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20 Best Reality TV Shows Right Now

Below deck mediterranean's aesha scott could be the problem with the crew amid poor performance allegations, 90 day fiancé: who is tigerlily taylor abdelfattah's ex-husband.

• Crew members on Below Deck not only get paid for their job on the superyacht but also receive a fee for appearing on the reality series.
• The cast members of Below Deck make impressive salaries for working just four months out of the year.
• In addition to their salaries, the crew members also receive tips from the guests on the yacht, which can be substantial.

Not only does the crew on Below Deck get paid for their designated job, but they also receive a fee for appearing in the reality series. The franchise features long-time and new crew members eager to make a name for themselves in the yachting industry. Those who join Below Deck use the platform to help advance their careers by appearing on TV. While the work on a superyacht might seem hard, the cast's compensation makes it all worth it.

The popular Bravo reality series Below Deck hit viewers' TV screens for the first time in 2013. Since then, the show has garnered quite a large following, with the binge-worthy series Below Deck as one of the highest-rated shows on Bravo. After being on for so many years, there are questions regarding how much the cast makes, both for being part of the show and for their regular crew duties. For only working four months out of the year, the cast creates an impressive salary that would have anyone convinced yachting is a good career choice.

Reality TV is more popular than ever. With so many to choose from, here are some of the best reality TV shows to stream or watch right now.

The Below Deck Crew Makes A Salary & An Appearance Fee

According to Refinery29 , the cast of Below Deck makes quite a hefty salary for simply doing their superyacht job. For example, on a yacht the size of the My Seanna from Below Deck , a second and third steward makes about $5,000 monthly, while a chief steward brings in around $5,500 to $6,000 monthly. The chef makes about $7,000-$10,000 a month, depending on experience and training. The deckhands usually make around $3,500-$4,500 a month, while a bosun would make a little more at approximately $5,000 monthly.

The Below Deck Crew Also Brings In Tips

The crew even receives tips from the guests on top of their salaries. On Below Deck , they usually bring in around $15,000 per person in tips for about six weeks of work. Plus, the team does not work a whole yacht season, so they likely make more as they move from boat to boat. The Captain usually makes between $150,000 to $210,000 a year working on a 185-foot superyacht , assuming the Captain is working full-time. Additionally, the Captain can make up to $100,000 on top of the salary they are getting if they charter their yacht for the entire year.

On top of the money they make on the yacht, the crew also gets a small fee for appearing on Below Deck . According to Page Six , the crew makes about $5,000-$6,000 per month. Ashley Marti from Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 3 confirmed this and believes the Bravo pay discrepancy with Below Deck is unfair. The Real Housewives makes upwards of $1 million per season, while the Southern Charm cast makes around $25,000 an episode.

Since Bravo has created such a cult following in the past few years, many doors open for the cast members they hire. Now, crew members from any Below Deck series can make appearances for a small fee and profit from their fame on social media. In short, it pays to work on a yacht and to appear on a reality TV show.

Below Deck airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on Bravo.

Sources: Refinery29 , Page Six

Below Deck is a popular reality TV franchise that focuses on a group of crew members as they work on luxurious yachts and cater to their client's needs. After the original series proved to be a success, Bravo developed a handful of spinoff shows including Below Deck Selling Yacht, Below Deck Adventure, Below Deck Down Under, and Below Deck Mediterranean.

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How much do the cast members of Below Deck make per episode?

• Israel Salas-Rodriguez
• Katrina Schollenberger
• Published : 8:33 ET, Jun 25 2021
• Updated : 8:33 ET, Jun 25 2021
• Published : Invalid Date,

BRAVO'S reality series Below Deck follows the lives of the crew members who work and reside aboard luxury yachts - known as "yachties" - during charter season.

Season two of Below Deck Mediterranean airs Monday, June 28.

According to Refinery 29 , the case of Below Deck make quite a hefty salary for doing their jobs working on "yachties".

The outlet reports that on a yacht the size of the My Seanna, a second and third stewardess earns an average of about $5,000 per month.

A chief stewardess brings in around $5,500 to $6,000 per month, and the chef on the boat could make about $7,000-$10,000 a month, depending on experience and training.

The deckhands usually make around $3,500-$4,500 a month, while a bosun would make a little bit more at approximately $5,000 a month.

However, that's not including tips the whole crew receives from guests on the boat.

Throughout the season of Below Deck , the crew reportedly bring in around $15,000 per person in tips for about six weeks of work.

Which Below Deck star recently revealed she's gay?

Below Deck's Isabelle "Izzy" Wouters came out as gay after her fellow Bravo star, Braunwyn Windham-Burke, revealed she is a lesbian.

Wouters revealed the news while poking fun at the men who tried to hit on her without knowing she was actually gay.

Along with two pictures, she  wrote : "The face of the straight men who slide into my dm’s when I say – HELLO MY NAME IS IZZY AND I AM OUT AND PROUD."

She ended the post with several hashtags, including "out and proud."

Wouters coming out as gay happened a few weeks after  Windham-Burke revealed she was a lesbian , becoming the first out housewife.

How can I watch Below Deck Mediterranean?

You can watch every episode a week early on  Peacock , with episode one on there right now.

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Bravo has teased that the Below Deck Med crew will experience "a serious crisis" before the first charter that will be "a shocking franchise first."

They also said that the Lady Michelle yachties will encounter a wedding, a medical emergency, and a major storm all within the course of a single charter season.

We'll also see one of Captain Sandy's biggest blowups ever, which fans may be surprised to see directed at Malia.

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That Dream 'Below Deck' Vacation Will Cost You

The charter guests on Below Deck are always the most entertaining people on the show. It's not that much of a challenge to figure out why — they get to behave totally irresponsibly, throwing around cash and demands in equal measure and torturing the crew that we all love so much. And the Eros, like the Ohana and Honor before it, is wildly expensive. And as the largest boat of the three, Eros from Below Deck Season 3 costs the most of any yacht in the show's history. According to Yacht Charter World, Eros can cost up to $230,000 per week to charter. Yes, that's right. Per. Week. That balances out to more than $32,000 per day . So you can pay the price of a brand new sedan for every single day you spend on the Eros with your guests. But I'm sure the guests featured on Bravo, as well as other wealthy yacht fans, seem to think that price is well worth it.

How can they charge so much for a simple jaunt on a fancy boat? If you break down the cost of chartering the Eros, it's still pretty expensive, yes, but it is slightly more understandable when considering just how pricy it can be to enjoy all of the various perks that come with the trip. Here are some of an Eros charter's expensive components that can help explain the high sticker price.

1. You Get 8 Crew Members At Your Beck & Call

The cost of hiring eight people to work for you 24 hours a day can't be cheap. They each get their own salaries for working around the clock, and we all see how much charter guests can demand of the crew on Below Deck. They should definitely be compensated well for their time and stress.

2. You Get A Personal Chef For All Of Your Meals

The good news is, you don't have to buy any food while you're on Eros, unless you decide to hit some chic restaurants when you're docked. The bad news is, the salary of a gourmet personal chef must contribute quite a bit to that overall cost. Hey, at least you get to eat whatever you want everyday.

3. That Hot Tub Won't Fit In An Apartment

The enormous hot tub from the show fits eight people, and would cost between about $5,000 and $8,000 for you to buy at Home Depot for your own backyard. But then you're not going to get the beautiful Caribbean vista. And that's not even considering the price of your water bill after installation or the trouble of cleaning and taking care of the thing by yourself.

4. A Triangular Bathtub

I don't know what your shower looks like, but mine is not a beautiful triangular bathtub for soaking, like the one shown on Mustang Sally's profile on Yacht Charter Fleet. Out of all of the "normal" assets featured on the boat (like huge fluffy beds, tons of living rooms, and ornately made up dining tables), this one is the most impossible to recreate at home. Anyone can get some fancy napkins on sale and pair them with some Ikea wine goblets, but turning the bathroom into a spa poses more of a challenge.

5. It Goes Crazy Fast & Is Filled With Power

In Bravo's introduction to Eros, Eddie describes all of its tech specs, and it certainly is hard to understand if you're not an experienced bosun. But it basically boils down to this: you're going to be traveling very quickly and have plenty of power so you can enjoy all the luxuries of home, like wifi and air conditioning.

6. As Much Alcohol As You Could Possibly Desire

Hotels often charge exorbitant prices for bottle service, and asking for cocktails with breakfast would earn you a raised eyebrow unless the restaurant you're visiting offers boozy brunch. But on a yacht? It's expected that you drink like a fish, and if anything, the crew will be understandably jealous. The only problem will be if you out-drink your guests, like foam-party dude.

7. A Hearty Tip For Your Devoted Crew

The crew of Below Deck love their jobs. But more than that, they love the money that providing great service earns them. On Below Deck , everyone splits the tip money equally, which means if you appreciated the service of one of them, you have to compensate all of them — and a customary tip? $20,000, $25,000, or even more. Maybe that's why they price these charters so high. In order to know that you can properly pay the crew, that deserved tip has to look like a bargain compared to the overall price of a luxurious Eros charter.

Images: Virginia Sherwood (2), Screenshot (2)/Bravo; Giphy (2)

Below Deck Sailing Yacht Salaries Revealed and See How it Compares to Motor Yacht Pay, Plus Captain Lee Reveals Which Captain’s Job is Harder

The Below Deck crew members are raking in the cash, but which yacht crew makes the most?

In the first season of Below Deck Sailing Yacht , the crew made a total of $143,000 in tips for a six-week season, allowing each yachty to pocket $16,000. That’s a nice chunk of change for a mere six weeks, but that amount is considered mid-range compared to what other crews have received in the franchise. For instance, Captain Lee Rosbach ‘s season five crew took home $56,650 each in tips alone.

According to one yachting source, crews working on motors yachts, such as the ones featured on Below Deck and Below Deck Mediterranean , tend to make more in tip money , and they also earn higher salaries than sailing crews. Motor yachts require a higher level of formality, which is one reason for the difference in pay.

“Motor yachts are more formal regarding uniforms, owner and guest relations, and job requirements,” according to the source as reported by Showbiz Cheat Sheet . “That is why the salaries are higher.”

For example, a deckhand on a sailing yacht earns around $3,250 per month while someone with the same position on a similar size motor yacht will bring in about $4,000 per month. This difference also applies to the stewards as a motor yacht stew makes about $3,300 monthly while a sailing stew will earn around $2,500.

As for captains, it’s unclear what Captain Lee, Captain Sandy Yawn , or Captain Glenn Shephard are making. According to Luxury Yacht Group , yearly salaries range anywhere from $48,000 to $310,000, but the amount completely depends on experience and the size of the vessel.

Although Captain Lee likely receives a higher salary than Glenn, Lee claims that Glenn’s job is more difficult.

“Sailing vessels are a lot of work, but we usually have more crew on same size motor yacht, but I would say sailing on a big sailboat is harder,” he explained to a curious fan on Twitter on March 1.

Sailing vessels are a lot of work, but we usually have more crew on same size motor yacht, but I would say sailing on a big sailboat is harder. https://t.co/kDTlloKxE5 — Captain Lee (@capthlr) March 2, 2021

The Below Deck Sailing Yacht crew does have one big advantage, though. They are typically able to spend more time exploring the beautiful surroundings than those on a motor yacht.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht airs Monday nights on Bravo at 9/8c.

