0:00

Hi listeners, it's John Cuban here.

0:02

Today I want to introduce you to a brand new podcast

0:04

from Noiser. It's called Real Survival

0:06

Stories. Real Survival Stories

0:08

brings you astonishing tales of ordinary people

0:11

thrust into extraordinary situations. People

0:13

suddenly forced to fight for their lives. Stranded

0:17

in the desert, lost in the jungle,

0:19

marooned in the mountains, shipwrecked

0:22

on the high seas. These individuals

0:24

had everything against them, but even then

0:26

they refused to give in. If you enjoyed

0:29

this taster episode, search Real Survival

0:31

Stories in your podcast app and hit follow

0:33

to get new episodes every Thursday. Or

0:35

listen at Noiser.com

0:39

It's November the

0:41

19th, 1982 in the southern Alps of New Zealand.

0:45

A fierce blizzard rages across Aoraki

0:47

Mount Cook National Park. Battered

0:50

by savage gales and gripped by

0:52

sub-zero temperatures, the entire mountain

0:55

range has been swallowed up by a freezing vortex

0:57

of snow, wind and ice. Surely

1:01

nothing could survive in conditions

1:03

like this. But,

1:07

12,000 feet up Mount Cook, huddled inside

1:10

a 4 by 5 foot ice cave, 23 year

1:12

old Mark Inglis fights to defy

1:15

the odds. Encrusted

1:18

in thick layers of frost, Mark

1:20

tries desperately to sit still and

1:23

conserve what little body heat he has left. Alongside

1:27

Mark is his climbing partner Phil.

1:31

The two mountaineers have been marooned here in this cave

1:34

for almost three days. At

1:37

first, they were confident the blizzard would

1:39

pass quickly,

1:40

but that confidence has waned.

1:42

Malnutrition and hypothermia

1:45

have eaten away at their resolve. Nobody's

1:48

coming to rescue them in this weather. They

1:50

need to at least try to escape before

1:53

it's too late. With

1:57

numb, stiffened fingers, Mark fusters. his

2:00

helmet and harness. Once

2:02

he's rigged up, he crawls from the cave

2:05

mouth and inches his way out onto the

2:07

face.

2:10

Immediately, the shock of the cold

2:12

snatches his breath away. As

2:15

Mark peers down over the ridge, the

2:17

snow and the wind envelop him in

2:19

a chaotic swirl of white. The

2:23

young New Zealander is confronted by

2:25

a grim, unshakable reality that

2:28

in this weather, attempting to defend

2:30

the mountain will be suicide.

2:34

You knew that if you got too

2:36

far away from that little arcade, you

2:39

got it sposed out there

2:40

on that face right

2:43

in the teeth of the wind that you'd

2:45

die. There's no

2:47

question. And so you climb

2:50

back in, climb back in

2:52

and you just wait for a bit longer. And

2:55

we set ourselves up, you know, and just

2:58

sat there and listened for the wind, listened

3:00

for an opportunity to climb out.

3:04

Sitting in that ice cave, you

3:06

know, it'll haunt me in dreams at night. Their

3:10

only option is to hunker down and try

3:12

again tomorrow. That is,

3:14

if they can survive another

3:16

night. Ever

3:26

wondered what you would do when disaster

3:28

strikes?

3:29

If your life depended on your next decision, could

3:32

you make the right choice?

3:34

Welcome to Real Survival

3:36

Stories, a show that brings you astonishing

3:38

tales of ordinary people thrown

3:40

into extraordinary situations. In

3:44

this episode, we meet Mark Inglis, a

3:47

23-year-old search and rescue mountaineer, a

3:49

young New Zealander whose job is to rescue

3:52

other people.

3:54

But on a routine practice mission, he'll

3:56

find himself in deep

3:58

trouble.

3:59

will turn what should have been a straightforward

4:02

climb into a terrifying fight

4:04

for survival. In worsening

4:06

conditions, Mark and his partner will

4:08

find shelter. But with their rations

4:10

diminishing and their bodies deteriorating,

4:14

how long can they hold out? I'm

4:16

John Hopkins from Noiser. This

4:19

is Real Survival Stories.

4:44

The New

4:47

Zealand November 1982, South Island, New Zealand.

