10 Mountain Climbing Disasters Deadlier Than The Everest Movie

The Mountain: Kholat Syakhl, part of the Ural Mountains which run through western Russia

# of Deaths: 9

The Story: In 1959, Igor Dyatlov led an expedition of 10 climbers up Kholat Syakhl, and after the first day one member of the group turned back due to illness. The other nine kept going but never returned, and now the portion of the climb where they died is called the Dyaltlov Pass. Not the greatest legacy to leave behind, Igor.

What exactly happened up there remains a mystery. The found footage horror movie Devil’s Pass argues it was a failed supernatural experiment conducted in secret by the Russian government. The 2014 documentary Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives offered no real evidence but had a lot of fun suggesting a Yeti did it. Other explanations over the years have included aliens, botched military experiments, government cover-ups and a simple attack by nearby natives.

In reality, it was probably an avalanche. After a protracted rescue effort in February 1959, the near-naked bodies of five of the climbers were found hundreds of meters away from their tent, which appeared to have been torn open from the inside and led to a curious set of footprints. Hypothermia was the official cause of death.

Rescuers took more than two months to find the bodies of the other four victims, all of whom appeared to be wearing clothes taken from the first five victims. Three of the new bodies contained fatal injuries consistent with the pressure of a car crash. One of them was even missing her tongue, eyes and other parts of her face. It’s most likely that in response to a small avalanche in the middle of the night they panicked and ran into the woods for some shelter, and the four that made it the furthest took a fatal fall. However, the conspiracy machine keeps rolling.