Hair Raising Survival Stories

[LongRider]

 

I've been chatting with @Lily Valley in the November 2017 thread about the book The Ice Master by Jennifer Niven, an early 1900's survial story sent in the Arctic Circle.  It's a great read and a harrowing story of survial.  I've read other survival books, mostly dealing with the early Antarctic explorers and realy enjoy read about people on the edge of human endurance.  The fact that anyone survives some of these predictiments can make for great reading.  Not all survival stories take place in frozen places at the ends of the earth tho.  Would love to hear what survial stories others have read that they find complelling.  

[Lily Valley]

Thanks for starting this, we were definitely derailing the November thread.   

I'm about halfway through The Story of the Karluk, it's accredited to John Hadley, although the author of the Ice Master speculates that it was not written by him as it conflicts with Hadley's diaries about the expedition.  It's OK.  There's a few details I'm waiting to read about and it's short enough that it doesn't feel like a slog.

Oh, the BEST thing about the story of the Karluk expedition:

THE CAT LIVES!  :cries:

[LongRider]

2 minutes ago, Lily Valley said:

Thanks for starting this, we were definitely derailing the November thread.   

I'm about halfway through The Story of the Karluk, it's accredited to John Hadley, although the author of the Ice Master speculates that it was not written by him as it conflicts with Hadley's diaries about the expedition.  It's OK.  There's a few details I'm waiting to read about and it's short enough that it doesn't feel like a slog.

Oh, the BEST thing about the story of the Karluk expedition:

 

  Hide contents

 

THE CAT LIVES!  :cries:

 

 

Yes, to your spoiler.  Was concerned about that and loved how it turned out.    

[Hello World]

Are we talking fictional stories or strictly nonfiction?

[LongRider]

An aptly titled book of early Antarctic exploration is The Worst Journey in the World by, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, a young man who paid 1000 pounds to be able to go on the 1910 British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Robert F. Scott.  Cherry-Garrard describes the conditions of the expedition, the foray he undertook with two other men to collect penguin eggs (the trip that gave the book it's name) and Scot's doomed excursion to the South Pole. 

While the author frankly admired Scott, one can't help but wonder when reading if much of that admiration was misplaced.  Scott's planning for the trip to the South Pole may not of been thorough enough and some of his judgement is questionable.  Scott was seen as hero in England when the word reached them that he and four of his men had died trying to reach the Pole.  

This books does give a good portrait of life and survival in a harsh unforgiving environment. 

[LongRider]

7 minutes ago, Hello World said:

Are we talking fictional stories or strictly nonfiction?

Nonfiction (please) because to me, true survival stories are the ones that are the most compelling.  

[Dr. Pepper]

I'm not sure about hair raising, but I had a period in my life where I became deeply engrossed in the story of Lillian Alling, an immigrant woman who was said to have walked from New York, through Alaska and on to Russia because she missed home so much and it was the only way she could see to get there.  I think records are certain that she made it to the Aleutian Islands, but no confirmation on whether or not she ever made it home.

[Lily Valley]

Hanging with a buddy who turned me on to the Karluk story, she suggests:

Skeletons on the Zar

Adrift by Steven Callahan

Dougal Robertson Survive the Savage Sea

Almost too Late by Elmo Whartman

[Vaughn]

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson  - mountaineering gone very wrong

A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols - amateur global sailing circumnavigation race gone wrong (for some) Also a documentary. 

A Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger - so much more compelling that the dumbass movie. 

into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - another mountaineering disaster classic. (side note - his book 'Into the Kingdom of Heaven' is great but also super depressing, about the fundamentalist 'Mormon' cult)

[Larry of the Lawn]

I am alive ( documentary) and Alive (book), about a Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in the Andes in the 70's.  

The story is truly stranger than fiction, and Nando Parrado is a pretty inspirational figure.

I'd second the Into thin air rec, a very captivating read.  

 

[LongRider]

Of the books mentioned, I've read: Alive and A Perfect Storm.  I haven't read Into Thin Air but have read two Krakauer books Under The Banner of Heaven and Into the Wild.   When reading Under the Banner of Heaven towards the end when Dan Lafferty was interviewed in prison, he mentioned his cellie and well they got along, even tho his cellie was an LDS apostate. 

The cellie is Mark Hoffman, who has his own story about his murdering crimes 'The Mormon Murders.' which I read years ago during my 'true crime' phase.  That was a compelling crime/murder story because Hoffman was a forger who was forging documents about the early Mormon Church which were being bought up by the high ranking Mormon hierarchy because they went against doctrine (IIRC) and they didn't want them circulating.  At any rate, a few pipe bombs later and Hoffman was caught and tried and convicted of murder. 

I'm now reading Ada Blackjack which was mentioned by @Lily Valley in a different thread.  Just started it and I must say that it's amazing to me that not only did people go back to Wrangel Island, but they did it for V. Stefansson, again!   They wanted to believe I guess and Fred Maurer who had previously survived Wrangel Island, thought he could survive it this time.  It's gonna be a sad story.

I think for my next survival story I'll look into one of the at sea stories, as i haven't read many of those. 

  

 

 

[Maithanet]

We Die Alone by David Howarth.  Story of a Norwegian commando Jan Baalsrud in WW2 who must elude the Nazis across all of Norway to get to Sweden after his supplies and food are lost. Apparently this story is well known in Norway, not so much anywhere else.

[LongRider]

4 hours ago, Maithanet said:

We Die Alone by David Howarth.  Story of a Norwegian commando Jan Baalsrud in WW2 who must elude the Nazis across all of Norway to get to Sweden after his supplies and food are lost. Apparently this story is well known in Norway, not so much anywhere else.

Ohhhhh, that sounds like a good one!  A copy is now on hold at the library.   Thanks!

[Maithanet]

16 hours ago, Nasty LongRider said:

Ohhhhh, that sounds like a good one!  A copy is now on hold at the library.   Thanks!

Hope you like it (let us know!) I read it ~15 years ago, and I still remember a few of the more ridiculous things he went through.  It is safe to say that his survival was...rather improbable. 

[Astromech]

In addition to, or perhaps in place of, Skeleton's on the Zahara, you could read Sufferings in Africa: The Incredible True Story of a Shipwreck Enslavement and Survival on the Sahara, the first-hand account by Captain Riley.

 

[maarsen]

Try reading The Tiger. A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. I read this a few years ago and found it absolutely fascinating.  Siberian tigers are scary animals.