Yeti

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela introduces Extreme: Peak Danger.

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

Five of the world’s top female climbers are thrown into a race. Who will make history by becoming the first woman to summit the fourteen highest peaks in the world?

In Episode 1, a near death experience motivates one mountaineer to take on the challenge. But two others are trying at the same time. This is the first of a four-part mini-series Chasing Mountains. To hear more, search for Amazing Sport Stories on BBC Sounds.

Andrew Benfield has a thing about yetis - he believes they’re real. So he persuaded his friend, Richard Horsey, to join him on a four-year yeti search across the Himalayas.

The pair travelled to remote villages and mountain valleys and heard extraordinary stories about the mythical creature. They even received apparent bona fide evidence that the yeti exists. Is there any truth in these yeti stories?

Andrew and Richard look back over their long and driven quest and are surprised by what they find. You can listen to the whole series in full including the special bonus episode on BBC Sounds now.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4

After years of searching the Himalayas for the mythical yeti, Andrew and Richard were given a purported yeti hair in Bhutan. In this special bonus episode of the series, they send it to the US for DNA testing.

While they wait for the results, they hear stories of apparent yeti encounters from listeners.

When the DNA results finally come in, Richard is sanguine but Andrew is nervous. Will it be the evidence they’ve spent so long looking for? And what does it mean if it’s not?

In this documentary series, Andrew Benfield and Richard Horsey travel through India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan in search of stories of yeti sightings and encounters. They hear from villagers, yak herders, sherpas and mountaineers, who give surprisingly consistent descriptions of a mysterious, large, hairy creature. This series takes us on a journey deep into Himalayan culture as the presenters grapple with their own inner demons to try to make sense of the yeti myth.

Producer: Joanna Jolly

A mysterious stranger gives Andy and Richard a hair. Could it belong to a yeti or an unknown species? They submit it for DNA testing and await the results.

Find out what they discover in a very special bonus episode of Yeti, coming to BBC Sounds on 20 October, 2023.

In the final leg of their yeti search, Andy is taken ill leaving Richard to spend the night alone in yeti country.

Meanwhile, Andy receives a mysterious phone call from a man who says he has evidence of the yeti.

The pair are reunited in Thimpu where they discuss their findings. Have they finally found the evidence they’ve been searching for? Can they once and for all prove the creature is real?

In this 10-part documentary series, Andrew Benfield and Richard Horsey travel through India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan in search of stories of yeti sightings and encounters. They hear from villagers, yak herders, sherpas and mountaineers, who give surprisingly consistent descriptions of a mysterious, large, hairy creature. This series takes us on a journey deep into Himalayan culture as the presenters grapple with their own inner demons to try to make sense of the yeti myth.

Producer: Joanna Jolly.

Andy and Richard finally reach Bhutan’s official yeti sanctuary in the far east of the country, where they speak to rangers and nomads about their yeti experiences.

Andy is told of the location of a yeti cave, where a yeti is supposed to have slept. He persuades Richard to investigate.

The pair hear stories of a royal yeti hunt before celebrating with nomads, with disastrous consequences.

In this 10-part documentary series, Andrew Benfield and Richard Horsey travel through India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan in search of stories of yeti sightings and encounters. They hear from villagers, yak herders, sherpas and mountaineers, who give surprisingly consistent descriptions of a mysterious, large, hairy creature. This series takes us on a journey deep into Himalayan culture as the presenters grapple with their own inner demons to try to make sense of the yeti myth.

Producer: Joanna Jolly.

Having decided to visit the official yeti sanctuary in the far east of Bhutan, Andy and Richard fly to the town of Bumthang.

Here they visit the ancestral home of a Bhutanese historian who is an expert in yeti folklore. She tells them about the importance of the yeti in Bhutanese myth and legend, warning them that yeti chasers will never find them.

But determined to see this search to the end, Andy and Richard continue on, heading towards Bhutan’s official yeti sanctuary.

In this 10-part documentary series, Andrew Benfield and Richard Horsey travel through India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan in search of stories of yeti sightings and encounters. They hear from villagers, yak herders, sherpas and mountaineers, who give surprisingly consistent descriptions of a mysterious, large, hairy creature. This series takes us on a journey deep into Himalayan culture as the presenters grapple with their own inner demons to try to make sense of the yeti myth.

Producer: Joanna Jolly.

Frustrated by their inability to find physical evidence of the yeti, Andy and Richard consult an astrologer to find out whether the omens for their search are good.

After exploring the spiritual significance of the yeti with a Buddhist nun, Andy questions the motivation behind his need to keep searching. Is he chasing after the unobtainable? Or is there something there?

He and Richard decide they need to focus their search back onto reality and make plans to head to the official yeti sanctuary in the far east of the country.

In this 10-part documentary series, Andrew Benfield and Richard Horsey travel through India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan in search of stories of yeti sightings and encounters. They hear from villagers, yak herders, sherpas and mountaineers, who give surprisingly consistent descriptions of a mysterious, large, hairy creature. This series takes us on a journey deep into Himalayan culture as the presenters grapple with their own inner demons to try to make sense of the yeti myth.

Producer: Joanna Jolly.

Determined to give yeti searching one more try, Andy and Richard head to the remote kingdom of Bhutan. This is a country where belief in the yeti is widespread and there’s even an official dedicated yeti sanctuary.

Andy and Richard head to the capital Thimpu, where they speak to a wildlife expert who led an expedition to look for the yeti.

Along the way they meet a businessman who shows them photographs of strange footprints he stumbled across in a forest. Could these have been made by a yeti?

In this 10-part documentary series, Andrew Benfield and Richard Horsey travel through India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan in search of stories of yeti sightings and encounters. They hear from villagers, yak herders, sherpas and mountaineers, who give surprisingly consistent descriptions of a mysterious, large, hairy creature. This series takes us on a journey deep into Himalayan culture as the presenters grapple with their own inner demons to try to make sense of the yeti myth.

Producer: Joanna Jolly.