The occurrence of avalanches or slab avalanches in the area was not confirmed by the Mansi. Moreover, none of the 1959 findings indicated that the corpses found within the tent were covered with snow. Assuming that several deaths occurred in the tent, the remaining, barely clothed participants would have had to dig their comrades out from under the snow cover in the middle of the night, with temperatures reaching -20 degrees Celsius, and then carry them within a kilometer and a half under the Siberian pine.
Also relevant to the avalanche theory is the fact that Igor Dyatlov and his group, except for Semyon Zolotaryov, were very experienced mountain hikers, and it is highly likely that they knew where to pitch the tent so as not to risk an avalanche coming down.
