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The Most Extreme Things Humans Did To Survive · The Mind of a Man

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  Speaker 1: Blue John Canyon incident. On April 26, 2003, 27-year-old Aaron
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  Speaker 1: Ralston biked 15 miles into the remote canyonlands of southeastern Utah,
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  Speaker 1: planning an eight-hour solo hike through Blue John Canyon. The
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  Speaker 1: experienced mountaineer and mechanical engineer had quit his corporate job
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  Speaker 1: to pursue his passion for climbing. That afternoon, while descending
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  Speaker 1: through a narrow section of the Slot Canyon, disaster struck.
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  Speaker 1: As Ralston climbed down from a suspended boulder, it suddenly shifted,
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  Speaker 1: first smashing his left hand and then crushing his right
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  Speaker 1: hand and wrist against the canyon wall. The 800-pound chalkstone
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  Speaker 1: had him completely pinned 100 feet below the desert surface
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  Speaker 1: and 20 miles from the nearest paved road. Ralston had
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  Speaker 1: broken his own first rule of solo hiking by not
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  Speaker 1: telling anyone where he was going. With only 350 milliliters
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  Speaker 1: of water and two burritos, he knew rescue was unlikely.
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  Speaker 1: For three days, he tried everything to free himself. He
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  Speaker 1: attempted to chip away at the boulder with his dull
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  Speaker 1: multi-tool knife, but barely made a scratch. He rigged a
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  Speaker 1: pulley system with his climbing rope, but couldn't budge the
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  Speaker 1: massive rock. As his water ran out, he was forced
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  Speaker 1: to drink his own urine. On the fourth day, convinced
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  Speaker 1: he would die, Ralston carved his name, birth date, and
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  Speaker 1: presumed date of death into the canyon wall. He videotaped
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  Speaker 1: goodbye messages to his family, preparing for the end. But
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  Speaker 1: on the fifth day, something changed. Ralston had a vivid
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  Speaker 1: hallucination of himself, playing with a future child while missing
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  Speaker 1: part of his right arm. This vision gave him the
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  Speaker 1: belief that he would live. When he woke on the
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  Speaker 1: sixth day, his trapped arm had begun to decompose. Desperately,
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  Speaker 1: he realized he could break his radius and ulna bones
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  Speaker 1: using torque against the boulder. He snapped both bones, then
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  Speaker 1: began the agonizing hour-long process of amputating his own arm
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  Speaker 1: with the dull two-inch knife. He cut through skin, muscle,
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  Speaker 1: and tendons, using the pliers on his multi-tool for the
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  Speaker 1: tougher tissue. Using tubing from his camelback as a tourniquet,
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  Speaker 1: he carefully managed the bleeding. Once free, Ralston's ordeal was
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  Speaker 1: far from over. He rappelled down a 65-foot wall with
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  Speaker 1: one arm, then hiked seven miles toward his truck. After
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  Speaker 1: walking for hours, he encountered a Dutch family on vacation
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  Speaker 1: who gave him water and alerted authorities. A helicopter picked
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  Speaker 1: him up just four hours after his self-amputation. Ralston had
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  Speaker 1: lost 40 pounds and 25% of his blood volume, but
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  Speaker 1: he was alive. The incident later inspired the 2010 film
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  Speaker 1: 127 Hours that captured what it meant to endure six
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  Speaker 1: days alone in a canyon and brought international attention to
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  Speaker 1: Ralston's survival. The real story, however, remains one of the
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  Speaker 1: most extreme self-rescue cases ever documented. Siula Grande Incident On
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  Speaker 1: June 6, 1985, 25-year-old Joe Simpson and his climbing partner
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  Speaker 1: Simon Yates reached the summit of Siula Grande, becoming the
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  Speaker 1: first to successfully climb the previously unclimbed west face of
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  Speaker 1: the 20,814-foot Peruvian peak. But their triumph quickly turned to
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  Speaker 1: nightmare during the descent. the pair chose to descend via
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  Speaker 1: the treacherous North Ridge in deteriorating weather conditions. On the
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  Speaker 1: fourth day, while navigating a steep ice wall, Simpson fell
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  Speaker 1: and landed awkwardly, crushing his tibia into his knee joint
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  Speaker 1: and shattering his right leg. With no hope of helicopter
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  Speaker 1: rescue in this remote location, Yates made a desperate decision
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  Speaker 1: to try lowering Simpson down the mountain using their two
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  Speaker 1: 150-foot ropes tied together. The system required Yates to dig
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  Speaker 1: a snow seat and lower Simpson 300 feet at a
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  Speaker 1: time then downclimbed to repeat the process. For hours, this
