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  • He Left His Hand On The Mountain - Why He Came Back Without It

    He Left His Hand On The Mountain - Why He Came Back Without It
    2026/07/25
    He Left His Hand On The Mountain - Why He Came Back Without It

    An upright size eleven mountaineering boot, its outer shell vertically cracked, held a human left hand curled inside the liner - found in an unheated storage unit 40 miles from the Greywall range. Eleven climbers summited a 14,200-foot peak; one returned missing a hand and no crime was ever charged. How did a hand travel from 13,400 feet to a storage unit, and why was it deliberately placed in that boot?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events from the January climb to the discovery in Dunnmore, presenting the climbers, the decisions on route and descent, the unexpected storm that left no meteorological trace, and the items recovered that link mountain to town. What choice did the missing hand’s owner make on the mountain, and what followed afterward?

    Person: Randy Jones
    Date: January 13, 2019
    Location: Kellick's Throne, 14,200 ft (Graywall range)
    Finder: Erin O'Connor
    Discovery date: February 4, 2019

    - The boot was a right-foot mountaineering double boot, size eleven, with a vertical crack at the toe box.
    - Randy Jones was 54 years old and had been climbing for 31 years.
    - Eleven climbers left Camp Two at 2:10 AM and reached the summit at 9:44 AM after 7 hours 34 minutes of climbing.
    - The storm struck 24 minutes after the summit at approximately 13,400 feet and left no detectable meteorological data.
    - The boot with the hand was found in unit 114 of Cascade Valley Self-Storage; the padlock on the unit was missing.

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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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    17 分
  • Harness on the Fence Post: How a Guide Vanished Below Miriam

    Harness on the Fence Post: How a Guide Vanished Below Miriam
    2026/07/24
    Harness on the Fence Post: How a Guide Vanished Below Miriam

    Fear and fascination collide: an orange size-medium climbing harness, buckles threaded and belay loop closed, hung carefully on a fence post three days after its owner died on Miriam - and there was no pack, no note, and no car in the lot. How does a seasoned guide with seventeen personal summits vanish while his client returns alive but missing six hours of memory?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline, the weather records, the eyewitness radio log, and the survivor’s fragmented testimony to show what unfolded on December 11-14 and why the harness was found days later - but can the physical evidence and cold-impaired memory bridge that six-hour gap?

    Person: Chris Alderton
    Date: December 11-14
    Location: West face of Miriam, Cassler Range
    Client: Darlene Peterson, 22 years old
    Wind peak: 40 miles per hour (rose from 22 mph in under ten minutes)

    - Harness found: orange climbing harness, size medium, buckles threaded, belay loop closed
    - Alderton experience: 38 years old with 17 personal summits on Miriam
    - Departure time: left base camp at 3:00 AM; turnaround time filed at 9:30 AM
    - Weather timeline: sustained wind 22 mph at 6:45 AM; storm arrived at 8:15 AM
    - Survivor return: client arrived at base camp at approximately 3:15 PM, hypothermic and barely coherent

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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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    19 分
  • She Wrote Her Own Rescue: The Dry‑Bag Found on Aravant Spire

    She Wrote Her Own Rescue: The Dry‑Bag Found on Aravant Spire
    2026/07/23
    She Wrote Her Own Rescue: The Dry‑Bag Found on Aravant Spire

    A paperback-sized dry-bag pinned at a trailhead held an eleven-page notebook, a satellite communicator at 11% battery, and a self-diagnosis that named brain swelling at 13,400 feet - all left by someone who had prepared a rescue plan and a last message. Who writes their own medical record and seals it to the world in case they won't make it off a 14,200-foot peak?

    In this episode, we follow the chain of what was found and who made it: the hiker who discovered the bag, the emergency physician who organized her gear like a protocol, and the four-person team that climbed Aravant Spire. How did equipment choices, altitude, and split-second decisions turn a routine descent into a life-or-death moment?

