MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - You Can't Cross That Line (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

This is a special bonus episode of "You Can't"I’m going to tell two stories that prove that no matter what we think science can tell us about the natural world, the wilderness still holds secrets we cannot understand.For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today I'm going to tell two stories that prove no matter what we think science can tell us about the natural world, the wilderness still holds secrets we cannot understand. Today's episode is a very special extra episode. It's part of a new series I'm calling You Can't. If you're a fan of my YouTube channel, you know that I tell stories about places you

can't go and people who went anyways. People have really enjoyed those stories, and so we decided to tell some more of them here on the podcast under the title You Can't. But before we get into those stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. And then also, whenever we have a You Can't episode, we release those as they come up. So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to make the follow button a delicious tuna

fish sandwich, but then use a can of cat food instead. Okay, let's get into today's stories. Hello history fans, I'm Eris James. I'm Tom Crane. And I'm Chris Skull. And we're the hosts of Oh What A Time, the history podcast which tries to answer the question, was the past as horrific as it seems? Each week we tackle a brand new subject from life in Nelson's Navy to death in ancient Rome. From maniacal monarchs to Soviet spies to the history of milk. And we ask the questions

other history shows are too chicken to. How would you feel about consummating your marriage in front of your in-laws in medieval Britain? No thanks. How would your puny little arms fair as part of the crew on a viking longboat? And would you be up for a night out to see a sapient pig in Victorian London? This is Oh What A Time, the podcast that the Times newspaper described as very funny, if

less scholarly than its rivals. Probably fair. This podcast is guaranteed to make your life better, by reminding you that things in the past were so much worse. That Oh What A Time, available every Monday and Tuesday on Wondry, with two bonus episodes On the evening of January 3rd, 1991, a 40-year-old mountain climber named Zhirui Song felt the wind and snow whipping against his face as he stared up at a mountain peak jutting through the clouds high above him. Zhirui was standing more than two-thirds of the way up a mountain called Kawagawa, which is the highest mountain in the Meilin Snow Mountain Range in southwest China. Kawagawa stands at an elevation of about 22,000 feet, which is more than four miles,

and nobody in recorded history had ever reached its peak. In fact, the Tibetan villagers who lived at the base of this mountain believed that nobody ever would, and some of those villagers regularly tried to prevent would-be climbers from even trying. But, Jur Yi and the 17-member team of climbers he was helping to lead were determined to prove the villagers wrong and to make history. They had started climbing this mountain a month earlier and they were now closer to the peak of Kawagabawa than anyone had ever gotten. Jurye turned his gaze away from the peak and looked around the temporary camp where he

and his team were planning to spend the night. He could see several climbers struggling to reinforce their tents against the snow and the wind. He and his team had chosen to climb it this time of year because it was known as the dry season, when major storms were actually rare. So, Jurye couldn't understand why the snow just kept coming down. He grabbed his radio off his belt and called down to base camp, which was a camp at the foot of the mountain where other members of the team provided weather information and support to the climbers.

Jurye told a base camp team member that the snow was still unbelievably falling hard up here. That team member reminded him that the climbers should clear snow away from their tents at least every two hours. Jurye was about to respond, but just then, his radio cut out, and he heard this loud buzzing sound coming from it. He stared down at his radio, confused. This was the sound it made when it needed a new battery, but he had just put a new battery

in. Jurye fumbled with the radio, trying to fix it, but all he could hear was this buzzing sound, and then also periodically, he'd hear the voice of the base camp team member cutting in and out. Jurye communicated over the radio and wasn't sure if anyone heard it, but he said he was losing communication and he would try to contact them again later. Then Jurye turned off his radio, clipped it to his belt, and the buzzing stopped. As the sun finished setting, the wind picked up even more. Jurye craned his neck upwards again, and he saw that the peak of Kawagabawa had now disappeared

in the snow and the darkness. Jurye had done lots of difficult climbs in the past, and he was sort of used to running into problems right when he thought he was about to achieve his goals. That was just how mountains worked. All the planning in the world could not prepare climbers for everything. But for some reason, this felt different. This storm just didn't show any signs that it would ever let up. Jur Yi lowered his head and walked towards a group of tents.

He wanted to help his team clear snow away. But all of a sudden, Jurye heard screaming coming from inside one of these tents. He and several other climbers moved as quickly as they could through the snow toward the sound. They stepped into the tent, and they saw a woman laying in her sleeping bag, and she was shivering uncontrollably and sweat was running down her forehead. Jurye knew this woman, who was one of several Japanese climbers on their team, had been dealing with a high fever for days. But now, she didn't just look sick. She looked terrified.

