Doomed 27:28

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. There are places on this planet that people are not supposed to go. However, some people ignore that and just go anyways. And unfortunately, it usually does not end well.

The audio from all three of today's stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Final Descent, and it's about a group of people who went canoeing in Slovenia when they suddenly realized they had a big problem. The second story you'll hear is called Dead Hang, and it's about a daredevil who took his stunts too far.

And the third and final story you'll hear is called Death Valley, and it's about a place that has such a harsh environment that if you don't respect it, it will kill you. But before we get into today's 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.

So if that's of interest to you, please replace the Amazon Music Follow Button sleeping pills with caffeine pills right before their 14-hour flight from Hawaii to Okinawa, Japan. Okay, let's get into our first story called Final Descent.

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Sevnica is a gorgeous town right in the heart of Slovenia situated right along the Sava River, which is one of the longest rivers in Europe.

The section of the Sava that flows past Sevnica was a popular destination for kayakers and canoeists up until 2008 when a hydroelectric dam was built across it, creating a sort of dead end for anyone trying to go through that section of the river. They would have to stop at the dam, get out, walk around, and then pick up the river on the other side, or that would mark the end of their trip that day.

In 2008, while this dam was still under construction, the mayor of Sevnica, who was in favor of the construction of this dam, he understood that this was kind of a bummer for the people in town. While the dam itself was going to provide more electricity for the town, it did kind of end an era. And so he decided he would organize a final trip down the Sava River past the dam while they could still go right past it. And he was calling this trip the Final Descent.

And so he went all around town asking people if they wanted to come, and he finally recruited 27 other people to come with him on this final trip. And so a few weeks later on July 3rd, after all preparations were made, the mayor and the rest of his crew, they made their way upstream to this loading area where four canoes have been set out for them. And the staff people that had actually provided these canoes, they offered the group life jackets. And virtually everyone in the group turned it down.

It's unclear why they turned down the life jackets, but one could guess that, you know, the river itself was incredibly calm and they were not expecting to be on the water for very long. And so they just decided they didn't need one. And so after all 28 people got into their canoes, seven people per canoe, they pushed off the shore and they began their slow trip down the river. And the mayor had actually hired a photographer to come along with them to document their journey.

So as soon as they take off, the photographer is looking around, taking pictures and filming. The weather was beautiful and the water was calm and everything was just going really, really well. But about 15 or 20 minutes into their journey, they turned this corner and they got a clear view of the dam, which was about a thousand feet away from them at the time.

Now, the dam was not done yet, but it was pretty close to being done. And so the actual structure of the dam, it was built. And so even from a thousand feet away, it was very obvious to tell that up ahead there's these big cement archways where the water flows down over this dam. And the whole group pretty much immediately saw they had a problem.

The plan, according to the mayor, had been they would get to this dam, but on the left side of the dam there was going to be a strip of waterway that had not been blocked off yet. Because when this dam was complete it would completely obstruct the river side to side.

But because it wasn't actually done yet, the construction crew had told the mayor that, yep, the left side there's going to be an area where you can basically just casually go right past. You won't go down the dam. It's totally safe. But here this group is on the water looking at the dam and even from a thousand feet away it was obvious there was no side way to get around the dam. You clearly had to go through the dam or you had to get out and go around the dam. Now the river was moving very very slowly. There wasn't a strong current.

And so there wasn't some urgent decision that needed to be made about what they were going to do. The group intuitively knew that the right choice here is to, you know, go to the side, get out of your canoes and either go around or just end the trip right there.

But the mayor and a few of the other people in the other canoes got the idea that, "Hey, why don't we just go over the dam?" I know we're not supposed to, and the construction crew explicitly said, "Don't go over the dam. It's extremely dangerous." But from the looks of it, it doesn't look that bad.