    Person: Amanda Harrison
    Person: Deborah Nance
    Event: Dry-bag discovered at Donald Watson trailhead on November 14, 2019
    Location: Aravant Spire, Arabel Range, central Idaho
    Elevation: Summit 14,200 ft; location of symptoms 13,400 ft

    - The dry-bag contained an eleven-page handwritten notebook and a satellite communicator with 11% battery remaining.
    - Amanda Harrison was 38 years old in November 2019 and worked as an emergency medicine physician in Boise, Idaho.
    - The climbing team of four established high camp at 13,100 ft on November 2, 2019, 2,100 ft above the Gamow bag located at 11,000 ft.
    - The team reached the summit on November 4, 2019 at 11:05 and radioed base camp at 11:52 confirming descent had begun.
    - Amanda stopped moving at 13,400 ft at approximately 1:30 p.m. on November 4 while clipped to a fixed rope above the couloir.

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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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    18 分
  • The Burned Axe: How a Teacher Vanished Then Came Back Alive

    The Burned Axe: How a Teacher Vanished Then Came Back Alive
    2026/07/22
    The Burned Axe: How a Teacher Vanished Then Came Back Alive

    The river yielded a burned ice-axe head - ferrule blackened, shaft deliberately burned away - found at 5:47 a.m. on October 14, 2019; eleven miles downstream a solo climber's fate hung unanswered on an eight-thousand-two-hundred-forty-meter ridge. How did a methodical middle-school teacher survive nights at minus thirty-one degrees with a failed crampon and a single piece of burning wood?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from Paul Johnson's summit and descent to the discovery of the axe head, laying out the equipment failures, campsite details, weather, and the questions that remained: where was the shaft burned and was the climber still alive when the tool entered the river?

    Person: Paul Johnson
    Date: October 8-14, 2019
    Location: Warden's Horn, Sable Range, west of Creston, Montana
    Event: Summit reached and subsequent descent with equipment failure
    Temperature: minus thirty-one degrees Celsius

    - Summit reached at approximately 2:17 p.m, on October 8, 2019 at 8,240 meters.
    - Crampon bail on the right foot sheared at about 7,100 meters, leaving one crampon functional.
    - Camp One established at approximately 5,800 meters containing sleeping bag, stove, two fuel canisters, bulk food, and spare crampons.
    - Headlamp detection at 5:47 a.m. on October 14, 2019 recovered the steel ice-axe head from the Sable Range River with ash-packed ferrule.
    - The route feature called the Crook is at about 7,600 meters where descent diverges and the Notch alcove provided shelter on October 8, 2019.

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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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    19 分
  • The Wrong Col: How One Misread Notch Nearly Killed Four

    The Wrong Col: How One Misread Notch Nearly Killed Four
    2026/07/21
    The Wrong Col: How One Misread Notch Nearly Killed Four

    A misplaced crampon and a forty-foot rope left two hundred and thirty feet below a bergschrund turned a routine ridge into a near-fatal trap; four climbers spent a night jammed in a bergschrund with one broken leg and a dislocated shoulder. Which single navigational error and hidden cache of gear made a familiar mountain suddenly deadly?

    In this episode, we follow the team’s climb on Whitecrown, the decisions at Camp One, and the one misread notch that put the party in the Right Notch instead of the Left Notch. How did a cache placed at 9,800 feet and a quarter-mile of broken ridge create a rescue scenario that none of them - or the maps - anticipated?

    Person: Marilyn Bennett
    Age: 26
    Person: Wayne Farrell
    Age: 41
    Location: Camp One at 10,400 feet
    Event: Cache of technical equipment at 9,800 feet
    Injury: one broken leg and one dislocated shoulder

    - Four climbers spent a night jammed inside a bergschrund after the navigation error.
    - The missing reserve rope measured 40 feet and was cut and coiled by Marilyn before the ascent.
    - The technical cache was cached under a rock overhang at 9,800 feet-on the Right Notch.
    - The summit of Whitecrown is approximately 13,000 feet, with the East Ridge being the planned route.
    - The two notches are separated by just under a third of a mile of broken ridge and look identical from below.

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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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    18 分
  • The Stranger at the Cairn: Unseen Figure on Mount Vorel

    The Stranger at the Cairn: Unseen Figure on Mount Vorel
    2026/07/21
    The Stranger at the Cairn: Unseen Figure on Mount Vorel

    A developed photograph found in a steel outbuilding shows an unknown figure at the summit cairn of Mount Vorel-one of five climbers who summited that day says nobody saw this person on the mountain. Who was the dark-gear figure standing with its face turned away, and how did an unmistakable, unmanipulated image arrive in Craig Holmes’s film envelope months later?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery, the five-person Vorel expedition, Craig Holmes’s meticulous records, and the unexplained chain of events that unfolded after the descent. What does the clear but inexplicable photographic evidence mean for a case that resists resolution?