Photo Credit: Laurent Basset/Bravo

BELOW DECK SERIES YACHTS: Season 3 luxury yacht STAY SALTY a.k.a. ‘EROS’

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Written by Rachael Steele

The third season of hit reality TV series Below Deck went from strength to strength boasting the best ratings yet over 15 episodes with 49m/161ft ‘EROS’, real name luxury yacht STAY SALTY .

STAY SALTY superyacht – star of the season three of the Below Deck series

Built by US shipyard Trinity Yachts in 2008, the Owners of M/Y STAY SALTY  (ex Hunter, Mustang Sally, Destination Fox Harb’r Too)  made sure she was also looking her best and received a refit just before filming began in August 2015. The gorgeous interiors combine past and present trends, and the facilities are just as comprehensive, catering to a wide variety of guests.

And the Jacuzzi on the sun deck is the hot spot of the yacht

The Interiors

The interiors from Patrick Knowles were inspired by European spa resorts and are designed to appeal for a variety of charter purposes. As such, they offer laid back elegance that merges traditional and contemporary appeal by using Lacewood, Redwood burl and Honduran mahogany accented with satin nickel. A sharp eye will notice all the neo-classical touches throughout, from the mirror surrounds to the balustrades and the lighting fixtures.

When it comes to entertainment both the main salon and skylounge can host a fantastic soiree: There is a wet bar on both decks and the main salon has a 42″ widescreen TV with surround sound, while the skylounge has a 62″ widescreen TV along with a game table and a library. Of course, the main salon also comes with the 12-seater formal dining area.

Elegant dining area and saloon

A pair of engines gives a faster-than-average cruising speed of 16 knots and a top speed of 20 knots, letting guests make excellent time between destinations for a yacht of this size and volume.

The Exteriors

The raked bow and champagne-coloured hull give superyacht hunter a sleek modern look that will impress from afar and when additional visitors come on board for dockside events. Cocktails can be ready and waiting on the large swim platform, which is perfect for lazy days beside the turquoise waters of the Caribbean & Bahamas luxury yacht charter grounds.

Spacious aft deck are ideal for entertainment and socialising

The main deck aft is a casual outdoor environment where the group can discuss their morning around the coffee table while the professional crew creates refreshments at the indoor/outdoor wet bar.

When it comes to dining alfresco, the upper deck aft has a close atmosphere between guests thanks to the round table design, and strong lighting ensures that the area can be used even after sundown – ideal for meals at sunset followed by fireworks, or a film or sports on the widescreen TV. The group can savour a top-quality meal prepared by the expert onboard chef, who will cater to all the dietary requirements within the group. Couples looking for a bit more privacy can head forward to the loveseat on the Portuguese deck, where there’s also a table for meals together or a nightcap.

Once charter guests have explored their beautiful destination, most head to the sundeck for a dip into the forward Jacuzzi or rest on the sunpads until a lunch prepared on the barbeque grill is served in the shade. Just like the main deck and upper deck, the sundeck has a wet bar for fast and efficient service. 

The Accommodation

The generous accommodation is a tranquil sanctum that accommodates up to 12 guests across 5 en-suite cabins: 1 Master suite, 3 VIP staterooms and 1 twin cabin with a Pullman berth ideal for children.

Upon entering the main deck Master suite there is a queen-sized sleeper sofa and en-suite bathroom enclosed in its own space. This can be used as an alternative cabin to the selection on the lower deck, or as a private lounge. The main Master bedroom farther forward boasts a king-sized bed with a widescreen TV opposite, plus plenty of seating and wardrobe space for guests who have a packed social calendar and a different gown or suit for each occasion. The en-suites have a ‘get-up-and-go’ setup in the one bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower, while the second bathroom invites guests to a long soak in the spa bathtub, as well as offering all the amenities of the first.

Retreat to a private suite after a relaxing day on board.

Guests in the VIP staterooms and the twin cabin have not been neglected either: Each cabin has a top-quality mattress and bedding, plus TV entertainment to wind down before a comfortable night’s rest.

The Water Toys

Wherever M/YSTAY SALTY travels, she takes with her a great collection of water toys from high speed to low energy to suit guests’ preferences of the moment:

• Waverunners
• water skis 
• snorkelling equipment 
• towable toys are just some of the toys found onboard…

Endless fun guaranteed by the great selection of water toys enjoyable from the large swim platform aft

Rendezvous diving is available to guests, and while cruising between destinations there is a rowing machine and exercise bike for guests who can’t wait to get out and move about.

VIEW MORE INFORMATION & PHOTOS OF STAY SALTY

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "BELOW DECK SERIES YACHTS: Season 3 luxury yacht STAY SALTY a.k.a. ‘EROS’".

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How Much Is it to Charter the Eros Yacht from Below Deck?

Posted by Claudine Williams | Aug 15, 2015 | Below Deck , Cruise , Reality TV | 11 |

On Season 3 of Below Deck , the crew catered to guests on board the Eros , a 161-foot luxury yacht, which will take the cast and some well-heeled guess Bahamas. The Eros has high-end pleasures like an on-deck jacuzzi and a gym. Like previous years, Below Deck representatives changed the name of the actual yacht for the show.

BELOW DECK On the Eros Yacht — Pictured: Leon Walker — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/Bravo)

Below Deck’s Eros is actually called Mustang Sally.The ship also offers guests water toys like a wave runner, water skis, snorkeling equipment, and scuba diving equipment.

BELOW DECK — Pictured: Captain Lee Rosbach — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/Bravo)

When it is not being filmed on Below Deck, Mustang Sally charters for about $192,000 per week in the summer and about $175,000 in the winter.

BELOW DECK — Pictured: Kate Chastain — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/Bravo)

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Claudine Williams has been published in the New York Times, the Miami Herald, Hotel Chatter, Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, the Huffington Post, and various other publications. Claudine has a master's degree in Information Design and Communications. She believes that everyone deserves a trip to Somewhere Luxurious.

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11 Comments

Great crew, Outstanding yacht.

Though I’ve thought all the Yachts were nice, I’d have to say the EROS is probably a favorite. The layout is so much different than the others.

I was thinking how amazingly fun it would be to work on this yacht….then I thought HELL NO!!! I want to be a pampered guest on that boat, surrounded by an amazing and super fun crew!!! It would be a once in a lifetime trip!!!! I would love my whole family (which is very small) to join me for pure rest & relaxation and tons of fun; with no worries at all… But DAAA’UUUMMM……it is so dang freaking expensive to rent this yacht for a week. I am not that wealthy, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever be able to afford an type of vacation on this gorgeous be z

Us poor peeps can only hope to win the give away Cruz on that boat for the week…

One day I will be able to take a trip on this yacht or spend a week on this yaht, when that day comes I’ll know I won the lotto…lol

I don’t get it. What’ s so special about a yacht? $200,000 and for what?

WoW!! I only wish that I were related to the Real House Wife celeb, Ms. Bailey. What a blessing to grab a few best friends and even just enjoy a weekend at sea…….now that would make me very happy. I will be looking for that “Eros Cruise Contest” as well.

I thought it would fun to get 10 friends and split the cost until I checked into the prices. Wow, I can pay my house off for the amount of money they are asking. I watch the show and I have not been impressed with the food the chef serves, the entertainment, an employee dressing up as a mermaid?? and some water toys. Add another 10000.00 or more for the tip at the end of the week. Maybe when I hit the lotto!

The actual Below Deck yacht is available to charter in Miami area for anyone that has the money.

I would NEVER charter the Eros after seeing the show ‘Below Deck’ & seeing how the crew mock the quests publicly on camera! How rude & unprofessional!

Great Share,

We are planning for sailing vacation after our wedding, I think we will prefer hiring such services which will take care of me and my family.

Hope we are able to go for this vacation. 🙂 ;p

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2023/2024 Superyacht Crew Salary Guide

Whether you’re continuing a long-standing career, climbing the career ladder, or getting your feet wet for the first time, Dockwalk ’s Salary Guide provides the full picture when it comes to crew compensation. 

Salary is generally one of the top motivators for those looking for jobs in yachting, but it remains a closely guarded secret. Each year, the Dockwalk Salary Survey goes out to thousands of crewmembers and crew agencies across the world, gathering real-time salary feedback with the aim of creating greater transparency and understanding across the industry.

The 2024 Salary Survey is now closed. Check out the results in the September 2024 issue.

The Results of the 2023 Salary Survey

Our annual salary survey provided some unprecedented insights to what captains and crew earned in 2023.

The yachting industry is slowly returning to normal in the wake of the pandemic. Yachts are back to work around the world and many new ones are in the pipeline thanks to the surge in popularity the "social distant" yachting lifestyle has enjoyed. But, while this return to normalcy has opened up new crew jobs this year, crew themselves have been returning to the workplace in large numbers and competition has been fierce.

Many of the crew agents reported that crew wages largely are flat this year compared to last. Salaries went up in 2021 and 2022 when crew were in short supply, but now more crew are available than previously. While crew are demanding higher pay this year, they’re not necessarily receiving it, but some agents have seen salaries continue to rise since Covid. There are many factors that can affect the salary crew can expect, including where a yacht is based and the season.

The tables below show the “agency range,” which gives the average lows and highs of all ranges provided by the agencies, the “poll range,” where results from individual working captains and crew are tallied to show the lowest and highest of all the responses, and the “poll average” calculated from all the responses. Note that our figures do not account for longevity and experience, crew benefit packages, tips, or similar extra remuneration.

Not all positions with corresponding boat sizes had enough poll responses to be considered significant; those categories are marked with an asterisk to indicate if fewer than five crew responded in that size range for that position. Several categories had no or only one response, which is also noted.

To view the full table:

Dockwalk Salary Survey 2023 in USD and Euros

Yacht Crew Salaries: Complete Guide to What Yacht Crew Earn

It’s no secret that the impressive yacht crew salaries attract most people into the exclusive yachting world.

Junior deckhands or stewardesses can earn starting salaries of $3000 per month. With a few years of experience and some courses to back you up, this amount moves up towards $4000-$4500 per month!

In order to compile this superyacht crew salary guideline, I have taken 10 of the top yachting platforms and used all of their data, combined with my personal experience, to reach an average salary expectation for each position.

Table of Contents

How Much do you Make Working on a Yacht?

Yacht Captain Salary

• 20m-30m: $4000-$7500
• 30m-40m: $5500-$9500
• 40m-50m: $8000-$15000
• 50m-70m: $13000-$19000
• 70m+: $16500+

Requirements of a Yacht Captain

• Years of experience needed: 3-5 years of experience as Chief Officer/Mate and more than 5 years of experience as a Captain for larger yachts
• Minimum level of Qualification: 200ton licence which allows you to drive vessels below 200tons

The Captain has the highest level of responsibility onboard the yacht and hence they earn the most out of all the yacht crew salaries.

Captains are accountable for the overall safety of the yacht, crew members and guests.

They also handle daily operations of the yacht, guests, and owner liaison. They deal with management companies, port control, budgets, human resources, and many more tasks and logistics that make the job demanding and stressful.

On top of this, Captains are required to hold high levels of certifications depending on the size of the yacht they are driving.

Yacht Captain salaries can sky rocket with higher levels of qualifications.

If you are looking to become a Yacht Captain one day I recommend looking into the courses required so you can get started with licenses and sea time. It takes time to get there, but when you do it will be worth it.