And truthfully, it did not look too bad. This was not some enormous dam with some huge drop off. It was actually a pretty small dam where the water kind of went down this fairly small embankment. It was maybe 10 or 15 feet long. And at the bottom of this embankment was some semi rough water. But overall, it just looked like it might be kind of fun to go down this dam, like you'd be going down a slide with your canoe. And so the mayor was really keen on doing this. He made it seem like it was going to be fun. It was going to be an adventure. So

So before long, three of the four canoes were fully on board with the idea of just going over the dam. The fourth canoe that was not prepared to go over the dam had the photographer in it. And they said, you know, we're not comfortable with this, but we'll pull up next to the dam and we'll just film you guys going over the dam. It'll be really cool.

And so after making their plans about who was going to do what, the four canoes continued down the river. And when they got about maybe one or 200 feet away from the entrance to this dam, the fourth canoe with the photographer pulled off on the left side of the river. They got out and the photographer lifted up his camera and he began filming the other three canoes as they made their approach into the dam. Now, the video from this photographer that was released to the public, it

it shows the first of these three canoes actually going into the dam. And you see these seven people on this canoe. They're kind of happy and excited looking. They have nervous anticipation, like they're about to start a roller coaster or something. And they're making their way into this dark section inside of the dam. They're basically going through the gates of the dam where they're going to go down this embankment.

And as they go into the darkness, as you begin to lose sight of them, you see the back end of the canoe suddenly pops up because now they're going down the actual dam itself. They start sliding down and then you hear someone in the canoe start to scream and then it goes completely silent. And then the video just ends.

That canoe, right after it slid down that downslope, it would reach the waters below, but the canoe would capsize, throwing everyone on board into the water. And these seven people, they didn't even have a chance to catch their breath before they were sucked under. Not only because the water was rough at the bottom of the dam and kind of was churning and pulling them under, but also because this is a hydroelectric dam, and at the bottom of the dam, underneath the water where they were, were all these big openings to underwater tunnels.

And these tunnels functioned like vacuums. It pulled water down inside and then ran the water past a turbine, causing it to spin, and that would generate the electricity. That's what the dam actually did. And so after the water was pushed past this turbine, it would be jettisoned out somewhere else downstream. Now, even though this dam was not fully operational yet, these tunnels and the turbines at the bottom of them, they were operational.

So as these seven people are dumped into these incredibly dangerous waters and they're getting pulled down towards these tunnels, the other two canoes, they have no idea what's going on with this first canoe. And so they just continue on and they go over the dam. The second canoe that went down the dam, they also capsized at the bottom. All seven occupants were thrown out and they were sucked down underwater almost immediately.

The third canoe that went over the dam, they did not capsize. And so after they cleared the dam and kind of paddled away, they began looking around for the other two canoes that should have already been down there. And there was nobody out in front of them. And so they turned around thinking maybe they're closer to the dam and they don't see anyone, but they see one of the canoes is completely flipped over and the other canoe has been broken apart in the churning waters right at the base of the dam. And they see the wood from this canoe just getting tumbled around.

And so this third canoe immediately turns and tries to paddle over to the base of this dam to try to start pulling people out of the water. But when they get over there, there's no one there. The 14 people that had been in these two canoes, they're gone. Ultimately, 13 of the 14 people that fell in the water that day would perish. And one of the fatalities was the mayor.

The only person who survived, who fell in the water, was actually the mayor's wife, who by some miracle managed to swim out of the grasp of these tunnels under the water and made it to shore. Over the next several days and weeks, police divers were able to eventually find all 13 bodies, one of which had traveled 25 miles away to Croatia.

No information was given about the state of the bodies when they were found, and so we don't know if having been sucked down through these tunnels and forced past these underwater turbines played a role in their death. All the public knows is that all or most of these 13 people were sucked down into these tunnels and then they died. Mr. Ballin Collection is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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Our next story is called Dead Hang. Despite the fact that today there is already tons of shocking content on the internet, there is still something truly insane about Wu Yongning's videos.