4:49

It's an ordinary night at the Search and Rescue

4:51

Team headquarters in Iraaki Mount

4:53

Cook National Park. The

4:55

warm buzz of conversation fills the small alpine

4:58

hut. Static-u-pop music

5:00

crackles from a battered transistor radio. In

5:03

the corner of the room, an old convection

5:05

heater clanks and whores. Mark

5:09

Inglis takes a swig of beer and

5:11

grins broadly.

5:14

The 23-year-old is living his dream. Climbing

5:17

has been Mark's passion since childhood. And

5:19

even though the job of a Search and Rescue Mountaineer

5:21

can be dangerous, there's nothing else he'd

5:24

rather be doing with his life. Mark

5:27

Inglis, New Zealand. Growing up in

5:29

the 70s and 80s, there was only

5:31

one sport in New Zealand and it was

5:33

rugby, really. And

5:36

I was the skinniest little piece of a white

5:38

bait you've ever seen. And so I was

5:41

so lucky. And that right from the age

5:44

of about 11 or 12, I had a mentor,

5:46

one of my teachers, and he was a mountaineer.

5:49

And I just immersed

5:51

myself in the culture of

5:53

the mountains of mountaineering. And

5:56

so I started climbing when I was 12. So by

5:59

the time I was a... I was at ARR

6:01

through Mt. Cook and

6:03

I was part of the search and rescue team there.

6:07

You know, it really was the ultimate job

6:09

for a young mountaineer.

6:12

On this mild spring evening, Mark

6:15

and his colleagues are in particularly good spirits.

6:18

They're welcoming a new member of the team, a

6:20

young man named Phil Do. Tall,

6:24

broad-shouldered and softly spoken, Phil

6:26

is something of a gentle giant, an

6:29

introvert to Mark's extrovert. The

6:31

two men are similar in age and Mark

6:33

takes an immediate liking to him.

6:37

It's not long after Phil joins the group that Mark

6:39

suggests they do a climb together,

6:41

an ascent of Mt. Cook or

6:44

Aoraki, as it's known to New Zealand's

6:46

indigenous Maori population, would

6:48

be perfect, the ideal opportunity

6:51

for the two new colleagues to bond. In

6:53

their line of work, this could mean the difference

6:55

between life and death.

6:58

Phil and I sort of had overlapping

7:00

circles of friends, but we'd never

7:03

climb together. And so it was as

7:05

much to get to understand each other, how

7:07

we climbed, because in the

7:10

coming months we were going to have to jump out of a helicopter

7:13

onto a steep ridge or onto an ice

7:15

space or abseil down a rock

7:17

face to pick up someone who's bent or

7:20

broken or sometimes a body.

7:23

So on November the 15th, Mark

7:25

and Phil shoulder their packs and

7:27

head off into the dark. Their

7:29

plan is to spend the night in bivvy bags

7:32

at the foot of Mt. Cook. Before

7:34

dawn breaks, they'll begin their ascent up the

7:37

east face before making their way along the

7:39

summit ridge. Mark

7:42

is familiar with the route. It's

7:44

the perfect level of difficulty. Certain

7:46

stretches will test their skills, but ultimately

7:49

it shouldn't pose too great a technical challenge.

7:51

Markook National Park is the nearest thing

7:54

you'll find to the Himalaya, outside

7:56

of the Himalaya. We thought we'd do the east

7:58

ridge of Aaraki Mt. Cook. You

8:01

know it's a steep technical

8:03

ice climb. It's really

8:05

exposed. It comes out right on

8:07

the summit of the middle peak of Aaraki Mount

8:10

Cook, you know over 3,600 meters. A marvelous climb

8:15

you know it's really elegant ice climb.

8:20

They must still have their wits about them. Aaraki

8:23

Mount Cook has steep rock faces, plunging

8:26

crevasses and frequent avalanches. Above

8:29

all the mountain is notorious for its

8:31

unpredictable weather. In the

8:34

blink of an eye conditions can switch from bright and

8:36

sunny to white out blizzards and

8:38

some of the coldest temperatures on the planet. The

8:42

east face is notoriously exposed

8:44

with very few places to shelter. But

8:47

Mark isn't worried. He's checked the

8:49

forecast and although there's a storm

8:51

brewing somewhere off the coast it's not due

8:53

to make landfall for another couple of days. 24 hours

8:57

at least.

8:58

By then he and Phil will

9:00

be well clear.

9:02

At least they should be.

