- In 1959, nine Russian hikers died during a 200-mile trek through Russia's Ural Mountains.
- The main theory as the cause of death of the
Dyatlov Pass incident is an avalanche. - After watching "
Frozen ," scientists contacted the animators to help build a simulation to confirm the theory.
After decades of theories of what led nine Russian hikers to perish during a 200-mile trek through Russia's Ural Mountains in February 1959,
One of the main theories as to the cause of the deadly Dyatlov Pass incident is that a massive avalanche swept through the camp, however, according to National Geographic, "the team's tent encampment was cut into the snow on a slope with an incline seemingly too mild to permit an avalanche."
"There was no snowfall on the night of February 1 that could have increased the weight of the snow burden on the slope and triggered a collapse," the National Geographic story explained. "Most of the blunt force trauma-like injuries and some of the soft tissue damage were atypical of those caused by avalanches, whose victims usually asphyxiate."
However, when Johan Gaume, head of Snow Avalanche Simulation Laboratory, a Swiss federal technical institute, watched "Frozen" and saw how well the movement of the snow was depicted in the movie, he thought that could finally confirm if it was an avalanche that was the cause of the Dyatlov Pass incident.
Read more: How Disney's animation evolved from "Frozen" to "Frozen 2"
According to National Geographic (via the journal Communications Earth and Environment), Gaume reached out to the animators who worked on the animation code done on "Frozen."
"Following a trip to Hollywood to meet with the specialist who worked on 'Frozen's' snow effects, Gaume modified the film's snow animation code for his avalanche simulation models, albeit with a decidedly less entertaining purpose: to simulate the impacts that avalanches would have on the human body," National Geographic reported.
The result led to the creation of a simulation that showed a block of snow from an avalanche could "handily break the ribs and skulls of people."
The confirmation of the longstanding theory ends years of speculation as to what happened to the hikers, with theories ranging from the deaths being the cause of Soviet military tests to the group being attacked by the mythical Yeti.