If I may intervene for a few......I read McClokeys' book "Mountain of the Dead" cover to cover. I like the way he offers up the facts and doesn't try to sway a readers opinion. Donnie Eichar also wrote a book on the incident at about the same time McCloskey was writing his. Both men traveled to Russia to investigate and interview witnesses and the only survivor of the incident, Yuri Yudin. I did not read Eichars' book on the incident. Although I'm told that he traveled there and walked the same path that the Dyatlov Group took to their deaths. Eichar claims to have most of his facts backed by NOAA facts, and gives his hypothesis as to what happened. He believes that it was a sound produced by a storng wind that caused fear and paranoia within the group as they lay in their tent. And at the height of the paranoia, one or more fled the tent and the others followed in dispair, or to stop the initial few how fled for safety reasons. Mainly because they would die from exposure.
Both books are excellent (I would imagine). McCloskeys definately is. In short I don't buy Eichars' theory as according to his theory this incident occurrred as a result of natural forces, which has not been repeated again in 50+ years!!!! That is a little hard for me to swallow. This area was shut down for several years by the Russian Government. The Russian Government acted very suspiciously during the invistigation of this tragedy. IMO Eichars' theory doesn't do a very good job explaining the injuries sustained by the Dyatlov Group. That one "pass" out of the whole region, with the same type of topography, is supposedly responsible for driving the group mad by wind vibrations, like a type of infra-sound weapon. Though this type of weaponry has and is still being researched, it was unheard of in 1959 Russia, if not just theorized. The Dyatlov Pass in now open and the flock of thrill seekers to the area is at it's highest. Now.....for this infra-"so-called" sound to have driven the group to the height of paranoia to flee the tent in such trecherous weather conditions, one would think that the Dyatlov Group would not have been the first, or last victims of this natrual force. But appartently, from what I've been told, Eichar has a theory for that as well. The Mansi (local natives) had hunted this area of generations. They know not to go there, mainly because there is nothing there. The mountain is dead, mostly devoid of wildlife. If Eichars theory is correct and it was some natrually produced sound from wind, then the Mansi, and current day followers, seekers should also experience this infra-sound effect. I know that natural elements can chisel away at rock and stone, but I don't believe that it would change so much in fifty years as to affect that landscape so much that the effect would never happen again.
IMO Eichar is to commercialized as he has been involved in a couple of movies. He is in the social media on a regular business. He is definately trying to sell his book, though it may be a good write.
Any rate sorry for blabbering on, but just "my two cents."
