Frozen Hell

0:00Today's podcast will feature three stories about people who ventured off into the extreme cold and horrible things befell them. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Over the Horizon, and it's about a morbid discovery that was made on an oceanic voyage in the 1800s. The second story you'll hear is called Rite of Passage, and it's about a family that decides to do a famous ritual. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Under the Tarp, and it's about natives in the Arctic who spot a group of outsiders acting very strangely, and what they find when they track them down is pure nightmare fuel.

0:44But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursdays, and Fridays. So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to do the follow buttons grocery shopping, but don't tell them you've squirted an entire bottle of lime juice inside of their fresh milk. Okay, let's get into our first story, which is called Over the Horizon.

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2:01Like earning up to 5 % cash back with Venmo Stash on a bundle of brands. So, order more pizza. The math demands it. Get the Venmo debit card. Venmo Stash bundle terms and exclusions apply. See terms at Venmo.me slash stash terms. Venmo checkout not available at all merchants. Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank N.A. On the morning of September 23rd, 1839, an experienced sailor named Captain Brighton stood on the deck of his ship, which was traveling through the Drake Passage, which is located right along the northern coast of Antarctica. He and his crew had sailed here because they were professional whalers, and they had heard there was this massive population of whales in the Drake Passage that basically were untouched by humanity because basically nobody sailed this far.

2:44This was a freezing cold, very austere part of the world, kind of a dangerous place to be. But, so far, Captain Brighton and his crew had not seen a single whale. And on top of that, the Drake Passage had proven to be as dangerous as expected. Just the previous night, the ocean around the ship had literally frozen, basically anchoring the ship in place. And so when this happened, Captain Brighton realized, like, there was nothing they could even do about this. I mean, they were stuck. And if this didn't break up soon, they'd be stuck here all winter, potentially, and it was unclear if they could actually survive that.

3:19But fortunately, also the previous night, this massive storm rolled in, which, you know, that's dangerous in and of itself. But the severity of the storm was actually a good thing because it broke up the ice around the ship and allowed Captain Brighton to sail away. And so now, you know, that morning, the ocean was again, you know, liquid, so they were able to move around, but Captain Brighton had a very difficult decision to make. You know, again, so far, they have not caught any whales and they've invested a lot of time and money to get out here, but if he stayed out here much longer, he knew they could potentially get stranded again.

3:52And he just couldn't let that happen. And so he needed to decide if he was going to keep on sailing further into the Drake Passage to maybe find a couple whales or leave now before it was too late. But as Captain Brighton weighed his options, he suddenly noticed something over the horizon. There was this dark shape. And at first, he actually thought he was hallucinating. Because really, there's nothing else out here. It's just him and ocean and ice. That was it. But as he continued to stare in the direction of this dark object, which was actually getting closer to him, he realized it was a real thing.

4:23And in fact, it was another ship, which was really surprising. Because again, nobody really comes out here. And so his instincts were, okay, this has got to be a rival whale ship. I mean, that's the only other people who would come out here. But as he continued to stare at the ship, you know, as it got closer, he realized it was not a whale ship. It was actually a schooner, which is a ship designed for traveling. But as Captain Brighton stared at the schooner that was getting closer and closer, he saw it was in pretty rough shape. I mean, the hull and the sails were very tattered. I mean, there was something off about the ship.

4:56But Captain Brighton was thinking, you know, hey, I know you can get trapped in the ice out here. It happened to them the night before. Maybe this crew has gotten trapped in the ice. They've been stuck out here for who knows how long. They could be in pretty rough shape. And Captain Brighton knew they actually did have, at least at that moment, quite a bit of supplies, at least some to spare. And so he called out to his men to ready a dinghy and get some supplies because they were going to go over to this schooner and basically offer up some extra supplies and also check in on them and make sure they were okay.

5:26And so once the supplies were packaged up and put on the dinghy, Captain Brighton, along with four other men, hopped in the dinghy and they began paddling over to the schooner. And as they got closer, you know, the waves were pretty bad. And so they're kind of jostling around and, you know, the ship itself, the schooner is also moving, and so that's moving up and down. But, you know, periodically, as they got closer, they'd be able to look into the portholes, which are like windows on the side of the schooner, and Captain Brighton could clearly see there were people inside of the schooner. He called out a few times, but it was windy and sort of loud, and he couldn't really tell if any of them heard him or if anybody called back.

6:00And so eventually, Captain Brighton and his crew, they got to the side of the schooner, and they just climbed up the ladder and boarded the ship. And once they were on the ship, once they were on the deck of the schooner, they're looking around and everything was in working order, albeit sort of tattered and in rough shape. But the weird thing was is nobody was out on deck. They had seen people in the portholes, which was inside the ship, but there was nobody above deck. And so Captain Brighton's thinking, okay, this is pretty weird here, but we clearly just need to go inside and talk to someone.

