Book Review – Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident

Ya’ll know I don’t just pimp out any book and put my seal of approval on it. But this one is worthy of a mention.

Those who follow me on Facebook know my love of shows like Ancient Aliens and similar ilk. Not because I’m ready for my tin-foil hat, but because as a writer I enjoy the plot bunnies that randomly pop up in my brain as I watch them. On one show I saw a few months back, they talked about something I had vaguely heard of before, but knew nothing about. That’s the Dyatlov Pass Incident.

Bottom line is, back in February of 1959, nine experienced college hikers went up into the mountains and never came back. They apparently fled their tent in the middle of the night, ran down the mountain, and froze to death. But there were some mysterious injuries on some of the hikers that have fueled speculation to this day.

This happened in the former USSR, so for decades there have been conspiracy theories abounding about UFOs, secret missile tests, Yeti attacks, etc etc etc. While we’ll never know exactly what happened that tragic night, in Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, author Donnie Eichar has put forth a very well-reasoned and rational possibility, based in scientific fact, that could very well be the reason. (Certainly more plausible than some of the other theories.)

I tried to read a couple of other books on this incident, but they veered from steady facts into cray-cray territory pretty quickly, and I put them down. It was obvious the authors had agendas they wanted to prove. Eichar, on the other hand, parallels his own journey to Russia with what is factually known about the 9 hikers and their journey (put together from the group’s diaries, eyewitness statements, pictures the group took, and the statements from the one hiker who turned back due to health issues and therefore survived). No, we’ll likely never know the “truth,” and I would have liked to have seen scientific studies reproducing the exact conditions that night to answer the questions more certainly, but I think he does a pretty good job of presenting a compelling case without any hysterical hype.

You can find the book here on Kindle.

In Case You Missed It:

Ice Monkeys (Drunk Monkeys 7, MFM, post-apocalyptic/military) is now available for pre-order!

Impact (Suncoast Society 32, MMF, BDSM) is now available.

Initiative (Suncoast Society 31, MMF, BDSM) is now available from all third-party outlets.

Hubby’s next Wolf Mallory book, Can’t Dance Forever, is available for pre-order from Kindle.

I’m running a daily #NaNoWriMo series over on my WriteYourAssOff.com blog.