Chief Officer Yacht Salary

• 30m-40m: $4000-$6000
• 40m-50m: $4500-$7500
• 50m-70m: $5500-$9000
• 70m+: $8000+

Requirements of a Chief Officer

• Years of experience needed: 3-5 Years
• Minimum level of qualification: Officer of the Watch

The Chief Officer is second in command to the Captain and is responsible for carrying out the Captain’s standing orders.

On smaller yachts, the Chief Officer is referred to as the Mate.

The Chief Officer is responsible for carrying out the safety duties onboard and assisting in the bridge with paperwork and navigational planning.

The Chief Officer is also responsible for leading and managing their deck team, ensuring crew are following their duties as well as managing the water sports and guest activities.

The salary of a Chief Officer depends heavily on the license held.

Bosun Yacht Salary

• Years of experience needed: 2-3 years
• Minimum level of qualification: Yacht Master Offshore
• A yacht Bosun salary can vary between $4000 and $6000.

Responsibilities of a Bosun

The Bosun is essentially the Lead Deckhand onboard. A lead deckhand salary on a larger vessel will be similar to that of a bosun salary on a smaller vessel.

This is an opportunity to step up from being a deckhand and gain some experience in a leadership role. This position is in place for larger yachts so that when the Officer is busy with bridge duties, someone is in charge on deck.

Yacht Deckhand Salary

Years of experience needed: 0

• Minimum level of qualification: None needed, however Power Boat Level 2 and Yacht Master offshore will put you at a great advantage
• Entry-level yacht crew salaries start at $3000 and can go as high as $4000/$4500.

Responsibilities of a Deckhand

A Deckhand is an entry-level role on a yacht.

You need to spend a few years (or less) as a Deckhand in order to learn and gain experience so that you can step up in the ranks and obtain your licenses.

This role will be very hands-on in maintaining the exterior of the yacht. Duties will include cleaning, polishing, varnishing, sanding, caulking, and any other maintenance work required.

Chief Steward / Chief Stewardess Salary

• 30m-40m :$4500-$5500
• 40m-50m :$5000-$7000
• 50m-70m- $5500-$8000
• 70m+: $7500+

Responsibilities of a Chief Stewardess/Steward

• Years of experience needed: 3-5 years
• Minimum level of qualification: Depending on the size of the vessel you may need courses such as Food Hygiene and Safety, Silver Service, WSET, or a Purser course

The Chief Stewardess or Steward is responsible for all the interior operations of the yacht .

They are responsible for managing the interior team, and ensuring the interior of the yacht is maintained to the highest standards. Besides cleaning and laundry schedules , this also includes provisioning for crew and guests, budgeting, accounting, and training of junior crew.

Steward or Stewardess Yacht Salary

• Minimum level of qualification: Depending on the size of the vessel you may need courses such as Food Hygiene and Safety and Silver Service
• Salaries start at $3000 and go up to $6000

Responsibilities of a Steward or Stewardess

A Stewardess/Steward is an entry-level position working within the interior of the yacht.

There are rankings within the interior (2nd, 3rd, 4th Steward/Stewardesses). As you spend more time in the industry, you will be promoted to higher ranks, and with that will come a better salary and more responsibility.

This role covers a range of tasks, including but not limited to housekeeping, laundry, bartending, table scaping, floral arrangements, serving, and hosting guests.

Engineer Yacht Salary

• 20m-30m: $4000-$5000
• 30m-40m: $4500-$6500
• 40m-50m: $6000-$8000
• 50m-70m: $7500-$11000
• 70m+: $9000+

Requirements of an Engineer

• Years of experience needed: 2-4 years in an engineering role onboard as Deck/Engineer or relevant land-based experience
• Minimum level of qualification: AEC

The Engineer onboard is responsible for all mechanical functioning and maintenance of the vessel. This is a very technical role that can pay well as you gain experience and obtain your licensing.

Yacht Chef Salary

• 20m-30m: $4000 – $5000
• 40m-50m: $5500 – $75000
• 50m-70m: $6500-$9500

Requirements of a Yacht Chef

• Years of experience needed: 3-5 years depending on previous experience
• Minimum level of qualification: Food Hygiene and Safety Level 2

The Chef is responsible for feeding the crew 2 to 3 healthy and sustainable meals a day. They are of course required to prepare meals for guests when onboard to the highest of standards.

In their day-to-day tasks, they will be responsible for their own provisioning of the galley, maintaining stocks, cleanliness, and hygiene of the galley.

The salary of the Yacht Chef varies depending on qualifications and experience.

Yacht Crew Salaries for Private vs Charter Yachts

There are two types of super yachts that require crew: Private and Charter yachts. The salaries for yacht crew differ slightly between the two.

Private Yacht

A private boat is owned by a single person or family who uses the yacht for their own purposes. They don’t charter it out and you can expect to have the same guests onboard for the duration of your contract.

The benefit of these programs is that you get to know your guests well so you may find it easier to manage their wants and needs.

You may also benefit from traveling to off-the-beaten-track locations as I have!

For yacht crew working on these private boats, you will usually not receive charter tips.

Charter Yacht

A charter boat is one that gets chartered out by guests. This operates as a business and also means you will have different guests for every trip. 

If you work on a charter boat you can expect to receive charter tips at the end of each charter. These are usually 10%-20% of the charter fee!

Considering these tips can be anywhere from $2000-$5000 per week depending on the size of the yacht, charter boats offer great earning potential and can skyrocket your salary as a yachtie.

Hi, my name is Lisa, a Chief Stewardess in the yachting industry with 10 years of experience, as well as 8 years of hospitality experience prior to that. Being in the yachting industry has been a whirlwind of adventure, growth, challenges and some of the best experiences of my life, and I am excited to share my knowledge and experiences with all of you.

How to Write the Perfect Yacht CV [With Template]

A day in the life of a yacht stewardess.

Yacht Crew Salaries

Average starting salary guidelines.

The crew salaries reflected below have been derived from placement records and job orders for both power and sail, reflected as an average, received by Crewfinders within the past year and may change without notice.

Yacht Crew Agency / Candidates / Yacht Salaries Guide

Yacht Salaries Guide

Many of our candidates are asking us for advice on what their salary should be on a yacht.

We have prepared a table of approximate wages in the yachting industry. Even though these salaries may give you a reference point, we would like to inform you that all yachts are different, equally as their owners.

These salary rates are based on the current state of the employment market in yachting in 2024. Real wages always vary depending on the candidate’s experience, training, certificates and additional skills.

Different Salaries of Yacht Crew Jobs

People working on a yacht can earn extras.

Tips are another big financial reward for the team of the superyacht to be rewarded. Specially operating on a charter yacht gives crew a great chance to earn extra money, but how much is expected? It is up to it. Common tips vary from 5% to 20% of the charter cost, sharing about 10% and split by all crewmembers.

Living on a private yacht cannot provide all such advice, but it has its own crew benefits, including greater rest, longer vacations, rewards and also the prospect of the owner’s unexpected donations. Such proprietors are often considered to tip.

Different Position in a Yacht Crew, Different Salary

Without a doubt, each position has a different monthly income. So the higher position you will get the higher salary you will get. Here are an overview about some positions on a yacht.

The Captain must be skilled and trained in maritime affairs, outstanding navigational knowledge, exceptional administration, coordination, strategy and diplomacy. A Superyacht Captain will have outstanding nautical expertise, repairs, electronics, professional procedures and accounting, Finance and administrative records knowledge. A captain must have a cool, charismatic demeanor and must be exceptionally competent to work with men, staff and visitors. Average monthly salary : 60ft (18m) à 2,200€ – 3,700€

During the captain’s absence, the Chief Officer / First Mate will have the captain’s good management and interpersonal abilities and outstanding experience and procedures in ISM and ISPS. The CEO will be someone with a solid history in deck work from prior practice with Deckhand or Boson. Average monthly salary : 60ft < 75ft (23m) à 2,200€ – 3,000€

Under the command and control of the commander, the chief steward must perform his or her duties. The head chef may therefore train and prescribe some lower level stews under his command, as the sole responsible for the interior of the vessel and for offering a satisfactory hospitality service to fulfill the holidaymakers ‘needs. Excellent support, networking and management are a must, as is an innovative environment. Average monthly salary : 100ft (33m) – 140ft (43m) à 2,200€ – 3,000€ +

Morgan & Mallet Yacht Crew Agency helps all yachting professionals find the best job and create a career in yachting

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EROS YACHT CHARTER

37.03m  /  121'6   custom line   2019 / 2022.

• Previous Yacht

Cabin Configuration

Special Features:

• Impressive 3,000nm range
• Recent refit in 2022
• Interior design from Zuccon
• Airy beach club
• Sleeps 10 guests

Eros offers guests ample areas to unwind and kick back, as well as 4 generous suites, perfect for relaxing yacht charters

The 37.04m/121'6" motor yacht 'Eros' by the Italian shipyard Custom Line offers flexible accommodation for up to 10 guests in 5 cabins and features interior styling by Italian designer Zuccon.

Built in 2019, Eros offers beautifully proportioned decks for exquisite indoor/outdoor living during a luxury yacht charter . She is equipped with underwater lights and beach club.

Guest Accommodation

Eros offers guest accommodation for up to 10 guests in 5 suites comprising a master suite, two double cabins and two twin cabins. She is also capable of carrying up to 7 crew onboard to ensure a relaxed luxury yacht charter experience.

Onboard Comfort & Entertainment

Keeping comfortable and entertained on Eros is easy thanks to the available amenities, notably a beach club for you to relax on the edge of the water.

Whatever your activities on your charter, you'll find some impressive features are seamlessly integrated to help you, notably the underwater lights, adding spectacle and style after dark. Guests will experience complete comfort while chartering thanks to air conditioning.

Performance & Range

Eros is built with a GRP hull and GRP superstructure. Powered by twin MAN engines, she comfortably cruises at 13 knots, reaches a maximum speed of 15 knots with a range of up to 3,000 nautical miles from her 32,500 litre fuel tanks at 10 knots. Eros features at-anchor stabilizers providing exceptional comfort levels.

Onboard Eros has a range of toys and accessories to keep you and your guests entertained on the water throughout your stay. Principle among these is a Flyboard which is a must for any self-respecting thrill-seeker, prepare for supersize thrills - even beginners will enjoy the thrill of swooping skywards and ‘dolphining’ back into the water. Guests can experience the thrill and adventure of riding one of the two Seadoo Rltax XPS X3000 WaveRunners. In addition there are two SEABOBs, offering a truly remarkable experience that lets you skim along the surface or swim with the fishes quietly and safely. If that isn't enough Eros also features kayaks, fishing equipment, paddleboards and snorkelling equipment. Eros features two tenders, but leading the pack is a 10.06m/33' Valhalla to transport you in style.

Based in the magical waters of the Caribbean all year round Eros is ready for your next luxury yacht charter. Let Eros Discover the magical places, food and experiences of the the Caribbean.

As you can see, luxury motor yacht Eros offers guests the very best onboard experience, from its sun-kissed top deck down to its standout waterside beach club promising truly memorable vacations that you"ll want to repeat again and again.

TESTIMONIALS

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Eros Photos

Amenities & Entertainment

For your relaxation and entertainment Eros has the following facilities, for more details please speak to your yacht charter broker.

Eros is reported to be available to Charter with the following recreation facilities:

• Beach Set up
• 1 x 10.06m  /  33' Valhalla
• 1 x 5.65m  /  18'6 Williams 565 rib Tender

For a full list of all available amenities & entertainment facilities, or price to hire additional equipment please contact your broker.

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For a full list of all available amenities & entertainment facilities, or price to hire additional equipment please contact your broker.

