Rock Climbers Abducted | Welcome to Paradise | 1
Against The Odds
Wondery
4.7 • 7.2K Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ 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 | Hey, Prime members, you can listen to against the odds at free on Amazon music. Download the app today. |
| 0:18.2 | Beth Rodden joltz awake to the sound of a large boom echoing through the canyon below her. |
| 0:25.1 | She's a thousand feet off the ground. |
| 0:27.6 | Camped in a portal ledge, a portable sleeping platform hanging from the side of a cliff like a little caught dangling from the sky. |
| 0:38.0 | Shafes of orange morning light pierced through the ridge line of Kyrgyzstan's Pamir Alai mountains. |
| 0:44.8 | The air is fresh and damp with morning dew. |
| 0:48.7 | Beth is a semi-pro rock climber and is nearly two weeks into a six-week climbing trip with her boyfriend Tommy Caldwell |
| 0:56.6 | and two other friends Jason, singer Smith and John Dickie. |
| 1:01.8 | She turns in her sleeping bag careful not to shake the portal ledge and looks at Tommy. |
| 1:07.6 | He must have heard the sound too because he's staring back at her eyes wide. |
| 1:13.5 | Probably a falling rock? |
| 1:16.0 | At 20, Beth's the youngest and least traveled of the group. So she trusts Tommy's instincts. |
| 1:22.8 | It did sort of sound like a piece of granite falling down the cliff. |
| 1:28.2 | But then the next sound is unmistakable, a gunshot. |
| 1:34.2 | Beth sits bolt upright and squeezes as close to the rock wall as possible. |
| 1:40.3 | She's clipped into safety ropes, but the portal ledge sway is beneath her. |
| 1:44.8 | It's open air and doesn't give her any cover, but she tries to duck out of sight anyway. |
| 1:50.8 | Beth looks over at her friend Jason Singer Smith, who is sitting up in an adjoining platform, |
| 1:58.0 | putting on his climbing helmet to protect from falling rocks. |
| 2:02.2 | Beth, what the hell was that? |
| 2:04.8 | We're being shot at. Who would shoot at us? That doesn't make any sense. It's probably just local hunters. |
| 2:13.0 | Singer stops talking when a bullet hits the wall 20 feet above them, |
... |
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