9:04

We thought we had a 24 hour window and

9:07

so the only thing we could really do was

9:09

climb light and climb fast and

9:11

that's what we set off in the dark to do.

9:18

At the foot of the east face Mark and Phil

9:21

buckle their helmets and fix their crampons to their

9:23

boots. Looking up

9:25

at the pre-dawn sky there isn't a

9:27

cloud in sight. At 3700

9:31

meters Aaraki Mount Cook is

9:33

the tallest mountain in New Zealand. On

9:36

clear days these slopes provide

9:39

awe-inspiring panoramas of the surrounding

9:41

southern Alps and a spectacular group

9:43

of peaks known as the Grand Plateau.

9:47

The Grand Plateau is the empty theatre

9:50

of climbing for New Zealand really.

9:52

It really is an empty theatre and the

9:54

higher you get the more incredible

9:57

the view. into

10:00

an environment of steep ice

10:04

and snow. You've left

10:06

behind the last plants. The

10:08

only thing you have as company really

10:10

are amazingly

10:12

the seagulls that circle and

10:15

fly in amongst the uplifts

10:18

way up there. Why a

10:20

seagull on the top of a mountain? I just don't

10:22

know.

10:25

In the interest of speed, Mark and Phil

10:28

have decided to carry only the bare essentials,

10:31

just the clothes on their back and what

10:33

little food and water they need for a single

10:35

day's climbing.

10:37

No radios, no sleeping bags and

10:39

no cooking equipment. Nothing

10:42

that would add unnecessary weight and

10:44

slow them down. With

10:47

such lightweight packs, Mark

10:49

and Phil make rapid progress through the morning.

10:52

But as they continue up the mountain,

10:55

they start to run into challenges.

10:57

The ice was what we call dinner plating. And

11:00

so you'd go in with your ice tools,

11:03

your technical ice acts whack into the

11:05

ice, standing on the very points

11:07

of your front points on your crampons. But

11:10

what was happening was that the ice would

11:12

just shatter and they'd just

11:14

slide down, knock your feet off. It

11:16

was really technical climbing

11:19

and it slowed us right down.

11:25

Soon, they start to realise

11:27

that the weather is changing around them. The

11:30

temperature is dropping and a storm

11:32

is standing together overhead.

11:36

The weather was changing, you know, you could hear

11:39

the roar of the wind up higher on the summit

11:41

coming across the summit above us. And

11:44

as we came up just below the summit

11:46

of Little Peak, we stuck our nose

11:49

over the top. And that's when we realised

11:51

that that storm that was supposed to

11:53

be another 12 hours away

11:55

was actually right on top of us right

11:58

then.

12:04

In a matter of minutes, the bright clear

12:06

morning sun has been swallowed up by

12:08

foreboding black clouds. The

12:12

atmosphere between Mark and Phil has switched

12:14

in an instant. They need to get

12:16

off the mountain

12:18

fast.

12:20

Any concept of going up the summit

12:22

ridge, the 100

12:25

metres or so to stand on the high

12:27

summit that was well and truly gone, all

12:30

we need to do is get down. We looked

12:33

down below us and there was 12

12:35

hours of technical climbing below

12:38

us. We couldn't go back down the

12:40

way that we'd come. Thick

12:43

snow is now swirling about them. They

12:45

can barely see two inches beyond their own noses. In

12:49

desperate need of an alternative route down, they

12:51

quickly conjure up a plan. That

12:54

was to try and go down the summit ridge for

12:56

about a few hundred metres

12:59

to a place called Porta Col, just

13:01

the way we pass in between the middle peak

13:03

and the low peak. We knew a couple

13:05

of ebsails from there down onto

13:08

a big ice shelf below it and

13:10

we'd be fine.

13:16

The two men inched their way along

13:18

the ridge.

13:22

Oh, what a shock. It's

13:25

not just the force of the wind but it's

13:27

the cold, it's the wind chill. It

13:29

goes all the way down to what's

13:31

probably minus 20, minus 30 at

13:34

least, if not colder, perhaps even

13:36

minus 50. Then

13:38

you really just have to focus. You

13:40

have to try and bring all of your focus onto

13:43

each individual movement that you make.

13:46

You're trying to work against something that's like

13:48

a living evil force.

13:56

foot

14:00

wide strip of ice and rock with

14:02

sheer 3,000 meter drops on

14:05

either side. Being

14:08

blown off the mountain is not the only

14:10

danger now.

