ENCORE: Rock Climbers Abducted | Welcome to Paradise | 1

Against The Odds

Wondery

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

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In August of the year 2000, four American rock climbers set out to explore the majesty of the Pamir Alai Mountain range in Kyrgyzstan. But only a week into their expedition, they’re taken captive by rebel militants. The group is forced to hike through brutal terrain under the cover of night to avoid detection by the Kyrgyz army. With little to no food or water provided by their captors, the young climbing team had to struggle through severe dehydration and hunger. Finally, they realized they would have to fight for their lives to escape. It's a thrilling story of survival in the face of violence and terror, and doing whatever it takes to make it home alive.

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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.
0:10.6	Beth Rodden jolts awake to the sound of a large boom echoing through the canyon below her.
0:27.8	She's a thousand feet off the ground, camped in a portal edge, a portable sleeping platform
0:34.2	hanging from the side of a cliff, like a little cot dangling from the sky.
0:40.3	Shaffes of orange morning light pierced through the ridgeline of Kyrgyzstan's Pamir Alai
0:46.3	mountains. The air is fresh and damp with morning dew.
0:51.3	Beth is a semi-pro rock climber and is nearly two weeks into a six-week
0:56.3	climbing trip with her boyfriend Tommy Caldwell and two other friends, Jason Singer-Smith
1:02.4	and John Dickie. She turns in her sleeping bag, careful not to shake the portal ledge,
1:08.7	and looks at Tommy. He must have heard the sound too, because he's staring back at her, eyes wide.
1:15.9	Probably a falling rock?
1:18.5	At 20, Beth's the youngest and least traveled of the group.
1:23.1	So she trusts Tommy's instincts.
1:26.1	It did sort of sound like a piece of granite falling down the cliff.
1:31.2	But then the next sound is unmistakable, a gunshot.
1:37.0	Beth sits bolt upright and squeezes as close to the rock wall as possible.
1:43.1	She's clipped into safety ropes,
1:45.1	but the portal edge sways beneath her.
1:47.7	It's open air and doesn't give her any cover,
1:51.0	but she tries to duck out of sight anyway.
1:54.4	Beth looks over at her friend, Jason Singer-Smith,
	...

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