In 2017, Wu was a 26-year-old climbing enthusiast who was dubbed China's first rooftopper. A rooftopper is someone who usually illegally climbs onto rooftops, cranes, smokestacks, big antennas, skyscrapers, or any other really high dangerous location.

Almost always, these daredevils are going to these incredibly dangerous locations in order to capture footage of themselves so they can post it to the internet in hopes that it goes viral and they become famous and make a bunch of money. But because there are so many people competing for the internet's attention, rooftoppers really need to push the envelope if they want to stand out and make it big. And Wu Yong-Ning did just that, and the internet rewarded him with millions of followers and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Most rooftoppers would go to the tops of these incredible locations and then take selfies of themselves standing there posing at the top. Wu would do that, but he also did a couple other things that nobody else was doing that kind of became his trademarks. The first one was he would dangle over the edge of the building or the crane or the antenna that he was holding onto and he would do pull-ups, but he would keep doing them until he reached muscle failure and then would barely be able to pull himself back up to safety.

Another trademark move is he would go to the top of these huge buildings and he would get right on the edge and he would do a handstand and then he would pull one arm back. So he's doing a one-armed handstand and then he would tilt his body as far as he could over the edge until he couldn't do it any farther and he'd let himself come back over to safety.

And then perhaps the most difficult to watch trademark was when Wu would basically run up to the edge of buildings and stop just short. And he wouldn't just run to the edge, he would use a self-balancing scooter and go as fast as he could right to the edge of the building and stop just short. And over and over again he'd go right to the edge and stop where he's literally an inch away from tumbling off the edge.

Or he'd line himself up where he knew exactly how far he was from the edge, and he would do these really aggressive somersaults forward, and he would stop with his legs dangling off the edge of the building. And of course, all of these trademark moves were done without any safety equipment, and most times Wu did these stunts without anybody there to potentially pull him back up if he gets stuck.

About three quarters of the way through 2017, Wu had posted over 500 videos and live streaming clips to various social media sites, and he was starting to make some real money off of it.

On one video sharing site alone, he had made over $80,000 just from donations that had come in. And so it was clear this was becoming a career. But as the money and the fame were coming into Woo, he started to realize that in order for him to stay on top and keep earning at this level, he would need to continuously outperform his last big stunt. And already he was brushing up against death on virtually every video he took.

In early November of that year, Wu heard about a competition that was offering $15,000 to its winner. The details of this competition are hazy at best, but from the sounds of it, it was a viral video competition. Make the most viral video and you win the prize. This competition served as motivation for Wu to finally attempt his craziest stunt yet.

He figured if he had the footage of this particular stunt, he was sure to win this competition, and with the prize money, he could pay for his wedding and cover his mother's medical expenses. And so on November 8th, Wu traveled to the Huayan International Center in central China. This massive 62-story skyscraper would be the tallest building Wu had ever performed a stunt on.

The public was only able to get up to the 44th floor, and so Wu had to take the elevator up to somewhere between the 40th and 44th floor, at which point he climbed out of a window and free-climbed his way all the way up to the top, so 20 additional floors just climbing the side of a skyscraper. Once he got to the rooftop, he set up his tripod and his camera, and he turned on his livestream. And then he walked around and he began preparing himself for the stunt.

Livestream viewers that tuned in would see Wu sitting on the edge of the skyscraper and he's meticulously wiping down the edge of this building. It's the area he'll be grabbing onto to perform his stunt, which was going to be his trademark pull-ups. And so after several minutes of Wu cleaning this ledge, he begins to lower himself where his arms are still tucked up over the ledge. So he's not hanging, he's got his arms kind of anchored on the top. He's like testing the edge of this lip.

And he kind of feels around and he can tell that it's not a good grip. It's not good enough for him to go down to a full extension. And so he pulls himself back up and he goes back to wiping down the edge. And from the looks of it, it seems like Wu is actually pretty nervous about the stunt. And normally when you watch Wu's videos, he doesn't seem nervous at all, even leading up to his stunt. But this one just seemed different.