As soon as Jurye entered the tent, the woman stopped screaming, and she just started muttering. Jurye knew some Japanese, but he couldn't make out what she was saying. He looked around the tent, and he could tell that the other Japanese climbers who had come in were also confused by the woman's words. Jurye turned to one of them and asked, you know, what is she saying? And in a little more than a whisper, the climber told Jurye the woman was saying, something is coming. Later that night, the storm began to reach blizzard conditions as Jurye made his way

around the camp, checking on his team. As bad as the weather had gotten and as alarming as the screaming Japanese woman had been, Jurye refused to panic. He believed if everyone just stayed calm and prepared, they could make it through the night. But he quickly realized he was the only one who felt this way. Each climber Jurye spoke to seemed as frightened as the woman with the fever. He tried his best to calm everyone down he spoke to, but nothing he did seemed to work. So eventually, he headed back towards his own tent to make sure it was secure. But before he got there, he heard more shouting.

At first, Jurye assumed it was the woman with the fever, but he listened more closely and he could tell it couldn't be, because it was a man's voice. Jurye trudged back through the snow towards this shouting man's tent to see what was wrong, and when he stepped inside, Jurye felt truly scared for the first time since he'd come to the mountain. Inside the tent, Jurye saw one of the climbers sitting by a fire, pen and notebook clutched

in his hands, and on his face was this wild look. His eyes were darting from one side of the tent to the other, and he would shout at something only he could see and hear, and then he would scribble furiously in his notebook. It was like he had lost his mind. Jurye was so unsettled that he just backed out of the tent, and as soon as he was outside he turned and began rushing back through the snow towards his tent. However, as he was between tents, he heard this loud rumbling sound, almost like the banging of a drum coming from high up the mountain. He froze where he was, terrified, and he heard the sound of trees cracking and splitting

and he knew this must be it, this is the avalanche. However, when Jurye looked up the mountain, expecting to see a mass of ice and rock barreling down the mountain towards them, all he could see was the falling snow and the black night sky. There was no avalanche. Early the next morning, January 4th, the snowstorm subsided, and the weather on Kauagabua turned calm and sunny. A team leader down at base camp radioed up to Jurye to see how the climbers fared over the night, but Jurye didn't respond. So the team leader tried radioing the other members of the team that were up there with Jurye as well, but they too didn't respond.

And so this team leader sent out a small search team to see if they could get a visual of Jurye and the other climbers he was with. However, remember, these climbers were thousands of feet up the mountain from base camp, so under the best of circumstances, it would have been really hard to look up and have seen them. And these were certainly not the best circumstances. There had been this huge snowstorm over the night, a snowstorm that really wasn't even supposed to happen this time of the year, which made getting a visual on Jurye and his team nearly impossible.

And so this team leader quickly realized that if the climbers had gotten lost up on the mountain, he didn't have the resources to mount an effective search. So he quickly informed multiple government agencies that his team was missing, and then the government took over. That day, the Chinese government launched a massive operation on Kawagabua.

Professional search and rescue teams worked with volunteers on the ground, and airplane and helicopter pilots circled the mountain. But after two weeks of this daily intense searching, it became clear Chiru Yi and the rest of the climbers, along with any remnants of their camp, had disappeared. On January 22nd, so 18 days after the climbers had gone missing, rescuers abandoned the search, and the government issued an official statement. The statement said that while massive snowstorms were indeed rare for this time of the year, they were not actually impossible to occur.

So officials said the storm likely caused an avalanche that wiped out the camp and buried the climbers somewhere they couldn't be found. Now, this explanation was very logical, and for most people, it marked the end of this very tragic story. But not for the villagers who lived at the base of Kawagabawa.

These villagers, who didn't think anyone would ever summit the mountain and who actively tried to stop those that did, they did not believe the official statement. They had a story of their own, which they were certain was the real explanation for what had happened to the climbers. And when the government issued its statement, these villagers tried to tell people that the government was wrong. And so, when climbers and tourists from all over came to Kawagabawa, these villagers told them what they believed actually happened, and how it would happen all over again if

anyone tried to reach the mountain's peak. Now most people dismissed the villagers' story as rumor or superstition, and that was a reasonable way to react to this, until seven years later, when three shepherds from the village made a terrible discovery. I've just been to Specsavers and upgraded my lenses to extra thin in light with 50% off. Now, what else can I upgrade? My cat? Wow. My scooter? Oh yeah. Get 50% off lens upgrades in the Specsavers Spring Sale. Hey, I can upgrade my kids. You chill, Mom. I'll load the dishwasher. Awesome. Exclusions apply. See Specsavers.ca for details. Offer ends soon.

