we go. Let's do it.

(wind rushing)

gates: The cold is unbearable,

and we flee back into the warmth of our tent.

Inside, the strong wind whips at the panels.

(wind rushing)

let's get a little more wood on the fire here.

But our faithful stove protects us from a different fate,

one running through all of our minds.

Okay, great day, everybody.

Let's get some sleep.

(rushing continues)

♪

early the next morning, the wind is still fierce,

but before we depart,

there's one more stop we need to make.

Near a massive, lonely rock at the dyatlov pass is a marker,

a memorial to the nine hikers who lost their lives

a short walk away from here.

"under this pass in 1959

died the hikers

dyatlov, igor...

Kolmogorova, zina...

Doroshenko, yuri...

Slobodin, rustem...

Krivonischenko, yuri...

Kolevatov, alexander...

Dubinina, lyudmila...

Thibeaux-brignolles, nikolai...

Zolotaryov, semyon."

♪

♪

"in memory of those who went and didn't come back,

we name this pass dyatlov."

♪

gates: With a last look behind us,

we return to our snowmobiles for the long journey back.

♪

to get home, we need to retrace

every mile that it took to get to the pass...

Until we can finally get off the snowmobiles for a truck...

♪

...And a train...

Back to the city of yekaterinburg,

but no sooner have I arrived back in town

than I get a phone call from my old friend yuri kuntsevich,

who may have found something significant.

So, instead of home,

my next stop is the yekaterinburg library

where yuri introduces me to a man named oleg arkhipov.

(speaking russian)

interpreter: We have a new lead in the case.

-Okay, what did you find? -(speaking russian)

interpreter: This document was written in the year 1959

by vasiliy ivanovich tempalov,

the chief prosecutor in the region,

and it's written to one of the investigators.

Gates: Soviet authorities didn't launch a search party

under February 21st,

nearly 10 days after the hikers were due back.

While some of the case files have been released,

very little from this first period

of the investigation has been recovered,

so any new information is of major interest.

How did you come into possession this?

Interpreter: This is the archive of the investigator

in yekaterinburg.

It was given to me by his widow.

And so, what's surprising about it to you?

Data.

The date? Date.

Interpreter: The date is true.

The date says February 15th, '59.

It also states the prosecutor's office

is aware of the hikers' deaths

and is traveling there to look into it.

That's impossible. That doesn't make sense.

Their tent supposedly wasn't found

until February 26th, right?

So, how could this prosecutor be headed to the region

to investigate this on the 15th?

This is a document that shouldn't exist.

♪

♪

gates: On our way back to civilization,

we pull over, cold and hungry,

for a quick break at a small village.

Everybody get something warm to drink, eat a snack.

And teddy is about to get her first taste

of a true american original.

It turns out that teddy has never tried peanut butter.

Yes. I have never tried peanut butter in my life.

Here we go. Big moment.

Here we go.

♪

oh, my god.

So you like it?

Oh!

Sticky, tasteless.

She loves it.

-No! -She loves it.

I don't. (laughter)

♪

gates: After a grueling week

walking in the footsteps of the ill-fated dyatlov hikers,

I've returned to the russian city of yekaterinburg.

Here, historian yuri kuntsevich

has arranged a hell of a going-away present --

a meeting with a researcher named oleg arkhipov,

who's uncovered documents

that may blow a 60-year-old secret soviet conspiracy

wide open.

-February 15th, '59. -(speaking russian)

interpreter: It also states the prosecutors' office

is aware of the hikers' deaths

and is traveling there to look into it.

That's impossible. But that doesn't make sense.

Their tent supposedly wasn't found

until February 26th, right?

So how could this prosecutor be headed to the region

to investigate this on the 15th?

This a document that shouldn't exist.

The document does exist.

Its validity has been confirmed

by handwriting and technical analysis.

And he doesn't just use the date of the 15th in one place.

It's actually in several places on the document.

Gates: But this isn't the only document

that oleg has brought to show me.

So there's another roman numeral "ii" for February.

This says the case started on the 6th of February, 1959.

1959.

And then, on the next page, as well -- the 6th.

Do these documents prove

that the accepted timeline of events here is wrong?

(speaking russian)

interpreter: Yes. We think these documents may indicate

that the deaths of the dyatlov group

were known by the authorities much earlier.

Is this a smoking gun?

It's possible.

Gates: If it is a smoking gun, the thing that just got shot

is the soviet government's official story.

What happened in the 20-day gap

before the official inquiry started?

Was there a cover-up to hide chemical-weapons testing,

or was it something else?

They went to a lot of effort to discourage more questions.

Even in the post-soviet era, the government has resisted

multiple requests to reopen the case.

Do you think that this case can ever truly be solved?

I think, if we can get real cooperation

from the authorities, we may finally get answers.

I like your optimism. (chuckles)

thank you very much, yuri. Pleasure to meet you.

Thank you for sharing this with me.

Thank you very much.

Gates: For yuri and oleg,

these new documents are the thread

that they are convinced will lead them to answers.

Meanwhile...

I have my own thread to follow back in the states.

♪

though I've made it home from russia,

my investigation continues.

The tests on the metal

from yuri's alleged rocket assembly

have come back.

Analysis indicates that the panel is made

of an aluminum alloy that was used in,

among other things, missile construction.

Some experts believe it could be a component from a ur-100,

a soviet intercontinental ballistic missile.

However, the first generation of ur-100s wasn't developed

until well after the hikers perished.

Turning to the tree cores,

our samples showed no evidence of chemical contamination,

though we did find traces of radiation.

However, they weren't strong enough

to positively identify a major event.

And while it's true that two of the dyatlov group

had irradiated clothing,

krivonischenko and slobodin

had worked in nuclear facilities,

and it's entirely plausible

that the clothes were contaminated there.

In short, if there was a missile test here,

there isn't reliable evidence to prove it.

So, where does this leave us?

Having examined and deconstructed

many of the most popular theories,

I believe there are two remaining possibilities --

first and most likely -- a weather-related disaster --

a flash blizzard with a devastating temperature drop

or perhaps a small avalanche,

enough to force the hikers out of their tent

and into a storm from which they couldn't find their way back.

And the other option, an "x" factor --

something we do not know.

A dare. A fight.

A cascade of small, bad decisions.

These were, after all, kids -- capable kids,

but not above making a mistake in an unforgiving frontier.

The evidence here is both extensive

yet maddeningly incomplete.

And until we fill in the gaps, the case cannot be fully closed.

However, we've just learned that more evidence may soon emerge.

♪

I'm happy to announce that

thanks to the newly uncovered documents in yekaterinburg

and the renewed interest in the dyatlov incident

generated by our investigation and the 60th anniversary,

the russian government has officially announced

they're reopening the case.

The full force of their forensics experts

and a more transparent review of their archives

could reveal the one forgotten puzzle piece

that solves the mystery.

♪

as for me,

this trip has tested me physically and mentally

like few expeditions have before.

♪

I feel now that I wasn't walking in the hikers' footsteps,

but alongside them.

♪

I was given a rare window into their comradery,

their aspirations, their bravery.

♪

and while their lives were tragically cut short,

the fearless spirit of exploration they embodied

will stand forever...

♪

...As inspiration.

♪