Survivor stories
True stories, told for what they teach: what worked, what almost killed them.
You remember a story ten times better than a rule. Each story ends with three concrete lessons.
Aron Ralston: 127 hours trapped in a canyon
An arm trapped under a boulder, five days without rescue, and a decision no manual teaches: cutting oneself to live.
Juliane Koepcke: 11 Days Alone in the Jungle After the Crash
Seventeen years old, alone after falling three kilometers into the Amazon jungle, she followed a single rule: walk toward water.
Steven Callahan: 76 days adrift on a raft
A crash in the night, a sailboat sinking in a matter of minutes, and 76 days on a tiny raft reinventing survival.
José Salvador Alvarenga: 438 Days in the Pacific
Out fishing for two days, he drifted for 438 days across the Pacific, alone after the death of his crewmate.
Mauro Prosperi: lost for 10 days in the Sahara during the Marathon des Sables
In 1994, an Italian police officer got lost in a sandstorm during the Marathon des Sables and walked 291 km across the Sahara, without water.
Yossi Ghinsberg: 3 Weeks Alone in the Bolivian Amazon
In 1981, a 22-year-old Israeli backpacker survives three weeks alone in the Bolivian jungle after a raft shatters in the rapids.
Shackleton: 22 months in the ice, and not a single death
The boat sinks, the goal fails, yet twenty-eight men all make it back alive: the art of changing objectives in time.
The Andes Survivors: 72 Days at 11,800 Feet
Sixteen survivors out of forty-five, 72 days at 11,800 feet, and an extreme decision to stay alive: what the mountain taught them.
Joe Simpson: The Cut Rope, the Crevasse, and Three Days Crawling
A broken leg at 6,000 meters, a rope severed with a knife, and a man who chose to descend deeper into the dark for a chance to live.
Beck Weathers: Left for Dead Twice on Everest
Blind, hypothermic, abandoned twice in the snow at 8,000 meters — yet standing back up, yet returning home.
Poon Lim: 133 days alone on a raft, the Atlantic record
A torpedoed cargo ship in the dead of night, a 2.40-meter raft, and a man who crafts his tools with whatever he has in his pockets.
Ada Blackjack: Two years on Wrangel Island, the sole survivor
A 23-year-old seamstress, hired to sew, finds herself alone on an Arctic island—and learns to hunt, trap, and tend to the sick to stay alive.