In February 1959 nine experienced ski hikers died on a slope in the northern Urals. They cut their way out of the tent from the inside and ran into a blizzard at night in bare feet and underwear. Some froze; several had crushing chest injuries and one was missing her tongue. Soviet investigators closed the file citing a compelling natural force and sealed it. McCloskey goes through the case file, the photographs from the hikers’ own cameras, the autopsies, the search records, and the theories — avalanche, infrasound, military testing, radiation, the local Mansi — without pretending to settle it. This is the best book I’ve found on the incident—it’s fine, but William Finnegan, why don’t you report on this?
Mountain of the Dead