Hey, listeners. Big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Bolland's Strange Dark and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, ads shouldn't be the most

nerve-wracking part of True Crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to Amazon.com slash ballin. That's Amazon.com slash B-A-L-L-E-N. Dive into uninterrupted true-crime stories today. Seven years later, on the afternoon of June 18, 1998, three shepherds were walking along a glacier near the base of Kawagabawa. This glacier was two and a half miles away from where Jurye and the rest of his climbers had set up their final camp, but the shepherds were not there to do any kind of search. This glacier was located near their village and it was home to a temple that they often visited.

So they were talking and walking towards the temple when just up ahead of them, one of the shepherds spotted something bright and colorful sticking up out of the ice. The group was intrigued and they began walking towards it, thinking it might be a prayer flag. But as they got closer and this colorful object came into focus, the group went quiet. And then the shepherds also saw there were other colored objects just like this one scattered around the area. These objects were the bodies of the climbers who had disappeared from Kawagaboa seven years earlier, still wrapped in the colorful coats they'd been wearing when they headed up the

mountain. But what the Shepherds could not have known in this moment was that buried under the ice with the bodies was a diary, which one of the climbers had used to record the events of the ascent. It belonged to the climber that Jiri Yi had seen shouting at an unseen force and scribbling furiously on the night they all vanished. And this diary would reveal that the stories the villagers told about Kawagabua and the lost climbers were more than just legend. It would turn out, there was a very specific reason why these Tibetan villagers believed nobody would ever reach the peak of Kawagabawa. It was because the peak was said to be a sacred place.

It was the home of a warrior-protector god, and because of this, it was not meant for human beings to climb. The villagers believed that if anyone ever approached the peak, it would wake the spirits of the mountain and the mountain god would punish them. This punishment would lead to death, but it would not stop there, because the dead would become prisoners of the mountain for seven years. And these villagers had made their beliefs very clear to Jur Yi and the rest of his team of climbers who wanted to be the first people to ever reach Kawagawa's peak.

In fact, a group of villagers had heavily protested their climb and warned the climbers that their expedition would anger the mountain god and result in tragedy. But Jur Yi and the rest of his climbers had not heeded their warnings. The diary of the climber that was discovered along with the bodies recounted what happened as a result. The diary started like a lot of climbing diaries do, an account of the day's hike, the scenery, the weather. But as the dates got closer to the night the climbers disappeared, the diary took a strange

turn. The writer became obsessed with the shadows he saw walking across his tent, and he said he heard women laughing and babies crying all around him in the darkness. That woman who had screamed out who was sick with a fever had said she felt something bad was coming, and she had tried to warn the others. But by the time Jurye heard the sound like beating drums high up on the mountain that he thought was an avalanche like many thought was an avalanche, the mountain god had apparently already unleashed his wrath. As soon as Jurye and those climbers had disappeared, the villagers all assumed that they had faced the wrath of the mountain god.

But the fact that their bodies had remained hidden for seven years, the length of time the mountain god keeps the dead imprisoned in the mountain, was all the proof the villagers needed to know they were right. And the climber who wrote the diary ended up believing them too, although it was too late. In his final diary entry, he wrote, quote, We were wrong. They are coming. Run.

In 2001, ten years after the climbers had died on the mountain, the Chinese government banned all mountain climbing activities in the Meilin Snow Mountain Ranch. To this day, still, nobody on record has ever actually set foot on the peak of Kawagawa. Our next story is called Something in the Bushes. On a June day in 1953, a 31-year-old American doctor named George Moore stood in a small mountain campsite in Nepal staring out at a massive rainstorm forming on the horizon. George had been in Nepal, which is a country south of China, for eight months, leading a small medical team trying to stop the spread of diseases like malaria in villages all across the region. This was groundbreaking work in 1953, and it was starting to make George famous back

home in America. And here in Nepal, he had already become a trusted figure among the villagers, many of whom had never seen a person from the west until they met George. But right now, a group of these villagers were scrambling to get George out of their village. And this was because of the storm that George was looking at. One of the villagers pointed at the clouds and told George this was not a regular thunderstorm. The monsoons were coming.

