Episode 157: Survival Stories You Won't Forget

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Ian: Hey everyone, you are listening to “Coffee with Gringos”. I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And today we are going to be talking about some incredible survival stories. Throughout history, there have been plenty of these kinds of stories that demonstrate what people have inside them to stay alive under the absolute worst circumstances. Some of these stories are pretty hard to believe. Some of them are very sad, very tragic, and some are also hopeful for those who actually survive the harrowing event. So, there are many, many, many of them that Paige and I are just going to be discussing a few of the most famous and most interesting ones that we've found today. So, listeners as usual, if you get lost, check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. So, Paige, we have many, many of these stories where people have been in these incredible situations, stranded in the ocean, stranded in the mountains, some sort of an accident or incident and they've come out on the other side. So, I think it would be interesting for us to start out with one of the best well-known ones, and that is the Donner Party. And, basically, the Donner Party was a group of American pioneers in the US who set out to California from the east in a wagon train and due to a lot of things that set them back due to weather during the really harsh winter of 1846, they were crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the snow was just too much for them and it forced them to be stuck in the mountains. Because of this, there were actually reports of cannibalism, people in the group were dying, and for those who were still surviving to stay alive, they had to eat other people in the group. Help didn't arrive until the next winter or the middle of February and so, these rescue parties brought food, they tried to bring them out of the mountains, and only 48 of the original 87 people lived to reach California. Here’s a classic example that I learned about in school, at least for this group, they attempted to get over the mountains and they ended up having to eat others to survive which is pretty insane. I really don't know if that's something I could do. I think that's one of those things where you have an idea or an opinion, but you don't really know what you would do until you're in that situation. So, I think it's hard to judge these people because again, they're in a survival situation but it's always disheartening to hear when people resort to cannibalism.

Paige: I don't know the details of that. I'm hoping that the people they were eating died so that they were just being resourceful and the fact that a minority died and they were able to get protein by eating them which is still disgusting but it's easier to understand if it's like okay, well at least they didn't kill them and eat them.

I mean anyway you slice it; cannibalism is pretty terrific but you can't really be tested until you're actually tested in that survival mode. Which brings me to the next popular story—Aaron Ralston. He became really popular and his story became really popular in 2003. He was a big hiker and was hiking in a canyon in Utah and as he was climbing up, he got stuck in between this boulder and it fell on his arm and the boulder was just too heavy that he could not get it off his arm. And so, he was out in the middle of this canyon, no reception, he was out there, obviously, running low on food and water and was put in the situation of either I do something drastic or I die out here. And so, he had this dull knife on him in his hiking pack and he ended up cutting off the arm that was under this boulder and then was able to escape from under it and walk out of this park alive. And it's just this amazing story because that takes so much courage to cut your own arm and it was a knife that wasn't going to be quick. It was going to be very painful, there was going to be a lot of loss of blood, so he was doing something that was no guarantee that he would survive. I mean, he could cut his arm off and die of blood loss, and then it wasn't worth it. I mean, it just shows when you are in that survival mode that you might do just about anything like cutting off your own arm.

Ian: Exactly. It's one of those things where it's like, I either die for sure if I stay here or I take that bold move and take that bold risk, and hopefully, it'll pay off, and for him, it did pay off. I have to say though, I'm not the most impressed with Aaron Ralston. He made quite a few mistakes before going out and hiking so, listeners, always tell someone where you're going and what to expect if you don't come back within a certain timeframe because he didn't do that. He just left, he went camping, didn't tell anyone went hiking didn't tell anyone, and this is a big no-no, as we say. Do not do this before you go out. Make sure people know where you are—your whereabouts. While I think it's really courageous what he did, I think it's something that could have been avoided. So, great story but be smarter before you go out.

Paige: No, that's a really good point to make, but I do think, I mean, again, you don't have to test it, but I don't think I could have done that. I mean, I think I would have just been like, well, this is it for me.

Ian: You would have given up pretty easily?

Paige: Yeah, I don't think I would eat anyone and I don't think I would cut my own arm off. I think if I had a machete and it was going to be quick and “rip off that band-aid” type experience but to really cut your arm, which probably took him a good 30 minutes? Oh, no. Yeah, I couldn't do it.

Ian: Yeah, it sounds horrible.

Paige: Hey, Ian. Did you know besides the podcast, Dynamic English offers one-on-one classes with native teachers from all over the world?

Ian: Really? But isn't it just a bunch of grammar lessons?

Paige: Nope, it's completely discussion-based and focuses on topics the student is interested in.

