Episodi

  • The Axehead in the Lodgepole: How a Shaftless Tool Saved a Life

    The Axehead in the Lodgepole: How a Shaftless Tool Saved a Life
    Oct 16 2026
    The Axehead in the Lodgepole: How a Shaftless Tool Saved a Life

    A steel axe head, burn-scored and lodged forty feet up a lodgepole pine, was found nine thousand feet above sea level with no shaft and no rope - and it led straight to a living climber in a hospital. The serial number matched a labeled ice axe belonging to twenty-nine-year-old Jerry Mason; how did a shaftless, burn-marked head end up wedged in a tree and still mean the difference between life and death?

    In this episode, we follow the October Kantner Peak expedition and the chain of decisions, weather failures, and small rituals that framed one man's survival. From a missed Wednesday morning call to a storm that arrived without warning, we trace the moments that produced the axehead in the lodgepole and ask: what sequence of choices made an impossible outcome possible?

    Person: Jerome T. Mason
    Age: 29
    Date: October 7-8 (summit and descent dates)
    Location: Kantner Peak, western Montana, ~9,000 feet
    Item: steel axe head (burn-scored, shaftless, wedged in lodgepole pine ~40 feet high)

    - Jerry Mason called his mother every Wednesday morning at 5 a.m. for seven years; the call did not occur on October 8.
    - The expedition summited and began descent at 11:55 a.m, on October 7.
    - Visibility dropped to about 15 meters during a storm that struck around 2 p.m, on October 7.
    - Dana Pruitt's right crampon binding failed after a self-arrest during the storm.
    - The axe head's serial number matched the ice axe labeled "J.T.M." belonging to Jerry Mason.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    16 min
  • The Wrong Col: How Four Climbers Followed the Mountain's Lie

    The Wrong Col: How Four Climbers Followed the Mountain's Lie
    Oct 15 2026
    The Wrong Col: How Four Climbers Followed the Mountain's Lie

    A hanger-on sleeping bag, bright orange, dangled from a spruce branch four miles from camp-no prints, no campsite, and a vanished team: one dead, one airlifted, one home bowling. How could four experienced climbers, with checked gear and a leader who’d summited twice, end up on the wrong saddle and pay the price?

    In this episode, we walk through the sequence of the climb, the timing, the instruments, and the tiny misreadings that turned routine decisions into tragedy. What happened between the headlamp glow at 4:30 a.m. and the rope going “light” at 13:40 that left one man dead and a map of error behind?

    Person: Lloyd Price
    Person: Diane Harris
    Person: Person: Pete Conroy
    Person: Person: Marta Szabo
    Event: Saddle misidentification

    - The team departed treeline at 4:30 a.m, on September 15, 2019.
    - They arrived at a saddle at 6:45 a.m.; Diane called it Upper Platform at 12,400 ft.
    - Pete’s altimeter read 11,600 ft while Lloyd’s read 12,100 ft and Diane’s read 12,300 ft at the same location.
    - Fenwick Peak’s lower saddle sits 800 feet below the true Upper Platform and one and a half miles to the northeast.
    - At 13:40 one climber was found dead on a rock band at 11,700 ft after the rope “went light.”

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    16 min
  • The Unseen Climber: Photo That Rewrote a Mountain's Decisions

    The Unseen Climber: Photo That Rewrote a Mountain's Decisions
    Oct 14 2026
    The Unseen Climber: Photo That Rewrote a Mountain's Decisions

    A single photograph from a recovered stuff sack showed an unidentified figure on Virden Spire’s summit plateau and forced a re-examination of the choices that put four climbers on a ridge they were never meant to be on. The image came from one of two rolls of film found in Sutter Creek and it contains sixty-one usable frames - but why did that one frame change everything?

    In this episode, we walk through the timeline recovered from depositions, summit logs, and the recovered camera to lay out what happened before and after the shutter clicked. What decisions-made hours earlier and off the pre-filed plan-led the party up an east couloir and onto a ridge that ended with a thirty-one foot fall?