And once the monsoons hit, the only dirt road that led back to George's base in the city of Kathmandu would flood very quickly. And the horrendous rains could last for months. Which meant, if George wanted to continue his work stopping disease in other parts of this region, he would have to get out right now. George had known the monsoon season was coming, but it had arrived much more quickly than he'd expected, and so he and his team were sort of caught off guard. The journey out of the village was not something they wanted to undertake suddenly with so

little preparation, because they didn't have a car, they literally had to walk out, and so they needed to be fully prepared. And also, this dirt road out of the village went through a deep forest where the locals claimed it was inhabited by terrible monsters. Now, while George did not believe in the supernatural, he did think that fantastical stories about monsters often started because of real-life animal attacks. And so, monsters or not, the forest was definitely dangerous, especially since they again would be on foot. But George knew they really didn't have any of their choice.

They did have to go right now. George quickly gathered up first aid kits, medicine, and supplies and put them into a large pack. Then he reached down, pulled a revolver out of the holster on his hip, and spun the chamber to make sure the gun was fully loaded. And when he saw all six bullets, he knew he was as ready as he was going to be. George holstered his gun, thanked the villagers for their help, and then turned to lead his team out. But as he stepped onto the road, one of the villagers grabbed his arm to stop him.

Then they pointed towards a spot on the mountain above the road that George and his team needed to take, and George looked up and saw large billows of smoke rising above the trees and into the sky. In a strained voice, the villager told him that no matter what, George and his team must not go anywhere near where that smoke was. If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news. We just launched a brand new Strange, Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries.

And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome. In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths and everything in between. Each story is totally true and totally terrifying. Go follow Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music.

The storm continued to move in as George and his team began their journey. The men were getting wet and muddy, and the thunder was so loud it made their bodies feel like they were vibrating. But the rain really was not their biggest problem. Because by the time they had gotten maybe a mile or so from the village, a thick fog had rolled in and covered the entire road. And then suddenly it was like the fog got so intense that George couldn't even see his team anymore.

George did his best to try to walk as straight as he could, you know, doing his best to stay on the road, but the fog at this point was so intense he couldn't even see the ground, so he didn't even know if he was on the road. And then in the back of his head he couldn't help but have this fear that because he didn't know where he was going and couldn't see his team, that he would unwittingly walk over to the place where that smoke was coming from. But he reassured himself that that couldn't possibly happen because the smoke looked really far away when they had set out and this fog had only really rolled in

for the last couple of minutes, so there's no way he could have gone all the way over there. But as George stumbled along, bumping into trees and feeling totally disoriented, the fog only seemed to grow thicker. The sound of the wind and the rain swirled around him, and George started to feel really disoriented like he was in a dream or something. Then this horrific shriek cut through the pounding of the rain and the howling of the wind. It didn't sound like a person. It sounded like a wild animal, although George had no idea what kind it was. But George didn't need to know what this

animal was to know it was a threat and he needed to get away from it fast. So he turned and just began hustling in the direction away from the sound. But again, he could barely see. He was bumping into trees, he was stumbling on rocks. At this point he knew he was well off the dirt road but had no way of getting back to it. He didn't know where his team was, he called out to them but didn't hear back. I mean he's totally panicking at this point. And after a few minutes of trekking away from that shrieking sound, suddenly something huge and dark loomed up in front of George. For a second he flinched like somehow that shrieking animal had paced around him and

now was stopping his way, but then he realized what he was seeing was actually this huge boulder. Frantically he began climbing the boulder, thinking if he got to higher ground he'd be safe from whatever was shrieking behind him. And as George climbed, he heard a voice call out to him. It was a member of his team, it was an entomologist, and amazingly, he was right behind George, standing at the base of the boulder. George just hadn't seen or heard him.

The entomologist also seemed panicked, and began climbing as well, and while he did, he shouted to George that he'd just heard movement coming from the plants. And so whatever animal was out here that this entomologist had also heard was clearly close by. George and the entomologist made it to the top of the boulder. They stood there, shivering and muddy, still surrounded by fog. George could feel his heart pounding, but he tried to hold his breath and not make a sound. The two men listened, trying desperately to hear any sign of this creature that had shrieked. But there

was no more sound. It was silent. But seconds later, the men heard a new sound. It was like something was moving quickly through nearby bushes down below the boulder. George and the entomologist crouched down trying desperately to see what was down there, and as they did, they saw the shadow run through the fog. On instinct, George put his hand on the grip of his gun, but he didn't draw, and now neither of the men moved a muscle. Then another noise came from the fog. George thought it sounded like grunts and teeth chattering. For a second, everything fell silent again. Then George heard heavy footsteps nearby. He started to shake with fear, but at the same time he was desperate to see what was coming. So he leaned forward over the boulder

as much as he could trying to look down to see what this thing was, and suddenly through the fog he saw a pair of bright yellow eyes staring right back up at him. George tried to get back up, but it was like he was frozen. He just crouched there staring at the eyes in the fog, and slowly he saw more pairs of yellow eyes appear in the fog, and he saw shadows of what looked like long tails whipping back and forth. Instantly, George thought of the monsters from the villagers' stories. But he told himself that's ridiculous. These were clearly just Langer monkeys. He reminded himself that he was a doctor, a scientist. There had to be a rational explanation. These were just animals. They couldn't be monsters. But then one of these creatures moved forward and put its claw on the boulder and began to climb up. And at this point,

