I first met Yury Konstantinovich in 2012 in Yekaterinburg when I was researching for my first book on the Dyatlov Incident. I found him to be a decent, thoughtful and generous man. On my first visit he also went to the trouble of arranging for Yury Yudin to come over and meet me. The earliest Yury Yudin could get over was on the Saturday, which was the day my visa expired. Although it might have been possible to extend the visa, I said it would be better to meet him on my next visit. Sadly Yury Yudin passed away before that happened. Similarly, my last contact with Yury Konstantinovich was just a few weeks before his last trip to the Dyatlov Pass. We had been exchanging messages about the state of my knee which I had damaged on my previous trip to the Pass. I told him I doubted that I could make the journey up to the Pass as my knee wouldn’t take the weight of the backpacks we all carried. He very kindly offered to spread my backpack amongst the others, but even with that kind offer, I didn’t feel my knee would take the strain of the hike. So I suggested we leave it till the next time and give it more time to heal. It was ironic that Yury developed a knee problem and had to turn back on the trip. He died of Coronavirus in hospital in Yekaterinburg on 11 August 2021.
I mention the putting off of the meeting with Yury Yudin because we all tend to think that we have plenty of time to do everything and the sad truth is, we don’t. Time is one of the most precious commodities we have. I had hoped to make at least one more trip up to the Dyatlov Pass with Yury Konstantinovich, but sadly it was not to be.
To me, Yury Konstantinovich did not just run the Dyatlov Foundation, he was the keeper of the Dyatlov light and his passing has left a huge gap for all of us who follow this mystery.
I have recently updated my second book Journey to Dyatlov Pass and included additional photos and material on the Rocket theory and background on the Mansi. There is an additional chapter with an intuitive communicator as to what may have happened to the group.
KEITH McCLOSKEY
Keith McCloskey
ISBN: 9780752491486
Published by: The History Press - 2013-07-01
Keith McCloskey
We left the Dyatlov Foundation (1) in Ekaterinburg and met up with the rest of the expedition at the main railway station in Ekaterinburg (2-4).
Ivdel Railway Station (6-9) built in 1940 is where the Dyatlov group arrived at midnight on 24/25 January 1959 and spent the night there before catching a bus to Vizhai in the morning. The Kamaz truck (10) was our transport into the Urals.
Vizhai (12) is where the Dyatlov group spent the night of 25/26 January and made their way to the 41st Kvartal (Quarter) logging camp by lorry on 26 January 1959. The village of Vizhai was burnt down in a massive forest fire only a couple of years ago and all the buildings seen in the picture are new. The Mansi are known for their hunting skills and will use a tree to record their kills.
This tree (21) has ten horizontal cut marks, which shows that the Mansi hunter using this tree has killed ten Wolverines. We made base camp (23) at the foot of Kholat Syakhl (Dead Mountain) after a 20 mile hike though the forest.
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