    Person: Kimberly Jones
    Person: Aaron Delgado
    Person: Kathleen Sharp
    Date: August 14, 2003
    Location: Virden Spire, central Nevada

    - Stuff sack with two rolls of Kodak color print film was pulled from Sutter Creek at 9:47 AM on a Tuesday in late October 2003.
    - One roll contained sixty-one usable frames; three frames were taken on the summit plateau.
    - The team left the trailhead on August 9 and established Virden Spire at approximately 11,200 feet on August 11.
    - The group deviated from the planned southwest face to the east couloir on the morning of August 14, gaining roughly ninety minutes.
    - One climber fell thirty-one feet onto unstable talus after all four had climbed the ridge; nobody died.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    16 min
  • The Ice Screw Below the Snowline: One Choice That Kept Them Alive

    The Ice Screw Below the Snowline: One Choice That Kept Them Alive
    Oct 13 2026
    The Ice Screw Below the Snowline: One Choice That Kept Them Alive

    Cold, impossible hardware and a single decision kept two climbers from falling farther than a hundred feet: a titanium ice screw 19 cm long was hammered into granite nearly 4,000 feet below where anyone expected it, and someone had walked on broken legs for 17 hours before being found. How did a tool meant for ice become the hinge between survival and a deeper disaster?

    In this episode, we follow a three-person climb on Mount Auroch that turned catastrophic on July 9, 2019, and trace the sequence of choices and equipment that decided who lived. What exactly happened on the couloir that morning, and which decision changed the outcome?

    Person: Brian Chambers
    Person: Kevin Holmes
    Person: Aaron Sully
    Date: July 9, 2019
    Location: Mount Auroch west couloir

    - A titanium ice screw 19 centimeters long was driven into bare granite and found nearly 4,000 feet below the last known place anyone had seen it.
    - Brian Chambers carried all six ice screws on his harness and none returned to camp after the fall.
    - The fall occurred at approximately 10,200 feet and took less than four seconds.
    - Aaron Sully waited approximately 90 seconds before climbing up and then cut the rope between Chambers and Holmes with a knife, keeping the short end with a figure-eight loop.
    - Someone had been walking on broken legs for 17 hours before being found, according to the record.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    14 min
  • Frozen Notebook, Seven Thousand Meters: Heather Walker's Last Line

    Frozen Notebook, Seven Thousand Meters: Heather Walker's Last Line
    Oct 12 2026
    Frozen Notebook, Seven Thousand Meters: Heather Walker's Last Line

    The cold in that crawl space did not match the crawl space: a green notebook registered a core temperature equivalent to seven thousand meters, open to a half-finished sentence that ends with "the col is." Who wrote that unfinished line, why was the notebook mailed away by accident, and what did that dropped wind foretell before a storm arrived thirty-six hours early?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the notebook’s discovery to the summit push on June 9, 2018, laying out the people, timings, and small decisions that mattered - and asking whether one sentence in the margin changed everything.

    Person: Heather Walker
    Date: June 3, 2018 (reached high camp at approximately seven thousand meters)
    Location: Vennor's Crown, west face of the Arrogate Range
    Finder: Debra Hamilton (septic contractor)
    Event: Summit push began at 2:00 a.m. on June 9, 2018

    - The notebook was found in a crawl space on June 17, 2019, open to a half-finished sentence.
    - Heather Walker was sixty-two years old and had been a radiological technician at Dunmore Regional Hospital for twenty-one years.
    - Walker reached high camp at approximately seven thousand meters on June 3, 2018, and mailed the notebook on June 7, 2018.
    - The summit party began their ascent at 2:00 a.m. on June 9, 2018, and reached the crux traverse at 7,200 meters at 8:15 a.m.
    - The weather forecast predicted a viable summit day on June 9 but a storm arrived thirty-six hours earlier than forecast.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    15 min
  • The Boot in the Ice: How a Single Clue Rewrote a Lost-Climber Mystery

    The Boot in the Ice: How a Single Clue Rewrote a Lost-Climber Mystery
    Oct 11 2026
    The Boot in the Ice: How a Single Clue Rewrote a Lost-Climber Mystery

    A single orange boot, laced and perfectly upright, wedged thirty feet into a crevasse wall changed a four-day missing-person search into a baffling survival puzzle. How did a twenty-four-year-old climber with a decade of experience end up alive, eleven miles from the trailhead, wearing just one boot - and why did that boot appear pressed into the ice like a deliberate sign?

