Hello, it's Richard McClain Smith here again. Before we begin this week's episode,

I just want to give another shout out to a new show that I've been producing.

It's called Rescue and is hosted by a survivor expert, Donnie Dust.

Rescue takes you deep into the heart of the world's most astonishing rescue stories

told by the people who were there. All of them are absolute heroes,

and it's been a real honor to bring their stories to you.

Rescue is out now on all the usual platforms.

Now, back to one explained.

The girl, relaxed back into the short Alpine grass, and stared up at the sky.

It was early summer in this high valley of the Himalayas, surrounded by towering,

snow-capped mountain peaks, topped with a deep blue sky, made all the darker by the thin air.

The sparse grasses were dotted with wildflowers and a herd of yaks, cows, sheep and goats,

grazed contentedly nearby. Chetan Tamang, the daughter of a Sherpa family,

from the village of Lang Tang in Nepal, had been sent to tend the family's herd

in the high pastures over the summer, a task she'd performed alone every year since she was

around eight years old. It was a remote spot, because her father always insisted on taking their

animals well beyond the usual grazing areas used by other families in the village

in order to find the best grass. She was staying in the family Yakuoka, a simple dwelling of stone

walls, which the family roofed every spring with strips of bamboo, especially woven together for

the purpose. Born in this very spot, the girl was almost completely at ease alone with the animals,

surrounded by the immense mountain peaks of the Himalayas. She was afraid of only one thing,

falling asleep. Her parents had told her time and time again that snow leopards

...