6:29And so Captain Brighton and his men walked across the deck to this door that led into the ship. It actually led into the captain's quarters, at least, you know, based on basic ship construction. That's what they expected it to be. And so Captain Brighton, he gets to the door. He knocks and calls out, you know, announces that they're here with supplies and just to make sure everybody is okay. But there's no answer. All they can hear is the slapping of the water against the ship. There's no voices. There's nothing. It's silent on the ship. And so Captain Brighton eventually just opens up this door.

6:58And sure enough, he looks into this dark space and it's the captain's quarters. And there's a desk towards the back of this room, and there's a man sitting at the desk with his back to them. So Captain Brighton, he takes a cautious step into the captain's quarters, and he calls out to this man who clearly appears to be the captain, but the man doesn't say or do anything. He's clearly focused on something at his desk. And so Captain Brighton exchanged a worried glance with this man, and then just decided he would walk across the room and go physically interact with this guy, and make sure he was okay and see what was going on here.

7:29So slowly, Captain Brighton began walking across the room, and as he did, he called out a few more times to this man who appeared to be the captain, but he didn't get a response. And then finally, he was right behind the man, and he actually looked down and read what the man had been writing. This is what it said. Trapped by icebergs. Despite all efforts, the fire went out last night. No hope remains. However, as unsettling as that would be to read for anybody in this situation, what was the most unsettling part was actually what was written right above that journal entry. The date, January 17th, 1823.

8:0716 years before. That captain and his entire crew were all dead, and had been for 16 years. They got trapped in the ice just like Captain Brighton had, but it didn't break up. They were stranded, and they all froze to death. And because it was so cold out in that part of the world, all their bodies were basically preserved in their final moments. And so the captain of the ship before he died was making an entry to say what happened. And then down below, when Captain Brighton and his men went to go look, they found people playing cards who had literally frozen to death while playing cards. They found a woman lying in her bed with her dog.

8:44That's how they froze to death. They found people in the dining hall and they died right where they were sitting. It was like all these people had been frozen in time for nearly two decades, just floating around in Drake's Passage. And basically, nobody had found them until Captain Brighton.

9:10Our next story is called Rite of Passage.

9:23On the evening of January 19, 2022, a 40-year-old mother named Anna Uskova set up a camera and some lights at the edge of a clearing in the woods in St. Petersburg, Russia. Then she focused the camera on the spot in the clearing where she, her husband, and her children were about to perform a very important religious ceremony. So to set the scene here, it was late at night, so it's dark, It was snowing. I mean, it's totally freezing. This is the dead of winter out in the middle of Russia. I mean, this is a cold, cold environment. But this is when this ceremony was done, in the dead of winter, all over Russia.

9:58This was not just something Anna's family was doing. This is like a Russian thing. On this day, all over the country, people would perform this sort of purification ritual that was designed to revitalize their bodies and souls and help them ward off evil spirits for the new year. Now, typically, Anna and her family would perform this big ceremony in a group setting with their church. But this year, Anna decided she wanted to hold this ceremony privately, with just her family kind of out in the woods by themselves. It would be more intimate, and the kids would feel, you know, a bit more involved than they normally did.

10:30And so far, it was going great. They had found the perfect location. It was stunningly beautiful. I mean, it really felt like the best place to perform the ceremony. but it was kind of odd that when they got there, there was no other families there. I mean, they have this place to themselves, which was just crazy, but they thought, great, this is even better for us. This is going to be the perfect ceremony. So while Anna's husband finished prepping everything they would need, Anna hit record on the camera, and then Anna walked out from behind the camera, and you see her come into frame, and she walks over to her kids.

11:01And now her kids are going to be performing this ritual the same way Anna and her husband would be, and it's clear they're pretty nervous. Now, Now they've done this before, but still, like, this ritual is not very comfortable. It doesn't feel very good, at least in the moment. And so Anna knew this. And so she knelt down with her kids and she kind of reassured them that they were brave, they were courageous, they could do this. And she was going to go first. And they could see that, you know, once mom did it, they would know that they could do it too. And so at some point after kind of giving her kids a pep talk, Anna stood up.

11:31She walked over to the area that was designated for the ceremony. And then as the camera's rolling, she stood there. She drew a cross on her chest. Then she stepped forward and kind of jumped feet first and then disappeared.

11:49One second passed with no sign of Anna, and that was okay. But then two seconds passed and there was still no sign of Anna. And then three seconds passed and still no Anna. And at that point, her husband and her kids began to scream. So what Anna and her family didn't understand, or at a minimum just did not fully appreciate, was that when they did this ceremony with their church every year, the church took a lot of effort to make sure the location they chose for the ceremony, that it was totally safe. And on top of that, they often had medical personnel on standby, just in case. But Anna and her family had not done either of those things.

12:27The location they chose was no doubt stunningly beautiful, but the reason it was deserted is it was a terrible spot for this ceremony. And then also, they didn't have any medical personnel on standby. The ceremony that Anna and her family were taking part in is known as the Russian Orthodox Epiphany, and it's a type of baptism. Basically, people all over Russia at this time of the year will carve a cross-shaped hole in the ice over a body of water, and then one by one, they'll jump into the water and then emerge again, baptized, purified. And so Anna and her family had done that. They had carved the cross in this frozen body of water.

