How agonizing of a feeling did their symptoms have to be for one of them to quickly decide to attempt suicide in the most brutal and agonizingly crudes of way... bashing your skull in... God.

I've wondered if it may have been an intense and concentrated blast of radar. Strong radar can absolutely rock your body's internal organs to pieces. Scuba divers have died being too close to submarines when they let one out. These pulses have even killed whales.

A former coworker of mine received a medical discharge from the Airforce after he and two other technicians were blasted by a high intensity radar signal. The technicians were supposed to be warned and the area blocked off, but that didn't happen. My friend didnt even notice it happening until someone yelled at him to get away from the planes. He and the other two began quickly running to safety. When they were out of the danger zone, the two others who were closer to the radar signal, got bloody noses and started coughing up blood. He said he felt fine until about 15 mins after the exposure when he got a gnarly migraine. All three were brought to medical, and he underwent a ct scan to look for damage. He was told he would be "fine," but never felt the same after that. The other two were less lucky. They died shortly after, one from a brain bleed, the other from dual collapsed lungs. The airforce claimed it was unrelated to the radar test.

They still refuse to pay for any ongoing medical treatment related to the incident. However, they do send him 6k a month as a sort of severance package. He doesn't know what the families of the two men who passed received.

Anyway, that was the first thing I thought of when I heard this story. The government is sketchy, regardless of your country.

I read a LOT about both this case and Dyatlov Pass, and there are two factors that not many people mention: one is the peculiar dynamic of the (post)soviet sport clubs, that had a tendency of pushing young people way too hard on dangerous trips for the sake of weird national pride, as well as not always having the best (or even all the necessary) equipment. Ludmila was a professional and had her student's best interest in mind, but I wouldnt be too surprised if they were indeed lacking sufficient protection from the elements, or if she expected more of those kids than they were capable of in those circumstances.
Another one: it is Russian official investigation that we're talking about, and around former military testing grounds no less. Any smidge of information that would put them in a bad light would be wiped off the face of the earth - it wouldnt even need to be anything outright malicious, just mishandling of toxic waste, simple negligence, a series of tragic coincidences - its easier to clumsily blame a dead civilian than admit any of that.
(Not suggesting that your research is lacking, I had a lot of fun listening to the episode, I just like infodumping about these :D )

Yes, it was Edema.

Plain and simple.

It’s more common than you think.

Yeah... one or two becoming mildly sick might have been due to the climb and the elements but six ppl dying within minutes of each other showing no symptoms until the first person died? That's not a natural reaction. The first victim was fine until he tripped and came in contact with the ground. That's whenI suspect he came in direct skin contact with the toxin. From there the rest came into contact as well and the sole survior was just extremely lucky to have not touched the substance directly. That makes the most sense to me.

This story has always fascinated me. This has convinced me to stay inside and not be an ambitious outdoorsman

The only reason I'm doubting it was just hypothermia is that I'd doubt she'd have survived passing out like she did if they were all cold enough to trigger hypothermia. The domino effect too. One after the other seems odd.
The nerve agent does sound possible.

this story just left a pit in my stomach, the amount of fear they all must have felt is horrible

I kinda presume that the reason she chose the plateau was the massive amount of rain, because if that becomes a flood running down the mountain, it can be really dangerous. If you are among trees, if there's enough water, it will crash you into the tree stems repeatedly. I'm not sure, of course, but that's what comes to mind.

I mean, 120 miles in 5 days is pretty wild, especially for sharp inclines and high altitudes, those people were working their butts off. I could see this being a pulmonary embolism issue just based on the speed they were going.

I did a report on Lake Baikal in middle school. It's also a very clear lake. Even though it's the deepest lake in the world, you can see all the way to the bottom from a boat.

Hypothermia can happen in 92 degree water. They were wearing soaking wet clothes, so they were basically in cold water for such a long time.

All deaths happened at the same time. Mushrooms or edema affect different people to a different extent and at different times. So, if any of these would be the cause I imagine that deaths would have occurred over a longer period of time. One possibility is that the first hiker stepped onto the spot affected by the nerve agent. However, the story is that the survivor went back to pick her gear. She must have passed the same route. This puts this theory in doubt. Another theory is that infrasound caused the deaths. Strong winds were reported in the area, which produce infrasound. However, whether infrasound can cause bleeding and foaming, am I not sure. Also, I have an eerie feeling that the cause of Dyatlov and Khamar-Daban is the same. In short, there was something temporary and spot-specific.

Fascinating. The nerve agent theory seems the most plausible.

I'm unsure if it's possible but perhaps there was a contaminant in the fresh snow, maybe some of the hikers melted the ice and drank it except for valentina

This reminds me of the 1945 Trinity test in New Mexico. White flakes fell that looked like snow in the desert but it was actually nuclear fallout. everyone who came in contact with it ended up with severe cancers and other sudden ailments. perhaps their elevation worsened their symptoms or perhaps it was an experimental chemical warfare weapon they were testing and these were the effects? It just makes you wonder about that snow in august...

I grew up in Slovakia, and as someone who is far from an expert on mushrooms… whenever I went into the forest, even I knew not to pick a mushroom I wasn’t familiar with.

Chance of a pro doing that are lower then 1%

The real question is: Do you think this is a chilling repeat of the February 1959 Dyatlov Pass incident? The eerie similarities are impossible to ignore—unexplained events, bizarre injuries, and an unsettling sense that something far more sinister may be at play. Could history be repeating itself in the most terrifying way

I'm kind of obsessed with the whole mysterious disappearances phenomenon, and all my countless hours of perusing YouTube has taught me one indelible fact: I should never, ever go to the wilderness.

31:20  Halucinogenic mushrooms, both psilocybin and muscarin-containing, lose their psychoactivity when they're cooked. Amanitas don't emerge in August, either. They emerge in late autumn. Psilocybes are subtropical.