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 devastating avalanche.

Featuring climbers Cecilie Skog, Lars Nessa, Eric Meyer, Fredrik Sträng and Wilco van Rooijen.

Special thanks to Fredrik Sträng for providing archival footage.

Host and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

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 she has no idea of the nightmare that is about to unfold. Everything is about to change. And everyone is in terrible danger.

Featuring climbers Cecilie Skog, Lars Nessa, Eric Meyer, Fredrik Sträng, Pasang Lama and Kim Jae-Soo. Also featuring June Yoon as the voice of Kim Jae-Soo, as well as journalist and author Jennifer Jordan.

Special thanks to Fredrik Sträng for providing archival footage.

Host and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

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, things take a devastating turn.

Featuring climbers Cecilie Skog, Lars Nessa, Eric Meyer, Fredrik Strang, Predrag Zagorac and Chhiring Dorje Sherpa.

Special thanks to Fredrik Sträng for providing archival footage.

Host and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

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. Or is there?

Featuring climbers Cecilie Skog, Lars Nessa, Eric Meyer, Predrag Zagorac, Wilco van Rooijen as well as journalist and author Amanda Padoan.

Special thanks to Fredrik Sträng for providing archival footage.

Host and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

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 the climbers is impatiently waiting for their chance to summit.

All they need are a few days of perfect weather. Will it come before it’s too late?

Featuring climbers Cecilie Skog, Lars Nessa, Fredrik Strang, Eric Meyer, as well as author and journalist Jennifer Jordan.

Special thanks to Fredrik Sträng for providing archival footage.

Host and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

New episodes are released on Mondays. But if you’re in the UK, you can listen to the full series now, first on BBC Sounds https://bbc.in/3ybDcHO

A mountain of trouble.

In August 2008, around 30 climbers took on K2. Over 2 disastrous days, 11 of those people would lose their lives. This is the story of what really happened.

Sitting on the border between China and Pakistan, K2 is a perfect pyramid that pierces through the clouds. 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 climbing mountains almost as much as they loved one another. In the summer of 2008, they embarked on a honeymoon like no other, when they decided to climb K2. What happened next would change their lives and the lives of everyone around them…forever.

A devastating avalanche scatters high altitude climbers across K2’s steep slopes. Life and death rescue missions quickly get underway. Who can be saved… before time runs out?

Historian and podcaster Natalia Mehlman Petrzela returns with a sky-high story of human vs nature, and of survival against all the odds.

What does it really take to push yourself to the brink of human possibility? How does it feel to stand with the whole world at your feet? And is it ever worth risking death… in order to feel alive?

Peak Danger is Season 2 of Extreme, the BBC podcast about those who chase the impossible... who strive for superhuman status and refuse to accept that life has any limits. Every season tells an unforgettable, action-packed story about people who’ve pushed their minds and bodies to the very edge – but at what cost?

Host and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

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 to get ripped - really ripped. And it’s hard to stuff the genie back in the bottle once it weighs 240 pounds of pure muscle.

Today, as millions of Americans take steroids with the aim of bulking up, host Natalia Mehlman Petrzela reckons with the enduring legacy of the steroid ring, and an era which transformed our ideas about fitness and beauty.

Featuring former bodybuilders William Dillon, Shawn Ray and Sandra Blackie; Mike Zumpano, co-author of The Underground Steroid Handbook; Professor of Sports Studies at Stirling College-Chengdu University, Daniel Rosenke; Dr Harrison Pope, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; and Daniel Supnick, a former special agent with the US Customs Service.

Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

Featuring clips from:

Episodes are released weekly on Mondays. If you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode, a week early, first on BBC Sounds https://bbc.in/3ybDcHO

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’ operation, things get ugly. Loyalties are tested, and Dillon’s life could be on the line. News of what was then the biggest steroid bust in American history travels across the US and beyond, and host Natalia Mehlman Petrzela explores how it lay the groundwork for an anti-steroid movement that’s about to transform the way these drugs are policed and regulated.

Featuring William Dillon, Mike Zumpano, and Professor Daniel Rosenke, Professor of Sports Studies and Stirling College-Chengdu University

Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

Featuring clips from:

Episodes are released weekly on Mondays. If you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode, a week early, first on BBC Sounds https://bbc.in/3ybDcHO

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 time, they’re going to do things differently. Keep it professional and stay off the radar of the authorities. But as host Natalia Mehlman Petrzela reveals, for Dillon, keeping control of the steroid empire he’s built is going to be easier said than done. And when events begin to spiral, things get violent.

Dillon pins his hopes on one last deal - his exit strategy, so he can cash out and move back home to Illinois. But he’ll have to move quickly. Because federal investigators are planning an ambitious undercover operation that could take down the steroid ring once and for all.

Featuring William Dillon, Mike Zumpano, and Stephen Gelman.

Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

Featuring clips from:

Episodes are released weekly on Mondays. If you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode, a week early, first on BBC Sounds https://bbc.in/3ybDcHO

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 investigators leading the fight against steroids.

Host Natalia Mehlman Petrzela reveals how a newly formed National Steroid Taskforce put steroids enforcement, once seen as a fringe issue by the authorities, on the map. That’s bad news for Dillon and his fellow steroid dealers. But catching them won’t be easy…

Featuring William Dillon; Daniel Supnick, a former special agent with the US Customs Service, and former special agent in the Criminal Investigations Division of the IRS, Stephen Gelman.

Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

Featuring clips from:

Episodes are released weekly on Mondays. If you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode, a week early, first on BBC Sounds https://bbc.in/3ybDcHO