As Miles Klee wrote earlier today, the impact of a massive (so-called) meteor in Russia's Ural Mountains has a lot of people shaking their heads, along with nearly a thousand seeking medical attention. Yeah, it may have been some massive space-rock, or an alien attack of some kind, but whatever it was, it was weird. But that area's no stranger to weird and hard-to-explain phenomena. Case in point: the Dyatlov Pass Incident, one of the creepiest, weirdest mysteries to ever come out of  Russia. So if there were any mountain hiking expeditions underway at the time of the impact, I hope the authorities don't waste a moment in trying to locate them. This just might help unravel a mystery that has remained unsolved for 54 years. 

Have you not heard of the Dyatlov Pass Incident? It'll give you nightmares. In the winter of 1959, a group of nine experienced ski hikers—eight men and two women—led by Igor Dyatlov set off for a multiple-day journey across the northern Urals to Otorten. They didn't make it, and nobody knows what happened.

When their bodies were eventually recovered in the deep snow, there were no signs of struggle, but investigators determined that they had torn open their tents from within during the night, escaped into the snow and sub-freezing temperatures wearing no shoes and little clothing, and ultimately died because of a "compelling natural force." Two bodies had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs, one was missing a tongue, there were high levels of radiation, and the corpses were said to have aged well beyond their years. Others in the area recalled seeing bright lights in the sky on the evening they died, February 2, 1959. Results from an initial investigation were kept classified for years, and some portions of the report have never been released, or were somehow lost. Shivering yet? 

There are many theories as to what happened, but each has a corresponding reason why it doesn't quite work. Maybe the indigenous Mansi people attacked them for trespassing on a mountain they considered sacred. Maybe the Soviet government was testing some kind of secret weapon. Maybe it was simply an avalanche? The greatest minds of the time and since have said that there was no rational explanation for what happened. 

But did anyone consider the possibility of a meteor strike setting off some kind of panic or chain reaction among the hikers? Or raining down radiation in the area, pulling out tongues, breaking skulls, and causing havoc? Maybe that area is simply attractive for extraterrestrial activity, a Roswell-like hot spot for quirky space stuff? 

Was something trying to get our attention, and did it just send another message last night? The answer is out there, somewhere.