An Arctic Exploration Uncovers A Mysterious Hole In The Snow

It might surprise you to know that only 42% of the Earth has been explored. So much of the planet is still foreign to humans, although most of that is in the water. There’s only so much of our oceans that we can visit safely right now, with certain depths proving too dangerous.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t sections of land that have yet to be traversed, though, especially when it comes to areas of extreme temperatures, such as the Arctic. Who knows what kind of mysteries and horrors could be lurking out there underneath the ice and snow…

Dr. Evelyn Thornton led her team to the Arctic in 1976

People have been making expeditions to the Arctic for centuries now. However, they’ve been ramping up in recent decades as developments have made it easier for explorers to survive in the freezing climate. One group went to explore the Arctic wilderness in 1976, eager to explore how climate change was affecting this part of the world.

Although the concept of global warming was nowhere near as prominent back then, it was already a talking point among scientists in the 1970s. So, Dr. Evelyn Thornton and her team wrapped themselves up in warm clothing and headed north for the treacherous Arctic. What she and everyone else discovered there was entirely beyond their expectations.

The team encountered a gaping hole in the middle of the Arctic

For the first few days of the expedition, the team didn’t really find anything of much interest. They spent most of the time navigating the difficult terrain, trying to avoid succumbing to the frozen temperatures. Trudging through the snow proved to be exhausting work, and some of the explorers began to wonder if their Arctic journey was truly worth it.

However, on the third day, they discovered something that blew them away. It was a large hole in the ground that made it seem as though the Earth itself had been torn open. It had an intimidating presence, and it was impossible to tell just how far down it went. They were reluctant to try and look over the edge.

They fell into the hole while trying to learn more about it

The last thing the team had expected to discover in the Arctic was a hole leading deep underground. They set up camp nearby with the intention of trying to learn more about it while they had the opportunity. Not everyone on the team was happy about this, though, the hole leaving them with a strange sense of unease.

The following day, they set up their equipment and set to work, completely unaware of the events that would unfold later that day. As they were investigating the hole, the ground seemed to give way, and the group of them fell into the depths. Their equipment went with them, leaving only their abandoned campsite as evidence of their presence there.

Another group of researchers followed in Thornton’s footsteps six years later

Those who knew of Thornton’s expedition to the Arctic grew incredibly concerned when she and the team didn’t return home. The more time that passed, the more worried people became until it seemed certain that the group wasn’t coming back. The assumption was that they’d perished in the cold, meaning anything they’d learned was lost to the snow.

Six years after Evelyn headed north to the Arctic, another team of researchers decided to follow in her footsteps. Eager to carry out her work and potentially even learn about what fate had befallen the group, they set off for the desolate landscape. This time, the expedition was led by Dr. Marcus Harper, who had previously been mentored by Thornton.

They discovered the site of the old camp and the hole

In a matter of days, Harper and the team managed to find where Evelyn’s expedition had come to a sudden end. This wasn’t by chance - he had an old journal of Thornton’s with reference to where her team would be going. The hole was on the route, meaning he and the group happened upon it easily enough.

In the six years since the disappearances, the former camp had largely blown away or been obliterated by the snow. However, they did discover a few signs here and there that suggested people had once stayed at this location. Given the intimidating hole nearby, it didn’t take much for Harper to put two and two together about what happened.

Everyone felt unsettled by the hole and the aura it possessed

Marcus couldn’t be sure that the hole was responsible for claiming the lives of Evelyn and her team. However, as he stared down into the abyss, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was to blame for everything. There was a sense of foreboding in the air as Marcus watched that strange, intimidating chasm in the Arctic floor.

Much like before, Harper’s team felt unsettled by the hole. Some wanted to continue on, believing Evelyn’s expedition may have gone further than this. Others wished to turn back, suddenly no longer interested in seeing this trip through to the end. Whatever their desire, pretty much everyone just wanted to leave this place and pretend they’d never found it.