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  Speaker 1: agonizing method worked as they descended approximately 3,000 feet, but
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  Speaker 1: as darkness fell and a blizzard struck, visibility vanished. Yates
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  Speaker 1: unknowingly lowered Simpson over a cliff edge, leaving him dangling
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  Speaker 1: in space above a deep crevasse. Simpson couldn't climb back
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  Speaker 1: up the rope, and Yates couldn't pull him up from
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  Speaker 1: his precarious position in soft snow. For over an hour,
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  Speaker 1: Yates held the rope as Simpson hung helplessly below. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: Feeling his own anchor failing and knowing they would both
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  Speaker 1: die if he was pulled from the cliff, Yates made
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  Speaker 1: an impossible decision. He cut the rope. Simpson fell deep
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  Speaker 1: into a crevasse, crashing onto an ice bridge. Miraculously, he
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  Speaker 1: survived the fall but found himself trapped in what he
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  Speaker 1: thought was his tomb. The crevasse was a bergschrund that
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  Speaker 1: could be 50 to 500 feet deep. Instead of waiting
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  Speaker 1: to die, Simpson made another desperate choice. He descended deeper
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  Speaker 1: into the darkness, hoping to find a way out rather
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  Speaker 1: than slowly freeze to death on the ledge. About 70
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  Speaker 1: feet down, he discovered a slope of unconsolidated snow at
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  Speaker 1: a 65-degree angle that led to daylight. Using his one
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  Speaker 1: good leg, he made hopping jumps to climb out of
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  Speaker 1: the crevasse, but his escape was only the beginning. Simpson
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  Speaker 1: spent the next three and a half days crawling and
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  Speaker 1: hopping five miles across the glacier and rocky moraines back
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  Speaker 1: to base camp. Without food or water, delirious from pain
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  Speaker 1: and exhaustion, he dragged himself through the night, driven by
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  Speaker 1: sheer willpower. Hours before Yates was scheduled to abandon base camp,
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  Speaker 1: Simpson's desperate cries were heard. He had made it back
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  Speaker 1: from the dead. The Jungle Nightmare In early November 1981,
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  Speaker 1: 22-year-old backpacker Yossi Ginsberg set off into the Bolivian Amazon
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  Speaker 1: with three companions, seeking adventure in one of the world's
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  Speaker 1: most dangerous jungles. The group included Marcus Stamm, a Swiss teacher,
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Gale, an American photographer, and Karl Ruprechter, an Austrian
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  Speaker 1: who claimed to be a geologist. Ruprechter promised to lead
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  Speaker 1: them to a remote indigenous village rich with gold. After
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  Speaker 1: days of difficult jungle travel, the group discovered that Ruprechter
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  Speaker 1: was not really a geologist, but a con artist with
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  Speaker 1: no jungle experience. They decided to split up, with Ginzburg
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  Speaker 1: and Gale building a raft to navigate the dangerous Tuichi
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  Speaker 1: River back to civilization. What happened next changed everything. The
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  Speaker 1: makeshift raft hit rapids and was swept toward a waterfall.
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  Speaker 1: Gale managed to jump to shore, but Ginzburg and the
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  Speaker 1: raft went over the falls. Alone and lost in the
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  Speaker 1: Amazon with no supplies, map, or survival training, Ginsberg began
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  Speaker 1: a 19-day nightmare that pushed him to the very edge
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  Speaker 1: of human endurance. During his first week alone, Ginsberg survived
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  Speaker 1: on whatever he could find. He foraged for wild fruits
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  Speaker 1: and eggs from bird nests. He waited beneath trees for
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  Speaker 1: monkeys to fall so he could eat them. When he
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  Speaker 1: found a small puddle of water, he drank until his
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  Speaker 1: stomach couldn't hold more. The jungle was merciless. Swarms of
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  Speaker 1: fire ants covered his body, and he pulled them from
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  Speaker 1: his eyelids, ears, and hair as blood seeped through his skin.
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  Speaker 1: Army ants attacked him one night while he slept. tearing
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  Speaker 1: at his flesh through his mosquito net. Termites bit him constantly,
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  Speaker 1: and a fungus infection left his feet bloody with oozing pus.
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  Speaker 1: On the sixth night, a hungry jaguar stalked him in
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  Speaker 1: complete darkness. Without fire or weapons, Ginsberg could only pray
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  Speaker 1: the big cat would move on. As days passed, he
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  Speaker 1: began hallucinating from hunger and exhaustion. He lost all sense
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  Speaker 1: of direction in the endless green maze. His feet rotted
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  Speaker 1: from constant moisture, and leeches attached themselves to his body.