14:13

The wind was not just battering

14:15

us about but it was

14:17

bringing on hypothermia very, very rapidly

14:20

and once you get hypothermia, once your body

14:22

starts to chill down, your brain

14:24

starts to chill and that's when you start making

14:27

bad decisions. Now one of

14:29

the biggest reasons to climb with someone

14:31

on a mountain is so you can share your

14:34

brain, so you can have more than one

14:36

brain working on one problem at a

14:38

time.

14:40

But Mark and Phil can barely hear each other

14:42

over the raging elements. Neither

14:44

of them has ever experienced a storm as severe

14:47

as this.

14:48

If you ever want to understand it, go and stand

14:50

close to a railway track where

14:53

a huge freight train is roaring by.

14:56

Just that incredible feeling of

14:59

reverberating through your body,

15:02

just the power of the wind you can

15:04

feel it.

15:05

If they could just

15:07

find a sheltered spot then they could reassess

15:10

their options.

15:12

Finally they see something up ahead, a

15:15

dark hole in the ice. It's

15:17

the entrance to a cave.

15:20

We saw a hole just

15:22

about the size of the

15:25

seat of the chair really and

15:27

we just crawled into it so we could get

15:30

out of the window and we could just have a breath,

15:33

have a thought before we carried

15:35

on. It

15:41

was just amazing the difference. As soon as we

15:44

stuck our head into this little ice cave,

15:47

this little crevasse,

15:49

it was just like somebody had turned a tap

15:51

off,

15:52

somebody had turned a screaming wind

15:54

off and we could actually breathe.

15:57

Then we could start to understand. Do

16:00

we carry on or do we stay here?

16:05

There's no way they're descending the mountain in this

16:07

weather. They're gonna have to spend the night here

16:09

and wait for the storm to pass. Mark

16:13

twists around and inspects the cave. It

16:16

isn't much of a refuge, just a tiny

16:19

jagged hollow carved into the ice, barely

16:21

five feet across and four feet high, just

16:24

about big enough for both men to huddle inside.

16:28

The prospect of being stuck here longer than a day

16:30

or two, it doesn't bear thinking

16:33

about. But anyway, Mark

16:35

doubts it will come to that.

16:37

Conditions are bound to improve soon.

16:41

All through the night, sleep is impossible.

16:44

All they can do is try to conserve energy that

16:47

will need all their strength in the morning. The

16:50

weather's gonna change, you know, it's New Zealand. You

16:52

know, wait 30 minutes, the weather will change. Wait

16:55

a few hours, the weather will change. Yeah,

16:57

and in this case, it did. It got worse.

17:03

Dawn breaks over the southern

17:06

Alps, but the blizzard hasn't

17:08

abated.

17:09

It's intensified.

17:12

The entire mountain range has been consumed

17:15

and Mark and Phil are still trapped

17:18

right in the middle of it. Inside

17:21

the cave still, Mark and Phil

17:23

set up a belay. Ordinarily,

17:26

this is the most basic of climbing routines,

17:29

but their fingers are stiff and numb inside

17:31

their gloves. Feeding rope through

17:34

a carabiner feels like trying to thread a needle. But

17:37

eventually, the belay is ready. Phil

17:41

volunteers to go first. Mark

17:44

watches with bated breath as his

17:46

partner shuffles out of the cave and disappears

17:49

into the blizzard. If Phil

17:51

can reach a sheltered spot further down the mountain,

17:54

he can rig up another belay for Mark

17:56

to follow him. He

18:00

feels the rope tighten in his hands. He

18:03

spots Phil's red helmet looming through

18:05

the snow.

18:06

He's coming back.

18:09

Phil collapses to the ground inside the cave,

18:11

shivering violently. He's

18:14

only made it a few feet.

18:17

Now it's an orchestra to try. He

18:20

backs out of the cave and eases

18:22

himself down the roof. Ice

18:25

crystals, whipped up by the ghosts,

18:27

lacerate his clothes like shards

18:29

of glass. He strains

18:31

every sinew, just to resist being ripped

18:33

from the mountain. Phil was

18:36

right. To carry on climbing in these conditions

18:38

will be suicide. He grits

18:40

his teeth and crawls back to the cave.

18:44

If you got too far away from

18:46

that little arcade, you got exposed

18:49

out there on that face, right

18:52

in the teeth of the wind, that you'd

18:55

die. There's no question.

