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We’re not talking about that marlin fishing trip off the coast of Mexico. What we’re really interested in are more than just mere vacations — we want to hear about adventures that took a certain amount of commitment and preparation, and left a real impression. Something other readers could replicate.
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Email a short description to realadventures@mensjournal.com, or enter it into the comments section below. We may feature your adventure in our May issue. Be sure to include your email address and phone number so that we can get in touch with you if we need more information.
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December 3rd, 2010 at 7:10 pm
27 days after the Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, I fall 100 feet climbing Mount Johnson near Mount McKinley in Alaska. The mountain throws avalanches at my partner Dave Nyman as he lowers me. My femur’s fractured, my hip’s dislocated and my head’s bleeding. I’m barely conscious. Dave leaves me in a precariously dangerous place and goes for help. Spindrift snow buries me; I’m freezing to death. My down sleeping bag is wet. Help is unlikely. Dave skis 12 miles up the Ruth Glacier to the Mountain House where four inexperienced skiers sunbath nude drinking gin and tonics. Two of the skiers leave to rescue me, but it’s too dangerous. They turn back. My cook stove burns my sleeping bag, hands and hair as I struggle to stay warm. Dave’s gone thirty hours. He returns just moments after an avalanche tosses me into the air and buries me up to my chest. The next morning, day four, clouds move in. Dave hears a plane. “Jim, you’re going to get out of here today.” The ski plane flies over one of Dave’s SOS’s in the snow at the Mountain House and lines up to land. The pilot, Mark Niver, wants to help. He’s that kind of guy, but the light is flat and Mark aborts. The plane stalls; it’s a hard landing. They’re all shook up; the plane won’t fly. Mark has no survival gear and his wife Roberta is seven months pregnant. It starts snowing. It’s one hell of a storm. I beg Dave to drag me off the mountain, but he’d rather sleep, pray and get hammered by avalanches. I hardly eat or drink for eight days. Dave’s hit by seven avalanches, I’m hit by eight and completely buried twice. We fall 35 feet into a crevasse. Mark Niver works for British Petroleum on the north slope of Alaska. He radios the jet that flies him to work and tells them I’m hurt on Mount Johnson. In the end we have nothing. There’s no other choice. Dave’s a hero and drags me down to safety. It is a nine day storm, but the Army, the Air Force, the National Guard, British Petroleum, Nick Parker, Jim Okinek of K2 Aviation and the National Park Service slip through an opening in clouds more than a week after I fall and rescue us all. Dave wins the Carnegie Hero award.
[Reply]
December 4th, 2010 at 1:28 am
I don’t know. I’m not sure i believe this guy.
And his story isn’t all that interesting even if it were true.
[Reply]
McGoo Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
http://www.carnegiehero.org/search.php
[Reply]
Poontastic Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 8:08 am
isn’t all that interesting even if it were true.
[Reply]
December 4th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
I have a story from when I was in the U.S. Army as a reconnaissance scout while stationed in Germany.
Our platoon was training with a French Army sister platoon in the Alps on a 3 day and night forced march.
We seriously thought we were going to die.
At times, the toughest of us actually picked the weaker members up out of the snow and dragged them along.
This was back in ‘87 during the Cold War, so I don’t know if my story would be eligible for print consideration according to your rules.
[Reply]