( intro music )
About a week into our expedition
a rebel group from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
moved through the valley
and they saw us 1,000 feet up on this big wall
and they saw this as this opportunity.
And so, we awoke one morning
to bullets flying around our portaledges.
The message was quite clear.
We had to come down
or we would get shot.
So, we spent a couple hours rappelling to the ground.
And when we got to the ground, we were greeted with
these very scary-looking guys, with big guns
and army fatigues and large beards and…
We were taken hostage.
And, few hours after we were actually taken as hostages
the Kyrgyz Military moved into the valley
and this incredible battle erupted all around us.
We watched in horror as
a Kyrgyz shoul– soldier was shot point blank in the head.
And we were forced to lie on his body for like four hours
as this crazy battle raged around us.
Heavy machine gun fire, mortars were shot over our heads.
And then for the next six days we hid.
During the day we would bury ourselves in holes in the ground
cover ourselves up with brush and lay completely still.
At night we would sneak from one location to the next.
On the sixth night of captivity
something clicked inside of me
like, this real survival instinct kicked in.
I suddenly felt as though I’d be able to sprint uphill
without my heart rate even rising.
So, a plan was hatched for the head captor
to try and like head back to our basecamp and get some food.
And then we were told to climb up this steep mountainside
with our one remaining captor.
And so we started climbing
we were climbers, very comfortable on this terrain
our captor was not comfortable.
And I started to think if we didn’t get out of here soon
like, we might not last very much longer.
And so, when we were probably
a couple thousand feet up this mountainside
in a super exposed section of the climb…
I decided that I had to take matters into my own hands.
So, I scrambled up behind this one remaining captor
and I grabbed the gun strap
for the gun that was strapped over his shoulder
and I yanked backwards on it as hard as I could
and I watched him fall 50 feet, hit a sloping ramp and then
off into the blackness.
About a week into our expedition
a rebel group from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
moved through the valley
and they saw us 1,000 feet up on this big wall
and they saw this as this opportunity.
And so, we awoke one morning
to bullets flying around our portaledges.
The message was quite clear.
We had to come down
or we would get shot.
So, we spent a couple hours rappelling to the ground.
And when we got to the ground, we were greeted with
these very scary-looking guys, with big guns
and army fatigues and large beards and…
We were taken hostage.
And, few hours after we were actually taken as hostages
the Kyrgyz Military moved into the valley
and this incredible battle erupted all around us.
We watched in horror as
a Kyrgyz shoul– soldier was shot point blank in the head.
And we were forced to lie on his body for like four hours
as this crazy battle raged around us.
Heavy machine gun fire, mortars were shot over our heads.
And then for the next six days we hid.
During the day we would bury ourselves in holes in the ground
cover ourselves up with brush and lay completely still.
At night we would sneak from one location to the next.
On the sixth night of captivity
something clicked inside of me
like, this real survival instinct kicked in.
I suddenly felt as though I’d be able to sprint uphill
without my heart rate even rising.
So, a plan was hatched for the head captor
to try and like head back to our basecamp and get some food.
And then we were told to climb up this steep mountainside
with our one remaining captor.
And so we started climbing
we were climbers, very comfortable on this terrain
our captor was not comfortable.
And I started to think if we didn’t get out of here soon
like, we might not last very much longer.
And so, when we were probably
a couple thousand feet up this mountainside
in a super exposed section of the climb…
I decided that I had to take matters into my own hands.
So, I scrambled up behind this one remaining captor
and I grabbed the gun strap
for the gun that was strapped over his shoulder
and I yanked backwards on it as hard as I could
and I watched him fall 50 feet, hit a sloping ramp and then
off into the blackness.
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