Vysota 611

Vysota 611 (Height 611, also known as Izvestkovaya Hill) is a hill on the edge of the town of Dalnegorsk, in the Dalnegorsk municipal district of Primorsky Krai. The name stuck after an unidentified flying object reportedly crashed here on the evening of January 29, 1986; the case became known as the "Dalnegorsk phenomenon" or the "Russian Roswell," and Dalnegorsk itself earned a reputation as the ufology capital of the Russian Far East. The summit lies roughly 1.5 km from the town's bus station.

History

On January 29, 1986, around 19:55, residents of Dalnegorsk noticed a glowing red-orange ball in the sky. According to witnesses — among them unarmed police guards, schoolchildren, teachers and the editor of a local newspaper — the object flew parallel to the ground at a height of 700-800 meters and a speed of about 15 meters per second, rose and dropped several times, then dove at roughly a 60-degree angle and struck the top of the hill. Witnesses described the flight as almost silent.

Three days later a group led by local historian Valery Dvuzhilny, head of a regional branch of the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena, climbed the hill. The researchers found a patch on the slope bearing signs of intense heat: rocks were coated with black film and ash, despite half a meter of snow lying around it. Strange glows over the hill were reported again later — a luminous ball was seen in autumn 1987, and in January 1989 ufologists reported a UFO landing 200 meters from the original site.

Findings and theories

Samples collected at the site included about 70 grams of lead, metal balls that could only be cut with a diamond, and a material nicknamed "the mesh" — thin quartz fibers 17 microns thick with gold wire inside. The alloys contained gold, scandium, lanthanum, samarium and other rare elements; heating the samples in a vacuum produced peaks of alpha-titanium, molybdenum and rhenium. Yet the isotopic composition of the lead pointed to an earthly origin, and the radiation level at the site stayed normal.

No single explanation has ever been agreed on. Dvuzhilny believed the object was an extraterrestrial reconnaissance probe and was invited to present the case at a symposium in the US in 1995. More down-to-earth theories include ball lightning, which moves and fades in a similar way, and a self-destructing spy balloon: such devices had been launched since the 1940s and could have been drawn to a nearby boron deposit, the largest in Russia. A meteorite is usually ruled out for lack of an explosion, a condensation trail or seismic shocks.

Monument and festival

On top of the hill stands an art object — a model flying saucer built by specialists from Dalpolimetall, the town's main employer; the surrounding platform covers about 30 square meters. The summit offers a view over the quarries where the town once mined metals. Near the Dalnegorsk bus station, a national tourism program added another sculpture — the alien Ushan from the animated film "The Mystery of the Third Planet" — which drew protests from a local priest who demanded it be removed.

Every year the Palace of Culture of Chemists hosts the "611 Steps to the Stars" festival, with lectures about the incident and space-themed contests.

Getting there

The climb from town takes 40 minutes to an hour and a half. Two trails lead to the hill: the left one runs closer to the road, is steeper and has loose scree, while the right one is shorter and leads straight to the monument. The Dalnegorsk museum arranges guided trips to the crash site for those who want one.