In 1897, a Swedish engineer convinced a king, a Nobel Prize winner, and an entire nation to fund the most ambitious plan in exploration history, flying a hydrogen balloon to the North Pole. He had never tested the balloon in Arctic conditions. His steering system didn't work. He launched anyway.

What followed was 65 hours of chaos in the air, 87 days of brutal survival on the Arctic ice when they finally found land. But, after only four days on land, the three men were dead. Their frozen camp was discovered 33 years later and the mystery continued. They had full supplies, working weapons, and enough food to last for months.

This is the story of the Andrée expedition, the hubris, the crash, the march, and the 125 year old mystery nobody has been able to solve.

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The north face of the Eiger had a reputation so bad it got a nickname.
Mordwand. The Murder Wall.

By 1936, it had already killed several climbers, and nobody had ever made it to the top. Four young climbers - two German, two Austrian - decided they were going to be the ones to crack the Eiger’s north face. They were talented. They were experienced.

And one decision in particular would make this one of the most witnessed - and most heartbreaking - disasters in mountaineering history.

This is the story of the 1936 Eiger disaster.

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In May 1987, two of the world's best climbers - Dave Cheesmond and Catherine Freer - attempted the Hummingbird Ridge on Mount Logan, Canada's highest mountain. Between them, they'd climbed Everest, K2, and El Capitan. They were the best of the best.

The Hummingbird Ridge had only been climbed once since 1965 and it was a brutal 30-day siege that other climbers didn't believe was possible. Dave and Catherine went up fast and light. Just the two of them.

Then they vanished.

For thirteen years, nobody knew what happened. Then in April 2000, a helicopter spotted something frozen into the ridge. What they found didn't solve the mystery, but it confirmed just how deadly that route really is.

This is the story of Mount Logan, the Hummingbird Ridge, and the climbers who never came down.

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The 1904 St. Louis Olympic Marathon might be the most disastrous sporting event in history. Thirty-two men started. Only fourteen finished. The winner was given rat poison and brandy to keep him moving. Barefoot runners were chased off-course by dogs. And race organizers intentionally restricted water because they believed dehydration helped performance!

This is the true story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon. A race so chaotic it nearly killed the Olympic marathon forever.

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Annapurna was the first 8,000-meter peak ever climbed, three years before Everest. It should have been a triumph. Instead, the climbers who made history lost every finger and toe getting back down.

75 years later, Annapurna is still taking lives. But now it's not just elite alpinists on the mountain, it's commercial clients, guided expeditions, and climbers who've never been above 8,000 meters.

This is the story of the world's deadliest mountain, the people who keep climbing it, and what it costs the Sherpas who make those climbs possible.

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Were 1,000 climbers really trapped on Mount Everest? Recently, the internet went wild with dramatic headlines, but the real story is very different.

In this podcast, we dig into what actually happened on Everest in the recent storm, who was really at risk, and how the truth got twisted.

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In the freezing darkness off Iceland’s coast, a lone fisherman finds himself in the water after his boat sinks, with no life jacket, no survival suit, and miles from shore.

What happens next defies science, survival training, and common sense.

This is the unbelievable true story of Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, the man who turned a deadly night at sea into one of the most extraordinary rescues in history.

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He swam the entire Amazon River, over 3,000 miles of sewage, piranhas, and parasites. All while pounding red wine and slathering himself in gasoline.

And somehow, that’s not even the weird part!

This is the story of Martin Strel.

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