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I read about this in the NYT. This is from the Denver Post, and is basically the same story. Pretty much everyone is dead (50 years later), but I don't see how this wasn't pursued more aggressively as a murder investigation given the coroner said that falling on a pick ax wouldn't have enough force to cause those injuries.

https://www.denverpost.com/2023/12/15/ghosts-on-th...

The developed photos are interesting, but probably don't give any clues. Scenery, climbing, smiling people...

Tough little camera to keep the film safe all this time.

I read that article. The murder hypothesis just seems unlikely. Why murder them? It doesn't make sense.

Why murder them? It doesn't make sense.

Spontaneous murder is usually passion. Love, hate, anger. In the NYT article, the coroner said that just falling on an ice ax wouldn't go through clothes and then that deeply into the body. Plus broken face bones (could be from a fall, if not for the ice ax injury). The ice ax wasn't recovered, as if someone took it (or tossed it).

No, it doesn't really make sense. Gain makes sense (though is at least as heinous). Passions don't make sense. So that's my guess. Just a guess.

It don't see a murder yet.

It's academic since all the climbers are dead now.

The NYT article:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/09/wor...

He still remembers Cooper because of the skull fracture and, especially, the tubular hole to his abdomen. It was like a bullet hole, perfectly round. The wound was so deep that it reached all the way to Cooper’s spine. Araujo always suspected an ice screw.

Johnson’s autopsy stands out because of the damage to her face — bone exposed in three places. Araujo recalled deep cuts on her boot that made him think someone had taken some hard whacks at her.

...

“They were killed,” he said. “Both of them. These kinds of injuries were not self-inflicted.”

Was that the consensus of the examiners in the room?

“Yes,” he said. “No doubt about it.”

Per one of the medical people in the room during the autopsies.

I'll read it, but the Russian expedition (Dyatlov Pass Incident) where everyone died is just as mysterious. Recently things settled down and I think they decided that one was a bad group reaction to an avalanche ( or potential avalanche). I think everyone here knows that lack of oxygen can do strange things to your brain and behavior.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_inciden...

I remember a time in California where I took my dog, climbed way up this mountain and took this little goat trail around and up rather than go strait up. After a bit I turned and realized I was above the tree line, and the goat trail was now just a ledge with a 100 foot drop below me. And I stopped because I was dead tired. I have acrophobia badly. So I had to work my way back around this ledge to be able to rest. Took a lot of concentration. I don't mountain climb because I'd be terrified all the time. :)

Tough little camera to keep the film safe all this time.

The Nikkomat was a tank. 50 years exposed to the cycles of weather on the glacier, yet the seals leather case and rear gate seals protected the film! American climber, so probably Kodachrome.

1972 trip planning for the 1973 climbing season in the south while Black September was murdering Israeli athletes in Munich.

That's a monster of a pack she humped up the mountain. I did some lower altitude backpacking back then, but had a much smaller backpack. A Kelty, iirc, but I did have the exact same water bottle she had.

The NYT has a little more background on the story, a few more images.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/09/wor...

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