From being stranded in the Australian outback to being lost at sea, we countdown 10 incredible survival stories.
1. Eric LeMarque
As an avid snowboarder, Eric LeMarque was excited to go snowboarding in the Sierra Nevada Mountains back in 2003. After losing course, Eric was lost, and had only a MP3 player in his pocket.
During the incident, he was left soaking wet, when he fell into the rushing water below a waterfall. Freezing temperatures and soaking wet clothes are two things Eric wasn’t ready for when he was stranded.
Luckily, the snowboarder remembered a technique that involved using his MP3 player’s radio signal as a compass. This idea actually came from a movie, and allowed him to survive the seven-day endeavor.
2. Bethany Hamilton
A survival countdown is nothing without a shark attack, and in 2003 Bethany Hamilton experienced just that. While surfing in Hawai’i with her best friend early in the morning, a tiger shark latched onto Bethany and bit off her left arm.
The brave surfer, only 13 years old, was able to swim back and warn the others. Normally, when this happens, the victim is left to drown out of panic.
3. Justin and Jeremy Harris
In Chute Canyon, Utah, two brothers were out repelling down a boulder, when one slipped and broke his leg.
The other brother, Jeremy fled back to the campsite to get help. Unfortunately, the site was four miles away, and to make matters worse, Jeremy made a wrong turn.
It took 20 hours for him to get to the campsite, and in that time Justin was left by himself to keep his leg elevated. After 36 hours help had arrived and Justin was saved.
4. Tami Ashcraft
Tami and her fiancé Richard were traveling from Tahiti to San Diego to deliver a yacht. The trip was supposed to be pleasant and a fun journey, but when a category 4 hurricane intercepted them, things took a turn for the worst.
50 foot waves, and 140 knot winds capsized the ship and left Tami unconscious. When she awoke, her husband was gone.
She was forced to make a raft and sail her way to land, all by herself. 40 days, and 1,500 miles later she landed in Hawai’i.
5. Yossi Ghinsberg
Setting out with three others to travel along the Tuichi River in the Amazon, Yossi and his friends became lost. To find a way out, the group split into pairs.
Yossi and Kevin were floating down the river on a raft when they hit a rock and were forced to split up. Fortunately, Kevin was able to find the local people of the area, and start searching for Yossi as a group. It took 19 days to find Yossi; however, the other pair were never see again.
6. Ricky Megee
Only 10 years ago, Ricky Megee was driving in the middle of the Australian Outback when his car was hijacked by a few indigenous men from the area.
He was knocked out unconscious, and later awoke in the middle of nowhere. He then struggled to survive, and was forced to live off the land until he made his way back to civilization.
Luckily, he was able to find a water source at a nearby dam. However, it took 70 days until he made contact with another human being. Ricky was eventually saved by a farmer that was able to get him aid.
7. Steven Callahan
Back in 1982, Steven set sail from England on a transatlantic race. His destination was Antigua. Things were calm at first, but after his small boat ran into storms, he was left trying to survive in a small inflatable raft.
Steven tells the story as if a whale hit his boat during the storm, causing it to sink to the depths of the ocean.
All he had left were a can of peanuts, some eggs and cabbage. While on the raft, he managed to fire a total of seven flairs into the sky.
All the nearby ships that he wished to alarm had passed by without noticing him. It took 76 days until a lone fisherman came upon Steven, and rescued him. Steven managed to float 1800 miles, after his boat initially sank.
8. Aron Ralston
Before the movie 127 Hours was made famous by Hollywood actor James Franco, Aron Ralston’s story was only a miracle tale.
Aron was a fanatical hiker, who took a biking trip to Blue John Canyon in Utah. As a brave outdoorsman, canyons didn’t scare Aron at all.
That is until he slipped into a crack and got stuck, when a massive boulder fell onto his arm. He was trapped in the canyon for days and separated from the civilized world.
He then made a decision to amputate his own arm to free himself from the boulder. Afterwards, he was able to run down a few hikers and make his way to a hospital.
9. Joe Simpson and Simon Yates
In 1985, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, started their journey to climb Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. All was going well until Simpson broke his leg.
The two had to turn around and descend the mountain, however, it was all on Yates to help get Simpson back down.
As a storm rolled into the area, the temperatures dropped and frostbite set in. Unsure if either were going to make it down alive, or if Simpson was even still alive at that time, Yates made a critical call.
He decided to cut the rope that was attached to Simpson. Amazingly, Simpson was able to survive the fall, all 150 feet of it.
Simpson took it upon himself to crawl back to the base camp with the little energy he still had. When the two met up, Yates most likely apologized to Simpson for cutting him loose.
10. Jan Baalsrud
As an instrument maker of the Nazi resistance, Baalsrud was traveling on a boat across the icy cold Norwegian waters. During the voyage his ship, was shot at by Nazi soldiers, and he was the lone survivor.
After diving into the icy waters, he managed to swim back to the coast and find help from some civilians. However, that wasn’t the end.
Baalsrud needed to make his way back to Sweden, and he was determined to do so. Traveling across the snowy mountains was the easy part of the endeavor.
Multiple times his journey was halted by roaming Nazi soldiers, and also a “minor” avalanche, which caused him to fall nearly 300 feet.
This incident left him with a concussion, and also caused him to go blind. Wandering through the snow blindly, Baalsrud somehow managed to make his way to safety at the Swedish border.