    In this episode, we walk through the events from the May 1 ascent to the Narrows crossing and the moment a snow bridge gave way, showing how weather, rope geometry, and timing shifted the team's fate and the search's focus. What new picture emerges when the boot is the clue that forces every assumption to be re-evaluated?

    Person: Kelly Petersen
    Date: May 1-9, 2011
    Location: Cerro Sable, Narrows and lateral moraine below Serrano Glacier
    Event: Snow-bridge collapse during descent on May 5 at 12:15 PM
    Finder: George Carlson

    - The boot was found on the morning of May 9, 2011, wedged thirty feet above the glacier surface in a crevasse wall.
    - Kelly Petersen was identified as the boot's owner two days after the boot was found and was confirmed alive four days after that.
    - The team reached Camp Two at 12,600 feet by the evening of May 4 and planned a summit push for the morning of May 5.
    - At approximately 4:30 AM on May 5 the team moved through the Narrows at 13,400 feet across an eight-foot-wide snow bridge.
    - Doug Reinhart stepped onto the same bridge at 12:15 PM on May 5, made it four feet before three seconds of progressive collapse, leaving him separated by scant usable rope.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    15 min
  • She Heard the Radio-Left a Milepost, Left a Man Below

    She Heard the Radio-Left a Milepost, Left a Man Below
    Oct 10 2026
    She Heard the Radio-Left a Milepost, Left a Man Below

    Cold, deliberate choices turned a working radio into a witness that could not call for help, and a broken radio into a lifeline left on a milepost eleven miles from the nearest mountain-so who decided which radios to carry, and how did that decision shape who lived and who died?

    In this episode, we follow the April 2009 Cassidy Spire expedition through timestamps, log entries, and radio checks to trace the decisions and failures that defined the outcome; was a single five-word log note the hinge that separated survival from tragedy?

    Person: Carol Fitzgerald
    Person: Doug Sievert
    Person: Cody Marsh
    Date: April 9, 2009
    Location: Cassidy Spire / Route Nine milepost

    - The expedition left Draper Falls trailhead on April 6 and reached the summit on April 9 at 11:50 AM.
    - At 2:17 PM on April 9, Cody Marsh logged the note: "Cache at high to stay light."
    - Four Motorola HT750 radios were carried; three transmitted and received, the fourth was configured as receive-only by the rental company.
    - Sievert fell into a crevasse and dropped approximately 60 feet; temperature that night fell to -21°F.
    - A radio placed upright on a milepost was found by Terry Gallagher before 4:00 AM on April 14, eleven miles from the nearest mountain.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    15 min
  • The Boot in the Snowbank: Why April Stayed and the Mountain Lied

    The Boot in the Snowbank: Why April Stayed and the Mountain Lied
    Oct 9 2026
    The Boot in the Snowbank: Why April Stayed and the Mountain Lied

    A single size seven mountaineering boot, fully laced with a laminated ID for "A. Bailey, Expedition 4, Corvel North," appeared in a highway snowbank nine miles and seventeen thousand feet below the nearest climbable ridge-no blood, no explanation. What began as a routine summit push became a forty-eight-hour test of weather, supplies, and a decision made four days earlier: why did April stay with a teammate instead of descending with the group?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline from a county road-grader operator finding the boot at 7:30 a.m. on March 14, 2011, through the expedition choices and shortfalls that followed, asking how a methodical climber who knew when to turn back ended up unaccounted for while a boot made it down.

    Person: April Bailey
    Event: Expedition 4 summit push
    Date: March 11-14, 2011
    Location: Corvel North; boot found near Brixton Flats highway
    Status: Missing/unaccounted for

    - Boot found at 7:30 a.m. on March 14 by Linda Smith, county road-grader operator.
    - Boot identified as left foot, size seven, with liner inside and laminated ID reading "A. Bailey, Expedition 4, Corvel North."
    - Summit push departed Camp Two at 3:00 a.m. on March 11 with four climbers carrying three days of food.
    - Porter work stoppage left Camp Two with about three days of food for four climbers and fuel forty percent short of planned supplies.
    - On March 11 at 6:14 p.m. April wrote "Reyes is off" and decided "Not okay to continue. Nadine and James want to push. I am staying with Chris."

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    16 min