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  Speaker 1: Ginsberg faced attacks from wild boar, and the constant threat
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  Speaker 1: of venomous snakes. At his lowest point, he ate insects, lizards,
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  Speaker 1: and raw bird eggs to survive. Finally, on the 19th day,
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  Speaker 1: Ginsburg encountered Kevin again, who was traveling with local helpers
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  Speaker 1: searching for him. Ginsburg was found on the brink of death,
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  Speaker 1: weighing barely 100 pounds and suffering from severe malnutrition and
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  Speaker 1: infected wounds. The Everest Resurrection On May 25, 2006, 50-year-old
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  Speaker 1: Australian mountaineer Lincoln Hall achieved his dream of reaching the
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  Speaker 1: summit of Mount Everest after a previous failed attempt in 1984,
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  Speaker 1: but his celebration was short-lived. During the descent from the 29,029-foot peak,
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  Speaker 1: Hall began showing signs of severe altitude sickness. At 28,200 feet,
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  Speaker 1: he developed high-altitude cerebral edema, a life-threatening condition that caused
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  Speaker 1: dangerous swelling in his brain. The illness made him confused, disoriented,
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  Speaker 1: and combative. His Sherpa guides tried for hours to help
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  Speaker 1: him descend, but as nightfall approached and their oxygen supplies dwindled,
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  Speaker 1: Hall became unresponsive. Expedition leader Alexander Abramov made the heartbreaking
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  Speaker 1: decision to order the guides to leave Hall on the
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  Speaker 1: mountain and return to camp to save their own lives.
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  Speaker 1: At 28,540 feet, just below the summit, Hall was pronounced dead.
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  Speaker 1: A statement was released to the media, and his wife
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  Speaker 1: Barbara was notified that her husband had perished on Everest.
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  Speaker 1: But Hall wasn't dead. Through the freezing night, with temperatures
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  Speaker 1: plunging far below zero and howling winds, he lay unconscious
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  Speaker 1: on a narrow ridge above an 8,000-foot drop. Wearing inadequate
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  Speaker 1: gear for the conditions, Hall somehow survived 12 hours in
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  Speaker 1: conditions that should have killed him within minutes. The next morning,
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  Speaker 1: as an American climbing team led by Dan Mazur made
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  Speaker 1: their own summit attempt, they were shocked to discover Hall
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  Speaker 1: sitting cross-legged on the summit ridge, very much alive. When
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  Speaker 1: Mazur approached, Hall looked up and said calmly, I imagine
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  Speaker 1: you are surprised to see me here. Though still confused
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  Speaker 1: and hallucinating from the brain swelling, Hall was conscious and
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  Speaker 1: able to speak. Mazur and his team immediately abandoned their
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  Speaker 1: own summit bid, knowing they had only one chance to
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  Speaker 1: save Hall's life. They gave him oxygen, warm clothing, and food,
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  Speaker 1: then began the dangerous process of helping him descend. The
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  Speaker 1: rescue required enormous sacrifice from Mazur's team, who gave up
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  Speaker 1: their only opportunity to summit Everest. Hall was eventually evacuated
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  Speaker 1: by helicopter from a lower camp and survived, though he
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  Speaker 1: lost the tips of several fingers and a toe to frostbite.
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  Speaker 1: He credited his survival to his study of Tibetan Buddhism
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  Speaker 1: and an unshakable will to live. Sahara Marathon Incident On
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  Speaker 1: April 10, 1994, 38-year-old Italian police officer Mauro Prosperi lined
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  Speaker 1: up with approximately 80 other runners at the start of
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  Speaker 1: the Marathon des Sables, a grueling 156-mile ultramarathon across the
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  Speaker 1: Sahara Desert in Morocco. The former Olympic pentathlete had trained
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  Speaker 1: for months, running 25 miles daily while deliberately reducing his
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  Speaker 1: water intake to prepare for the brutal conditions. On the
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  Speaker 1: fourth day of the race, during the longest 57-mile stage,
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  Speaker 1: Temperatures soared to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. At 1 p.m., after
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  Speaker 1: passing the third checkpoint, Prosperi was maintaining a strong seventh-place
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  Speaker 1: position when an unexpected sandstorm struck. The blinding storm completely
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  Speaker 1: disoriented him, and when it cleared hours later, Prosperi could
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  Speaker 1: see no other runners or race markers. He was utterly
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  Speaker 1: alone in the vast Sahara. For the first two days,
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  Speaker 1: Prosperi rationed his remaining water to half a bottle while
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  Speaker 1: walking during cooler hours to conserve energy. He ate only
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  Speaker 1: one energy bar, trying to make his food last. By
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  Speaker 1: day three, dehydration was setting in severely. He was forced
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  Speaker 1: to drink his own urine to survive. On day four,
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  Speaker 1: desperately searching for shelter from the scorching sun, Prosperi discovered
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  Speaker 1: a Marabao shrine, an ancient stone tomb. Inside, bats hung
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  Speaker 1: from the ceiling. Using his knife, he killed and ate
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  Speaker 1: the bats raw, drinking their blood for moisture. As his