'Eros' Charter Rates & Destinations

Summer Season

May - September

$145,000 p/week + expenses

High Season

$160,000 p/week + expenses

Cruising Regions

Caribbean Bahamas

Winter Season

October - April

Caribbean Antigua, Bahamas, Saint Martin, St Barts

Note: Not for charter to U.S. residents while in U.S. waters

Charter Eros

To charter this luxury yacht contact your charter broker , or we can help you.

To charter this luxury yacht contact your charter broker or

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• Feb 21, 2021
• 20 min read

The Dyatlov Pass Incident

What is the Dyatlov Pass incident? Well, as we’ll find out, it was when nine Russian hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains between February 1st & 2nd in 1959, under supposed uncertain circumstances. The experienced trekking group, who were all from the Ural Polytechnical Institute , had established a camp on the slopes of Kholat Syakhl , in an area now named in honour of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. During the night, something caused them to cut their way out of their tent and attempt to flee the campsite while not being dressed for the heavy ass snowfall and subzero temperatures. Subzero was one of my favorite Mortal Kombat characters… god I loved that game.

After the group's bodies were grusomly discovered, an investigation by Soviet authorities determined that six of them had died from hypothermia while the other three had been killed by physical trauma . One victim actually had major skull damage, two had severe chest trauma, and another had a small crack in the skull . Was all of this caused by an avalanche or from something nefarious? Four of the bodies were found lying in running water in a creek, and three of these had soft tissue damage of the head and face – two of the bodies were missing their eyes, one was missing its tongue, and one was missing its eyebrows. It’s eyebrows! The Soviet investigation concluded that a "compelling natural force" had caused the untimely deaths. Numerous theories have been brought forward to account for the unexplained deaths, including animal attacks, hypothermia, avalanche , katabatic winds , infrasound -induced panic, military involvement, or some combination of these. We’ll discuss all these in further detail later on.

Recently, Russia has opened a new investigation into the Dyatlov incident in 2019, and its conclusions were presented in July 2020: Simply put, they believe that an avalanche had led to the deaths of the hikers. Survivors of the avalanche had been forced to suddenly leave their camp in low visibility conditions with inadequate clothing, and had died of hypothermia. Andrey Kuryakov, deputy head of the regional prosecutor's office, said: "It was a heroic struggle. There was no panic. But they had no chance to save themselves under the circumstances." A study published in 2021 suggested that a type of avalanche known as a slab avalanche could explain some of the injuries. However, we’ll run through everything and you can come to your own conclusion.

Ok, let’s dive into the details of the event.

In 1959, the group was formed for a skiing expedition across the northern Urals in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union. According to Prosecutor Tempalov, documents that were found in the tent of the expedition suggest that the expedition was named for the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and was possibly dispatched by the local Komsomol organisation.Which was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union , which was sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . Igor Dyatlov, a 23-year-old radio engineering student at the Ural Polytechnical Institute; now Ural Federal University, was the leader who assembled a group of nine others for the trip, most of whom were fellow students and peers at the university.Ok, so they were mostly students. Each member of the group, which consisted of eight men and two women, was an experienced Grade II-hiker with ski tour experience, and would be receiving Grade III certification upon their return. So, this trekk was like a test. I hated tests. Especially ones that could KILL YOU! At the time, this was the highest certification available in the Soviet Union, and required candidates to traverse 190 mi. The route was designed by Igor Dyatlov's group in order to reach the far northern regions of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the upper-streams of the Lozva river. The route was approved by the Sverdlovsk city route commission, which was a division of the Sverdlovsk Committee of Physical Culture and Sport. They approved of and confirmed the group of 10 people on January 8th, 1959. The goal of the expedition was to reach Otorten, a mountain(6.2 mi north of the site where the incident took place. This path, taken in February, was estimated as a Category III, the most difficult time to traverse.

On January 23rd, 1959 the Dyatlov group was issued their route book which listed their course as following the No.5 trail. At that time, the Sverdlovsk City Committee of Physical Culture and Sport listed approval for 11 people. The 11th person was listed as Semyon Zolotaryov who was previously certified to go with another expedition of similar difficulty (that was the Sogrin expedition group). The Dyatlov group left the Sverdlovsk city (today called Yekaterinburg) on the same day they received the route book.

The members of the group were Igor Alekseyevich Dyatlov, Yuri Nikolayevich Doroshenko, Lyudmila Alexandrovna Dubinina, Georgiy (Yuri) Alexeyevich Krivonischenko, Alexander Sergeyevich Kolevatov, Zinaida Alekseevna Kolmogorova, Rustem Vladimirovich Slobodin, Nikolai Vladimirovich Thibeaux-Brignolles, Semyon (Alexander) Alekseevich Zolotaryov, and Yuri Yefimovich Yudin

The group arrived by train at Ivdel , a town at the centre of the northern province of Sverdlovsk Oblast in the early morning hours of January 25, 1959. They took a truck to Vizhai, a little village that is the last inhabited settlement to the north. As of 2010, only 207 really, really fucking cold people lived there. While spending the night in Vizhai, and probably freezing their baguettes off, the skiers purchased and ate loaves of bread to keep their energy levels up for the following day's hike.

On January 27, they began their trek toward Gora Otorten. On January 28, one member, Yuri Yudin, who suffered from several health ailments (including rheumatism and a congenital heart defect ) turned back due to knee and joint pain that made him unable to continue the hike. The remaining nine hikers continued the trek. Ok, my first question with this is, why in the fuck was that guy there, to begin with??

Diaries and cameras found around their last campsite made it possible to track the group's route up to the day before the incident. On January 31st, the group arrived at the edge of a highland area and began to prepare for climbing. In a wooded valley, they rounded up surplus food and equipment that they would use for the trip back. The next day, the hikers started to move through the pass. It seems they planned to get over the pass and make camp for the next night on the opposite side, but because of worsening weather conditions—like snowstorms, decreasing visibility... large piles of yeti shit—they lost their direction and headed west, toward the top of Kholat Syakhl . When they realised their mistake, the group decided to set up camp there on the slope of the mountain, rather than move almost a mile downhill to a forested area that would have offered some shelter from the weather. Yudin, the debilitated goofball that shouldn’t have even been there speculated, "Dyatlov probably did not want to lose the altitude they had gained, or he decided to practice camping on the mountain slope."

Before leaving, Captain Dyatlov had agreed he would send a telegram to their sports club as soon as the group returned to teeny, tiny Vizhai. It was expected that this would happen no later than February 12th, but Dyatlov had told Yudin, before he departed from the group, that he expected it to actually be longer. When the 12th passed and no messages had been received, there was no immediate reaction because, ya know… fuck it. Just kidding, these types of delays were actually common with such expeditions. On February 20th, the travellers' worried relatives demanded a rescue operation and the head of the institute sent the first rescue groups, consisting of volunteer students and teachers. Later, the army and militsiya forces (aka the Soviet police) became involved, with planes and helicopters ordered to join in on the search party.

On February 26th, the searchers found the group's abandoned and super fucked up tent on Kholat Syakhl . The campsite undoubtedly baffled the search party. Mikhail Sharavin, the student who found the tent, said “HOLY SHIT! THIS PLACE IS FUCKED UP!”... No, that’s not true. He actually said, "the tent was half torn down and covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group's belongings and shoes had been left behind." Investigators said the tent had been cut open from inside. Which seems like a serious and quick escape route was needed. Nine sets of footprints, left by people wearing only socks or a single shoe or even barefoot, could actually be followed, leading down to the edge of a nearby wood, on the opposite side of the pass, about a mile to the north-east. After approximately 1,600 ft, these tracks were covered with snow. At the forest's edge, under a large Siberian pine , the searchers found the visible remains of a small fire. There were the first two bodies, those of Krivonischenko and Doroshenko, shoeless and dressed only in their tighty whiteys. The branches on the tree were broken up to five meters high, suggesting that one of the skiers had climbed up to look for something, maybe the camp. Between the pine and the camp, the searchers found three more corpses: Dyatlov, Kolmogorova, and Slobodin, who died in poses suggesting that they were attempting to return to the tent. They were found at distances of 980, 1,570, and 2,070 ft from the tree.

Finding the remaining four travellers took more than two frigging months. They were finally found on May 4th under 13 ft of snow in a ravine 246 ft further into the woods from the pine tree. Three of the four were better dressed than the others, and there were signs that some clothing of those who had died first had been taken off of their corpses for use by the others. Dubinina was wearing Krivonishenko's burned, torn trousers, and her left foot and shin were wrapped in a torn jacket.

Let’s get into the investigation. A legal inquest started immediately after the first five bodies were found. A medical examination found no injuries that might have led to their deaths, and it was concluded that they had all died of hypothermia .Which would make sense because it was colder than a polar bear’s butthole. Slobodin had a small crack in his skull, but it was not thought to be a fatal wound.

An examination of the four bodies found in May shifted the overall narrative of what they initially believed transpired. Three of the hikers had fatal injuries: Thibeaux-Brignolles had major skull damage, and Dubinina and Zolotaryov had major chest fractures. According to Boris Vozrozhdenny, the force required to cause such damage would have been extremely high, comparable to that of a car crash.Also, the bodies had no external wounds associated with the bone fractures, as if they had been subjected to a high level of pressure.

All four bodies found at the bottom of the creek in a running stream of water had soft tissue damage to their head and face. For example, Dubinina was missing her tongue, eyes, part of the lips, as well as facial tissue and a fragment of her skullbone, while Zolotaryov was missing his friggin eyeballs, and Aleksander Kolevatov his eyebrows. V. A. Vozrozhdenny, the forensic expert performing the post-mortem examination , judged that these injuries happened after they had died, due to the location of the bodies in a stream.

At first, there was speculation that the indigenous Mansi people , who were just simple reindeer herders local to the area, had attacked and murdered the group for making fun of Rudolph. Several Mansi were interrogated, but the investigation indicated that the nature of the deaths did not support this hypothesis: only the hikers' footprints were visible, and they showed no sign of hand-to-hand struggle. Oh, I was kidding about the Rudolph thing. They thought they attacked the hikers for being on their land.

Although the temperature was very low, around −13 to −22 °F with a storm blowing, the dead were only partially dressed, as I mentioned.

Journalists reporting on the available parts of the inquest files claim that it states:

Six of the group members died of hypothermia and three of fatal injuries.

There were no indications of other people nearby on Kholat Syakhl apart from the nine travellers.

The tent had been ripped open from within.

The victims had died six to eight hours after their last meal.

Traces from the camp showed that all group members left the campsite of their own accord, on foot.

Some levels of radiation were found on one victim's clothing.

To dispel the theory of an attack by the indigenous Mansi people, Vozrozhdenny stated that the fatal injuries of the three bodies could not have been caused by human beings, "because the force of the blows had been too strong and no soft tissue had been damaged".

Released documents contained no information about the condition of the skiers' internal organs.

And most obviously, There were no survivors.

At the time, the official conclusion was that the group members had died because of a compelling natural force.The inquest officially ceased in May 1959 as a result of the absence of a guilty party. The files were sent to a secret archive.

In 1997, it was revealed that the negatives from Krivonischenko's camera were kept in the private archive of one of the investigators, Lev Ivanov. The film material was donated by Ivanov's daughter to the Dyatlov Foundation. The diaries of the hiking party fell into Russia's public domain in 2009.

