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Comment by autokad | Hacker News Reader

I tend to disagree. most other theories ( such as a tree fall ) only considers the injuries and doesn't fit together as a story.

The snow slab story fits all the other evidence: there was a massive slide of ice that rolled over the tent and burring it.

the hikers that were not seriously injured cut themselves and quickly made their way down the hill to find some safety from further avalanches, but some where found just wearing underwear. those stayed put around a quickly made camp fire, which is why they also appeared 'tanned' as they stayed too close to the flames. it was a very windy-cold night.

The others tried to make their way back to camp; however, finding camp in a windy storm at night was hard and they failed. I think it was 2 had fallen into a ravine, and the rest died due to the elements.

Ironically, those in their underwear lived the longest

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There's other reasons for the tree fall theory, and it includes suspicion that the tent was moved. Reasons given are that Igor would not setup the tent in such an exposed location when tree shelter was just a kilometer downhill, plus it was off their plotted course, and the contents of the tent seemed a bit disorderly for someone who was a bit of control freak like Igor. That and the injuries, distribution of the hikers and various clothing make more sense if the initial event took place near the cedar tree.

I don't know whether that's more plausible than all the other theories where the tent was setup on the slope, but a lot of people have thought the evidence never quite fit. That could be because the search party disturbed the tent and its contents tramping around when they were looking for the hikers. Or it could possibly be because someone knew of the hikers demise some time earlier and staged the tent to cover their butts just in case they were blamed for it.

I think we've got as much to work on here as the poetry of Sappho - history is sometimes cruel with facts and denies us the nice clean resolution we all crave. A lot of the evidence in this case is confused and questionable and while I think that some theories are certainly less likely than others (the weapons test related theories seem far fetched given that there is any surviving evidence at all) I think this will sadly remain a mystery unless we manage to uncover more primary evidence at the site that can disprove certain accounts and narrow down on the truth.

The USSR wasn't a monolithic evil big brother that could disappear people without anyone noticing - people did notice and we've got a lot of evidence of crimes that were supposed to go disappear in the wind. But a lot of evidence was intentionally tainted or manipulated for a wide variety of reasons.

The only thing we're really certain of is that a lot of heads rolled at the time that were really unnecessary.

I wish people would step back from conspiracy thinking and trying so hard to explain specific injuries and apply some occam's razor logic. eg people freaked out by an avalanche are going to bolt in their underwear; simplest explanation.

The footsteps indicate they walked down in an orderly fashion.

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