And so after again wiping down this ledge as much as he possibly could, he gets himself ready, lowers himself onto his arms, he lets his legs drop over the edge of the building, and then he goes to full extension. And from there he does two complete pull-ups, and then after the second pull-up, he begins to try to pull himself back up to safety. But he's fatigued and he can't quite get himself up over the edge. He starts to use his feet to try to use the glass to push himself back up, but he can't get a grip.

And for the next 15 seconds, Wu is desperately trying to get himself up and over this ledge. He's trying to muscle himself up. But it's obvious he's completely fatigued. I mean, he did free climb almost 20 stories to get up there. And so it makes sense his arms would be tired. But there's nobody up there to help pull him up. And so after a while, he goes back to full extension because he can't do anything. And he looks down as if he's sizing up if he can survive this fall, which he obviously can't.

And then the camera picks up a sort of whimpering sound that appears to come from Wu, and then he loses his grip and he falls to his death. The next and final story of today's episode is called Death Valley. During the California Gold Rush of 1848, hundreds of thousands of Americans living on the east coast of the United States packed up their things in covered wagons and headed west for California to attempt to quite literally strike gold.

About a year after the rush started, so in the winter of 1849, a group of about 100 would-be gold prospectors were on their way across the continental United States to California when they got lost in this totally barren stretch of desert roughly 500 miles from their destination, which was San Francisco.

They would spend the next two months driving around this desert looking for a way out, but they wouldn't find it. And so finally, they just stopped, set up camp, and waited to die.

But as a last-ditch effort, they sent ahead two of their fittest men to try to go out and find help. And miraculously, those two men would find help, and it wasn't long before the lost pioneers were going up and over this mountain pass, out of the desert, out to safety. And so as the pioneers are cresting this mountain, one of the pioneers turns and looks down at the desert valley below where they almost all died,

and he famously said, "Goodbye Death Valley," and the name stuck. While Death Valley has since become a very popular tourist destination for adventurous people, it is still truly one of the harshest environments on the planet. In addition to just being a big open desert, which presents a whole host of problems to any mammal, Death Valley also becomes one of the hottest places on the planet every summer.

The temperatures soar to 120 degrees Fahrenheit and sometimes get as high as 136 degrees Fahrenheit. It's the kind of place where if you don't respect it, it will kill you.

In 2005, a 35-year-old man named Robert Darmer, who lived in Los Angeles, California, decided he wanted to take a trip into Death Valley. Specifically, he wanted to go to the hot springs located in the northwest corner of Death Valley. And actually, there's a nudist resort that is right around those hot springs. And so Robert wanted to go check that whole scene out.

And so on July 26th of that year, Robert left Los Angeles in his Volkswagen van and he drove north about four hours until he got to Bishop, California, which is a small town where some of his family lived. After spending the night with them, the next morning when Robert got up, he got back into his van and he drove south about 20 minutes to a town called Zurich, California, where he picked up Death Valley Road.

This road covers the entirety of Death Valley, starting from its northern entrance, where Robert was, all the way south 140 miles to its southern entrance. And this road is actually basically a straight line. But off of this very straight road are literally hundreds of miles of unpaved roads that splinter off in all directions across the desert. And these roads bring people to other points of interest, like, for example, the nudist resort that Robert wanted to go to.

So after Robert hopped onto the Death Valley Road at its northern entrance, he began driving south for about an hour, and then he began looking for the turnoff to the unpaved road that would take him the last 50 miles to the nudist resort. And so eventually, Robert believes he's found this turnoff, and so he gets onto this unpaved road, and he starts driving for a while, and then all of a sudden, his car just sinks down into the ground, and it won't budge.