On April 12th, 2018, Zolotarev's remains were exhumed on the initiative of journalists of the Russian tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda . Contradictory results were obtained: one of the experts said that the character of the injuries resembled a person knocked down by a car, and the DNA analysis did not reveal any similarity to the DNA of living relatives. In addition, it turned out that Zolotarev's name was not on the list of those buried at the Ivanovskoye cemetery. Nevertheless, the reconstruction of the face from the exhumed skull matched postwar photographs of Zolotarev, although journalists expressed suspicions that another person was hiding under Zolotarev's name after World War II .

In February 2019, Russian authorities reopened the investigation into the incident, yet again, although only three possible explanations were being considered: an avalanche, a slab avalanche , or a hurricane . The possibility of a crime had been discounted.

Other reports brought about a whole bunch of additional speculation.

Twelve-year-old Yury Kuntsevich, who later became the head of the Yekaterinburg-based Dyatlov Foundation, attended five of the hikers' funerals. He recalled that their skin had a "deep brown tan".

Another group of hikers 31 mi south of the incident reported that they saw strange orange spheres in the sky to the north on the night of the incident.Similar spheres were observed in Ivdel and other areas continually during the period from February to March of 1959, by various independent witnesses (including the meteorology service and the military). These sightings were not noted in the 1959 investigation, and the various witnesses came forward years later.

After the initial investigation,

Anatoly Gushchin summarized his research in the book The Price of State Secrets Is Nine Lives. Some researchers criticised the work for its concentration on the speculative theory of a Soviet secret weapon experiment, but its publication led to public discussion, stimulated by interest in the paranormal .It is true that many of those who had remained silent for thirty years reported new facts about the accident. One of them was the former police officer, Lev Ivanov, who led the official inquest in 1959. In 1990, he published an article that included his admission that the investigation team had no rational explanation for the incident. He also stated that, after his team reported that they had seen flying spheres, he then received direct orders from high-ranking regional officials to dismiss this claim.

In 2000, a regional television company produced the documentary film The Mystery of Dyatlov Pass . With the help of the film crew, a Yekaterinburg writer, Anna Matveyeva, published a docudrama of the same name. A large part of the book includes broad quotations from the official case, diaries of victims, interviews with searchers and other documentaries collected by the film-makers. The narrative line of the book details the everyday life and thoughts of a modern woman (an alter ego of the author herself, which is super weird) who attempts to resolve the case. Despite its fictional narrative, Matveyeva's book remains the largest source of documentary materials ever made available to the public regarding the incident. Also, the pages of the case files and other documentaries (in photocopies and transcripts) are gradually being published on a web forum for nerds just like you and i!.

The Dyatlov Foundation was founded in 1999 at Yekaterinburg, with the help of Ural State Technical University, led by Yuri Kuntsevitch. The foundation's stated aim is to continue investigation of the case and to maintain the Dyatlov Museum to preserve the memory of the dead hikers. On July 1st 2016, a memorial plaque was inaugurated in Solikamsk in Ural's Perm Region, dedicated to Yuri Yudin (the dude who pussed out and is the sole survivor of the expedition group), who died in 2013.

Now, let’s go over some of the theories of what actually took place at the pass.

On July 11 2020, Andrey Kuryakov, deputy head of the Urals Federal District directorate of the Prosecutor-General 's Office, announced an avalanche to be the "official cause of death" for the Dyatlov group in 1959. Later independent computer simulation and analysis by Swiss researchers also suggest avalanche as the cause.

Reviewing the sensationalist " Yeti " hypothesis , American skeptic author Benjamin Radford suggests an avalanche as more plausible:

“that the group woke up in a panic (...) and cut their way out the tent either because an avalanche had covered the entrance to their tent or because they were scared that an avalanche was imminent (...) (better to have a potentially repairable slit in a tent than risk being buried alive in it under tons of snow). They were poorly clothed because they had been sleeping, and ran to the safety of the nearby woods where trees would help slow oncoming snow. In the darkness of night, they got separated into two or three groups; one group made a fire (hence the burned hands) while the others tried to return to the tent to recover their clothing since the danger had passed. But it was too cold, and they all froze to death before they could locate their tent in the darkness. At some point, some of the clothes may have been recovered or swapped from the dead, but at any rate, the group of four whose bodies was most severely damaged were caught in an avalanche and buried under 4 meters (13 ft) of snow (more than enough to account for the 'compelling natural force' the medical examiner described). Dubinina's tongue was likely removed by scavengers and ordinary predation.”

Evidence contradicting the avalanche theory includes:

The location of the incident did not have any obvious signs of an avalanche having taken place. An avalanche would have left certain patterns and debris distributed over a wide area. The bodies found within a month of the event were covered with a very shallow layer of snow and, had there been an avalanche of sufficient strength to sweep away the second party, these bodies would have been swept away as well; this would have caused more serious and different injuries in the process and would have damaged the tree line.

Over 100 expeditions to the region had been held since the incident, and none of them ever reported conditions that might create an avalanche. A study of the area using up-to-date terrain-related physics revealed that the location was entirely unlikely for such an avalanche to have occurred. The "dangerous conditions" found in another nearby area (which had significantly steeper slopes and cornices) were observed in April and May when the snowfalls of winter were melting. During February, when the incident occurred, there were no such conditions.

An analysis of the terrain and the slope showed that even if there could have been a very specific avalanche that found its way into the area, its path would have gone past the tent. The tent had collapsed from the side but not in a horizontal direction.

Dyatlov was an experienced skier and the much older Zolotaryov was studying for his Masters Certificate in ski instruction and mountain hiking. Neither of these two men would have been likely to camp anywhere in the path of a potential avalanche.

Footprint patterns leading away from the tent were inconsistent with someone, let alone a group of nine people, running in panic from either real or imagined danger. All the footprints leading away from the tent and towards the woods were consistent with individuals who were walking at a normal pace.

Repeated 2015 investigation [ edit ]

A review of the 1959 investigation's evidence completed in 2015–2019 by experienced investigators from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) on request of the families confirmed the avalanche with several important details added. First of all, the ICRF investigators (one of them an experienced alpinist ) confirmed that the weather on the night of the tragedy was very harsh, with wind speeds up to hurricane force,(45–67 mph, a snowstorm and temperatures reaching −40 °C. These factors weren't considered by the 1959 investigators who arrived at the scene of the accident three weeks later when the weather had much improved and any remains of the snow slide had settled and been covered with fresh snowfall. The harsh weather at the same time played a critical role in the events of the tragic night, which have been reconstructed as follows:

On 1 February the group arrives at the Kholat Syakhl mountain and erects a large, 9-person tent on an open slope, without any natural barriers such as forests. On the day and a few preceding days, a heavy snowfall continued, with strong wind and frost.

The group traversing the slope and digging a tent site into the snow weakens the snow base. During the night the snowfield above the tent starts to slide down slowly under the weight of the new snow, gradually pushing on the tent fabric, starting from the entrance. The group wakes up and starts evacuation in panic, with only some able to put on warm clothes. With the entrance blocked, the group escapes through a hole cut in the tent fabric and descends the slope to find a place perceived as safe from the avalanche only 1500 m down, at the forest border.

Because some of the members have only incomplete clothing, the group splits. Two of the group, only in their underwear and pajamas, were found at the Siberian pine tree, near a fire pit. Their bodies were found first and confirmed to have died from hypothermia.

Three hikers, including Dyatlov, attempted to climb back to the tent, possibly to get sleeping bags. They had better clothes than those at the fire pit, but still quite light and with inadequate footwear. Their bodies were found at various distances 300–600 m from the campfire, in poses suggesting that they had fallen exhausted while trying to climb in deep snow in extremely cold weather.

The remaining four, equipped with warm clothing and footwear, were trying to find or build a better camping place in the forest further down the slope. Their bodies were found 70 m from the fireplace, under several meters of snow and with traumas indicating that they had fallen into a snow hole formed above a stream. These bodies were found only after two months.

According to the ICRF investigators, the factors contributing to the tragedy were extremely bad weather and lack of experience of the group leader in such conditions, which led to the selection of a dangerous camping place. After the snow slide, another mistake of the group was to split up, rather than building a temporary camp down in the forest and trying to survive through the night. Negligence of the 1959 investigators contributed to their report creating more questions than answers and inspiring numerous conspiracy theories.

In 2021 a team of physicists and engineers led by Alexander Puzrin published a new model that demonstrated how even a relatively small slide of snow slab on the Kholat Syakhl slope could cause tent damage and injuries consistent with those suffered by Dyatlov team.

Ok, what about the Katabatic wind that I mentioned earlier?

In 2019, a Swedish-Russian expedition was made to the site, and after investigations, they proposed that a violent katabatic wind was a plausible explanation for the incident. Katabatic winds are a drainage wind, a wind that carries high-density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity. They are somewhat rare events and can be extremely violent. They were implicated in a 1978 case at Anaris Mountain in Sweden, where eight hikers were killed and one was severely injured in the aftermath of katabatic wind. The topography of these locations were noted to be very similar according to the expedition.

A sudden katabatic wind would have made it impossible to remain in the tent, and the most rational course of action would have been for the hikers to cover the tent with snow and seek shelter behind the treeline. On top of the tent, there was also a torch left turned on, possibly left there intentionally so that the hikers could find their way back to the tent once the winds subsided. The expedition proposed that the group of hikers constructed two bivouac shelters , or just makeshift shelters, one of which collapsed, leaving four of the hikers buried with the severe injuries observed.

Another hypothesis popularised by Donnie Eichar 's 2013 book Dead Mountain is that wind going around Kholat Syakal created a Kármán vortex street , a repeating pattern of swirling vortices , caused by a process known as vortex shedding , which is responsible for the unsteady separation of flow of a fluid around blunt bodies. which can produce infrasound capable of inducing panic attacks in humans. According to Eichar's theory, the infrasound generated by the wind as it passed over the top of the Holatchahl mountain was responsible for causing physical discomfort and mental distress in the hikers. Eichar claims that, because of their panic, the hikers were driven to leave the tent by whatever means necessary, and fled down the slope. By the time they were further down the hill, they would have been out of the infrasound's path and would have regained their composure, but in the darkness would have been unable to return to their shelter. The traumatic injuries suffered by three of the victims were the result of their stumbling over the edge of a ravine in the darkness and landing on the rocks at the bottom. Hmmm...plausible.

Military tests

In another theory, the campsite fell within the path of a Soviet parachute mine exercise. This theory alleges that the hikers, woken up by loud explosions, fled the tent in a shoeless panic and found themselves unable to return for their shit. After some members froze to death attempting to endure the bombardment, others commandeered their clothing only to be fatally injured by subsequent parachute mine concussions. There are in fact records of parachute mines being tested by the Soviet military in the area around the time the hikers were out there, fuckin’ around. Parachute mines detonate while still in the air rather than upon striking the Earth's surface and produce signature injuries similar to those experienced by the hikers: heavy internal damage with relatively little external trauma. The theory coincides with reported sightings of glowing, orange orbs floating or falling in the sky within the general vicinity of the hikers and allegedly photographed by them, potentially military aircraft or descending parachute mines. (remember the camera they found? HUH? Yeah?)

This theory (among others) uses scavenging animals to explain Dubinina's injuries. Some speculate that the bodies were unnaturally manipulated, on the basis of characteristic livor mortis markings discovered during an autopsy, as well as burns to hair and skin. Photographs of the tent allegedly show that it was erected incorrectly, something the experienced hikers were unlikely to have done.