Ian: That's amazing. But what if I'm not living in Chile?

Paige: No problem. Dynamic does online classes. You can be living anywhere.

Ian: Great, but I'm a little intimidated to take the class alone. Can I join with a friend?

Paige: Of course. Dynamic offers group classes of up to four. Plus, for the next month, Coffee with Gringos listeners get 10% off individual or group classes. So go online to www.dynamicenglish.cl and mention that you are a listener and get your discount.

Ian: Well, I'm sold. Sign me up.

Ian: Another really interesting one to mention on this list is Slavomir Rawicz, I hope I'm pronouncing his name correctly. And Rawicz was a cavalry officer in the Polish army when the Red Army of Russia captured him during the German-Soviet partition of Poland in 1939 and he was tortured, he was thrown in jail after a trial in Moscow, and he was actually sentenced to 25 years of hard labor in a Siberian Gulag. And for those who don't know, a gulag is basically a labor prison camp for political prisoners and other people in the Soviet Union who were not liked by the government. And so, after a year of just unbearable, inhumane conditions in Siberia—which is one of the most remote and cold and harsh environments in the entire world—he and six other prisoners escaped from the labor camp. They marched 4,000 miles on foot across Siberia, the Gobi Desert, and China through Tibet—which has some of the tallest mountains in the world and the Himalayas—all the way to India. And there's actually a famous book called “The Long Walk”, which is based on the story. I can't even fathom the distance of 4,000 miles, let alone walking it. And also, you're not walking 4,000 miles across a flat surface or just a valley or a plain. We're talking about the most harsh and difficult geography that exists on Earth. They went through one of the harshest deserts, one of the harshest Siberian tundras, and over some of the tallest mountains in the world and they all survived it. Sounds like, that's just the tenacity it takes to do that is something I can't really wrap my head around.

Paige: Absolutely not. And to add to that, they were not prepared for that so they don't have the right gear, the right clothing, the right amount of food and water and so it's insane to do all of that when you're probably malnourished and dehydrated and maybe have frostbite or whatever it is. It's not like they had Patagonia gear and everything so, it's impressive what people can do and when they have to. Another story that comes to mind of survival is Stephen Callahan and this is on the water so, a little different than what we've been talking about where he was in this small sailboat, he was going from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean and there was a storm that came and his ship sank and he was stranded on this rubber raft. He’s out in the Atlantic, it’s like a five-and-a-half-foot raft, so this tiny thing, and he has just a t-shirt on, a few pounds of food, a couple of pints of water, and he was just completely out in the middle of the ocean. And he ended up being out there for 76 days traveling over 1,800 miles and then he finally reached the Bahamas. And the biggest thing about being stranded in the ocean is you're just in direct sunlight and you're surrounded by water that you can't drink because it's full of salt and so, all you are is tired and you probably have heatstroke because you're just baking in the sun and you're so thirsty all day. And so, when I was reading up on him being out there for 76 days, he was delusional. You go kind of crazy when you're that dehydrated and you're just out in the sun that long and so, it's impressive that he was able to overcome all those barriers—76 days without enough water and he survived. I would probably never go sailing again.

Ian: Yeah, I think my sailing days would be over too once that happened, but it's just amazing to think about the survival that happens in the middle of the ocean because it's also a mental game. You can't see anything; you just see miles and miles and miles of open ocean. Like you said, you have all this water and you can't drink. It's so tempting and you're just baking in the sun. I mean, I can't even imagine being in direct sunlight in the ocean for that much time. You would just feel horrible. You would go crazy. That totally makes sense that he was delusional. I'm sure I'd lose my mind if I was out there that long as well so just the fortitude to keep moving and to not give up is what's so incredible about the people that we're talking about today. And these stories, it’s something that they have in common.

Paige: Absolutely, I feel like at least if you're on land, you can look for the moon and the stars and have some sense of direction. Where in the ocean, I would get the sense that if I made progress and then I’m like shit, is it that? It would just be hard if you're actually moving in the same direction, in the right place for that long, so I just think it would feel very hopeless.