18:59

But then, Mark has an idea.

19:03

He plants one of his ice picks at the mouth of

19:05

the cave. Then he unbuckles

19:07

his helmet and tethers it to the pick. It's

19:11

a bright orange beacon against the

19:13

white sheets of snow and ice.

19:15

At

19:16

some point, surely, their colleagues in

19:19

the search and rescue team will start scouring

19:21

the mountain for them. He only

19:23

hopes that his makeshift signal

19:25

can withstand the blizzard. The

19:31

climbers have arrived at an ominous catch-22.

19:35

If they leave the cave in this weather, they

19:37

will die. But the longer they

19:39

stay here, the worse their physical condition

19:41

will become. Mark

19:44

now turns his attention to their provisions, and

19:46

a horrible realization hits him. If

19:49

the cold doesn't get them, dehydration

19:52

and starvation surely will.

19:56

You know, we'd eaten virtually all of our

19:58

food. We had... A

20:00

wee sash of drink concentrate left,

20:03

drink powder. We had a few biscuits.

20:06

We had I think a small tin of

20:08

peaches as well. And that was

20:10

pretty much our food. And

20:13

so it was about, well, let's actually

20:15

just start to ration this because we don't

20:17

know how long we're going to be

20:19

here.

20:21

They also have no fire, no stove,

20:24

which means no way to make water either. Despite

20:27

being surrounded by tons of snow and

20:30

ice, eating it will only

20:32

make things worse.

20:33

You can't eat the ice. You can't eat

20:36

the snow because that chills

20:38

you down from the inside out. And

20:40

so you're getting dehydrated at the

20:42

same time. At high

20:44

altitudes, like in at even

20:46

three and a half thousand meters, every time

20:48

you breathe out, you breathe

20:51

out fluid. You breathe out

20:53

moisture from your body and you're not

20:55

putting that back in. And so

20:57

dehydration was happening.

21:05

The hours pass.

21:07

Mark sits hunched, trying

21:09

to ignore his rumbling stomach and parched

21:11

tongue. He

21:14

becomes aware of a dull tingling

21:16

in his feet. He knew this would happen.

21:19

The cold is beginning to affect their extremities.

21:24

We just had those clothes

21:26

that we were in. And so that also

21:28

meant that we didn't have any way to really

21:31

warm up our feet. Those 12

21:33

hours of technical hard climbing meant

21:36

that my socks had got wet inside these plastic

21:38

boots. And so I tried to dry

21:40

them out as best as I could, but the

21:43

line is just like on a ski boot, the

21:45

line has got wet as well. And

21:47

so the feet were getting really, really cold.

21:50

And so by the after two days, you know, you

21:52

could tell that we were starting to get frostbite.

21:57

Every mountain here fears it. as

22:00

blood vessels contract, a process

22:02

known as vasoconstriction.

22:06

Next,

22:07

ice crystals form in the tissue

22:09

as the body literally begins to freeze.

22:12

The affected area turns blue, then

22:15

black, and then...

22:19

Mark knows that if they survive this ordeal,

22:21

he will lose a couple of toes at the very least.

22:26

The thing you need to understand is that we're

22:29

sitting there as two search

22:31

and rescue mountaineers, and the

22:33

thing that we had was we

22:35

had almost an encyclopedia of knowledge

22:38

on how to survive. You know, I

22:40

was a paramedic, I'd studied frostbite,

22:43

you know, I could see frostbite happening on my

22:45

own feet. It was the understanding

22:47

that you can keep your hands warm, but,

22:50

you know, without opening up your clothes

22:52

and losing the heat out of your body and

22:54

risking hypothermia, then,

22:57

well, you can't keep your feet

22:59

warm. And so a really conscious

23:02

decision early on was

23:04

that we need to stay alive, so

23:06

therefore we need to actually,

23:09

in effect, sacrifice our

23:11

feet.

23:18

Hi again, listeners. If you're enjoying this taster

23:20

episode, find real survival stories

23:22

in your podcast app of choice and hit follow.

23:26

Darkness

23:29

falls on day two on the mountain. Morning

23:35

comes and still no let up

23:38

in the weather. The

23:40

two men are soon arguing over whether to make another

23:43

attempt to climb down.