A similar theory alleges the testing of radiological weapons and is based partly on the discovery of radioactivity on some of the clothing as well as the descriptions of the bodies by relatives as having orange skin and grey hair. However, radioactive dispersal would have affected all, not just some, of the hikers and equipment, and the skin and hair discoloration can be explained by a natural process of mummification after three months of exposure to the cold and wind. The initial suppression by Soviet authorities of files describing the group's disappearance is sometimes mentioned as evidence of a cover-up, but the concealment of information about domestic incidents was standard procedure in the USSR and thus nothing strange.. And by the late 1980s, all Dyatlov files had been released in some manner.

Let’s talk about Paradoxical undressing

International Science Times proposed that the hikers' deaths were caused by hypothermia, which can induce a behavior known as paradoxical undressing in which hypothermic subjects remove their clothes in response to perceived feelings of burning warmth. It is undisputed that six of the nine hikers died of hypothermia. However, others in the group appear to have acquired additional clothing (from those who had already died), which suggests that they were of a sound enough mind to try to add layers.

Keith McCloskey, who has researched the incident for many years and has appeared in several TV documentaries on the subject, traveled to the Dyatlov Pass in 2015 with Yury Kuntsevich of the Dyatlov Foundation and a group. At the Dyatlov Pass he noted:

There were wide discrepancies in distances quoted between the two possible locations of the snow shelter where Dubinina, Kolevatov, Zolotarev, and Thibault-Brignolles were found. One location was approximately 80 to 100 meters from the pine tree where the bodies of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko were found and the other suggested location was so close to the tree that anyone in the snow shelter could have spoken to those at the tree without raising their voices to be heard. This second location also has a rock in the stream where Dubinina's body was found and is the more likely location of the two. However, the second suggested location of the two has a topography that is closer to the photos taken at the time of the search in 1959.

The location of the tent near the ridge was found to be too close to the spur of the ridge for any significant build-up of snow to cause an avalanche. Furthermore, the prevailing wind blowing over the ridge had the effect of blowing snow away from the edge of the ridge on the side where the tent was. This further reduced any build-up of snow to cause an avalanche. This aspect of the lack of snow on the top and near the top of the ridge was pointed out by Sergey Sogrin in 2010.

McCloskey also noted:

Lev Ivanov's boss, Evgeny Okishev (Deputy Head of the Investigative Department of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Prosecution Office), was still alive in 2015 and had given an interview to former Kemerovo prosecutor Leonid Proshkin in which Okishev stated that he was arranging another trip to the Pass to fully investigate the strange deaths of the last four bodies when Deputy Prosecutor General Urakov arrived from Moscow and ordered the case shut down.

Evgeny Okishev also stated in his interview with Leonid Proshkin that Klinov, head of the Sverdlovsk Prosecutor's Office, was present at the first post mortems in the morgue and spent three days there, something Okishev regarded as highly unusual and the only time, in his experience, it had happened.

Donnie Eichar , who investigated and made a documentary about the incident, evaluated several other theories that are deemed unlikely or have been discredited:

They were attacked by Mansi or other local tribesmen. The local tribesmen were known to be peaceful and there was no track evidence of anyone approaching the tent.

They were attacked and chased by animal wildlife. There were no animal tracks and the group would not have abandoned the relative security of the tent.

High winds blew one member away, and the others attempted to rescue the person. A large experienced group would not have behaved like that, and winds strong enough to blow away people with such force would have also blown away the tent.

An argument, possibly related to a romantic encounter that left some of them only partially clothed, led to a violent dispute. About this, Eichar states that it is "highly implausible. By all indications, the group was largely harmonious, and sexual tension was confined to platonic flirtation and crushes. There were no drugs present and the only alcohol was a small flask of medicinal alcohol, found intact at the scene. The group had even sworn off cigarettes for the expedition." Furthermore, a fight could not have left the massive injuries that one body had suffered.

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• Places - European, Western and Northern Russia

YEKATERINBURG: FACTORIES, URAL SIGHTS, YELTSIN AND THE WHERE NICHOLAS II WAS KILLED

Sverdlovsk oblast.

Sverdlovsk Oblast is the largest region in the Urals; it lies in the foothills of mountains and contains a monument indicating the border between Europe and Asia. The region covers 194,800 square kilometers (75,200 square miles), is home to about 4.3 million people and has a population density of 22 people per square kilometer. About 83 percent of the population live in urban areas. Yekaterinburg is the capital and largest city, with 1.5 million people. For Russians, the Ural Mountains are closely associated with Pavel Bazhov's tales and known for folk crafts such as Kasli iron sculpture, Tagil painting, and copper embossing. Yekaterinburg is the birthplace of Russia’s iron and steel industry, taking advantage of the large iron deposits in the Ural mountains. The popular Silver Ring of the Urals tourist route starts here.

In the summer you can follow in the tracks of Yermak, climb relatively low Ural mountain peaks and look for boulders seemingly with human faces on them. You can head to the Gemstone Belt of the Ural mountains, which used to house emerald, amethyst and topaz mines. In the winter you can go ice fishing, ski and cross-country ski.

Sverdlovsk Oblast and Yekaterinburg are located near the center of Russia, at the crossroads between Europe and Asia and also the southern and northern parts of Russia. Winters are longer and colder than in western section of European Russia. Snowfalls can be heavy. Winter temperatures occasionally drop as low as - 40 degrees C (-40 degrees F) and the first snow usually falls in October. A heavy winter coat, long underwear and good boots are essential. Snow and ice make the sidewalks very slippery, so footwear with a good grip is important. Since the climate is very dry during the winter months, skin moisturizer plus lip balm are recommended. Be alert for mud on street surfaces when snow cover is melting (April-May). Patches of mud create slippery road conditions.

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg (kilometer 1818 on the Trans-Siberian Railway) is the fourth largest city in Russia, with of 1.5 million and growth rate of about 12 percent, high for Russia. Located in the southern Ural mountains, it was founded by Peter the Great and named after his wife Catherine, it was used by the tsars as a summer retreat and is where tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed and President Boris Yeltsin lived most of his life and began his political career. The city is near the border between Europe and Asia.

Yekaterinburg (also spelled Ekaterinburg) is located on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains in the headwaters of the Iset and Pyshma Rivers. The Iset runs through the city center. Three ponds — Verkh-Isetsky, Gorodskoy and Nizhne-Isetsky — were created on it. Yekaterinburg has traditionally been a city of mining and was once the center of the mining industry of the Urals and Siberia. Yekaterinburg remains a major center of the Russian armaments industry and is sometimes called the "Pittsburgh of Russia.". A few ornate, pastel mansions and wide boulevards are reminders of the tsarist era. The city is large enough that it has its own Metro system but is characterized mostly by blocky Soviet-era apartment buildings. The city has advanced under President Vladimir Putin and is now one of the fastest growing places in Russia, a country otherwise characterized by population declines

Yekaterinburg is technically an Asian city as it lies 32 kilometers east of the continental divide between Europe and Asia. The unofficial capital of the Urals, a key region in the Russian heartland, it is second only to Moscow in terms of industrial production and capital of Sverdlovsk oblast. Among the important industries are ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, machine building and metalworking, chemical and petrochemicals, construction materials and medical, light and food industries. On top of being home of numerous heavy industries and mining concerns, Yekaterinburg is also a major center for industrial research and development and power engineering as well as home to numerous institutes of higher education, technical training, and scientific research. In addition, Yekaterinburg is the largest railway junction in Russia: the Trans-Siberian Railway passes through it, the southern, northern, western and eastern routes merge in the city.

Accommodation: There are two good and affordable hotels — the 3-star Emerald and Parus hotels — located close to the city's most popular landmarks and main transport interchanges in the center of Yekaterinburg. Room prices start at RUB 1,800 per night.

History of Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg was founded in 1723 by Peter the Great and named after his wife Catherine I. It was used by the tsars as a summer retreat but was mainly developed as metalworking and manufacturing center to take advantage of the large deposits of iron and other minerals in the Ural mountains. It is best known to Americans as the place where the last Tsar and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and near where American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Gary Powers, was shot down in 1960.

Peter the Great recognized the importance of the iron and copper-rich Urals region for Imperial Russia's industrial and military development. In November 1723, he ordered the construction of a fortress factory and an ironworks in the Iset River Valley, which required a dam for its operation. In its early years Yekaterinburg grew rich from gold and other minerals and later coal. The Yekaterinburg gold rush of 1745 created such a huge amount of wealth that one rich baron of that time hosted a wedding party that lasted a year. By the mid-18th century, metallurgical plants had sprung up across the Urals to cast cannons, swords, guns and other weapons to arm Russia’s expansionist ambitions. The Yekaterinburg mint produced most of Russia's coins. Explorations of the Trans-Baikal and Altai regions began here in the 18th century.

Iron, cast iron and copper were the main products. Even though Iron from the region went into the Eiffel Tower, the main plant in Yekaterinburg itself was shut down in 1808. The city still kept going through a mountain factory control system of the Urals. The first railway in the Urals was built here: in 1878, the Yekaterinburg-Perm railway branch connected the province's capital with the factories of the Middle Urals.

In the Soviet era the city was called Sverdlovsk (named after Yakov Sverdlov, the man who organized Nicholas II's execution). During the first five-year plans the city became industrial — old plants were reconstructed, new ones were built. The center of Yekaterinburg was formed to conform to the historical general plan of 1829 but was the layout was adjusted around plants and factories. In the Stalin era the city was a major gulag transhipment center. In World War II, many defense-related industries were moved here. It and the surrounding area were a center of the Soviet Union's military industrial complex. Soviet tanks, missiles and aircraft engines were made in the Urals. During the Cold War era, Yekaterinburg was a center of weapons-grade uranium enrichment and processing, warhead assembly and dismantlement. In 1979, 64 people died when anthrax leaked from a biological weapons facility. Yekaterinburg was a “Closed City” for 40 years during the Cold Soviet era and was not open to foreigners until 1991

In the early post-Soviet era, much like Pittsburgh in the 1970s, Yekaterinburg had a hard struggle d to cope with dramatic economic changes that have made its heavy industries uncompetitive on the world market. Huge defense plants struggled to survive and the city was notorious as an organized crime center in the 1990s, when its hometown boy Boris Yeltsin was President of Russia. By the 2000s, Yekaterinburg’s retail and service was taking off, the defense industry was reviving and it was attracting tech industries and investments related to the Urals’ natural resources. By the 2010s it was vying to host a world exhibition in 2020 (it lost, Dubai won) and it had McDonald’s, Subway, sushi restaurants, and Gucci, Chanel and Armani. There were Bentley and Ferrari dealerships but they closed down

Transportation in Yekaterinburg

Getting There: By Plane: Yekaterinburg is a three-hour flight from Moscow with prices starting at RUB 8,000, or a 3-hour flight from Saint Petersburg starting from RUB 9,422 (direct round-trip flight tickets for one adult passenger). There are also flights from Frankfurt, Istanbul, China and major cities in the former Soviet Union.

By Train: Yekaterinburg is a major stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Daily train service is available to Moscow and many other Russian cities.Yekaterinburg is a 32-hour train ride from Moscow (tickets RUB 8,380 and above) or a 36-hour train ride from Saint Petersburg (RUB 10,300 and above). The ticket prices are round trip for a berth in a sleeper compartment for one adult passenger). By Car: a car trip from Moscow to Yekateringburg is 1,787 kilometers long and takes about 18 hours. The road from Saint Petersburg is 2,294 kilometers and takes about 28 hours.