Ian: Absolutely, yeah. Speaking of another crazy survival story that maybe a lot of our South American audience is familiar with his Nando Parrado and the Uruguayan rugby team. So, in 1972, a plane with a Uruguayan rugby team, they were crossing the Andes Mountains and the plane ended up crashing and a lot of the people on board were killed immediately. But there were still some survivors upon the crash, and after several weeks without anyone coming to rescue them, a few failed attempts of them to try to walk out of the mountains, unfortunately, the survivors also resorted to cannibalism, like I mentioned earlier in the Donner Party. And Nando Parrado, he was sort of known as the leader and sort of the hero of the group. He talks about how it was just a really harrowing thing that happened to them. He actually had a broken skull, he fractured his skull in the crash, he was out cold, unconscious for three days and everyone thought he was going to die from his injuries. But somehow, he was able to survive and after these several weeks, he came up with a plan and he actually led them out of the mountains. They were trapped on a glacier 17,000 feet high and they marched ten days until they were able to find rescue. And, you've spent a lot of time down here, you've lived down here in the Andes, we're pretty familiar with it, and they are incredibly harsh. You hear about people who freeze to death, just going camping in certain places or going hiking and getting lost around here. So, the idea that you could live, you could survive with a broken skull, among other things for several weeks in the freezing cold Andes, I can't imagine what that experience was like and also the luck they had to be found when they were found and to make it out of the mountains alive because these mountains are enormous and I don't know. I just can't even imagine being in that situation.

Paige: Absolutely not. I think it just shows that you have something inside of you that comes out when it needs to, because yeah, I feel like a lot of these stories are probably, they sound extraordinary because they're put in extraordinary circumstances. But it seems like probably everyone has that survivor instinct and is able to overcome that when they're forced to release it seems from these stories. Yeah, which is good to know but I'm hoping not to be tested.

Ian: So, again, as we mentioned, these are just some of the most commonly known ones. there are many more, but we encourage you to do some of your own research and find out some more harrowing survival stories. And as always, like we mentioned, check out that audio guide and transcript online at www.dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

Paige: We'll see you next time.

Ian: “Coffee with Gringos” officially has over one hundred episodes and we are among the “Top Podcasts in Chile”. And that’s thanks to you. But we are always working to grow our audience so make sure to rate sure to rate, review and share us.  

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     tragic (adjective): very bad; extremely sad.

a.     The accident was very tragic for the group of people.

2.     harrowing (adjective): distressing; traumatic; painful.

a.     The harrowing experience taught them many life lessons.

3.     stranded (adjective): left someone without the ability to move from there.

a.     The survivors were stranded on an island for three years.

4.     harsh (adjective): cruel; severe; difficult and unpleasant.

a.     The harsh environment made it difficult for them to survive.

5.     cannibalism (noun): the practice of eating the flesh of one’s own species.

a.     The survivors had to turn to cannibalism in order to stay alive.

6.     disheartening (adjective): sad; disappointing; discouraging.

a.     It was disheartening to hear the news of the plane crash.

7.     to resort (verb): to choose or adopt a strategy to solve a situation.

a.     The survivors resorted to climbing through the jungle to be rescued.

8. anyway you slice it (idiom): however, you decide to view or look at something.

a.     The news is not good no matter anyway you slice it.

9.     boulder (noun): large stone or rock.

a.     The boulder fell on his arm and trapped him inside of the cabin.

10.  drastic (adjective): severe; radical; extreme.

a.     They had to take drastic measures in order to survive.

11.  dull (adjective): not sharp.

a.     The knife had a dull blade and was almost useless.

12.  to pay off (phrasal verb): to result in a good way; to succeed.

a.     All the hard work they do will pay off in the end.

13.  rip off the band-aid (idiom): to do something uncomfortable or painful all at the same time in order to finish it more quickly.

a.     At some point, they had to rip off the band-aid and find a way to live.

14.  to fathom (verb): to understand; to comprehend.

a.     It’s so hard to fathom what the survivors had to experience.

15.  tenacity (noun): the quality of being very determined to exist and persist.

a.     All of the survivors have a tenacity that is hard to understand.

16.  to wrap one’s head around (something) (idiom): to be able to understand something.

a.     I can’t wrap my head around walking that far in the desert without water!

17.  malnourished (adjective): suffering from not having enough food or water.

a.     They were all malnourished after weeks in the mountains.  

18.  frostbite (noun): injury to body tissues caused by exposure to extreme cold.

a.     Some of the survivors experienced frostbite on their hands and toes.

19.  raft (noun): small boat.

a.     The raft was all that he had between him and the sharks.

20.  delusional (adjective): having beliefs, feelings or impressions that are different from reality; mentally confused.

a.     The survivor was delusional by the time he was rescued by the Coast Guard.

21.  tempting (adjective): appealing or attractive, even if wrong or dangerous.

a.     It was tempting to give up, but they found the strength to continue on.