    Person: Craig Holmes
    Date: summit in August (two years before September discovery)
    Location: Mount Vorel, Breckett Group
    Case: Unidentified person in summit photograph
    Event: Photograph discovered in September in a steel outbuilding

    - Five people summited Mount Vorel on a cold August morning: Craig Holmes, Ross Schmidt, Beth Caruso, Owen Daly, and Walt Ingram.
    - Mount Vorel rises to approximately 14,200 feet and is roughly 60 miles from the nearest paved road.
    - The last frame of roll three, taken by Owen Daly at 5:40 a.m., contained the unknown figure at the cairn and was not seen until four months later.
    - Craig Holmes photographed with an Olympus Stylus 35mm film camera and sent rolls to a mail-order lab; he kept detailed Rite in the Rain journal entries.
    - Negatives examined by a photography expert showed no manipulation of any kind.

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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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    20 分
  • The Screw That Fell Three Thousand Feet and Didn't Break

    The Screw That Fell Three Thousand Feet and Didn't Break
    2026/07/21
    The Screw That Fell Three Thousand Feet and Didn't Break

    Fear and relief meet on a ridge: a titanium ice screw with yellow tape fell roughly three thousand vertical feet from where it was last seen-and whatever caught it kept three climbers alive. How did a hundred-millimeter screw, photographed on a granite shelf at 9,200 feet, become the single element that decided survival on Crevasse Peak?

    In this episode, you’ll hear the sequence of decisions, timings, and placements over two days on a northwest couloir at seventy degrees that led to a fifteen-second window where one choice held. The narrative follows the three climbers, the route they chose, and the odd geometry of a screw found wedged in granite-what did that screw’s condition and placement really mean for the accident report’s conclusion?

    Person: Amanda Anderson
    Person: Amy Smith
    Person: Sandra Fitzgerald
    Person: Patrick Oakes
    Location: Crevasse Peak, northwest couloir

    - Date of initial climb departure: July 12, 2009, trailhead leave at 04:00.
    - Elevation where object was found: 9,200 feet on western moraine.
    - Peak elevation: 12,400 feet with a northwest couloir crux rated ice grade 4.
    - Ice screw specifics: titanium, 100 millimeters long, loop of yellow electrical tape through its eye, no rust or deformation.
    - Timing detail: the crux band reached at 11:15 on July 12 after leaving at 04:00, with a planned 48-hour weather window and six hours of schedule margin.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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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    17 分
  • She Wrote 'I Have Questions'-Then Never Came Down

    She Wrote 'I Have Questions'-Then Never Came Down
    2026/07/21
    She Wrote 'I Have Questions'-Then Never Came Down

    The mountains keep secrets in thin air: a five-by-eight safety‑orange notebook traveled nine thousand feet alone and carried one line-"I have questions"-scribbled twelve hours before a fifty‑three‑year‑old climber refused to turn back and never returned. What did she see on the buttress that made a careful, methodical veteran defer to a guide and go on?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a June 7 notebook entry to a June 19 discovery at the Drever North trailhead, tracing the decisions, weather alerts, and conflicting accounts that led to a fatal summit push. Why did Vicki Edwards, with twenty‑seven years of alpine experience, write that she had questions and still accept Lori's read?

    Person: Vicki Edwards
    Date: June 7, 2011 (last notebook entry)
    Location: Drever Northeast Buttress / Drever North trailhead
    Age: 53
    Team members: Lori O'Connor (permit holder, 41), Chris Denton (mid‑30s)

    - The notebook was a five‑by‑eight spiral with a safety‑orange laminated cover, open to the last entry when found.
    - Vicki wrote "I have questions" at 6:30 p.m. on June 7, twelve hours before being told she could not turn back.
    - The expedition reached base camp on May 29 and high camp at 6,800 meters after three days, with a rest day at 5,900 meters.
    - A cold front crossed the massif at 2:00 p.m. on June 7 and Lori received a weather alert at 4:20 p.m, on her satellite phone.
    - The notebook was found on the asphalt at the Drever North trailhead on June 19 by a fourteen‑year‑old named Frances Stevens.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分