Regional Transport: The region's public transport includes buses and suburban electric trains. Regional trains provide transport to larger cities in the Ural region. Buses depart from Yekaterinburg’s two bus stations: the Southern Bus Station and the Northern Bus Station.

Regional Transport: According the to Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT): “Public transportation is well developed. Overcrowding is common. Fares are low. Service is efficient. Buses are the main form of public transport. Tram network is extensive. Fares are reasonable; service is regular. Trams are heavily used by residents, overcrowding is common. Purchase ticket after boarding. Metro runs from city center to Uralmash, an industrial area south of the city. Metro ends near the main railway station. Fares are inexpensive.

“Traffic is congested in city center. Getting around by car can be difficult. Route taxis (minivans) provide the fastest transport. They generally run on specific routes, but do not have specific stops. Drivers stop where passengers request. Route taxis can be hailed. Travel by bus or trolleybuses may be slow in rush hour. Trams are less affected by traffic jams. Trolley buses (electric buses) cannot run when temperatures drop below freezing.”

Entertainment, Sports and Recreation in Yekaterinburg

The performing arts in Yekaterinburg are first rate. The city has an excellent symphony orchestra, opera and ballet theater, and many other performing arts venues. Tickets are inexpensive. The Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater is lavishly designed and richly decorated building in the city center of Yekaterinburg. The theater was established in 1912 and building was designed by architect Vladimir Semyonov and inspired by the Vienna Opera House and the Theater of Opera and Ballet in Odessa.

Vaynera Street is a pedestrian only shopping street in city center with restaurants, cafes and some bars. But otherwise Yekaterinburg's nightlife options are limited. There are a handful of expensive Western-style restaurants and bars, none of them that great. Nightclubs serve the city's nouveau riche clientele. Its casinos have closed down. Some of them had links with organized crime. New dance clubs have sprung up that are popular with Yekaterinburg's more affluent youth.

Yekaterinburg's most popular spectator sports are hockey, basketball, and soccer. There are stadiums and arenas that host all three that have fairly cheap tickets. There is an indoor water park and lots of parks and green spaces. The Urals have many lakes, forests and mountains are great for hiking, boating, berry and mushroom hunting, swimming and fishing. Winter sports include cross-country skiing and ice skating. Winter lasts about six months and there’s usually plenty of snow. The nearby Ural Mountains however are not very high and the downhill skiing opportunities are limited..

Sights in Yekaterinburg

Sights in Yekaterinburg include the Museum of City Architecture and Ural Industry, with an old water tower and mineral collection with emeralds. malachite, tourmaline, jasper and other precious stone; Geological Alley, a small park with labeled samples of minerals found in the Urals region; the Ural Geology Museum, which houses an extensive collection of stones, gold and gems from the Urals; a monument marking the border between Europe and Asia; a memorial for gulag victims; and a graveyard with outlandish memorials for slain mafia members.

The Military History Museum houses the remains of the U-2 spy plane shot down in 1960 and locally made tanks and rocket launchers. The fine arts museum contains paintings by some of Russia's 19th-century masters. Also worth a look are the History an Local Studies Museum; the Political History and Youth Museum; and the University and Arboretum. Old wooden houses can be seen around Zatoutstovsya ulitsa and ulitsa Belinskogo. Around the city are wooded parks, lakes and quarries used to harvest a variety of minerals. Weiner Street is the main street of Yekaterinburg. Along it are lovely sculptures and 19th century architecture. Take a walk around the unique Literary Quarter

Plotinka is a local meeting spot, where you will often find street musicians performing. Plotinka can be described as the center of the city's center. This is where Yekaterinburg holds its biggest events: festivals, seasonal fairs, regional holiday celebrations, carnivals and musical fountain shows. There are many museums and open-air exhibitions on Plotinka. Plotinka is named after an actual dam of the city pond located nearby (“plotinka” means “a small dam” in Russian).In November 1723, Peter the Great ordered the construction of an ironworks in the Iset River Valley, which required a dam for its operation. “Iset” can be translated from Finnish as “abundant with fish”. This name was given to the river by the Mansi — the Finno-Ugric people dwelling on the eastern slope of the Northern Urals.

Vysotsky and Iset are skyscrapers that are 188.3 meters and 209 meters high, respectively. Fifty-story-high Iset has been described by locals as the world’s northernmost skyscraper. Before the construction of Iset, Vysotsky was the tallest building of Yekaterinburg and Russia (excluding Moscow). A popular vote has decided to name the skyscraper after the famous Soviet songwriter, singer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky. and the building was opened on November 25, 2011. There is a lookout at the top of the building, and the Vysotsky museum on its second floor. The annual “Vysotsky climb” (1137 steps) is held there, with a prize of RUB 100,000. While Vysotsky serves as an office building, Iset, owned by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, houses 225 premium residential apartments ranging from 80 to 490 square meters in size.

Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center

The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center (in the city center: ul. Yeltsina, 3) is a non-governmental organization named after the first president of the Russian Federation. The Museum of the First President of Russia as well as his archives are located in the Center. There is also a library, educational and children's centers, and exposition halls. Yeltsin lived most of his life and began his political career in Yekaterinburg. He was born in Butka about 200 kilometers east of Yekaterinburg.

The core of the Center is the Museum. Modern multimedia technologies help animate the documents, photos from the archives, and artifacts. The Yeltsin Museum holds collections of: propaganda posters, leaflets, and photos of the first years of the Soviet regime; portraits and portrait sculptures of members of Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of various years; U.S.S.R. government bonds and other items of the Soviet era; a copy of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, published in the “Novy Mir” magazine (#11, 1962); perestroika-era editions of books by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vasily Grossman, and other authors; theater, concert, and cinema posters, programs, and tickets — in short, all of the artifacts of the perestroika era.

The Yeltsin Center opened in 2012. Inside you will also find an art gallery, a bookstore, a gift shop, a food court, concert stages and a theater. There are regular screenings of unique films that you will not find anywhere else. Also operating inside the center, is a scientific exploritorium for children. The center was designed by Boris Bernaskoni. Almost from the its very opening, the Yeltsin Center has been accused by members of different political entities of various ideological crimes. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00am to 9:00pm.

Where Nicholas II was Executed

On July, 17, 1918, during this reign of terror of the Russian Civil War, former-tsar Nicholas II, his wife, five children (the 13-year-old Alexis, 22-year-old Olga, 19-year-old Maria and 17-year-old Anastasia)the family physician, the cook, maid, and valet were shot to death by a Red Army firing squad in the cellar of the house they were staying at in Yekaterinburg.

Ipatiev House (near Church on the Blood, Ulitsa Libknekhta) was a merchant's house where Nicholas II and his family were executed. The house was demolished in 1977, on the orders of an up and coming communist politician named Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin later said that the destruction of the house was an "act of barbarism" and he had no choice because he had been ordered to do it by the Politburo,

The site is marked with s cross with the photos of the family members and cross bearing their names. A small wooden church was built at the site. It contains paintings of the family. For a while there were seven traditional wooden churches. Mass is given ay noon everyday in an open-air museum. The Church on the Blood — constructed to honor Nicholas II and his family — was built on the part of the site in 1991 and is now a major place of pilgrimage.

Nicholas and his family where killed during the Russian civil war. It is thought the Bolsheviks figured that Nicholas and his family gave the Whites figureheads to rally around and they were better of dead. Even though the death orders were signed Yakov Sverdlov, the assassination was personally ordered by Lenin, who wanted to get them out of sight and out of mind. Trotsky suggested a trial. Lenin nixed the idea, deciding something had to be done about the Romanovs before White troops approached Yekaterinburg. Trotsky later wrote: "The decision was not only expedient but necessary. The severity of he punishment showed everyone that we would continue to fight on mercilessly, stopping at nothing."

Ian Frazier wrote in The New Yorker: “Having read a lot about the end of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and servants, I wanted to see the place in Yekaterinburg where that event occurred. The gloomy quality of this quest depressed Sergei’s spirits, but he drove all over Yekaterinburg searching for the site nonetheless. Whenever he stopped and asked a pedestrian how to get to the house where Nicholas II was murdered, the reaction was a wince. Several people simply walked away. But eventually, after a lot of asking, Sergei found the location. It was on a low ridge near the edge of town, above railroad tracks and the Iset River. The house, known as the Ipatiev House, was no longer standing, and the basement where the actual killings happened had been filled in. I found the blankness of the place sinister and dizzying. It reminded me of an erasure done so determinedly that it had worn a hole through the page. [Source: Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, August 3, 2009, Frazier is author of “Travels in Siberia” (2010)]

“The street next to the site is called Karl Liebknecht Street. A building near where the house used to be had a large green advertisement that said, in English, “LG—Digitally Yours.” On an adjoining lot, a small chapel kept the memory of the Tsar and his family; beneath a pedestal holding an Orthodox cross, peonies and pansies grew. The inscription on the pedestal read, “We go down on our knees, Russia, at the foot of the tsarist cross.”

Books: The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie (Random House, 1995); The Fall of the Romanovs by Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir Khrustalëv (Yale, 1995);

See Separate Article END OF NICHOLAS II factsanddetails.com

Execution of Nicholas II

According to Robert Massie K. Massie, author of Nicholas and Alexandra, Nicholas II and his family were awakened from their bedrooms around midnight and taken to the basement. They were told they were to going to take some photographs of them and were told to stand behind a row of chairs.

Suddenly, a group of 11 Russians and Latvians, each with a revolver, burst into the room with orders to kill a specific person. Yakob Yurovsky, a member of the Soviet executive committee, reportedly shouted "your relatives are continuing to attack the Soviet Union.” After firing, bullets bouncing off gemstones hidden in the corsets of Alexandra and her daughters ricocheted around the room like "a shower of hail," the soldiers said. Those that were still breathing were killed with point black shots to the head.

The three sisters and the maid survived the first round thanks to their gems. They were pressed up against a wall and killed with a second round of bullets. The maid was the only one that survived. She was pursued by the executioners who stabbed her more than 30 times with their bayonets. The still writhing body of Alexis was made still by a kick to the head and two bullets in the ear delivered by Yurovsky himself.

Yurovsky wrote: "When the party entered I told the Romanovs that in view of the fact their relatives continued their offensive against Soviet Russia, the Executive Committee of the Urals Soviet had decided to shoot them. Nicholas turned his back to the detachment and faced his family. Then, as if collecting himself, he turned around, asking, 'What? What?'"

"[I] ordered the detachment to prepare. Its members had been previously instructed whom to shoot and to am directly at the heart to avoid much blood and to end more quickly. Nicholas said no more. he turned again to his family. The others shouted some incoherent exclamations. All this lasted a few seconds. Then commenced the shooting, which went on for two or three minutes. [I] killed Nicholas on the spot."

Nicholas II’s Initial Burial Site in Yekaterinburg

Ganina Yama Monastery (near the village of Koptyaki, 15 kilometers northwest of Yekaterinburg) stands near the three-meter-deep pit where some the remains of Nicholas II and his family were initially buried. The second burial site — where most of the remains were — is in a field known as Porosyonkov (56.9113628°N 60.4954326°E), seven kilometers from Ganina Yama.

On visiting Ganina Yama Monastery, one person posted in Trip Advisor: “We visited this set of churches in a pretty park with Konstantin from Ekaterinburg Guide Centre. He really brought it to life with his extensive knowledge of the history of the events surrounding their terrible end. The story is so moving so unless you speak Russian, it is best to come here with a guide or else you will have no idea of what is what.”