23:45

Phil was pretty keen on getting out and

23:47

trying to try and get out, but

23:50

he was a lot stronger than me, he was a lot bigger than me. As

23:53

I had this complete faith in my search and rescue

23:55

team, a team that I'd worked with for

23:58

many years prior, And

24:00

so I had the complete faith

24:02

that the one thing we shouldn't do is

24:04

go wandering out in the wind, either

24:07

get lost or get blown off. We

24:09

should wait where we were because

24:11

as soon as the weather cleared, they

24:14

would know where to come and get us.

24:17

Mark's arguments went out. They

24:19

dig in and huddle together. A

24:25

third day bleeds into the fourth and

24:28

the weather still doesn't clear. By

24:32

day five, a demer has set

24:34

in, an excruciating swelling

24:36

of their feet and ankles, where the frozen

24:38

blood has become trapped. They're

24:41

passing the point of no return.

24:44

By that day five, we

24:46

were in real trouble. By day

24:48

five, our whole forefoot had

24:50

started to freeze. The edema

24:52

meant that technically we wouldn't

24:55

be able to climb out. And so there was no

24:57

more arguing about should we get out or not. It

25:00

was we were stuck here.

25:06

Day five becomes day six.

25:09

Severe hypothermia is slowing their thinking

25:12

now. Any hope of salvation

25:14

is fading

25:14

fast. And,

25:19

feeling on the evening of

25:21

the seventh day, Mark notices

25:23

a change in the weather. The

25:27

wind suddenly drops. It's

25:30

still gusting, but it's definitely slackened

25:32

off.

25:34

Then they hear a different sound. The

25:37

unmistakable whir

25:38

of the helicopter propellers.

25:42

Phil scurries up to the mouth of the cave

25:44

and squints into the blizzard. Even

25:47

in the fading daylight, Mark can see the smile

25:50

break out across his friend's weather-beaten

25:52

face. They've

25:54

been found.

25:59

cleared just enough for a helicopter

26:02

to take off. There was no hope

26:04

of it hovering because the wind was still howling

26:07

by. But by

26:09

being able to fly past it, they were

26:11

able to see and see his Phil's face

26:14

at the mouth of that dead ice cave.

26:18

In this weather,

26:19

there's no chance of a rescue tonight. The

26:22

helicopter is forced to keep moving,

26:24

but they don't intend to let Mark and Phil

26:27

go on suffering.

26:30

Somebody holds a bag down from the chopper's open

26:32

door,

26:33

but it catches in the wind and

26:35

sails past the mouth of the cave. The

26:38

stranded climbers watch on helpless

26:41

as the supply drop tumbles out of view beyond

26:44

the ridge.

26:47

The helicopter buzzes off, then wheels

26:49

back around to re-attempt the drop. This

26:52

time, Phil manages to reach out and

26:55

grabs hold of the bag.

27:01

Back inside the cave, with trembling

27:04

hands, Mark and Phil pull out

27:06

a gas cooker and food rations, tins

27:09

of Irish stew, energy drinks and chocolate.

27:12

There are also two sleeping bags and additional

27:14

clothing and two radios.

27:19

Mark tugs off his frozen gloves.

27:23

He slowly turns the dial.

27:26

Gradually,

27:27

human voices cut through the static.

27:31

A faint,

27:31

distant crackle of the

27:33

symphony of hope.

27:36

I was able to turn it on and

27:38

have that first communication, and

27:41

that was truly amazing. There'd

27:43

been six and a half days alone in

27:45

this ice cave, trying

27:48

to keep the faith, trying to keep the faith

27:50

that the weather would change, we

27:52

would be rescued. That

27:54

was our first contact, and

27:57

that's enough to bring tears to your

27:59

eyes.

28:02

On the radios, Mark and Phil inform the rescue

28:05

team that they've settled into Middle

28:07

Peak Hotel.

28:09

That's why they're calling the Ice Cave. They've

28:11

just about retained their sense of humour.

28:15

But this connection to the outside world

28:17

brings a whole new dimension to this experience.

28:22

One of the toughest things that they did was

28:24

they put Anne on the radio, my wife. You

28:28

might think it's a great thing, but

28:30

in actual fact it was probably the toughest

28:32

time that I had that whole time in

28:34

the Ice Cave. You went from focusing

28:37

on just surviving, you

28:40

went to understanding that your

28:42

actions are implicating on not

28:45

just yourself but your family

28:47

and everyone else at the bottom.

