Extreme
Extreme is a BBC podcast that tells unforgettable, action-packed stories about people who push their minds and bodies to the limit. Season 2, titled Peak Danger, focuses on the 2008 K2 disaster where 11 climbers lost their lives over two disastrous days. The series explores the harrowing experiences of climbers like Cecilie Skog and Rolf Bae, who embarked on a honeymoon climb that turned into a life-or-death ordeal. Each season delves into the costs and consequences of chasing the impossible.
Episodes
Muscle Men: 1. All That Glitters
Meet William Dillon. A young amateur bodybuilder from small-town Illinois, who dreams of getting ripped. It’s the early 1980s and across the USA a fitness revolution is underway. Exercise has become a national pastime and Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking the jacked-up physique mainstream. Dillon is one of many young men with a new kind of American dream - big muscles, and big money. In 1984, a luck
Muscle Men: 2. The Guru
Historian, podcaster and fitness expert Natalia Mehlman Petrzela lifts the lid on the steroid underground - a world of risk-taking and experimentation that lies beneath the glamorous surface of life in the 1980s LA gym scene. It’s all about making it big, at any cost.This is the scene that young bodybuilder William Dillon is initiated into, now that he’s settled into the California lifting communi
Muscle Men: 3. Get Ripped. Quick
Prior to the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas Venezuela, the issue of sports doping was largely flying under the American public’s radar. But when 19 athletes are found positive for using banned substances at the games, steroids are thrust into focus. And a stigma starts to grow. At the same time, authorities are cracking down on the manufacture of one of the most popular anabolics in the bodybu
Muscle Men: 4. Perfect Square Pecs
In the lobby of Caesar’s Palace Hotel in Las Vegas there’s a modern-day shrine to a 2000 year old adonis - complete with perfectly square pecs. Michelangelo’s David. 17 feet of white marble beefcake. This is an ideal that bodybuilders can only aspire to. And in the 80s bodybuilding scene, a particular image of perfection emerges and begins to transform what American culture thinks of as a desirabl
Muscle Men: 5. The A Team
Nobody gets arrested for dealing anabolic steroids. That’s the assumption bodybuilder Dan Duchaine, William Dillon and their fellow ring-members are relying upon, as they build the biggest steroid trafficking operation in America. But that’s all about to change. As President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs rages in the mid 1980s, the ring find themselves in the crosshairs of a team of dogged investig
Muscle Men: 6. One Last Hit
In the summer of 1986, bodybuilder William Dillon moves to San Diego to leave his steroid dealing days behind him, and live a quiet life of working out and running a gym. Or at least - that’s the plan. When Dillon’s old life comes calling, with the promise of easy money, it’s hard to resist.Dillon returns to the steroid dealing ring he set up with a crew of gym rats and former athletes. But this t
Muscle Men: 7. French Fries or Bust
When bodybuilder William Dillon moved to LA, he dreamed of getting rich quick by selling the promise of big muscles in a bottle. But in the spring of 1987, that dream has come crashing down around him. With the authorities closing in on the steroid dealing ring, and fearing for his life, it’s time for Dillon and the steroid dealing ring to face the music.In the fallout from the investigators’ oper
Muscle Men: 8. The Genie Is Out
In the wake of the steroid ring’s downfall, the headline-grabbing prosecutions combine with sports scandals and anxieties about steroids making it into high school locker rooms. Lawmakers decide to take action. The Steroid Control Act of 1990, spearheaded by none other than then-Senator Joe Biden, promises to deal with steroids once and for all. But the USA already had a taste of what it felt like
Peak Danger: 1. Welcome to Base Camp
It’s the summer of 2008. Cecilie Skog, her husband Rolf Bae and their teammates are aiming to become the first Norwegians to reach the summit of K2. When they arrive at Base Camp, they find it full to bursting with climbers from all over the world - Serbia, France, the U.S.A., South Korea, Nepal and more. But bad weather is keeping everyone from reaching the top of this mammoth mountain. Each of t
Peak Danger: 2. Plan of Attack
The climbers at Base Camp come up with a plan to help everyone reach the top. Professional Adventurer Wilco van Rooijen and his team take one route. Cecilie, her husband Rolf and many of their fellow climbers take another. But while nearly everyone reaches Camp 4, over 25,000 feet in the air, one vital member of the group is in terrible danger. He needs rescuing - but there’s nobody around to help
Peak Danger: 3. The Death Zone
Once you get beyond 26,000 feet, your body can no longer acclimatise to the extreme high altitude. This is called the Death Zone. Cecilie Skog and her fellow climbers are in the Death Zone, their eyes trained on the top of K2. They’re approaching one of the most dangerous parts of the mountain - but things aren’t going according to plan.As the climbers scramble to keep their summit dreams alive, t
Peak Danger: 4. Summit Fever
In the chaos of the Death Zone, this group of climbers begins to splinter apart. Some have turned back but others have caught Summit Fever. They want to push upwards at all costs. Even if time is against them. Cecilie Skog aims to make history as the first Norwegian woman to stand on the top of K2. Standing with the world at her feet, up above the clouds, it will feel like a dream come true. But s
Peak Danger: 5. Love Is in the Air
When Cecilie Skog met Rolf Bae, it was love at first sight. A whirlwind romance quickly followed, as they climbed the world’s tallest mountains, shoulder to shoulder. Now recently married, she and Rolf wanted to tick off a K2 summit before settling down and starting their family. But as they descend, darkness is falling - and before long they’ll find themselves caught in the crosshairs of a devast
Peak Danger: 6. Descent into Madness
What was first a tragedy now morphs into a full blown catastrophe. In the aftermath of the avalanche, stranded climbers are battling their way back to Camp.What they don’t know is that they’re searching for a path down K2 that no longer exists. Some will risk it all to climb down in total darkness, while others wait out the night on K2’s slopes. Rescue missions are being planned. Who can hold on l
Peak Danger: 7. No Man Left Behind
As dawn breaks on a new day, it’s August 2nd 2008. There are nine climbers who are all either trapped, injured…or unaccounted for. Dutch climber Wlico van Rooijen finds himself lost and alone on the mountain. He’s spent one night out in the Death Zone. Can he survive another? The rest of the group is up against the clock as they mount a bold rescue mission. But as they battle for the survival of t
Peak Danger: 8. Only The Mountain Knows
In the aftermath of the tragedy that claimed 11 lives, the surviving climbers leave K2 behind. As they do, they’re walking into a worldwide media frenzy.Everyone wants to know what happened? What went wrong? And most of all - was it worth it? A heartbroken Cecilie Skog tries to put her life back together and forge a new future. Her fellow climbers deal with the trauma and fallout of what’s happene
Muscle Men: Trailer
Muscle Men is season one of Extreme, the podcast from BBC Radio 4 that knows no limits. Each action-packed season tells the story of people who’ve pushed themselves to the very edge of what’s physically or mentally possible – and in doing so, have changed the world...Under the hot California sun, amateur bodybuilders and a former Olympic medallist build the biggest illegal steroid dealing ring the
Peak Danger: Trailer
A mountain of trouble. In 2008, 30 climbers took on K2. Over two disastrous days, 11 of those people would lose their lives. This is the story of what really happened. K2 is a perfect pyramid that pierces through the clouds of Northern Pakistan. It looks like a kid’s drawing of a mountain - but this terrifying peak is anything but child’s play. Newlyweds Cecilie Skog and her husband Rolf Bae loved
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