Into the Vast Unknown: The First American Ascent of Mount Everest
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Broughton Coburn, author of The Vast Unknown, shares the story of the first American expedition to Mount Everest in 1963, when a team of climbers set out to reach the world’s highest peak during the height of the Cold War.
Facing deadly icefalls, extreme altitude, and brutal conditions, the team accomplished something remarkable, reaching the summit not once, but twice, including a daring ascent along the West Ridge. Coburn shares the harrowing tale of how the expedition became a defining moment of American perseverance, teamwork, and daring ambition.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
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| 0:04.3 | Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. |
| 0:07.7 | Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand |
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| 0:15.5 | Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the |
| 0:20.3 | biology of taunons and wampas |
| 0:22.2 | on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. |
| 0:28.3 | Listen to Stuff to Bo Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your |
| 0:33.5 | podcasts. |
| 0:44.4 | Music your podcasts. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. |
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| 1:02.1 | Up next, a story about a 29,032-foot-tall mountain in Nepal and the ragtag group of men |
| 1:09.0 | from across the United States who decided to climb it during one of the most transformative years in our nation's history, 1963. |
| 1:19.2 | Here to tell the story is Brat O'Burn, author of The Vast Unknown. |
| 1:24.7 | Let's get into the story. |
| 1:34.0 | Thank you. unknown. Let's get into the story. I was in the seventh grade in middle school in Tacoma, Washington, when the students in our class |
| 1:42.0 | were summoned to the assembly hall to listen to a guest speaker, |
| 1:47.7 | and in walked a man with a grizzled beard and laser-like eyes, and he looked at all of us, |
| 1:55.0 | reached down, opened a zipper of his Kelty frame pack, and pulled out out a bottle and passed it around the room. |
| 2:04.6 | It contained his nine blackened toes that had been amputated in the capital city of Nepal, |
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