Life, uh, Finds a Way

thousand words. Gallons of ink have been spilled over the shaky film footage of a supposed bigfoot tramping through the woods, and one shadowy photograph of the Lochness Monster has led to the creation of an entire mythology surrounding the creature. But in the absence of photographic evidence, what do we have, Well, we have stories, and left on checked those stories can

take on lives of their own. In nineteen thirteen, German captain Ludwig von Stein Zulautsnitz had been sent to a part of Africa that at the time had been under German control. Today we know the area as the country of Cameroon, along the continent's western coast. Von Stein had been tasked with the job of surveying the German colonies there but started hearing strange tales of a giant reptile known to prowl the territory. The locals called it mockla membe,

which means one who stops the flow of rivers. As von Stein put it in his report, the animal is said to be of a brownish gray color, he wrote, with a smooth skin. Its size is approximately that of an elephant, at least that of a hippopotamus. It is said to have a long and very flexible neck and only one tooth. The reports went on to describe the fates of those who had pursued the creature. Canoes were

capsized and entire crews killed, but not eaten. In Instead, the animal was categorized as a plant eater, known to leave behind massive footprints on its journey to devour its next fruit tree. But von Stein was not the first to allege that such beasts may be roaming the jungles of Africa. Four years earlier, a man named Carl Hagenbeck

wrote a book called Beasts and Men. Hagenbeck was a dealer of both wild animals and even people, creating zoos in which he displayed actual human beings from places like the Samoan Islands. In Beasts and Men, Hagenbeck described the folk tales of the native populations that had been told to him and other white travelers about a creature roaming

the interior of Rhodesia in southern Africa. He also likened its size to that of an elephant, but expanded on that description by referring to it as half dragon and some kind of dinosaur, seemingly akin to the Brontosaurus. Now, other witnesses had sighted the animal's length that somewhere between fifteen to thirty feet, with a serpentine head and a long tail, not unlike a please or the Lucknus monster.

But what was it? Really? Could there still be a dinosaur wandering Africa millions of years after their supposed extinction? The truth is doubtful. In eighteen forty two, palaeontologists Sir Richard Owen coined the term dinosaur while studying some fossils that had been discovered in southern England. From that point on, the world had come down with the case of dinosaur fever,

and many paleontologists began looking for fossils everywhere. The period from about eighteen seventy two until eighteen ninety two was known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, or my personal favorite, the Bone Wars. The goal wasn't necessarily to further the study of the extinct creatures. It was to become rich and famous for finding the biggest and most impressive specimens. Dinosaurs were simply on the brain for many people during

the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It's no wonder that a massive creature only seen by indigenous locals might be viewed by visitors as as the living embodiment of the bones that had been unearthed many in fact in Africa. Unfortunately, most historians and experts have a number of other explanations for the Mokeli Membay's existence. Some say it could have been a rare black rhinoceros, while others claim it was simply an elephant. Even with perfect twenty twenty vision, our

eyes may deceive us from time to time. Those blurry shots of an aquatic seabeast in lochness nothing more than a child's toy photographed in black and white. Sometimes we see what we want to see. It appears the dinosaurs of the Congo may have been hopeful fantasies from explorers seeking the next big scientific breakthrough, but that hasn't stopped modern scientists from looking themselves, because the stories still persist, and sometimes the lore is too great to ignore, especially

when that lore is as big as a Brontosaurus. There are few historical mysteries that captivate people like the Dyatlav Pass incident. In January of nineteen fifty nine, nine hikers journeyed hundreds of miles into Russia's ural mountains, where they died under circumstances so strange nobody knew what happened for over sixty years, But recently, in twenty twenty one, scientists found the answer in a very curious place. Before we go there, though, let's go back to nineteen fifty nine.

It was the middle of the Russian winter and a college student named Igor Dyatlov was planning a hiking trip. Now, I know what you're thinking, that is the worst possible time to go hiking, and yeah, you're right, But Igor was trying to get a high level hiking certification and to do that he had to complete a really difficult journey. Plus, Igor wasn't going alone. He invited eight other hikers, mostly friends from college, to accompany him. They set off in

late January headed into the Urals. Now the euro Mountains run between Europe and Asia. They're sixteen hundred miles across and reach over six thousand feet in elevation. During the winter, the area is blanketed in several feet of snow and ice, and temperatures average around negative six degrees fahrenheit. The conditions are extreme, to say the least, but the hikers were ready for it. They spent the next several days trekking through snow, snacking on pork fat, and sleeping in a tent.

A few weeks later, though, the hikers were supposed to return home, but they didn't show up. On February twentieth, a search party went to find them and soon discovered a strange and heartbreaking scene. The hiker's tent was found on the side of a peak called colat Siacle. The fabric of the tent had been partially buried in the snow, but the poles were still upright. Searchers looked inside and found the hikers backpacks, food, and even their shoes, but

no sign of the hikers themselves. And then they noticed a slash mark on the side of the tent where it had been cut open from the inside. From this opening, footprints in the snow led down the mountain and straight to a gruesome scene frozen bodies of two hikers. Two more were found further up the slope. All of the hikers were barefoot, and some were only wearing their underwear. A few months later, when the snow started to melt, the bodies of the last five hikers were found. They

were also half dressed, and some had inexplicable injuries. One man had a fractured skull and one woman was missing her tongue and eyes. It looked like something had scared the hikers so badly that they tore their way out of their tent and then ran barefoot into sub zero temperatures,

trying and failing to get away. As for what that something was, well, the Russian government opened an investigation to find out, but all they could say was that the hikers were killed by and I quote, an unknown compelling force. With no concrete answers, Conspiracy theories ran rampant. The hikers' deaths were blamed on everything from aliens to Getty's to secret military weapons tests. Then, in twenty twenty one, two Swiss scientists decided to get to the bottom of the mystery.

They had a hunch that the datlav Pass incident had a much simpler explanation. You see, throughout the years, many people suggested the hikers die during an avalanche, but a few details made that seem impossible. The tent poles were still upright, which you wouldn't expect in a major avalanche. Plus, the hikers had been camping on a relatively flat slope in an area where avalanches have never been recorded. Regardless,

these scientists wanted to test their theory. They needed to simulate the exact shape of the mountain and the weather conditions on the night the hikers died. The technology to create such a simulation existed, but it came from an unlikely place. The scientists made a few calls, and before long they were in a meeting room in Hollywood, sitting across from the animator who created the snow effects for

Disney's hit Frozen. Using animation code from the movie, they created the most advanced avalanche simulation yet, and it revealed that an avalanche wasn't just possible, it was probable. You see, there's a type of avalanche called a snow slab that happens when a block of compressed snow and ice slides down a mountain. Slabs can be relatively small, just a few yards across, and still do serious damage. Based on the scientists calculations, this is what happened to the hikers.

A slab avalanche fell on their tent. A few of the hikers were injured, one had a fractured skull. Afraid that more snow would fall on them, they cut their way out of the tent and fled without even putting on their shoes. Sadly, they froze to death before they

can make it back to safety. It's a pretty simple explanation for a sixty two year old mystery, and it all happened thanks to a Disney animated film, which to me is an incredible example of how art and science can come together to help us make sense of our world. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership

with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.