A group of 10 trained Russian hikers started a trek in the Ural mountains during the winter of 1959. One had to quickly return to the closest city because of illness. He was waiting for the news of the others and had to warn authorities if the group would not come back by a certain date.

And they actually never came back.

A rescue team was sent after them. They finally found an empty camp with their tent destroyed. Some footsteps were still visible in the snow and they were heading to the closest wood, but after approximately 500 meters, they faded and were not visible anymore.

The rescue team decided to pursue this path and search the wood : under a huge pine they found a fire camp and 2 dead bodies alongside. Both male and wearing only their underpants (it is believed that at the time they camped there was a snow storm and the temperature was about -25°C).

Searching deeper on the path between the destroyed tent and the fire in the wood, they finally found 3 more dead bodies in the snow. All three were most likely heading back to the tent but they all failed to do that, falling dead at different points on the path: The first one 300 meters away from the big pine, the second 480 meters and the third 630 meters.

4 other members of the team were still missing...

Two month later the 4 remaining members of the team were found dead in the bottom of a small ravine deeper inside the wood.

The five first corpses were analysed by forensics and their conclusion were simple : all 5 died of hypothermia, even though one of them had a small crack on his skull. But on the 4 other corpses, forensics discovered one fatal injury on the head of one, broken ribs on 2 others, and one woman had her tongue missing. Strange fact : no external trace of these injuries was found, leading scientists to think that they were the result of "crushing under a high pressure" with a significant force, stating it could not have been made by a human.

Other curious facts :
* Most of the victims were lightly clothed, some of them were wearing only one shoe or only socks. Some were wearing parts of clothes they seemed to have cut from other members clothes.
* The tent was cut from the inside
* Some of their clothes were found to be radioactive
* Footsteps in the snow show that they were no other persons on this pass and that they all willingly left the tent toward the wood.

Some find paranormal, or secretive explanations, but what gives this story so much mystery is that it is hard to understand what happened, what choices the team made and especially why they left their tent so suddenly. Actually it is very hard to find any logical and rational explanation for the whole affair.