The new team fell into the hole, with only Harper surviving

The unease in the group began to build when people thought they could hear whispers drifting up from the dark abyss before them. Dr. Harper was unsettled, too, but he couldn’t resist the lure of knowledge. His scientific mind needed to know more about this hole and whether or not it was to blame for his mentor’s sudden disappearance.

Reluctantly, his team agreed to stay and satisfy his curiosity. However, that soon proved to be a costly mistake. Just like with Thornton’s team, the ground gave way when they got too close, and they all tumbled into the darkness. Well, all but one. Harper leaped into the snow just before the gaping chasm could claim his life.

Marcus tried to make his way back home on his own

If it weren’t for the fact that the snow was freezing cold, Marcus probably would have lay there for quite a while. After all, he’d just watched his entire team fall into a hole. A hole that only he had been eager to learn more about. The lives of all those people would be on his conscience forever.

Scared and alone in the middle of the Arctic, he had no choice but to head back to try and find civilization again. It had been an arduous journey with a whole team of them, but now Dr. Harper had to try to make his way home with no one for support or guidance. Would he even survive the trek?

Dr. Harper was deeply affected by what had happened to his team

He did eventually make it back to civilization, but not entirely in one piece. All that time walking through the treacherous conditions of the Arctic left him with little to do but reflect on everything that happened. The longer he was alone with his thoughts, the more tortured he felt over what had become of his expedition.

The guilt that he’d effectively cost people their lives weighed so heavily on his mind that he almost couldn’t cope. By the time he encountered human life again, Harper was like a different man. He was no longer a brilliant and bright-eyed scientist. Instead, Harper was more like a hollow shell who couldn’t escape the horrors of that tragic expedition.

Geologist Dr. Emily Turner paid Harper a visit in his psychiatric hospital

Marcus ended up being admitted to a psychiatric hospital upon his return, his mental state requiring a great deal of recovery after what he’d been through. There was a lot of talk among others in the field about what had happened in the Arctic and why Dr. Harper had returned home alone. Some dared to suspect foul play.

One person who was eager for answers was Dr. Emily Turner, a passionate geologist. She’d long been fascinated by Arctic geology and was intrigued by the outcome of Thornton and Harper’s expeditions up north. Determined to learn the truth, she paid Marcus a visit, hoping that she might be able to stir something in the broken mind of the man.

Harper proved to be quite talkative during Turner’s visit

Dr. Marcus Harper had left the US a confident, inquisitive man. However, he was far from that person when Emily visited him in the hospital. Turner didn’t know how else to describe him but broken. She could still remember how excited he was the last time they’d spoken, but now she wasn’t even sure if Marcus remembered her.

Fortunately, he did, and as their conversation began, she was surprised at how talkative he still was. Emily assumed he would just sit there mute while she tried to get something out of him. Instead, though, Marcus opened up immensely to the geologist, spouting all sorts about a hole in the Arctic that had consumed his expedition team.

Emily told the doctor that she believed his story of what happened

Turner had heard mumblings about a hole in the Arctic before her visit. Marcus had already shared his story with people, but the problem was that no one believed him. They refused to accept that the Earth could swallow a whole expedition team like that and instead decided that Harper had simply lost his mind in the treacherous wilderness.

Emily could sense that she wasn’t being lied to, though. There was something in the doctor’s eyes that told her she could trust him. He seemed more alive now than he had done when she’d arrived, and she couldn’t ignore his pleading to listen to him. So, Emily told Marcus that she believed every word of his story.

Marcus began to recover with the help and support of Emily

Dr. Harper was in disbelief when Emily told him that she believed his account of what happened. He’d become so certain that no one would accept his story that he’d almost given up hope. When the geologist showed her faith in him, it went a long way to helping his mental state start to improve.