In 1991, the acid-burned remains of Nicholas II and his family were exhumed from a shallow roadside mass grave in a swampy area 12 miles northwest of Yekaterinburg. The remains had been found in 1979 by geologist and amateur archeologist Alexander Avdonin, who kept the location secret out of fear that they would be destroyed by Soviet authorities. The location was disclosed to a magazine by one his fellow discovers.

The original plan was to throw the Romanovs down a mine shaft and disposes of their remains with acid. They were thrown in a mine with some grenades but the mine didn't collapse. They were then carried by horse cart. The vats of acid fell off and broke. When the carriage carrying the bodies broke down it was decided the bury the bodies then and there. The remaining acid was poured on the bones, but most of it was soaked up the ground and the bones largely survived.

After this their pulses were then checked, their faces were crushed to make them unrecognizable and the bodies were wrapped in bed sheets loaded onto a truck. The "whole procedure," Yurovsky said took 20 minutes. One soldiers later bragged than he could "die in peace because he had squeezed the Empress's -------."

The bodies were taken to a forest and stripped, burned with acid and gasoline, and thrown into abandoned mine shafts and buried under railroad ties near a country road near the village of Koptyaki. "The bodies were put in the hole," Yurovsky wrote, "and the faces and all the bodies, generally doused with sulfuric acid, both so they couldn't be recognized and prevent a stink from them rotting...We scattered it with branches and lime, put boards on top and drove over it several times—no traces of the hole remained.

Shortly afterwards, the government in Moscow announced that Nicholas II had been shot because of "a counterrevolutionary conspiracy." There was no immediate word on the other members of the family which gave rise to rumors that other members of the family had escaped. Yekaterinburg was renamed Sverdlov in honor of the man who signed the death orders.

For seven years the remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra, three of their daughters and four servants were stored in polyethylene bags on shelves in the old criminal morgue in Yekaterunburg. On July 17, 1998, Nicholas II and his family and servants who were murdered with him were buried Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg along with the other Romanov tsars, who have been buried there starting with Peter the Great. Nicholas II had a side chapel built for himself at the fortress in 1913 but was buried in a new crypt.

Near Yekaterinburg

Factory-Museum of Iron and Steel Metallurgy (in Niznhy Tagil 80 kilometers north of Yekaterinburg) a museum with old mining equipment made at the site of huge abandoned iron and steel factory. Officially known as the Factory-Museum of the History of the Development of Iron and Steel Metallurgy, it covers an area of 30 hectares and contains a factory founded by the Demidov family in 1725 that specialized mainly in the production of high-quality cast iron and steel. Later, the foundry was renamed after Valerian Kuybyshev, a prominent figure of the Communist Party.

The first Russian factory museum, the unusual museum demonstrates all stages of metallurgy and metal working. There is even a blast furnace and an open-hearth furnace. The display of factory equipment includes bridge crane from 1892) and rolling stock equipment from the 19th-20th centuries. In Niznhy Tagil contains some huge blocks of malachite and

Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha (180 kilometers east-northeast of Yekaterinburg) has an open air architecture museum with log buildings, a stone church and other pre-revolutionary architecture. The village is the creation of Ivan Samoilov, a local activist who loved his village so much he dedicated 40 years of his life to recreating it as the open-air museum of wooden architecture.

The stone Savior Church, a good example of Siberian baroque architecture. The interior and exterior of the church are exhibition spaces of design. The houses are very colorful. In tsarist times, rich villagers hired serfs to paint the walls of their wooden izbas (houses) bright colors. Old neglected buildings from the 17th to 19th centuries have been brought to Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha from all over the Urals. You will see the interior design of the houses and hear stories about traditions and customs of the Ural farmers.

Verkhoturye (330 kilometers road from Yekaterinburg) is the home a 400-year-old monastery that served as 16th century capital of the Urals. Verkhoturye is a small town on the Tura River knows as the Jerusalem of the Urals for its many holy places, churches and monasteries. The town's main landmark is its Kremlin — the smallest in Russia. Pilgrims visit the St. Nicholas Monastery to see the remains of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye, the patron saint of fishermen.

Ural Mountains

Ural Mountains are the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia and have been a crossroads of Russian history. Stretching from Kazakhstan to the fringes of the Arctic Kara Sea, the Urals lie almost exactly along the 60 degree meridian of longitude and extend for about 2,000 kilometers (1,300 miles) from north to south and varies in width from about 50 kilometers (30 miles) in the north and 160 kilometers (100 miles) the south. At kilometers 1777 on the Trans-Siberian Railway there is white obelisk with "Europe" carved in Russian on one side and "Asia" carved on the other.

The eastern side of the Urals contains a lot of granite and igneous rock. The western side is primarily sandstone and limestones. A number of precious stones can be found in the southern part of the Urals, including emeralds. malachite, tourmaline, jasper and aquamarines. The highest peaks are in the north. Mount Narodnaya is the highest of all but is only 1884 meters (6,184 feet) high. The northern Urals are covered in thick forests and home to relatively few people.

Like the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, the Urals are very old mountains — with rocks and sediments that are hundreds of millions years old — that were one much taller than they are now and have been steadily eroded down over millions of years by weather and other natural processes to their current size. According to Encyclopedia Britannica: “The rock composition helps shape the topography: the high ranges and low, broad-topped ridges consist of quartzites, schists, and gabbro, all weather-resistant. Buttes are frequent, and there are north–south troughs of limestone, nearly all containing river valleys. Karst topography is highly developed on the western slopes of the Urals, with many caves, basins, and underground streams. The eastern slopes, on the other hand, have fewer karst formations; instead, rocky outliers rise above the flattened surfaces. Broad foothills, reduced to peneplain, adjoin the Central and Southern Urals on the east.

“The Urals date from the structural upheavals of the Hercynian orogeny (about 250 million years ago). About 280 million years ago there arose a high mountainous region, which was eroded to a peneplain. Alpine folding resulted in new mountains, the most marked upheaval being that of the Nether-Polar Urals...The western slope of the Urals is composed of middle Paleozoic sedimentary rocks (sandstones and limestones) that are about 350 million years old. In many places it descends in terraces to the Cis-Ural depression (west of the Urals), to which much of the eroded matter was carried during the late Paleozoic (about 300 million years ago). Found there are widespread karst (a starkly eroded limestone region) and gypsum, with large caverns and subterranean streams. On the eastern slope, volcanic layers alternate with sedimentary strata, all dating from middle Paleozoic times.”

Southern Urals

The southern Urals are characterized by grassy slopes and fertile valleys. The middle Urals are a rolling platform that barely rises above 300 meters (1,000 feet). This region is rich in minerals and has been heavily industrialized. This is where you can find Yekaterinburg (formally Sverdlovsk), the largest city in the Urals.

Most of the Southern Urals are is covered with forests, with 50 percent of that pine-woods, 44 percent birch woods, and the rest are deciduous aspen and alder forests. In the north, typical taiga forests are the norm. There are patches of herbal-poaceous steppes, northem sphagnous marshes and bushy steppes, light birch forests and shady riparian forests, tall-grass mountainous meadows, lowland ling marshes and stony placers with lichen stains. In some places there are no large areas of homogeneous forests, rather they are forests with numerous glades and meadows of different size.

In the Ilmensky Mountains Reserve in the Southern Urals, scientists counted 927 vascular plants (50 relicts, 23 endemic species), about 140 moss species, 483 algae species and 566 mushroom species. Among the species included into the Red Book of Russia are feather grass, downy-leaved feather grass, Zalessky feather grass, moccasin flower, ladies'-slipper, neottianthe cucullata, Baltic orchis, fen orchis, helmeted orchis, dark-winged orchis, Gelma sandwart, Krasheninnikov sandwart, Clare astragalus.

The fauna of the vertebrate animals in the Reserve includes 19 fish, 5 amphibian and 5 reptile. Among the 48 mammal species are elks, roe deer, boars, foxes, wolves, lynxes, badgers, common weasels, least weasels, forest ferrets, Siberian striped weasel, common marten, American mink. Squirrels, beavers, muskrats, hares, dibblers, moles, hedgehogs, voles are quite common, as well as chiropterans: pond bat, water bat, Brandt's bat, whiskered bat, northern bat, long-eared bat, parti-coloured bat, Nathusius' pipistrelle. The 174 bird bird species include white-tailed eagles, honey hawks, boreal owls, gnome owls, hawk owls, tawny owls, common scoters, cuckoos, wookcocks, common grouses, wood grouses, hazel grouses, common partridges, shrikes, goldenmountain thrushes, black- throated loons and others.

Activities and Places in the Ural Mountains

The Urals possess beautiful natural scenery that can be accessed from Yekaterinburg with a rent-a-car, hired taxi and tour. Travel agencies arrange rafting, kayaking and hiking trips. Hikes are available in the taiga forest and the Urals. Trips often include walks through the taiga to small lakes and hikes into the mountains and excursions to collect mushrooms and berries and climb in underground caves. Mellow rafting is offered in a relatively calm six kilometer section of the River Serga. In the winter visitor can enjoy cross-mountains skiing, downhill skiing, ice fishing, dog sledding, snow-shoeing and winter hiking through the forest to a cave covered with ice crystals.

Lake Shartash (10 kilometers from Yekaterinburg) is where the first Ural gold was found, setting in motion the Yekaterinburg gold rush of 1745, which created so much wealth one rich baron of that time hosted a wedding party that lasted a year. The area around Shartash Lake is a favorite picnic and barbecue spot of the locals. Getting There: by bus route No. 50, 054 or 54, with a transfer to suburban commuter bus route No. 112, 120 or 121 (the whole trip takes about an hour), or by car (10 kilometers drive from the city center, 40 minutes).

Revun Rapids (90 kilometers road from Yekaterinburg near Beklenishcheva village) is a popular white water rafting places On the nearby cliffs you can see the remains of a mysterious petroglyph from the Paleolithic period. Along the steep banks, you may notice the dark entrance of Smolinskaya Cave. There are legends of a sorceress who lived in there. The rocks at the riverside are suited for competitive rock climbers and beginners. Climbing hooks and rings are hammered into rocks. The most fun rafting is generally in May and June.

Olenii Ruchii National Park (100 kilometers west of Yekaterinburg) is the most popular nature park in Sverdlovsk Oblast and popular weekend getaway for Yekaterinburg residents. Visitors are attracted by the beautiful forests, the crystal clear Serga River and picturesque rocks caves. There are some easy hiking routes: the six-kilometer Lesser Ring and the 15-kilometer Greater Ring. Another route extends for 18 km and passes by the Mitkinsky Mine, which operated in the 18th-19th centuries. It's a kind of an open-air museum — you can still view mining an enrichment equipment here. There is also a genuine beaver dam nearby.

Among the other attractions at Olenii Ruchii are Druzhba (Friendship) Cave, with passages that extend for about 500 meters; Dyrovaty Kamen (Holed Stone), created over time by water of Serga River eroding rock; and Utoplennik (Drowned Man), where you can see “The Angel of Sole Hope”., created by the Swedish artist Lehna Edwall, who has placed seven angels figures in different parts of the world to “embrace the planet, protecting it from fear, despair, and disasters.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation (official Russia tourism website russiatourism.ru ), Russian government websites, UNESCO, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Yomiuri Shimbun and various books and other publications.

Updated in September 2020

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