Teodora Hadjiyska

I am all over the map: born in Bulgaria and raised in Cuba, I lived for ten years in the US, am currently based in Austria, and never stay for too long in one place. My lifestyle is that of a traveler, explorer and mountaineer, with a propensity for finding myself in the center of disasters. I have been caught up in avalanches, volcano eruptions, rockfalls, and permafrost slide. Staying home does not help much – one evening, while I was watching TV, the ceiling collapsed right on top of me. If I am going to die, I prefer to do it somewhere with a view. In 2012, I was evacuated from Karangetang, an active volcano on the island of Siau, Sulawesi, Indonesia. I found myself bedridden with a subdural hematoma, shattered elbow and scapula, flail chest and six broken ribs after a near-death accident with a runaway truck. If you know anything about the Dyatlov case, you will notice a close similarity between my trauma and that of two of the hikers – a trauma that, in 1959, the pathologist described as hard to explain under the circumstances. It so happened that, after surviving Karangetang, I read about the incident on Dyatlov Pass, and I have not stopped researching it since.