Over the coming weeks, Turner visited him regularly, and they talked more about what had happened in the Arctic. Marcus was still traumatized, but Emily’s company and input helped him to deal with everything. Eventually, she broke the news that she wanted to visit the abyss and examine the situation for herself, leaving Marcus with a big decision to make.

Dr. Turner agreed to let Harper accompany her to the Arctic

Harper was terrified of the hole and still felt guilty about what had happened to his team. He didn’t want the same fate to befall Turner and whatever crew she took with her. However, at the same time, his scientific curiosity was nudging him to accompany her to the Arctic. Marcus simply couldn’t help himself.

After he was released from the hospital, he asked to go with her. Emily was a little reluctant, voicing concern about his mental well-being. However, Marcus told her that he needed closure on the situation, and that meant returning to the Arctic to discover the truth of the hole. Emily didn’t know what to do, but she ultimately said yes.

She enlisted several experts who could make the expedition a success

It wasn’t just Turner and Harper who were going to head to that curious location in the Arctic. The geologist wanted a team of experts who would be best suited to identifying all there was to know about the hole in the snow. So, she recruited people like Liam O’Sullivan and Oliver Reynolds, both of whom were experienced geologists.

Emily also brought along people like Anya Petrov, who possessed exceptional survival skills, and Einar Bjornsson, whose knowledge of the frozen expanse was practically unrivaled. Together, they possessed enough skills and expertise between them to hopefully handle whatever the Arctic threw at them. Emily didn’t want to say it out loud, but she was quietly confident of their chances.

The group came together to get to know one another before the expedition

Dr. Turner was confident in everyone that she’d hired for the expedition. However, she’d enlisted people from different parts of the globe who had never met before. So, she arranged a meeting prior to setting off so that everyone could become familiar with one another. Fortunately, they all spoke English, so they didn’t have to overcome a language barrier.

The camaraderie was pretty strong from the get-go, with plenty of people particularly interested in meeting Dr. Harper. Emily had told everyone about what had happened during Marcus’ last expedition, and they were eager to hear more from the lone survivor. Luckily, as hard as it was to think about that trip, the man didn’t mind complying with their requests.

Harper recounted his experiences with the Arctic hole to the group

Harper’s haunted mind had been through quite the ordeal since he’d lost his team in the Arctic. The long journey home had allowed his thoughts to wander far, leading him a little confused over what was fact and what was fiction. Of course, he’d been working hard to try and separate the two following his return to civilization.

So, as Marcus told the group about the hole’s strange aura and the voices that emerged from inside, he was sure he was telling them the truth. However, he didn’t blame the questioning looks he received from a few people. The more Marcus recovered from his traumatic ordeal, the more he understood why no one had believed him before Emily.

They headed to the Arctic, unsure of what they were going to find

After hearing what Dr. Harper had to say, a few members of the group almost reconsidered going on the expedition. However, just like everyone else, their curiosity got the better of them, and they decided to go ahead with the trip after all. Marcus’ story sounded ridiculous, but a part of them couldn’t shake the possibility it might be true.

So, a few weeks after that first meeting, the six of them set off for what would undoubtedly be a life-changing experience. They each had a different belief about what they would discover in the middle of the Arctic. Some weren’t even sure if the hole existed, with even Marcus questioning at one point if he’d made everything up.

The journey through the Arctic proved to be quite a nightmare

The Arctic is not an easy place to navigate today, let alone in the 1980s. Marcus Harper had already ventured there once before, and he almost didn’t make it back alive. He’d been alone and mentally tormented at the time, though, so he’d been in a worse position than when he returned for Emily’s expedition.

Still, it almost seemed like the Arctic didn’t want the group to find the hole that had already taken so many lives. The conditions they faced as they headed north were pretty severe, with their insulation gear barely keeping them safe from the cold and snow. The expedition was starting to look like more trouble than it was worth.

