Trapped at 23,900 Feet: Doug Scott’s Descent With Two Broken Legs | E 266

Doug Scott broke both his legs 23,900 feet above sea level on one of the world's most technically demanding mountains. No rescue team was waiting. No helicopter stood by. For eight days, Scott and his climbing partner Chris Bonington faced a descent that should have killed them—navigating crevasses, rappelling with broken legs, surviving a five-day storm with no food and wet sleeping bags in the death zone. But the real question isn't how they survived the mountain. It's what each person on that team did at every moment when survival seemed impossible. This is the story of how humans respond when everything goes catastrophically wrong.00:00 Welcome to The Crux01:50 Meet the Climbers03:24 Why the Ogre Matters04:47 Expedition Setup and Early Injury07:35 Final Summit Push11:44 The Fall and Broken Legs15:56 Night on the Ledge19:49 Crawling Descent and Regroup23:08 Stormbound Survival28:26 Base Camp Abandoned30:37 Mo Runs for Rescue33:33 Porter Carry and Helicopter Twist37:35 Aftermath and Lessons40:56 Closing ThoughtsREFERENCES:Chris Bonington, "The Ogre," American Alpine Journal, 1978Doug Scott, "A Crawl Down The Ogre," Himalayan Journal, 1979Doug Scott, The Ogre: Biography of a Mountain and the Dramatic Story of the First Ascent, Vertebrate Publishing, 2017Gripped Magazine, "The Climber Who Broke Both Legs and Crawled Off a Himalayan Mountain"Mo Anthoine, expedition audio recordingsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-crux-true-survival-stories--7265181/support.Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcastEmail us! [email protected] https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/Get schooled by Julie in wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/Use discount code CRUX to get 10% off tuition on a 2-day Wilderness First Aid course! This episode includes AI-generated content.