It would turn out Robert had made a mistake. He had not turned onto the correct unpaved road. Instead, he had picked a road that led right out onto the salt flat. And so to the naked eye, it would have looked like the ground in front of him was totally flat and hard packed, and you could easily walk on or drive on it. But in reality, the surface of the salt flat is very brittle. And underneath that brittle surface is this thick section of mud.

and so before Robert could realize his mistake, he had broken through the surface layer of the salt flat and got stuck in that mud. After trying unsuccessfully to get his van back out again, Robert realized he was in a really bad situation.

His cell phone had no reception, so he couldn't contact anyone, and he was too far away to attempt to walk to the nearest civilization to try to get help. But luckily, he had packed lots and lots of water that was in his van, and so he decided the only thing he could do was just sit tight at his van, ration out his water, and wait for someone on Death Valley Road to look out and see him and come to his rescue. But after waiting for six days, no one saw him.

And now his water supply was dwindling, and so Robert decided his only option was to abandon his van and make the walk to civilization. And so he packed up all the water he could, he threw it on his back, and he began to walk. And just like the lost pioneers of 1849, at the very last second, Robert was rescued.

As he stumbled across the desert, his canteen empty, this group of teenage boys and a few adults who were part of this group called the League of Venturers were out in Death Valley doing search and rescue training. And so they literally turned onto the same road that Robert accidentally turned onto and then got stuck on. And so they came down and found Robert.

And Robert, when he saw them, he was hysterical. He was crying tears of joy. He really believed he was going to die probably that day. And so the League of Venturers, they take Robert into their van and they drive him 80 miles to the nearest ranger station. And as soon as Robert got out of the car, he dropped to his knees and he kissed the ground in appreciation. I mean, this guy really was that close to death.

That evening, Robert would hitch a ride from the ranger station back to Bishop, California. And the next morning, Robert spoke with a local towing company, and they agreed to drive him out into Death Valley to locate his van and tow it back out again.

But when they got out there and they found his van, the towing company saw that the van was not in good shape. It had two flat tires and there were several other mechanical issues with it. And they told Robert, look, we can't tow it out until the repairs are made and we can't make those repairs right now.

And so they left the van where it was and they drove Robert back to Bishop. And then when they got there, Robert, who was quite handy with his van, decided he would just make the repairs himself. And so he went around town, he gathered up all the supplies he would need. And then that evening, he got a local young couple to give him a ride back into Death Valley.

Robert had told his family right before he left that his plan was to go and fix his van and then that night come back to Bishop and then the next day he would contact the towing company again and they could come out and they could get his van out. But that night, Robert did not come back to Bishop and the next morning when his family still had not heard from him or seen him, they contacted authorities. It would take a few days, but the authorities would eventually figure out what happened to Robert.

The young couple that gave Robert a ride back into Death Valley, they dropped him off at this intersection right off of Death Valley Road, where they and Robert believed was only about a mile away from that nudist resort that Robert had originally wanted to go to. Robert had told the couple that his plan was just to walk from that point. He would go to that resort, and he would recruit somebody else to drive him the rest of the way to the van. He could make the repairs, and that person would drive him back, and that would be it.

So Robert got out, he said thank you to the couple, and he waved to them as they drove off, and then he stashed his van supplies and then turned away from Death Valley Road and began walking along this unpaved road into the desert.

However, unbeknownst to Robert or to the couple, the spot he was dropped off was the wrong spot. He was not a mile or less away from this resort. He was about 15 miles away from this resort, and the path was fairly circuitous, so even if he knew the distance, he likely would not have been able to even navigate his way there.

And so after wandering down this unpaved road for about 10 miles, Robert left the unpaved road and began heading out into open desert, likely seeking water. Robert would eventually collapse and die just four days after he had been rescued from the exact same situation. When his body was found, he didn't have a GPS or a map or even a container for water.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin 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, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, and Run Full. Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts and you'll find them all. Also, there are hundreds more stories like the ones you heard today, but in video format on 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.

Please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. 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. Ballin'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. Ballin'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.