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  Speaker 1: condition worsened, Prosperi wrote a goodbye note to his wife
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  Speaker 1: on the tomb wall and attempted to take his own
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  Speaker 1: life by slitting his wrists. But his blood was so
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  Speaker 1: thick from dehydration that the wounds wouldn't bleed enough to
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  Speaker 1: kill him. When he woke up alive, Prosperi found new
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  Speaker 1: determination to survive. He set off again into the desert,
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  Speaker 1: licking dew from rocks at dawn and hunting for insects
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  Speaker 1: and lizards to eat. He buried himself in sand at
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  Speaker 1: night to stay warm as temperatures plummeted. On day eight,
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  Speaker 1: he found a tiny oasis with a puddle of fresh
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  Speaker 1: water and drank until he was full. On day nine,
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  Speaker 1: barely conscious and weighing just 99 pounds, Prosperi was found
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  Speaker 1: by Algerian military authorities after wandering 180 miles off course
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  Speaker 1: and unknowingly crossing the border from Morocco into Algeria. Doctors
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  Speaker 1: said his liver had nearly failed. and he required extensive
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  Speaker 1: intravenous rehydration to restore his body. The Blackface Incident On
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  Speaker 1: May 10, 1996, Texas pathologist Beck Weathers joined a commercial
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  Speaker 1: expedition led by renowned guide Rob Hall, attempting to reach
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  Speaker 1: the summit of Mount Everest. Weathers wasn't a professional mountaineer,
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  Speaker 1: but he was an experienced climber who had turned to
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  Speaker 1: extreme adventure to cope with severe depression. What he didn't
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  Speaker 1: anticipate was how the high altitude would affect his vision.
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  Speaker 1: Weathers had undergone radial keratotomy eye surgery 18 months earlier,
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  Speaker 1: and as the team climbed higher, his eyesight deteriorated rapidly.
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  Speaker 1: By the time they reached high on the southeast ridge
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  Speaker 1: near Camp 4, Weathers was effectively blind. Unable to continue safely,
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  Speaker 1: Hall instructed Weathers to wait there while he guided another
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  Speaker 1: client to the summit, promising to return for him on
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  Speaker 1: the descent. But Hall never came back. While assisting another climber,
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  Speaker 1: Hall became trapped high on the mountain and later died.
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  Speaker 1: As a massive blizzard struck Everest, Weathers and several other
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  Speaker 1: climbers became lost and disoriented just a few hundred yards
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  Speaker 1: from the safety of Camp 4. When guide Michael Groom
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  Speaker 1: tried to lead the group back to camp, the storm's
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  Speaker 1: fury made navigation impossible. The group huddled together for hours
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  Speaker 1: as temperatures plummeted and hurricane-force winds battered them. By the
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  Speaker 1: time there was a brief break in the storm, Weathers
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  Speaker 1: had been so weakened by exposure that he and four
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  Speaker 1: others were left behind while stronger climbers went for help.
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  Speaker 1: That night, Weathers lay in the snow, slipping deeper into
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  Speaker 1: a hypothermic coma. A fellow guide found him the next morning,
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  Speaker 1: but determined he was too far gone to save. Weathers
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  Speaker 1: was officially left for dead. His condition was so grave
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  Speaker 1: that his wife Peach received a phone call in Dallas,
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  Speaker 1: informing her that her husband had died on the mountain.
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  Speaker 1: But 15 hours after being abandoned, something remarkable happened. Weathers
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  Speaker 1: regained consciousness. Despite being severely hypothermic with massive frostbite covering
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  Speaker 1: his hands and face, he somehow found the strength to
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  Speaker 1: stand up and stagger toward Camp 4. When he stumbled
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  Speaker 1: into camp, his teammates were shocked. His face was so
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  Speaker 1: blackened and swollen from frostbite that they barely recognized him.
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  Speaker 1: He was left for dead a second time when another
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  Speaker 1: storm collapsed his tent overnight, and fellow climbers again assumed
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  Speaker 1: he had died. But once more, weathers proved them wrong.
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  Speaker 1: The next morning, rescuers found him still breathing and organized
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  Speaker 1: one of the highest-altitude helicopter rescues at the time. Nepalese
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  Speaker 1: pilot Lieutenant Colonel Maidan Khatri Chetri flew his aircraft into
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  Speaker 1: the deadly thin air twice to evacuate weathers and another
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  Speaker 1: critically injured climber. Weathers survived, but paid a terrible price.
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  Speaker 1: Frostbite forced the amputation of his right hand, all fingers
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  Speaker 1: and thumb on his left hand, parts of both feet,
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  Speaker 1: and his nose. Yet he considered himself lucky to be alive,
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  Speaker 1: crediting thoughts of his family with giving him the will
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  Speaker 1: to survive against impossible odds. If you'd like to see
• 13:54
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• 13:57
  Speaker 1: free to drop suggestions for the next video in the comments.