Mountain of the Dead by Keith McCloskey Page B

avalanche theory as being responsible for the deaths.
       6.   Declassified CIA National Intelligence Estimate Number 11-5-59, Soviet Capabilities in Guided Missiles and Space Vehicles (among numerous other sources and other declassified CIA files available on the Internet).
       7.   Lists of launches can be found on the website Encyclopedia Astronautica: www.astronautix.com .
       8.   Details of some of Dr Vladimir Gavreau’s work can be found on the Académie française website www.academie-francaise.fr and other details of his work can readily be found on the Internet (although some of it is copyright).
       9.   Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History , Penguin 2003.
    10.   Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History .
    11.   Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History .
    12.   Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History .
    13.    http://dinets.travel.ru/russianbears.htm .
    14.    www.wolfsongalaska.org/wolf_russia_russia_history.html .
    15.   Philip Mantle and Paul Stonehill hope to publish their research into the ‘lair of the golden woman’ in 2013.

     

What happened – alternative locations
     
    All of the previous theories mentioned in Chapter 6 are concerned with the events taking place on the eastern slopes of Kholat Syakhl, i.e. where the abandoned tent was found. There is another line of theories that explain the events having taken place in a completely different location – and that the bodies and all their belongings, including tent and equipment, were brought from another location and transported to Kholat Syakhl.
    This theory of outside interference starts to manifest itself in a number of ways when looking at items arising from the investigation. There were a number of inconsistencies. One of the most important is a telegram from Terebilov, Assistant General Prosecutor of the USSR in Moscow, sent on 9 May 1959 to Chief Prosecutor Klinov in Sverdlovsk. Terebilov tells Klinov to send him ‘Case No 3/2518-59 related to deaths of student group’. The case file that is generally referred to for public consumption was never given a case number and this suggests that there is another file held by the authorities. There is one other reference to Case No 3/2518-59 in a letter dated 16 May 1959. Requests to see this file have been refused by the chief prosecutor of the Oblast and there is no explanation as to why the file in the public domain does not have a case number.
    There were other inconsistencies. For instance, Yury Yudin had mentioned both he and Zina Kolmogorova had complained that, as acting medics for the group, they did not have any alcohol to use for sterilising. However, one of the items mentioned and itemised on a list as being removed from the tent after it was found was alcohol. Yury Yudin was adamant to his death that they did not take any alcohol with them nor did they obtain any en route. However, Yudin himself assisted in the sorting of the effects from the tent and he recalls holding a flask in each hand which he did not recognise. He says that one was reclaimed by Krivonischenko’s family. The base camp storage (for excess items), which was established by the group before they continued up the mountain, was also a source of controversy as Yury Yudin says there were items found there that were not taken by the group.
    A number of people associated with the case felt uneasy about the way the whole investigation was conducted, not least by the fact that they had to sign non-disclosure agreements. An example of this uneasiness was the case of a pilot of a Yak-12 light aircraft who flew over the northern Urals looking for forest fires and was involved in the search for the group. He had instructed his wife to take good care of their child in case anything happened to him. He died not long after he had made the comment, and whilst it may have been coincidence, it seemed to fit an outsider’s view that something was not right.
    There were also clumsy attempts at obscuring a number of details and the