Siula Grande: Over the Edge | Making Peace With It, With Simon Yates | 4

Against The Odds

Wondery

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

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1985, high on Peru’s Siula Grande, everything went wrong, and two climbers made choices that became mountaineering lore. Simon Yates joins host Cassie De Pecol to talk about risk, survival, and being known as “the guy who cut the rope.”

If you’d like to learn more about Simon's 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.
0:15.0	From Wondery, I'm Cassie to Peckle, and this is against the odds. It's widely regarded as one of the greatest survival stories of all time.
0:52.9	In June 1985, two young British climbers, Simon Yates and
0:57.3	Joe Simpson, completed the first ascent of the west face of Sulla Grande, a nearly 21,000-foot
1:03.8	peak in the Peruvian Andes. But on their way down, disaster struck. Joe fell and shattered his
1:10.0	leg. Instead of leaving him behind, Simon lowered him
1:14.4	3,000 feet down the mountain, risking his own life to save him. Then came the moment that would
1:20.8	define their story. In zero visibility, with no way to communicate, Simon unknowingly lowered
1:27.2	Joe over a cliff and was forced to make a
1:30.1	decision that would follow him for decades. Simon Yates consulted on our series, and he joins me today
1:37.0	from the UK. Hi, Simon, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me along. You're now in your early 60s.
1:44.4	This incident happened more than 40 years ago.
1:47.4	How would you describe the person you were at 21?
1:50.8	Very different to how I am now.
1:53.1	It's quite hard for me to imagine, actually, what I was like at 21.
1:56.1	I was quite wild, really, quite reckless, and maybe some people would think I was a little bit crazy in some ways, but hopefully in a nice way.
2:04.6	I was having a good time, and I'd left college, and I planned to sort of travel the world and climb mountains.
2:11.8	I didn't really have much of a plan, basically, other than just to go and climb.
2:15.3	So that's what I was doing when I went to Peru.
2:17.7	Joe was a few years older than you, but he looked up to you, both for your abilities and your
2:23.2	overall approach to climbing. He also described you as having a glint of madness, quote unquote.
	...

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