Nine experienced ski hikers died on the slope of Kholat Syakhl in the northern Urals on the night of 1 to 2 February 1959. The tent was found half collapsed under snow and cut open from the inside. Five bodies were on the slope by late February; four more came out of a ravine on 4 May under four metres of snow, and those four had soft tissue damage, some missing eyes, tongue and eyebrows. Three had severe internal injuries with no external wound, force comparable to a car crash. Some radiation was recorded on one victim’s clothing. Russia closed the case again in 2020 naming an avalanche, and a 2021 Swiss computer simulation showed how a slab avalanche could produce those injuries and that scene. It is a serious, remote, cold-weather route. Treat it as one.
Kholat Syakhl, Northern Urals, Russia
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