Siula Grande: Over the Edge | Keep Moving | 3

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Simon Yates begins his lonely return to base camp, convinced that his partner Joe Simpson is dead. He wrestles with guilt and grief, unsure how he’ll ever explain what happened to those back home. Meanwhile, Joe manages to haul himself out of the crevasse. But with a shattered leg and six miles of brutal terrain ahead, his fight to stay alive is just beginning.

Our story consultant for this series is Simon Yates. If you’d like to learn more about his adventures in mountaineering, check out his books: Against the Wall, The Flame of Adventure, and The Wild Within - available wherever you get your books.

Order your copy of the new Against the Odds book, How to Survive Against the Odds: Tales & Tips for Animal Attacks and Natural Disasters, for stories of everyday people confronted by life-or-death situations, showing you how they survived—and how you can too. Learn more at SurvivalGuidebook.com.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Against the Odds early and ad-free right now.
0:05.6	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:09.6	A listener note.
0:11.0	Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events.
0:15.3	Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research.
0:20.7	This episode contains explicit language.
0:28.0	Joe Simpson drives his axes into the ice and pulls himself up the slow, dragging his broken leg behind him.
0:40.4	Above, a narrow beam of sunlight spills through a hole in the roof of the crevasse.
0:45.8	He stares up at the light, willing himself to draw strength from it.
0:50.3	It's close to 1 p.m. on June 9, 1985.
0:58.9	Six days since he and Simon left base camp, and two days since they stood on the summit. Yesterday, after Joe broke his leg, Simon spent hours lowering
1:04.7	him by rope, 3,000 feet down the mountain. But near the bottom, Simon unknowingly lowered him over a sheer cliff.
1:12.6	Joe hung in midair for nearly an hour, tied to Simon and unable to take his weight off.
1:19.6	Then he fell, plummeting into a deep crevasse, but somehow he landed on a narrow ledge and
1:26.6	survived the hundred-foot drop.
1:29.2	After catching his breath, Joe realized the rope had been cut.
1:34.1	Simon was no longer attached.
1:37.0	After a dreadful night alone in the dark and accepting no one would be coming to help him,
1:42.9	Joe had no choice but to repel down deeper into the crevasse.
1:47.0	Amazingly, when he reached the bottom, he saw a way out.
1:51.0	Now he's inching up a steep 45-degree slope,
1:55.0	toward the light at the top of the dome, about 130 feet high.
	...

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