Mount Everest: remote, treacherous and with barely enough oxygen to survive. A century ago no-one had reached the summit … Brave pathfinders risked everything. Everest: Conquering the Death Zone, Channel 5 2021
The Himalayas stretch 1,500 miles through northern Asia. This cold white world is home to the planet’s tallest peaks. ibid.
‘So this is it. This is what they came to see. This is what they came to climb.’ ibid. newsreel
‘This advance party must advance through a frozen but burning forest. A forest as haunted by danger as any jungle in the world. A nightmare of spikes and chasms, a wrinkled and ravaged face, but a face that is always changing. For the ice is always on the move. Cracking, rumbling, roaring.’ ibid.
An infamous Cold War cold case. Nine hikers found mutilated on a remote mountain slope. Their injuries and the facts don’t seem to add up. History’s Greatest Mysteries s3e2: The Dyatlov Pass Incident
The Soviet Union 1959: On February 26th high up in Siberia’s Ural Mountains … three cross-country skiers spot a solitary tent partially collapsed by snow. ibid.
Friends and family remark that the cadavers have an unnaturally orange appearance ... Exactly what are they covering up? ibid.
Supporters of the Yeti theory also point to photos of the bodies that show what appears to be abject terror. ibid.
Crazed students on a death-wish. What drove this group of Russian explorers to their graves? … 60 years later it’s still not clear what killed these students. Conspiracies Decoded s1e1: Discovery 2022
January 27th 1959 Dyatlov Pass, USSR: Something killed these students and left them with bizarre injuries … Could infrasound explain why the students left their camp site? … The bizarre deaths of nine Russian students in the wilderness in 1959. ibid.
1959: What happened to a group of grad students in the Soviet wilderness in 1959 was nothing short of a massacre … Some say the students were killed by a Yeti who was stalking the area. Others believe they were murdered after stumbling across a secret government weapons testing area. True Crime Recaps: The Unsolved Mystery of the Dyatlov Pass, Youtube 18.57, 2022
It doesn’t explain why they left the tent in the first place and why their skin was a dark reddish-brown. ibid.
When search parties discovered their bodies … Nikolai’s skull was damaged … Lyudmila and Semyon had been crushed … both their eyes were missing and Lyudmila’s tongue was also gone, so were her lips and part of her cheek and skull bone … Alexander had a strange bruise behind his ear and his neck was twisted and broken … Their clothes … were highly radioactive … Some of the victims were found with their mouths and eyes open, their faces frozen in a terrified expression … and their hair was turning grey … So what happened up there? ibid.
‘A lot of Native American accounts describe Mount Shasta as a creator-made temple of church.’ Files of the Unexplained s1e6: Mysteries of Mount Shasta, dude, Netflix 2024
‘In 1971 the ski lodge caught fire and burnt to the ground, and then a massive avalanche took out the main stairlift to Mount Shasta.’ ibid.
In northern California, Mount Shasta rises over 14,000 feet above sea level. Its mysteries go far beyond the destruction of the ski lodge. For thousands of years Mount Shasta has been a spiritual nerve centre. ibid.
A picturesque Austrian resort in the height of the ski season. 4,000 tourists enjoy the beautiful Alpine scenery. A massive avalanche shatters the peace. Within 3 minutes a 328-foot wall of snow devastates the village of Galtur. Seconds from Disaster s2e2: Alpine Tsunami, National Geographic 2005
High above the Austrian ski resort of Galtur a massive overhang of snow buckles under the strain of three weeks of almost continuous snowfall … Snow buries entire streets and destroys houses. ibid.
The slumbering volcanic peak of Mount St Helens. In its shadow one of America’s most beautiful national forests, a magnet for vacationers seeking the great outdoors. But then, without warning, the volcano erupts; in just 4 minutes the blast flattens 220 square miles. Huge muds flows surge down 150 miles of river valleys. 57 people die. Seconds from Disaster s2e5: Mount St Helens
Mount St Helens spews smoke and ash higher than a mile into the sky. The volcano has woken up from a 123-year sleep. ibid.