They struggled to locate the hole in the harsh conditions

When Marcus had previously led the expedition into the Arctic, his team had encountered the strange abyss with little trouble. This time around, though, it proved to be a lot more difficult to find. The harsh conditions meant that the group kept getting turned around, with even the experts struggling to navigate in the difficult conditions.

As whispers that they were lost began to surface, Harper once again began to question if he’d made the whole thing up in his mind. Perhaps something else had happened to his team, and his brain had simply created the abyss to try and deal with the situation? Maybe the truth of what had befallen the group was even worse?

They finally found the hole, and Marcus felt immediately unsettled

Just when it seemed like several members of the group were going to suggest they give up on the expedition, they finally found what they’d been looking for. That gaping abyss in the middle of the Arctic was still there, and it was just as haunting as Harper remembered it. Seeing it again wasn’t easy for the man.

As validating as it was to know he hadn’t made the whole thing up, encountering the hole again instantly brought those painful memories flooding back. Marcus stood far away from the edge, afraid that the hole might somehow recognize him and claim what it hadn’t managed to the last time he’d been there. Still, the ground remained calm.

Turner’s expedition team set up a camp away from the hole

As everyone else took in the hole, they finally understood what Dr. Harper had been talking about when they first met. They couldn’t quite explain what it was, but the abyss definitely had an unusual aura to it. It was simultaneously inviting and repulsive, as though it were trying to lure them in, but their bodies weren’t having it.

No one dared to stand too close to the edge, aware of the fate that might befall them if they weren’t careful. So, they made sure to put some distance between themselves and the abyss when they set up camp. Unbeknownst to them, they put up their tents right where Thornton’s team had all those years ago.

When morning came, the group descended into the hole

As night fell over the camp, the group was silent. There was a shared understanding of what they needed to do, but none of them wanted to think about it right now. They’d brought the equipment necessary to descend into the abyss, but the idea of going down there terrified the lot of them. Perhaps they could still turn back?

They knew that wasn’t an option, though. So, when morning came, they each found the courage they needed to enter the depths. Bjornsson opted to remain on the surface to make sure the ropes didn’t come loose from their fixings. Everyone else? They took a deep breath and slowly went over the edge as they disappeared into the darkness.

It felt like the hole went down for a long time

The ground didn’t tremble as they made their way down into the hole, leaving the lot of them grateful. After all, given what had happened to Harper’s team before, they knew there was another way they could be descending into the abyss that didn’t require a rope and harness. Unfortunately, this did little to settle their nerves.

It didn’t help that the hole felt never-ending, with their torches illuminating little more than the frozen walls around them. The air seemed to get even colder as they continued going down, with a few people wondering if their gear was enough to keep them alive. They tried not to dwell on that, though. They needed to think positively.

There were no bodies at the bottom of the hole

Even though the hole seemed endless, there was a point when it stopped. As Emily’s feet touched solid ground, she called out excitedly to the group, who hurried down to join her at the bottom. Once they were all there, they shone their torches around the area to see what was around them. They were shocked by what they saw.

Equipment from past expeditions lay broken and rusted on the ground, but there was no sign of any bodies. Half a dozen people had fallen down there during Marcus’ expedition, yet there wasn’t a skeleton in sight. That was when Emily’s torch fell upon the face of Evelyn Thornton, who was walking towards them and very much alive.

They followed Evelyn deeper into the abyss

Most of the group had assumed there were creatures of some sort that had taken the bodies for food, and that’s why there was no one down there. None of them assumed that the reason the past explorers weren’t lying at the bottom of the hole was because they were still alive. Yet, there was Evelyn Thornton, living and breathing.

The group - Emily and Marcus, in particular - had so many questions for the woman. Rather than answering them outright, though, Evelyn encouraged everyone to follow her deeper into the abyss. They would have pressed her for answers, but the glorious sights around them quickly proved to be a distraction. The icy cavern took their breaths away.