George finally got a clear look at it. He saw this thing stood at least five feet tall, much bigger than any of the Langer monkeys or any other monkeys that inhabited this forest. monkeys or any other monkeys that inhabited this forest. And instead of fur, it had grey skin, but most terrifying was its mouth, which was unnaturally large, stretching almost from ear to ear, and it was filled with these sharp teeth the same color as its eyes. And as this creature slowly began to ascend the boulder, George felt a level of fear he had never experienced, something primitive from deep down inside of him. A single terrifying thought blared in his mind, these creatures

are not of the natural world, these creatures are godly. Now George screamed and drew his gun, he was too afraid to aim it at the creatures directly, so he pointed it up into the air and began shooting. The creatures let out a chorus of these horrible shrieks, the same shrieks they had heard earlier. Then he watched as the creatures turned and their shadows and their yellow eyes disappeared back into the fog. George and the entomologist stayed huddled on top of that boulder, too terrified to move, for what felt like hours. Those creatures did not come back, and eventually the rest of George's team found him and the entomologist.

The two men scrambled down from the boulder, and they joined the group. The team asked them what happened. They said that, you know, George and the entomologist had gotten too far ahead of them in the fog and they'd lost them, then they heard the gunshots. But all George could say was, we have to get out of here right now. I will explain later. And as the team set off again, George took a second and turned back around and looked in the direction of the boulder, where he and the entomologist had seen these creatures. And now that he had a little more perspective and the fog had cleared just a little bit,

he saw something that he hadn't seen before. That column of smoke that he had been warned not to go anywhere near was coming up right from behind the boulder. He and the entomologist accidentally fled to the exact spot they were told not to go. That night, after a long hike, George and his team finally made it to their base. And it was only when he was back in the safety of his camp with friendly villagers all around him that George was able to finally think clearly again about what he had just experienced with the strange creatures in that place where the smoke was.

He didn't know what to make of it. George was a United States Army veteran and a man of science. He didn't believe in monsters or terrible gods roaming the forests. But he told his story as accurately as he could to the villagers, hoping they would have some realistic explanation for what the creatures were. But what the villagers had to say only left George feeling even more unsettled. So George decided he was just not going to speak of what he had seen to anyone anymore. He had a bright future ahead of him as a doctor. He wasn't going to throw it away by making himself look crazy.

And so when he got to America and people asked him about his time in Nepal, he would tell them a wild story about this chance run-in with a group of langur monkeys. But the true memory of the creatures he actually saw out there, which were not langur monkeys, at least not to him, never left George. Their height, their yellow eyes, their huge mouths and sharp teeth, and the pure fear George had felt in their presence. George was a man of science, which made him want to forget this encounter. But he was also a man of truth, and so after spending years with these memories in his head, George came to believe that he had a duty to tell the truth about what he actually saw,

no matter what the consequences were. And so in 1957, four years after his encounter in Nepal, Dr. George Moore published a first-hand account of what he had seen in a magazine article that was titled, I Met the Abominable Snowman. In this article, he explained that the place on the mountain where the smoke was rising, where the villagers warned George not to enter, was called the House of the Gods, and the House of the Gods was home to the Yeti. A Yeti is an ape-like creature said to live in the Himalayas,

and is similar to Bigfoot, but thought to be a bit shorter. In the West, the Yeti is often referred to as the Abominable Snowman, and in his article, George said he'd come face to face with a pack of them in Nepal. Telling the world what he'd seen did not adversely affect George like he'd feared. He went on to have a long successful career and is still considered a pioneer in the field of medical outreach. And because of George's standing as a doctor and researcher, his encounter in Nepal has remained one of the most highly credible cryptid sightings in modern history.

And so, as much as some explorers and scientists might think we can fully understand the natural world, both of these stories are proof that you can't. A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Bollin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. This podcast, the Mr. Bollin Podcast, and also Mr. Bollin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Fool, and Redacted.

Just search for Bollin Studios wherever you get your podcasts to find all of these shows. To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey Prime members, you can binge 8 new episodes of the Mr. Ballin Podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.