Conspiracy theorists, it’s time to let it go: The Dyatlov Pass incident was just solved using the animation code from Disney’s Frozen.
The 1959 disappearance of nine hikers in Russia’s Ural Mountain range, known as the Dyatlov Pass incident, has been subject to numerous Soviet conspiracy theories over the past few decades.
Despite researchers concluding in 2019 that an avalanche killed those on the hiking expedition, certain facts around the disappearance didn’t add up and it remained a mystery.
A criminal investigation in 1959 concluded that the group’s death was due to an “unknown natural force.” However, the lack of detail surrounding the case and the secrecy of the Soviet bureaucracy at the time propelled the imagination of many conspiracy theorists.
February 1, 1959, nine Russian hikers set up a campsite for the night on the slopes of Kholat Saykhl in the Urals🏔 Hours later they are all dead. The #Dyatlov Pass mystery may finally be solved after 62 years thanks to a computer simulation https://t.co/rPpZVPm0rh pic.twitter.com/35Qf2Ws5QX
— History_of_Geology (@Geology_History) February 1, 2021
When watching Disney’s Frozen, Johan Gaume – head of the Snow Avalanche Simulation Laboratory at EPFL – was amazed at “how well the movement of snow was depicted, that he decided to ask its animators how they pulled it off,” according to the National Geographic.
After meeting with the animators, Gaume modified Frozen’s snow animation code to simulate the impacts that the avalanche would have on the human body, in an effort to provide evidence for the longstanding avalanche theory.
Despite the Dyatlov Pass not being a textbook avalanche terrain, Gaume’s research showed that a block of snow in this area could have “handily break the ribs and skulls of people” in its path.
i can’t believe Disney’s 2013 movie ‘Frozen’ solved the Dyatlov Pass Incident.
— im in the light of venus (@velvetsharks) January 30, 2021
Despite the conclusive results, Gaume believes that the scepticism around the incident won’t disappear. “People don’t want it to be an avalanche,” he says. “It’s too normal.”
Don’t mind me, just FREAKING out over the fact that one of my favourite cold cases ever (Dyatlov Pass) has been solved using the snow animation codes from FROZEN😭😭😭
— Oksana Preachuk (@o_preachuk) February 2, 2021
