SundayScaries: The Khamar Daban Incident
Strange Facts You Wish Weren't True
Content Warning: #Blood #MedicalSymptomsDescribed
Welcome to our first SundayScaries newsletter! I am absolutely THRILLED to have you all join me on this new lil project. As the days grow shorter and winter arrives, I hope we can all get cozy together and explore some strange and bizarre tales. As mentioned in our welcome email, this newsletter won’t be covering uber popular mysteries like the infamous Dyatlov Pass Incident where 9 experienced hikers died mysteriously in the Ural mountains. This case has been shared so many times that, although tragic, it's not terribly exciting to share it again here. That being said, the Dyatlov incident was not the only mysterious case to grace Soviet Siberia. There is another very similar case involving a group of hikers who perished under bizarre circumstances during their summer trip in the Siberian mountains.
The Khamar Daban mountain range is in Southern Siberia’s Buryatia region, perched below Lake Baikal (sidenote spooky fact: Lake Baikal is the world’s deepest and oldest lake in the world, and the largest freshwater lake by volume - see image below). The surrounding landscape has become a popular hiking spot, but in August of 1993, six hikers would not make it out of the mountains alive. There are few answers to the case, and the lone survivor has refused to talk about the traumatic event since her first statement to police.
On August 2, 1993, a group of seven hikers led by master-hiker and survivalist Lyudmila Korovina set off on a multi-day trip in the Khamar Daban mountain range.
Hikers:
Lyudmila Korovina (41, the group’s leader)
Tatyana Filipenko (24)
Aleksander (Sacha) Krysin (23)
Denis Shvachnkin (19)
Valentina (Valya) Utochenko (17)
Viktoriya Zalesova (16)
Timur Bapanov (15)
The weather forecast promised the group clear, sunny skies throughout their trip which held true for the first two days of the trip as the group ascended the mountain route rapidly. Unfortunately, like the Dyatlov group, unforeseen and unfavourable weather conditions forced the group to set up camp in an exposed area which was an odd choice considering there was tree cover closeby. The next morning, the group made a fire and ate breakfast as usual before setting off with plans to meet Korovina’s daughter, Natalia, who was leading another group of hikers in the area. Korovina’s group would never show up.
Shortly after the group set out that day, the hiker at the back of the line, Aleksander (Sacha) Krysin, started screaming. He was bleeding from his eyes and ears and frothing at the mouth. Sacha suffered a seizure and died right there at the beginning of the trail. Korovina, overcome and distraught, tried in vain to get Sacha to regain consciousness. She stayed with Sacha and she told the rest of the group to continue on to the meetup spot. Shortly after the group split up, the students heard Korovina screaming and rushed back to her aid. She exhibited the same gruesome symptoms with blood was flowing from her eyes and nose, she was frothing at the mouth, and finally collapsed.
Tatyana Filipenko, the first hiker to return to where Korovina and Sacha had collapsed was next. She began to grab at her throat as though she couldn’t breath. The group watched in horror as “she slowly crawled over to a nearby rock and bashed her head in until she went limp.” Panic took over the remaining 4 hikers.
Viktoriya and Timur took off, Dennis hid and Valya remained frozen in place. However, their efforts to evade the mysterious illness were unsuccessful. Valya witnessed the other three hikers die in the same mysterious way, clutching their throats and convulsing, blood flowing from their eyes. Scared for her life, she ran as far as she could that day and slept in a tent she had been carrying. Unfortunately, due to the harsh nature of the area, Valya was forced to retrace her steps back up the mountain the following day so she could gather more supplies in order to survive long enough to make it to safety. When she returned to the site she saw that none of them had moved from the spots where they had fallen. Knowing they were all deceased, Vayla quickly took the supplies she needed from their bodies and left, following the powerlines down the mountain.
She followed the powerlines for 4 days until she found a river and began to follow it in hopes she would come across help. Luckily, a group of kayakers making their way down the river spotted Vayla, covered in dried blood, standing on the bank. Finally, on August 10th, 8 days after the group had initially set out, the lone survivor of the group had finally been rescued. Valya, frantic, was eventually able to identify herself as Valentina Utochenko and she said that she had been hiking with six others. Horrified, the kayakers took Valya to the nearest police station where a report was filed. Despite the report to the police, no official search was conducted until the 24th of August. Since Valya had not been able to recount her version of events yet, it took 2 days to find the bodies using helicopters. It wasn’t until years later that she was slowly able to tell the story of what happened to the other six. She would never repeat her account of the story again.
Upon the group's recovery from the Mountain, autopsies showed that group members died of hypothermia, and Korovina, of a heart attack. The pathologist also noted that each of the hikers had bruised lungs and protein deficiencies due to malnutrition. The deaths were ultimately ruled to be accidental.
So, I’m sure at this point, you must be wondering, “What the heck happened?! Unfortunately, it is unlikely we will ever know for certain. Popular theories range from aliens to Russian military experiments, contaminated water to poisonous mushrooms. Valya’s descrptions of how the members of the group perished would be similar to what would happen should someone be exposed to a chemical weapon such as a nerve agent. In fact, there are accounts of nerve agents being tested near the area and research shows it may take months to fully evaporate. Could the unfortunate storm have brought dangerous gasses down towards the group’s location only to evaporate in the sun while the group set out the following day? Or, could it be that the group accidentally consumed poisonous mushrooms that led to hallucinations of the symptoms witnessed. Poison could also have led to coma leaving the hikers vulnerable to hypothermia and cardiac arrest as reported. Alternatively, it is possible that Valya’s eyewitness account is inaccurate as trauma impacts cognition and memory. Many people are still wondering what exactly happened that day on the mountain, and it is unlikely we will ever truly know.
So, what’s your theory?
xoxo
SundayScaries
P.S. Still Battling those SundayScaries? Check out this additional fun fact!
Who woulda thunk that anything interesting could come from discussing a fax machine? It is unsurprisingly, largely regarded as the most boring and underrated piece of technology, and one of the first pieces of technology being replaced in the corporate world today. However, lucky for you all, today’s extra fun fact is just that! The first patent for the fax machine, known then as the facsimile machine, was submitted by Scottish inventor Alex Bain in 1843 - the same year that the mass migration of pioneer settlers moving West on the Oregon Trail began. Yes, that’s right: electronic communications were taking place in the same year that one of our favourite, childhood video games was set in, complete with nasty dysentery and cholera. Want to learn more about the fax machine? I highly doubt it, but if you’re curious…click here.
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