ENCORE: Rock Climbers Abducted | Fight or Flight | 3

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Days without food or water start to weaken the young climbers as their captors push them further into the mountains and further from civilization. But their captors are starting to lose steam too. On a cold dark evening the Americans are left alone with only one of their kidnappers and it dawns on them: there won’t be many more moments where they might be able to overtake their heavily armed captor. But will they have the courage to act?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Against the Odds early and ad-free right now.
0:05.6	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:15.0	Beth Rodden trudges up a hill through the grassy brush with the moon lighting her way.
0:23.7	There's a well-worn path just next to her, but her captors won't let her walk on it because they're afraid they'll leave footprints.
0:32.3	They can't be tracked.
0:34.9	Beth and the three friends, Tommy Caldwell, Jason Singer-Smith, and John Dickie, were taken
0:41.4	hostage two days ago by a group of militant rebels in a remote area of Kyrgyzstan. The Americans had
0:49.3	come to rock climb the region's famous stone cliffs, not shuffle up a hill at gunpoint.
0:56.5	Beth knows their captors are hiding them from the Kyrgyz Army.
1:00.5	The group spent yesterday cowering behind a boulder as bullets sprayed around them in a fight
1:06.3	between the army and their captors.
1:09.6	Then, last night, they forced Beth to hide, cramped in a tiny cave along the shore of a freezing river.
1:18.6	Both experiences were horrible in their own ways.
1:22.6	Things she'll never forget if she makes it home alive.
1:26.6	But for now, they're walking again under the cover of night.
1:31.7	Where they're being taken, Beth has no idea.
1:36.8	Suddenly, the leader of their captors, Abdul,
1:40.3	gestures for them to stop and sit down in the thick brush.
1:44.9	She watches Abdul switch on the walkie-talkie that the kidnappers stole from them the day they took them hostage.
1:52.3	Abdullah, Abdullah, Abdullah.
1:55.8	Abdul repeats his friend's name like it's a chant.
2:00.0	No response, just static.
	...

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