High in the Cordillera Huayhuash Reserve of the Peruvian Andes, two British climbers attempt the first ascent of the West Face of Siula Grande. The mountain is remote, unforgiving, and lethal to mistakes. After reaching the summit, a catastrophic accident during the descent forces a decision that places survival and death on opposite ends of a single rope.

For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

Quince: Use our link to get free shipping and 365-day returns.

IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.

Smalls: Smalls New Year’s Special - get 60% off your first order, plus free shipping, when you head to Smalls.com/NPAD.

BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.

Today’s stories include pizza in Zion, getting stalked, mule saviors, mysterious trapezoids, and pooping lake water. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

Not many of us would accept a job that risked life and limb, but for a brief moment in time, young men did just that - just to carry the mail. It may have only been in operation for 18 months, but the legacy of the Pony Express has lasted generations. A 2,000 mile horseback ride from Missouri to California posed risks of all kinds, but with no telegraph wires or trains connecting the coasts, brave men and their trusty steeds stepped up and battled the elements, warring nations and each other to keep the nation connected.

Banff Film Festival Tickets 

The Pony Express Re-Ride / Letters!

For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

Ka'Chava: Go to https://kachava.com and use code NPAD. New customers get twenty dollars off an order of two bags or more, January 1st through 31st!

Fayetteville, West Virginia sits on the edge of the New River Gorge, a small Appalachian town now known as a gateway to one of America’s newest national parks. But on Christmas Eve in 1945, it became the setting for one of the most haunting unsolved mysteries in American history. After a house fire destroyed the home of George and Jennie Sodder, five of their children vanished without a trace, leaving behind conflicting investigations, reported sightings, unsettling clues, and a decades-long search for answers.

For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

Cash App: Download Cash App Today: [https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/ejy661fu] #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Direct Deposit, Overdraft Coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures.

Rocket Money: Use our link to get started saving.

Today’s stories include snubbing trail magic, spider inflicted injuries, railroad watchers and unexplained orbs. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

Hollow Socks: For a limited time Hollow Socks is having a Buy 2, Get 2 Free Sale. Head to Hollowsocks.com today to check it out. #Hollow Sockspod

Nutrafol: Get $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you use promo code NPAD.

Ka'Chava: Go to https://kachava.com and use code NPAD for 15% off your next order.

In July of 1917 a pioneering landscape painter paddled out onto Canoe Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park and never returned. His death was initially ruled an accident, but in the following decades peculiar “evidence” and claims from the locals raised a lot of questions. Theories began to arise that maybe it wasn’t an accident after all. Tom Thomson’s death may have happened nearly 100 years ago, but it remains one of Canada’s most enduring mysteries.

For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

Hello Fresh: Use our link to get up to 10 FREE meals and free breakfast for life.

IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.

Soul:  For 30% off your order, head to GetSoul.com and use code NPAD.

BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.

The Grand Canyon has always been a magnet for the bold, the reckless, and the people who look at a mile-deep chasm and think... yeah, I can take that. In this episode, we race through a century of jaw-dropping stunts, from a 1922 biplane pilot who somehow landed inside the park’s early boundaries to Nik Wallenda balancing across tribal land on a high-wire without a harness. Along the way we unravel how thrill-seekers dodged rules, rewrote them, or ignored them entirely in a quest to outdo nature itself.

For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

Smalls: For a limited time, get 60% off your first order, plus free shipping, when you head to Smalls.com/NPAD.

Blueland: Use our link to get 15% off your first order.

Rocket Money: Use our link to get started saving.

Quince: Use our link to get free shipping and 365-day returns.

Against The Odds: Follow Against The Odds: Tsunami in Thailand on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge all episodes early and ad-free right now on Wondery+.

Trail Tales 82 - Today’s stories include cemetery tales, childhood tubing trauma almost felonies and ghostly protectors. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

Bellesa: EVERYONE who signs up wins a FREE WhisperVibe™ OR a FREE Rose toy with any Whisper™ order! https://www.bboutique.co/vibe/nationalparkafterdark-podcast

Jones Road Beauty: Use code [NPAD] at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! These sell out fast so get them while they last! #JonesRoadBeauty #ad

Hollow Socks: For a limited time Hollow Socks is having a Buy 2, Get 2 Free Sale. Head to Hollowsocks.com today to check it out. #Hollow Sockspod

BBC History's Toughest Heroes: Listen to History’s Toughest Heroes at BBC.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In November of 2024, 65 year-old Valdas Bieliauskas was on a rafting trip with a group of friends in the wilds of Tasmania when he did something we all have - he stumbled. But that trip landed him in an impossible situation. With his leg pinned between boulders in fast moving cold water, options were running out. A decision had to be made - a limb or his life.

Sources:

River Rescue Documentary

Franklin River Documentary

ABC News

For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.

Ollie: Take the guesswork out of your dog's well-being. Go to ollie.com/npad and use code npad to get 60% off your first box!

Naked Wines: To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to NakedWines.com/NPAD and use code NPAD for both the code AND PASSWORD.

Uncommon Goods: Use our link to get 15% off your next gift.

In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, we venture into Badlands National Park, where a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation left two FBI agents and an activist dead. Leonard Peltier, convicted on questionable evidence and finally released after 49 years, insists his only crime was “being an Indian.” This is a story of defiance, injustice, and the complex fight for Native lands and sovereignty.

For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdark

TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!

Thank you to the week’s partners!

Soul:  Take advantage of Soul’s Black Friday-Cyber Monday deal now! For a limited time, get 40% off at GetSoul.com and use code NPAD.

Uncommon Goods: Use our link to get 15% off your next gift.

BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.

Cash App: Download Cash App Today: [https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/ejy661fu] #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Direct Deposit, Overdraft Coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures.