- 1 Feb, morning
The group builds the labaz (food cache) in the Auspiya valley and lunches; they set off at 15:00 along their own track of the previous day, climb to the pass and drift 500 to 600 m left onto the east slope of Kholat Syakhl.Documented (sheets 8–10, 73, 385) · confidence high
- about 16:30–17:30
They dig a platform into 1 to 1.5 m of wind-packed snow, lay the skis under the floor and pitch the tent side-on to the slope, entrance south, in the last light; the site has been in mountain shadow since 14:40. The last photographs are of this.Documented (sheet 385; the last frames) · confidence high
- 19:00–21:00
Nine people inside: supper of loin and rusks, the wall newspaper written, wet outer clothing off and drying, boots at the feet, the stove not lit. The tent is a wind-shadowed trench with about 20 cm of canvas headroom over the sleepers' heads on the uphill side.Documented state of the tent (sheets 311, 315, 367, 385) · confidence high
- ~21:00–23:30
The trigger. Something makes all nine leave at once through the downhill wall, cutting it in three places rather than using the entrance, and walk away without boots or outer clothing. The candidate causes are weighed in the matrix above. On present evidence the best-supported reading is that the uphill half of the tent came down under snow, most probably a small slab avalanche released from the stepped slope above the cut, less probably drifted snow collapsing the roof, in the dark, with the fear that more would follow.Inferred · snow on the tent about 65%, of which a slab about 45%
- +0 to +10 min
They gather 15 to 40 m below the tent (the first tracks start there; small items and a roll of film lie downwind) and set off downhill in two groups that merge after 30 to 40 m, walking close together, at a normal pace, one of them in a single boot, one carrying a lit flashlight that is dropped or set down partway.Documented tracks (sheets 90, 215, 299, 312) · confidence high
- +35 to +85 min
They reach the forest edge 1.55 km away and 256 m lower, in full darkness, air about −12 °C and falling, wind chill −22 to −29 on the open slope. A fire is lit under the cedar with Krivonischenko's knife and bare hands; branches are broken from the tree as high as a person can reach and a "window" toward the slope is cleared at 4 to 5 m.Documented (sheets 3–4, 68, 216–217, 333); walking time computed · confidence high
- +1 to +3 h
The fire burns for one and a half to three hours. Doroshenko and Krivonischenko, the least dressed, die beside it of cold; Krivonischenko's burns show he could not feel his leg in the flames, and he bit his own finger to test it. Their clothing is cut off their bodies for the others.Documented (autopsies, sheets 104–119; 386) · confidence high
- +1.5 to +4 h
Dyatlov, Slobodin and Kolmogorova set out back up the slope toward the tent, in that order of distance, and die on the line of their own tracks 300, 480 and 630 m from the fire, still 180 to 230 m below the tent. Slobodin falls and cracks his skull, lies long enough to melt ice under his chest, and freezes. Kolmogorova, the warmest dressed and farthest, dies face down with her head to the tent.Documented positions (sheets 4–5, 69–72, 322, 386); the direction of travel inferred from posture · confidence high that they died walking uphill
- +1.5 to +4 h
Zolotaryov, Thibeaux-Brignolle, Kolevatov and Dubinina, the best dressed and now wearing the dead men's clothes, move 75 m from the cedar to the one sheltered spot, a ravine with 2 to 4 m of drifted snow over a stream, dig into the snow bank and lay a floor of fourteen fir tops and a birch top on it.Documented (sheets 341–343, 386) · confidence high
- before dawn
The snow over the stream gives way under or onto them. Three suffer the "great force without breach of the skin" injuries: Dubinina's and Zolotaryov's chests crushed against the stream bed under a mass of snow, Thibeaux's temple driven onto a rock or ice. Dubinina lives minutes, Thibeaux hours, unconscious; Zolotaryov and Kolevatov, who lay embracing, longer. All four end in the water 6 m below the flooring under snow that deepens to 4 m by May.Inferred from the forensic mechanism statements, the survival times and the positions · confidence moderate (this is where the verdict is least secure)
- 2 Feb, 03:00 onward
The front has passed: −20 to −26 °C at the tent, sky clearing, wind chill below −35. No one is alive on the slope by morning.Station data and Burmantovo readings · confidence high
- 26 Feb – 6 May
The tent is found under 15 to 20 cm of drifted snow, the first five bodies on 27 February and 5 March, the last four on 4 to 6 May when the ravine snow is probed.Documented · confidence high