You know what's worse than being stranded on a mountain with no food?

Uh, listening to ads when you're trying to escape reality? Exactly. That's why we've got

you covered on Patreon. For just a few bucks, ditch the ads completely. And for a few bucks more,

get ad-free listening plus early access to our disaster strikes episodes. Because when disaster hits in the

middle of nowhere, you'll want the story first. Head to patreon.com and search Crux True Survival

Stories. Your future survival depends on it. Okay, maybe not literally, but your listening

experience definitely will.

Welcome to the segment of the Crux podcast called Disaster Strikes. While our regular episodes

focus on survival stories where people overcome incredible odds, this bi-weekly segment

examines outdoor adventures that ended in tragedy.

These stories are meant to paint a clear picture of how quickly things can go wrong in the wilderness

and the cascade of decisions, often small and seemingly reasonable in the moment,

that can lead to devastating outcomes.

By studying these incidents respectfully and thoroughly,

we can all learn valuable lessons that might save lives.

The stories are difficult, but the education they provide is invaluable.

I'm your host Julie Henningson, and today we're headed back to the summit of Mount Everest

to hear about an outdoor adventure that went horribly wrong, resulting in an unnecessary death that shocked the world.

May 15, 2006, 1 a.m. Mark Woodward is guiding a small team up the northeast ridge of Mount Everest,

when his headlamp catches something unexpected in a rocky alcove, a figure, sitting with arms

wrapped around his knees. The climber is wearing thin wool gloves, no hat, no goggles,

and icicles hang from his eyelashes.

...