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Annapurna’s deadliest stories are not just about summits, but about the moments when everything goes wrong on the way down. This narrated mountain documentary follows six tragic climbing deaths on Annapurna I, from Anatoli Boukreev’s avalanche disappearance to the rescue effort around Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, the fatal serac collapse that killed Ian Clough, and the hidden crevasse accident that took Samuli Mansikka and a Nepalese guide.

The video also covers Noel Hanna’s quiet death at Camp 4 and the 2025 avalanche that swept away Sherpas Ngima Tashi and Rima Rinje while carrying oxygen and gear for client summit attempts. It is a stark look at Himalayan climbing accidents, high-altitude survival, rescue attempts, and the brutal reality of one of the world’s most dangerous mountains.

Created for viewers searching for mountaineering documentary, Annapurna deaths, climbing accident stories, Himalayan tragedy, and narrated mountain history. It also suits listeners interested in true climbing stories, expedition disasters, and serious outdoor survival storytelling for background viewing or focused listening.

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Transcript
00:02Anatoly Ukriev
00:03Okay, before we get into this
00:05Annapurna 1
00:0726,545 feet
00:108,091 meters
00:12First 8,000 meter peak ever climbed
00:15Back in 1950
00:17Death to summit ratio
00:1932%
00:21One climber dying for every three
00:24Who make it back down
00:25Not because people are careless
00:27Because the mountain
00:28Steep faces, collapsing seracs
00:32Avalanche shoots, storms with no warning
00:35Genuinely does not care
00:37It's not the highest
00:39It's just one of the most efficient
00:43December 25, 1997
00:45Christmas Day
00:47At around 18,700 feet
00:50On the south side
00:51Three climbers are fixing rope
00:53In a steep couloir
00:55Essentially a natural avalanche shoot
00:57Directly beneath enormous overhanging cornices
01:00On the western wall
01:02One of them is Anatoly Ukriev
01:05Ukriev, 39, was one of the strongest
01:09High-altitude climbers alive
01:11Kazakhstani, Soviet-trained
01:13Famous for his no-oxygen ascents
01:16And his almost superhuman endurance
01:18He'd written a book about it
01:20And just a year earlier
01:22During the catastrophic 1996
01:25Everest disaster
01:26The one that became the subject
01:28Of books and films
01:29He'd made multiple trips
01:31Back into the storm
01:32To physically drag exhausted climbers
01:35To safety
01:35He was, by any measure
01:38The last person you'd expect
01:40To die on a mountain
01:41He was on Annapurna
01:43For a bold winter attempt
01:44Alpine style
01:46No bottled oxygen
01:48Minimal fixed ropes
01:49With Italian Simone Moro
01:51And Russian cinematographer
01:53Dmitry Sobolev
01:54Around midday
01:56Without warning
01:57A massive snow cornice
01:59Broke high above them
02:01And triggered an avalanche
02:02That thundered down
02:03The full length of the couloir
02:05The slide hit all three
02:08Moro was swept roughly
02:10800 feet down the slope
02:12And dumped near their Camp 1 tent
02:14Badly injured
02:15Hands ripped down
02:17To the tendons
02:17He clawed himself
02:19Out of the snow
02:20Tried to find the others
02:22And found only debris
02:23Help me
02:24Bukriyev and Sobolev
02:26Had simply vanished
02:27Under blocks of ice and snow
02:29The size of cars
02:32Helicopter rescue teams
02:33Made repeated attempts
02:34In the days that followed
02:35From the air
02:37They could see the avalanche path
02:38But not Bukriyev or Sobolev
02:41Their bodies were never recovered
02:45Iñaki Ochoa de Olsa
02:47May 2008
02:48Annapurna 1, South Face
02:52Iñaki Ochoa de Olsa
02:54Iñaki to everyone who knew him
02:55Was 41
02:57From Pamplona, Spain
02:58A veteran of more than a dozen
03:008,000 meter peaks
03:02Always without supplemental oxygen
03:04Always fast and light
03:05Exactly the kind of climber
03:07Who looked at Annapurna's
03:08Seldom climbed east ridge
03:10And thought
03:10Yeah, I want that one
03:12He and Romanian partner
03:14Hordia Kolibashanu
03:16Had turned back short of the summit
