Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a
Speaker 1: thousand words. Gallons of ink have been spilled over the
Speaker 1: shaky film footage of a supposed bigfoot tramping through the woods,
Speaker 1: and one shadowy photograph of the Lochness Monster has led
Speaker 1: to the creation of an entire mythology surrounding the creature.
Speaker 1: But in the absence of photographic evidence, what do we have, Well,
Speaker 1: we have stories, and left on checked those stories can
Speaker 1: take on lives of their own. In nineteen thirteen, German
Speaker 1: captain Ludwig von Stein Zulautsnitz had been sent to a
Speaker 1: part of Africa that at the time had been under
Speaker 1: German control. Today we know the area as the country
Speaker 1: of Cameroon, along the continent's western coast. Von Stein had
Speaker 1: been tasked with the job of surveying the German colonies
Speaker 1: there but started hearing strange tales of a giant reptile
Speaker 1: known to prowl the territory. The locals called it mockla membe,
Speaker 1: which means one who stops the flow of rivers. As
Speaker 1: von Stein put it in his report, the animal is
Speaker 1: said to be of a brownish gray color, he wrote,
Speaker 1: with a smooth skin. Its size is approximately that of
Speaker 1: an elephant, at least that of a hippopotamus. It is
Speaker 1: said to have a long and very flexible neck and
Speaker 1: only one tooth. The reports went on to describe the
Speaker 1: fates of those who had pursued the creature. Canoes were
Speaker 1: capsized and entire crews killed, but not eaten. In Instead,
Speaker 1: the animal was categorized as a plant eater, known to
Speaker 1: leave behind massive footprints on its journey to devour its
Speaker 1: next fruit tree. But von Stein was not the first
Speaker 1: to allege that such beasts may be roaming the jungles
Speaker 1: of Africa. Four years earlier, a man named Carl Hagenbeck
Speaker 1: wrote a book called Beasts and Men. Hagenbeck was a
Speaker 1: dealer of both wild animals and even people, creating zoos
Speaker 1: in which he displayed actual human beings from places like
Speaker 1: the Samoan Islands. In Beasts and Men, Hagenbeck described the
Speaker 1: folk tales of the native populations that had been told
Speaker 1: to him and other white travelers about a creature roaming
Speaker 1: the interior of Rhodesia in southern Africa. He also likened
Speaker 1: its size to that of an elephant, but expanded on
Speaker 1: that description by referring to it as half dragon and
Speaker 1: some kind of dinosaur, seemingly akin to the Brontosaurus. Now,
Speaker 1: other witnesses had sighted the animal's length that somewhere between
Speaker 1: fifteen to thirty feet, with a serpentine head and a
Speaker 1: long tail, not unlike a please or the Lucknus monster.
Speaker 1: But what was it? Really? Could there still be a
Speaker 1: dinosaur wandering Africa millions of years after their supposed extinction?
Speaker 1: The truth is doubtful. In eighteen forty two, palaeontologists Sir
Speaker 1: Richard Owen coined the term dinosaur while studying some fossils
Speaker 1: that had been discovered in southern England. From that point on,
Speaker 1: the world had come down with the case of dinosaur fever,
Speaker 1: and many paleontologists began looking for fossils everywhere. The period
Speaker 1: from about eighteen seventy two until eighteen ninety two was
Speaker 1: known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, or my personal favorite,
Speaker 1: the Bone Wars. The goal wasn't necessarily to further the
Speaker 1: study of the extinct creatures. It was to become rich
Speaker 1: and famous for finding the biggest and most impressive specimens.
Speaker 1: Dinosaurs were simply on the brain for many people during
Speaker 1: the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It's no wonder
Speaker 1: that a massive creature only seen by indigenous locals might
Speaker 1: be viewed by visitors as as the living embodiment of
Speaker 1: the bones that had been unearthed many in fact in Africa. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: most historians and experts have a number of other explanations
Speaker 1: for the Mokeli Membay's existence. Some say it could have
Speaker 1: been a rare black rhinoceros, while others claim it was
Speaker 1: simply an elephant. Even with perfect twenty twenty vision, our
Speaker 1: eyes may deceive us from time to time. Those blurry
Speaker 1: shots of an aquatic seabeast in lochness nothing more than
Speaker 1: a child's toy photographed in black and white. Sometimes we
Speaker 1: see what we want to see. It appears the dinosaurs
Speaker 1: of the Congo may have been hopeful fantasies from explorers
Speaker 1: seeking the next big scientific breakthrough, but that hasn't stopped
Speaker 1: modern scientists from looking themselves, because the stories still persist,
Speaker 1: and sometimes the lore is too great to ignore, especially
Speaker 1: when that lore is as big as a Brontosaurus. There
Speaker 1: are few historical mysteries that captivate people like the Dyatlav
Speaker 1: Pass incident. In January of nineteen fifty nine, nine hikers
Speaker 1: journeyed hundreds of miles into Russia's ural mountains, where they
Speaker 1: died under circumstances so strange nobody knew what happened for
Speaker 1: over sixty years, But recently, in twenty twenty one, scientists
Speaker 1: found the answer in a very curious place. Before we
Speaker 1: go there, though, let's go back to nineteen fifty nine.