1998: A US military jet [Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler] severs the wire of a cable car in the Italian Alps. The crew may face court marshal for the deaths of 20 people. Investigators must discover how a routine training flight ended in catastrophe. Seconds from Disaster s4e5: Cable Car Collision
The people of the town instantly know something is very wrong. ibid.
The damaged Prowler jet is almost impossible to fly … They’ll have to make an emergency landing. ibid.
They took a video camera on the flight. The tape is either blank or it’s been erased … It challenges the crew’s story. ibid.
Crews have not been properly briefed on changes to the low-level regulations. ibid.
Reductions in crew training, errors on the map, and information not reaching the crew – these are systemic errors. ibid.
High on Everest in the death zone with little hope of rescue a climber contacts his wife. Seven lives have already been lost in Everest’s deadliest storm. Seconds from Disaster s6e5: Into the Death Zone
The Dyatlov Pass incident is the story of the death of nine student hikers in the Ural Mountains. It’s often referred to as Russia’s greatest mystery. In 1959, after failing to report back, nine students were found frozen to death in sub-polar conditions. Found without their winter clothes, miles from their shredded tent, and with no sign of an avalanche or natural disasters. Yet somehow they suffered injuries that crushed their bodies, and horrifically for some, their tongues and eyeballs were missing. An Unknown Compelling Force: The True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, Amazon Prime 2024
Mysterious lights were seen in the sky, and the Russian KGB swarmed the site, clouding the whole story in 60 years of mystery. ibid.
Something goes terribly wrong. In the middle of the night, for reasons unknown, the hikers cut their way out of the tent. Tracks showed they fled down the mountain in freezing conditions without clothes or boots. ibid.
Each one suffering inexplicable injuries. ibid.
None are as mysterious as the famous 34th frame. ibid.
‘The first theory of Ivanov [investigator] was murder.’ ibid.
Just what were the hikers fleeing from? ibid.
Postmortem: [First five hikers] All found to have suffered various cuts and bruises to the body. Specific injuries included bruising, cuts and abrasions to the nose, eyebrows and cheeks. Further bruising and abrasions were found on the knuckles and the back of the hands. ibid.
Under public pressure the officials were forced to return the hikers home. ibid.
Postmortem [four hikers found together]: Thibeaux, although found dressed warmer than the first five hikers, had suffered a mysterious and devastating blow to the right side of his head … The unexplained crushing impact to Zolotaryov’s chest … Lyuda wore ski pants which were badly fire-damaged … her tongue was missing … Lyuda suffered a brutal impact to her chest. ibid.
Some of those found in the ravine showed above normal levels of radiation. ibid.
‘I have doubts about the fact that the tent was cut by the hikers.’ ibid. Natalia Sakharova, expert criminalist
The lights in the sky are a red herring. ibid.
How come radiation wasn’t found on any other member of the team? ibid.
Why was the military still so eager to be involved? … They now knew that the hikers had not defected as spies. ibid.
The Mansi [indigenous] people are the original prime suspects. ibid.
Unexplained sightings at 10,000 feet. Strange creatures on remote cliffs. And ancient warfare waged above the clouds. Are the many epic stories set around the world’s highest peaks simply tall tales? Or could it be possible the mountains have been secretly inhabited by alien civilisations? Ancient Aliens s6e11: Aliens and Mysterious Mountains
Nepal 2007: One of the world’s greatest archaeological mysteries: the Skycaves of the ancient kingdom of Mustang. There are over 10,000 of these man-made caves but all over the Mustang region, and many have yet to be explored. ibid.
A foreboding mountain [Monte Musinè, Italy] bears witness to astonishing events, which ancient stories link to other-worldly contact. And it’s become a hotspot for modern-day UFO reports. Could this mysterious mountain be attracting extraterrestrial visitors to Earth? Ancient Aliens s14e15: The Alien Mountain, History 2019
2011: Within a 2-week period, no less than 6 separate UFO incidents were reports all within the vicinity of Monte Musinè. ibid.