Everyone who had previously fallen into the hole were somehow still alive

The small team of explorers weren’t sure what to think. Was any of this real? Had they passed out in the snow and started imagining all this? It didn’t seem possible that Evelyn could be alive in the abyss, and things only got stranger still. When she led the group to an opening, they discovered she was far from alone.

The rest of her expedition team - along with everyone that Marcus had traveled with - were down there looking just as they had done when they’d disappeared. The group couldn’t believe it, with Dr. Harper, in particular, lost for words. All this time, he’d been living with those people's lives on his conscience, but none of them had ever perished.

Evelyn claimed the hole was “a gateway” to “a realm beyond our understanding”

Marcus was overjoyed to see all those familiar faces again. They’d been the stuff of nightmares for the last few months, but now the burden of guilt was finally off his shoulders. Still, as delighted as he was to see everyone again, his scientific mind couldn’t understand how they were all alive. How could they survive such a significant fall?

Evelyn tried to explain it to the group, stating that the hole was “a gateway” to “a realm beyond our understanding.” She said there was a force down there unlike anything that had ever been witnessed above ground. What that was, though, none of the explorers knew. They certainly didn’t have the equipment to examine it.

The passing of time seemed to be different below the surface

To those who had accompanied Emily and Marcus on the expedition, this whole thing seemed more and more like a dream. The leading scientists, though, were fascinated by everything that Evelyn had to say. Neither of them was sure if they believed her words, but they couldn’t deny their curiosity. They were eager to learn more.

They soon discovered that time in the abyss seemed to pass slower than it did on the surface. Even though it had been months since Dr. Harper had seen his team, they explained it felt like it had only been days. As for Thornton’s explorers, they certainly couldn’t believe that they’d been down there for more than six years.

The world above felt like a “distant memory” to the missing explorers

The pair had question after question for the explorers in the hole, and over several hours, they did their best to answer each one. There was so much they couldn’t explain about how things worked down there, and they were just as clueless as everyone else about why they were still alive. However, they were happy they survived the fall.

Even though they’d been stuck underground for so long, they’d become very accustomed to their new lives. In fact, one of the women who’d been on Marcus’ expedition team said that the world above already felt like a “distant memory” to them. There was something about their new home so far beneath the Earth’s surface that felt natural to them.

Energy from within the Earth had supposedly sustained the explorers

The scientists continued to throw questions at the explorers, with Emily particularly interested in what they had to say. She wanted to know what they’d been living on, how they still looked the same, and so much more. She wasn’t expecting one member from Harper’s old team to say that energy from within the Earth had sustained them.

Even though there was no access to food or sunlight in the depths, they’d managed to last for so long without any trouble at all because of this unknown force. Dr. Turner found that hard to believe, but when one of the explorers asked if any of them felt hungry since descending into the hole, they all answered “no.”

Emily wasn’t sure if everything in the hole was real or fake

Emily Turner had always believed there was so much about the planet they didn’t know about yet. However, she’d never considered that the Earth could be capable of something like this. A pocket deep underground where time progressed slowly and the energy in the atmosphere was enough to sustain and protect human life? It didn’t seem conceivable.

If she denied it was possible, though, then that meant denying what was right in front of her eyes. Either everything was real, or it wasn’t, and Emily had to somehow come to a decision on what the truth was. The rest of her team was no help, though, given that most of them weren’t buying these outrageous claims.

Dr. Harper was more fixated on being reunited with his team

The only person whose opinion Emily could really rely on was Dr. Harper’s. After all, he also had a scientific mind and was perhaps more open towards accepting there were things about the planet they didn’t yet understand. Perhaps there was some logical explanation for everything; they just needed to know more about the Earth to grasp the truth.

Unfortunately, just as Emily’s team was biased in one direction, Marcus was the same in the opposite direction. As the conversation had progressed, he’d become less interested in asking questions and more focused on reuniting with his former team. At one point, he even told Turner that all these questions she kept asking didn’t even matter anymore.