Speaker 1: It was the middle of the Russian winter and a
Speaker 1: college student named Igor Dyatlov was planning a hiking trip. Now,
Speaker 1: I know what you're thinking, that is the worst possible
Speaker 1: time to go hiking, and yeah, you're right, But Igor
Speaker 1: was trying to get a high level hiking certification and
Speaker 1: to do that he had to complete a really difficult journey. Plus,
Speaker 1: Igor wasn't going alone. He invited eight other hikers, mostly
Speaker 1: friends from college, to accompany him. They set off in
Speaker 1: late January headed into the Urals. Now the euro Mountains
Speaker 1: run between Europe and Asia. They're sixteen hundred miles across
Speaker 1: and reach over six thousand feet in elevation. During the winter,
Speaker 1: the area is blanketed in several feet of snow and ice,
Speaker 1: and temperatures average around negative six degrees fahrenheit. The conditions
Speaker 1: are extreme, to say the least, but the hikers were
Speaker 1: ready for it. They spent the next several days trekking
Speaker 1: through snow, snacking on pork fat, and sleeping in a tent.
Speaker 1: A few weeks later, though, the hikers were supposed to
Speaker 1: return home, but they didn't show up. On February twentieth,
Speaker 1: a search party went to find them and soon discovered
Speaker 1: a strange and heartbreaking scene. The hiker's tent was found
Speaker 1: on the side of a peak called colat Siacle. The
Speaker 1: fabric of the tent had been partially buried in the snow,
Speaker 1: but the poles were still upright. Searchers looked inside and
Speaker 1: found the hikers backpacks, food, and even their shoes, but
Speaker 1: no sign of the hikers themselves. And then they noticed
Speaker 1: a slash mark on the side of the tent where
Speaker 1: it had been cut open from the inside. From this opening,
Speaker 1: footprints in the snow led down the mountain and straight
Speaker 1: to a gruesome scene frozen bodies of two hikers. Two
Speaker 1: more were found further up the slope. All of the
Speaker 1: hikers were barefoot, and some were only wearing their underwear.
Speaker 1: A few months later, when the snow started to melt,
Speaker 1: the bodies of the last five hikers were found. They
Speaker 1: were also half dressed, and some had inexplicable injuries. One
Speaker 1: man had a fractured skull and one woman was missing
Speaker 1: her tongue and eyes. It looked like something had scared
Speaker 1: the hikers so badly that they tore their way out
Speaker 1: of their tent and then ran barefoot into sub zero temperatures,
Speaker 1: trying and failing to get away. As for what that
Speaker 1: something was, well, the Russian government opened an investigation to
Speaker 1: find out, but all they could say was that the
Speaker 1: hikers were killed by and I quote, an unknown compelling force.
Speaker 1: With no concrete answers, Conspiracy theories ran rampant. The hikers'
Speaker 1: deaths were blamed on everything from aliens to Getty's to
Speaker 1: secret military weapons tests. Then, in twenty twenty one, two
Speaker 1: Swiss scientists decided to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Speaker 1: They had a hunch that the datlav Pass incident had
Speaker 1: a much simpler explanation. You see, throughout the years, many
Speaker 1: people suggested the hikers die during an avalanche, but a
Speaker 1: few details made that seem impossible. The tent poles were
Speaker 1: still upright, which you wouldn't expect in a major avalanche. Plus,
Speaker 1: the hikers had been camping on a relatively flat slope
Speaker 1: in an area where avalanches have never been recorded. Regardless,
Speaker 1: these scientists wanted to test their theory. They needed to
Speaker 1: simulate the exact shape of the mountain and the weather
Speaker 1: conditions on the night the hikers died. The technology to
Speaker 1: create such a simulation existed, but it came from an
Speaker 1: unlikely place. The scientists made a few calls, and before
Speaker 1: long they were in a meeting room in Hollywood, sitting
Speaker 1: across from the animator who created the snow effects for
Speaker 1: Disney's hit Frozen. Using animation code from the movie, they
Speaker 1: created the most advanced avalanche simulation yet, and it revealed
Speaker 1: that an avalanche wasn't just possible, it was probable. You see,
Speaker 1: there's a type of avalanche called a snow slab that
Speaker 1: happens when a block of compressed snow and ice slides
Speaker 1: down a mountain. Slabs can be relatively small, just a
Speaker 1: few yards across, and still do serious damage. Based on
Speaker 1: the scientists calculations, this is what happened to the hikers.
Speaker 1: A slab avalanche fell on their tent. A few of
Speaker 1: the hikers were injured, one had a fractured skull. Afraid
Speaker 1: that more snow would fall on them, they cut their
Speaker 1: way out of the tent and fled without even putting
Speaker 1: on their shoes. Sadly, they froze to death before they
Speaker 1: can make it back to safety. It's a pretty simple
Speaker 1: explanation for a sixty two year old mystery, and it
Speaker 1: all happened thanks to a Disney animated film, which to
Speaker 1: me is an incredible example of how art and science
Speaker 1: can come together to help us make sense of our world.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television
Speaker 1: show and you can learn all about it over at
Speaker 1: the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.