03:17Due to dangerous conditions
03:28At around 24,300 feet
03:32When Iñaki suddenly seized
03:34Collapsed
03:35Became semi-conscious
03:37And largely unable to move
03:38Suspected cerebral injury
03:41Combined with pulmonary edema
03:42His brain and lungs
03:44Simultaneously shutting down
03:45In the thin air
03:46What followed was five days of this
03:49Five nights at altitude
03:51In a tent
03:52While an improvised
03:53International rescue effort
03:54Formed around him
03:55Climbers from Romania
03:57Switzerland
03:58Kazakhstan
03:58Russia
03:59Canada
04:00Some of the strongest
04:01Alpinists in the world
04:03Attempted to reach him
04:04With drugs and oxygen
04:05Swiss legend
04:07Uli Steck
04:08Made an immense
04:08Solo push
04:09From base camp
04:10All the way to camp four
04:11With medications
04:13He found Iñaki
04:14Too weak to move
04:15Doctors in Spain
04:16Advised by radio
04:17Throughout
04:18His teammates
04:19Rotated in and out
04:20Of the tent
04:21Keeping him warm
04:22Talking to him
04:23During the moments
04:23When he was conscious
04:24For five days
04:26While the mountain
04:27Did everything it could
04:28To stop anyone
04:29From reaching him
04:30People tried anyway
04:32He died on May 23rd
04:34In the tent
04:35At altitude
04:35His body was left
04:37On the mountain
04:39Ian Cleff
04:40May 30th
04:421970
04:43This one is going
04:45To bother you
04:45Because the timing
04:47Is just
04:47It's almost too cruel
04:49To believe
04:51Ian Cleff
04:52Was 33
04:53From Yorkshire
04:54England
04:54Considered one of the
04:56Finest British
04:57Alpinists
04:58Of his generation
04:58Technically brilliant
05:00Consistently reliable
05:02And by all accounts
05:03The kind of person
05:04Everyone wanted
05:05On their team
05:05He was part of
05:07Sir Chris Bonington's
05:081970 British expedition
05:10Attempting Annapurna 1's
05:12Huge
05:12Unclimbed
05:13South face
05:14A massive
05:15Multi-week
05:16Siege-style assault
05:18One of the most
05:19Ambitious undertakings
05:20In British climbing history
05:22Weeks of fixing ropes
05:24Establishing high camps
05:26Working the face
05:28In brutal conditions
05:29And then
05:30On May 27th
05:32Success
05:34Dougal Haston
05:35And Don Willans
05:36Forced a route
05:37Through the upper face
05:38And reached the summit
05:39The expedition
05:40Had done what it
05:41Came to do
05:42The team started
05:43Clearing the mountain
05:44Packing up
05:45Coming down
05:47Ian was descending
05:49With fellow climber
05:50Mike Thompson
05:50Passing beneath
05:51A notorious
05:52Overhanging
05:53Serac
05:53That the team
05:54Had nicknamed
05:56The Sword
05:57Of Damocles
05:59The Serac
06:00Collapsed
06:01A large section
06:02Of the ice cliff
06:03Broke away
06:04And triggered an avalanche
06:05That slammed
06:06Directly into Ian
06:07Thompson escaped
06:09And ran down
06:10To raise the alarm
06:11Ian was buried
06:12Where he fell
06:13His teammates
06:15Recovered his body
06:16And carried it down
06:17To base camp
06:17For burial
06:18At the foot
06:18Of the face
06:19Chris Bonington
06:21Dedicated his book
06:22Annapurna South Face
06:23To him
06:23The summit
06:25Had already been reached
06:26The ropes
06:27Were being pulled
06:28The mountain
06:29Was supposed to be
06:30Done with them
06:31And then the feature
06:33Literally named
06:34The Sword of Damocles
06:35Dropped on the nicest
06:37Guy on the team
06:40Samuli Mansika
06:42March 2015
06:44Annapurna 1
06:45Samuli Mansika
06:4736
06:48Finnish professional guide
06:50And high altitude climber
06:51Known for fast
06:53Solo ascents
06:54Of 8,000 meter peaks
06:55Usually without
06:56Supplemental oxygen
06:57He'd joined
06:59A commercial expedition
07:00On Annapurna
07:01Using their logistical support
07:03But climbed ahead
07:04On his own
07:04The way people
07:05Like him
07:06Tend to do
07:06He had a strong
07:08Safety record
07:09And the kind of
07:10Experience that makes
07:11Other climbers
07:11Feel better
07:12Just by being
07:13On the same mountain
07:14He summited
07:15Solo
07:16No oxygen
07:18On the descent
07:19He and a 35-year-old
07:21Nepalese guide
07:22Working with a separate team
07:24Moved down together
07:25Separated from the main group