13:03But the reason this spot was a terrible spot to do this ceremony and why it was totally deserted is because they had chosen a raging river. That yes, it's frozen, but underneath that river is still flowing and it's a very deep river. And so the second Anna stepped into the water feet first, she got swept away. But they didn't have a way for her to reemerge. It's all frozen ice. And so the second she went under into the pitch black water, she was gone. And within a couple of seconds, you know, her family is expecting her to come back up again. But of course she didn't. And so they began screaming and Anna's husband actually leapt into the water.

13:40But he actually stopped himself really quickly because he felt that current pulling him. And so he got out. And very quickly, you know, a search was launched for Anna. But there was no hope. They couldn't find her. And in fact, to this day, they still have not recovered her body.

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15:38One morning in April of 1848, a group of men were walking towards the coast of King William Island, which is an island located in the freezing Arctic region of northern Canada. These men were members of the Inuit people, who are indigenous to King William Island. And today, they were going hunting. Specifically, they were making their way towards the coastline to see if they could find any seals that they could hunt and kill for food and for clothing. However, even though technically the coastline was right in front of them, they couldn't actually see the water. Because there was this huge icy hill that obstructed their view.

16:11So in order to look down to the water, they would have to crest that hill and then look down. As these hunters got closer to the hill, the youngest of the hunters broke from the group and ran up the hill. to basically get an early look over and see if he could spot any animals down below. However, as soon as he crested the hill and scanned the coastline, again, you got a picture, it's snowy, icy outside, it's below zero degrees. I mean, you're in the Arctic wild here. He's looking down, and at first, all he sees is just white, just snow, ice, but he sees something else. And as he's looking at it, he can't even understand what he's seeing.

16:46Like, it doesn't make sense. It's not computing. And so at this point, the young hunter kind of ducked down on this side of the hill, kind of away and out of view of the ocean, and he turned and signaled to the other hunters to get up here and take a look. And so the other hunters, they don't really understand what's happening here, but they can see, you know, there's some urgency coming from this young hunter. And so they, they run up the hill as well, and all together, all at once, they kind of peer up and over the hill again, and they look down, and for a second, they all just stared in horrified silence.

17:15Down below, wandering along the coastline, were not seals or walruses or any other animals that these hunters might have expected to see out here. Instead, they saw people. Specifically, they saw kalunat, which is their word for white men. But these men were not acting like people. They were lumbering, almost like they weren't in control of their bodies. They had these strange, jerky movements, and they were all just kind of staring straight ahead with these vacant expressions, and their skin, it was like black and blue, and their clothes were tattered, and they were just kind of lumbering along about 40 of these Kalunat, these white men.

17:52Now, for these hunters, I mean, they really didn't have much exposure or experience around Kalunat, around white men. I mean, all they really knew at the time and in this part of the world is that white men were pretty dangerous to the indigenous people. But they did know there was a group of Kalunat who were staying on a ship that was off the coast of King William Island, and they had been living there for the better part of a year, and it seemed like their ship might have frozen off the coast and they were just kind of trapped until the warmer months came around and they could sail away. But to this point, the Inuit people really had not seen or interacted with any of those white people.

18:27They had just kind of kept to themselves and that was it. So just to see the Kalunat, the white people, on land, that alone was really shocking. Like what happened? Why did they leave their ship? Why are they here? But again, the way they were moving and how they looked, it just seemed wrong. Like there was something wrong with these people. Like there's more to this story than the Inuit people understand. And it was sort of terrifying. And on top of just the way they were moving, there was something else these Kalunat were doing. In addition to these men just kind of lumbering along the coastline, a few of them were dragging this big sled.

19:02And there was a tarp over the sled. Clearly something big or several things were under this tarp. But the Inuit hunters, they couldn't quite tell what it was. It was covered up. And so they're just watching these men in this weird parade along the coastline with the sled. And they really were like, we have to get out of here. And so they ducked their heads below the icy hill to kind of stay out of view of the Kalunat, who to this point, it did not seem like they had spotted the hunters. And as the hunters are sort of trying to figure out what they should even do, they hear this awful guttural scream coming from down below where these men are, where these white men are.

19:36And instinctively, the hunters, they grabbed their spears and they poked their head up over the hill, almost thinking maybe they've spotted us, maybe they're going to attack us. But no, when they looked down below, many of the Kalunat were still just kind of lumbering along, but one of them had stopped and he was kind of retching around like there was something wrong with him and he continued to scream out and then he just crumpled to the ground. But the other white men, it was like they didn't even react to it, except for the men pulling the sled. They pulled the sled right up alongside this man who had just fallen to the ground after screaming, and they just sort of nonchalantly pulled back the tarp, revealing all sorts of bodies on the sled.

20:14They picked the guy who had just fallen, and they threw him onto the pile, they covered him back up with the tarp, and then like nothing had happened, the men kept on pulling the sled, and this totally creepy procession continued down the coast. At this point, the genuine hunters were genuinely terrified. And without saying anything, they just scrambled back down the hill and ran back to their village.

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