Ep. 94 Dyatlov Pass: How Disney's "Frozen" Shed Light on a Decades Old Mystery

This week, we'll get lost in the mind boggling mystery that is the Dyatlov Pass case, when 9 experienced hikers died under suspicious and unexplainable circumstances while traversing Russia's Ural Mountains in 1959. When a group of ski/hikers led by 23 year old student Igor Dyatlov failed to return after a 3 week journey, search parties were sent. They quickly found the group's abandoned tent, cut open from the inside. Not long after that, the bodies were discovered. But the condition of the bodies raised more questions than it answered. No single theory adequately explains how the 9 hikers died. Was it an avalanche? Weapons testing by the Russian military gone wrong? A yeti??? When Russia reopened the investigation in 2019, Swiss avalanche researchers used an unconventional method to try to prove or disprove the avalanche theory. They reached out to the creators of Disney's animated film "Frozen" to get their snow animation code. What did their simulations tell us? Is it case closed for the Dyatlov Pass incident or does the mystery persist?

Check out photos from the hiker's cameras here

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Sources: 

• BBC News "Dyatlov Pass"
• History.com "The Dyatlov Pass Incident: Why the Hiker Deaths Remain a Mystery"
• National Geographic "Has Science Solved History's Greatest Adventure Mystery at Dyatlov?"
• Smithsonian Magazine "Have Scientists Finally Unraveled the 60 Year Mystery Surrounding 9 Russian Hiker's Deaths?"
• Live Science "Russia's 'Dyatlov Pass' conspiracy theory may finally be solved 60 years later"
• Wikipedia "Dyatlov Pass Incident"
• Collider "'Frozen' May Have Helped Solve a Half-Century Old Mystery"
• Business Insider "Animation used for 'Frozen' helped solve a mysterious 62-year-old avalanche case"