This is true spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.

Week by week, you'll hear the true stories behind the operations that have shaped the world we live in.

You'll meet the people who live life undercover.

What do they know?

What are their skills?

And what would you do in their position?

I'm Rihanna Needs, and this is True Spies from Spyscape Studios.

Cold Snap. Cold snap.

October, 1965, thousands of feet above sea level.

From a distance, this mountain is a thing of magisterial beauty. But for the men attempting to climb it,

it's a frozen hell on earth. They can barely walk, snow's up to their thighs. The climbers

have been ascending the mountainside for days. Every hour is a losing battle. Everybody's complaining of dizziness, headaches, nausea, and while they're sort of dealing

with this sickness, they're trying to progress up the mountains step by step.

But things can always get worse.

The weather completely goes haywire.

A radio crackles into life.

An order, issued from safer ground, bursts through the static.

Come down immediately and leave all the equipment.

Sensible, no?

In these conditions, it doesn't make sense to carry excess weight.

Leave the tents, leave the poles, leave an extraneous backpack or two.

It's only stuff after all.

...