Forget movies for a minute...what is a better real-world survival tale than this one? Aaron Ralston (made into the movie 127 Hours) cutting off his own arm to survive? Epic, but I'd rank it behind the plane crash. Over 2 months after a plane crash in an inhospitable place with no food or water, still over a dozen survivors. Not sure it can be topped! What do u think?
shareI think the nearest story to come close to it would be Douglas Mawson’s walk alone across the Antarctic. He was part of a three man team but the dog sled driven by one of his companions and containing most of the food fell into a crevasse. After that Mawson and his other companion were forced to eat the dogs, drag the other remaining sled themselves but then his second companion died. The last 100 days he was alone. His feet were so frozen that the soles become unattached from his feet but still he walked.
The main difference is that Mawson had a tent, warmer clothing than the Andes Survivors did , and was a trained Antarctic explorer. He also knew that there was food caches along the way and he did eventually find one of these (it contained three oranges and a pineapple) .
Interesting...I had never heard of him...thanks!
shareGood article on him here.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-most-terrible-polar-exploration-ever-douglas-mawsons-antarctic-journey-82192685/
I read a book about him a few years ago. It was ‘Alone on the Ice’ by David Roberts. I knew about him before I read the book because my city (Hobart, Tasmania) has a small museum dedicated to him.
https://www.mawsons-huts.org.au/replica-museum/
I just realised I misremembered the Mawson story. It was the last 100 miles not the last 100 days he was alone. I think that 100 miles took him about 30 days.
shareThere are plenty, quite some astonishing stories of survival of sunken ships, like the Essex ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship) ). Or the survival of Juliane Koepcke (https://allthatsinteresting.com/juliane-koepcke). There are plenty of stories
shareThank you!
shareThe Shackleton story is pretty amazing.
Also that climber who had been left for dead , the movie is "into the abyss" or something
Nice...never heard of that one.
shareThis is it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_the_Void_(film)
I was almost right with the title :)