Marcus had no desire to return to the surface

Eventually, it became clear that there was nothing more for Emily to learn from the explorers. They couldn’t explain the mysterious way the Earth worked, nor did the team have any equipment to try and make sense of it. The only thing to do was return to the surface and take things from there. Not everyone wanted to leave, though.

When Emily brought up returning to their camp, Marcus declared that he would be staying underground. Turner thought she’d misheard him at first, but he repeated his intentions clearly. The man had no desire to leave this place now that he’d been reunited with his team. Marcus felt as though there was nothing left for him on the surface anymore.

Everyone else in the group was eager to leave the hole

Emily struggled to accept his answer, and she pointed out that there would be no coming back from this decision. He’d be stuck underground forever, never to make another discovery. Marcus told her that he didn’t care, though. He was content with what he’d done with his life above the surface, but he’d accomplished all he wanted to.

The man felt himself being drawn to stay in the hole, and he had no desire to resist it. Everyone else, though, had no interest in sticking around. In fact, they were eager to get out, finding themselves more unnerved by the abyss the longer they remained there. Turner still had a hard time letting Harper go, though.

Marcus asked Emily to keep the contents of the hole a secret

Emily could have stayed down there arguing with Marcus for hours to try and make him reconsider his decision. However, she could see in his eyes that he’d already made up his mind. As wrong as it felt to leave one of their team in this strange underground pocket forever, she knew she was fighting a losing battle.

So, rather than leave on bad terms, she told Dr. Harper that she accepted his decision and hugged him goodbye. Emily promised Marcus that she would not allow the world to go on thinking him delusional for what happened during his expedition. However, he surprised her by asking the geologist not to talk about any of this back home.

He feared interest in the hole might result in its destruction

The thought of keeping the revelations of this expedition a secret went against everything that Emily believed in. She was all about constantly expanding her knowledge and making as many breakthroughs as possible about the planet they lived on. However, if this was Dr. Harper’s final request, she couldn’t really say no to him, could she?

Marcus accepted that it would be hard for her not to say anything, but he knew if she did, it would bring too much attention to the hole. Who knew what effect all that human intervention would have on such a unique part of the Earth? Marcus asked for her silence for the sake of preserving a potentially fragile ecosystem.

The group returned to the surface in silence

As Emily said one final goodbye, she promised Dr. Harper that she would find a way to restore his reputation without attracting anyone to the hole. He thanked her for agreeing to stay quiet and wished her well in all of her future endeavors. Marcus said he was confident she would achieve so many incredible things in the future.

With that, all that was left was for Dr. Turner and the rest of her team to make the slow ascent back toward the surface. None of them really said anything on the way up, all of them contemplating what they’d experienced in the abyss. Was any of that real, or had they all simply been dreaming in the darkness?

The hole was gone when the explorers woke up the following day

It was night by the time they finally made it out of the hole, the sky gleaming with the Northern Lights. Exhaustion hit them all pretty quickly as they stood there by the edge of the hole, so they hurried into their tents and attempted to get some sleep. It came surprisingly quickly despite all that was on their minds.

The following morning, Emily was woken by a commotion outside and emerged from her tent to discover that the hole had gone. Bjornsson, who’d been asleep when they emerged the night before, had thought they were still down there and started panicking. Fortunately, when the others came out of their tents, he was relieved that they’d made it out.

There was no mysterious hole in the Arctic to begin with

There was a weird atmosphere between the team on the way home. They were all confused by the hole’s disappearance and wondered if it had ever been there in the first place. Surely, though, it must have been; otherwise, what happened to Dr. Harper? Perhaps their minds had created the abyss to try and hide them from the harsh reality?

Of course, the hole and the explorers who found themselves in its depths are simply fictional creations to highlight the strange curiosities of this planet we call home. While we’re sure there aren’t any holes out there where time runs slowly, and people can survive without food, there’s still so much about the Earth that’s a complete mystery to us.