As to the other elements of the incident, avalanche has been suggested. That would explain all other evidence: the sudden panic and cutting out of the tent in a frenzy to get out of the way of the wall of snow they heard coming, the states of undress and/or clothes torn off or shredded, the precipitous plunge into the snow, running away from the open area into the tall trees, climbing the trees, broken tree limbs, the only injuries, (which are consistent with avalanche and snow suffocation) found on the bodies covered with snow in a ravine as if tumbled there, the survivors scavenging the dead for clothes and waiting under the trees for the avalanche area to settle before attempting to go back to the camp.

Although not as romantic a hypothesis as aliens, monsters or government weapons testing — the avalanche idea is logical and answers many of the interesting questions of what happened.

with taking the articles facts as they are, this is along the lines of what i think could have happened

the camp was attacked from underneath!
with something coming up through the snow in the night before they were dressed. 5 of them fled in the snow through a hole in their tent (with the path to the exit obstructed) and regrouped at the pine tree site nearby where 2 ultimately remained and from where 3 died trying to return to the camp, for their supplies i presume. there was evidence of somebody having tried to climb the pine tree – assessing status of the threat they escaped together. this is the “first five” mentioned to be found with brown, tanned faces for which i offer no explanation .

the 4 remaining of the group must have been captured by the threat, the nature of their wounds suggests suggests they were tortured (the removal of dubinina’s tounge) before they were dressed with what clothes were around, and buried.

i suspect also, that a pair of officials (like ski patrol) were first to respond after hearing the screams of the party, which could carry a great distance in the mountains. they themselves or whoever they called to help must have interfered with the scene in some way.

as for the orbs, im of the opinion that phenomena like this happen when there is something interesting to be observed, see, nasa’s “smoking gun” inquisition

It is a bit of a mystery though, and I know that my proffered explanation doesn’t really clean up all the questions!

The victims had died 6 to 8 hours after their last meal.
Sounds like they were experimenting with Taco Bell in the Soviet Union.

Seriously, though, it’s an interesting story. There have been more recent cases of people in the former Soviet bloc finding big chunks of radioactive material in the wilderness near old military installations and such, but this sounds very different.