S34 EP1: Welcome to Squamish | Dirtbag Climber

Allison after NXIVM from Uncover

CBC

True Crime

4.6 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

June 2017, police arrive at the scene of a burned out vehicle on a quiet road in Squamish, BC. Their investigation turns grisly when they find the remains of a local rock climber inside the truck. But that’s only the beginning of a story filled with dozens of false identities and a sordid, complicated secret past.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, Steve Patterson here, host of The Debaters. We're very excited to be celebrating our show's 20th anniversary, and we can't believe our years either.
0:09.0	If you're a longtime fan, thanks for being a glutton for pun-ishment. If not, come laugh with us to all the topics you didn't even know were funny until we started arguing about them.
0:18.9	Find us wherever you get your podcasts for extended episodes and special behind-the-scenes
0:23.7	features you won't hear on any other airwaves.
0:26.8	The debater's 20th anniversary season, comedy, worth arguing about.
0:32.7	This is a CBC podcast.
0:39.9	This is the CBC podcast. This is the sound of a pixelated YouTube video from 2017.
0:46.6	In it, a young man in a red long-sleeved shirt and cowboy hat is climbing a rock face called
0:52.5	Talking Holds.
0:54.2	The wind is blowing.
0:56.0	It's an overcast day.
0:58.0	Small cedar trees lean over the sheer rock face.
1:02.2	He's in Squamish, B.C., considered the climbing capital of Canada.
1:07.4	To be more specific, he's not just climbing.
1:10.6	He's free soloing, which means he has no ropes.
1:15.3	He is literally taking his life in his hands because if his hands give out, he'll fall 40 feet onto hard granite.
1:24.4	The climber's name is Jesse James.
1:30.8	The reason a lot of people climb is so that they can forget about things
1:34.3	because when you're on the side of a cliff, you know, everything goes away.
1:38.3	You're just trying to not to die.
1:40.6	This is Jackie, a friend of Jesse's.
1:43.7	When you guys were climbing together, did he ever tell you anything about, like, where he came from, his background?
	...

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