Mount Otorten

So the trip was headed into the northern Urals in the Russian part of the Soviet Union.

The route included Mount Otorten and ran through remote river valleys and mountains.

It was rated category three, the hardest level in the Soviet system back then.

So that's pretty wild.

Nobody knows for sure.

Those are guesses based on the route and the land and the evidence, but it is a, an odd thing.

The group made a joke newspaper called The Evening Otorten dating February 1st.

It had gags about camp life, fake awards, and a line about a snowman living in Otorten.

So the plan was straightforward on paper.

We ski toward Mount Otorten, a peak whose name in the local Mansi language roughly translates into, "Don't go there." And so along the way, they pass through a valley below a peak called Kholat Syakhl.

In the language of the Mansi, which is the indigenous people that live in that region, Kholat Syakhl means Dead Mountain.

So on January 28th, the 10th member of the group, easy name of course, we're getting rid of the guy with the easy name-

The route had to be approved by the local hiking committee.

Their destination was Mount Otorten, a peak whose name was often mistranslated to "Don't Go There" by modern Western books, blogs, and documentaries.

All to add to the ominous mystery of this tragedy.

In truth, Mount Otorten in the local Mansi language actually translates to the Windy Mountain.

They departed from Sverdlovsk by train on January 23rd, 1959, and reached Serov the next day.

At the train station, Georgi, the life of the party, started to sing while panhandling to get some money for candy.

February 1st, the weather was foul.

Winds as high as 40 miles per hour, temperatures as low as -2 degrees Fahrenheit, and visibility was minimal due to blowing snow.