07:27On the upper mountain
07:28Somewhere on the descent
07:30They fell into
07:31A hidden crevasse
07:32Radio contact
07:33Was lost
07:34They didn't come back
07:35To camp
07:36Search teams
07:37Began looking
07:38But altitude and terrain
07:39Made it slow
07:40It took until around
07:42March 31st
07:43Roughly a week
07:44After they went missing
07:45For rescuers
07:46To locate both bodies
07:47Inside the crevasse
07:49During an aerial
07:49And ground search
07:51Not an avalanche
07:53Not a storm
07:54A snow bridge
07:56A thin, invisible
07:57Layer of ice crust
07:58Over a black gap
08:00In the glacier
08:01Indistinguishable
08:02From solid ground
08:03You've just nailed
08:05A no oxygen
08:06Solo summit
08:06On one of the world's
08:08Deadliest mountains
08:09You're on the way down
08:10And the floor
08:12Opens under you
08:15Noelle Hanna
08:16April 17th
08:182023
08:18Camp 4
08:20On Annapurna 1
08:21Noelle Hanna
08:2356
08:23From Northern Ireland
08:2510 Everest summits
08:27Multiple Himalayan expeditions
08:29Spanning decades
08:30A man who had been
08:32To the top
08:32Of the world's
08:33Highest mountain
08:3410 times
08:35And come back down
08:36Every single time
08:38He'd just summited
08:40Annapurna
08:40Reportedly without
08:42Supplemental oxygen
08:43Descended to Camp 4
08:45Other climbers
08:46In the tent
08:47Said he seemed okay
08:48Tired, obviously
08:49But okay
08:50He drank some hot soup
08:53He lay down
08:54He never woke up
08:55No fall
08:57No avalanche
08:59No window to react
09:01His heart
09:02Or the altitude
09:03Or the compounded weight
09:05Of everything
09:06The day had demanded
09:07Something stopped
09:09During the night
09:10Quietly
09:11At High Camp
09:13After a successful summit
09:15The specific medical cause
09:17Was never publicly confirmed
09:19Just
09:20He went to sleep
09:22And didn't wake up
09:23His wife released a statement
09:25She said he died with
09:27No drama
09:28No big story
09:29That he passed away
09:31In the Himalayas
09:32Doing what he loved
09:33I don't know
09:34That's both a comforting
09:36And a deeply unsettling
09:37Sentence
09:38When you actually sit with it
09:41Nghima Tashi
09:42And Rima Rinje
09:43April 6th, 2025
09:46Above Camp 2
09:47On Annapurna 1
09:49At around 18,400 feet
09:52Nghima Tashi
09:53And Rima Rinje
09:54Are Nepalese climbing Sherpas
09:56Working for seven summit treks
09:58Their job that day?
09:59Carry heavy oxygen cylinders
10:01And gear
10:02Up the normal route
10:03To support the paying clients
10:04Who will use those cylinders
10:05To summit
10:06Not the people
10:07Who get the summit photos
10:09The people who make
10:10The summit photos possible
10:12While they were moving
10:13Through avalanche prone slopes
10:15Above Camp 2
10:16Heavily loaded
10:17A large avalanche
10:18Broke loose
10:19From higher on the face
10:20It swept both men away
10:23Other team members
10:24Reported the accident
10:25By radio immediately
10:26Search efforts
10:27Were hampered
10:28By ongoing avalanche danger
10:30In the same zone
10:31Nghima Tashi
10:32And Rima Rinje
10:33Were listed as missing
10:34And presumed dead
10:37Expedition leader
10:38Chong Dawa Sherpa
10:39Described it publicly
10:40As a terrible disaster
10:42And specifically noted
10:43It happened during
10:44Routine load carrying
10:45For client summit attempts
10:46The word routine
10:48Is doing a lot of work
10:49In that sentence
10:50There is nothing routine
10:52About repeatedly crossing
10:54The most avalanche prone sections
10:55Of one of the world's
10:56Deadliest mountains
10:57Under heavy load
10:59So that someone else
11:00Can breathe comfortably
11:01On the way
11:02To their personal summit goal
11:04The headlines that spring
11:06Were about summit records
11:07On Annapurna
11:08The Sherpas buried
11:09While carrying oxygen
11:11So those records could happen
11:12Received a fraction
11:13Of the coverage
11:14This is not unusual
11:16It happens almost every season
11:18On every major Himalayan peak
11:20The names that get remembered
11:22Tend to belong to the people
11:23Who hired them
11:24Their names were
11:25Nghima Tashi
11:26And Rima Rinje
11:27Remember them
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