28:50

It was the reminder that people were putting their

28:52

lives in danger to try and get to

28:54

us. It was really, really

28:57

difficult.

28:59

But the let up in the weather

29:02

has reassured Mark and Phil that

29:04

their nightmare is finally nearing its

29:06

end.

29:08

We all just assumed that this

29:10

is how we wind it up. We'll be out

29:12

tomorrow. The

29:15

wind was too strong to be able to rescue us that

29:17

evening and the weather was closing in

29:19

again. So it was, hey,

29:21

we'll rescue you tomorrow. Just

29:23

be ready. It's

29:32

just after sunrise on November 23rd, 1982. Day

29:38

eight in the Ice Cave. The

29:41

blizzard has returned with a vengeance. Yesterday's

29:45

improved weather was only a fleeting

29:48

respite. As the winds

29:50

rise and the snowfall gets heavier,

29:52

it's clear they're back to square one.

29:57

Day eight turns into day nine.

30:00

they nine to date and

30:02

still no let up they

30:05

barely able to speak

30:07

is a tortuous their

30:10

minds as much as their bodies

30:12

as find a way to endure the isolation

30:16

you're always just looking forward yeah

30:18

concentrating on civilizing it

30:21

concentrating on that you will get

30:23

rescued but when you don't

30:25

get me stews when you get contact

30:28

with the bottom then it

30:30

is so as not you've given away a

30:32

bit of the responsibility of your life

30:34

to someone else and

30:37

it knows on you but it also

30:39

gives you a feeling that you

30:42

you don't to be rescued the next day it gives

30:44

you an anticipation that

30:46

doesn't get so so and

30:48

they can we you down really

30:51

cook of those

30:53

additional food supplies are almost gone

30:56

sleeping on solid i was given market system

30:58

sucks his kidneys are failing

31:01

to the lack of blood circulation and

31:03

was beginning to lose his grip on reality

31:07

they turn molson today eleven

31:10

and twelve

31:13

the toys and so had yell and scream

31:15

at made up and i just said lie

31:17

stole just stay stone was

31:20

having delirium not me as

31:22

that's all i had to do was to walk outside

31:25

and and might be a safe and woke

31:27

up along snowy straight and

31:29

at the top of that would say a

31:32

nice warm place a bathing

31:34

suit too risky time a day my same

31:36

way we were getting

31:38

closer and closer to not

31:40

civilizing this our brains to

31:42

stop wishing well enough to understand

31:45

that their bodies were and

31:47

are really starting to shut down

31:52

at evening

31:53

with two men sit in silence

31:59

one of the radius

31:59

crackles into life. Across

32:03

the radio that night it was prepare

32:05

yourself the weather is supposed

32:07

to clear in the morning you know be prepared

32:12

and so we were you know we had our

32:14

climbing harnesses on still we were

32:16

rugged up we were ready to go although

32:19

I really couldn't do a thing I was had

32:21

a chest infection I was

32:24

was really quite ill and so I

32:26

was basically just lying there Phil

32:28

was was a lot more copious and

32:30

mentist than I was so he was he

32:33

was ready he was ready for when

32:35

daylight came

32:39

when morning arrives the storm has lost

32:42

some of its intensity

32:44

shortly after daybreak the pilot calls

32:46

over the radio I'm sure enough 30 minutes

32:49

later the cave is filled by

32:51

the whooshing echo of helicopter rotus

32:54

it's now or never

32:56

daylight came we could hear the buzz

32:59

of the squirrel and we knew it was

33:01

Ron flying in with the squirrel

33:04

we knew that hanging underneath that would be Don

33:07

Donbogey Don was the other leader

33:09

of the search and rescue teams the most experienced

33:11

search and rescue climber in New Zealand we

33:14

knew that he'd be there and

33:16

then just minutes

33:19

seconds later the light

33:21

in the little ice cave blocked out

33:24

and it was Don's head coming through you know

33:26

he's got a beard and he looked just like

33:29

Santa it was just like Christmas

33:32

Don throws down a stretcher and

33:35

Phil helps Mark get strapped into a bowman

33:38

bag marks

33:41

only vaguely aware of what's happening around him as

33:43

he's winched up through the air to the circling

33:46

bird experiencing it all through

33:48

snapshot images and sensations Don's

33:53

bearded face

33:55

the rotating propellers the raw

33:59

the engine.

34:02

His senses are overloaded. But

34:04

after so long trapped in the ice cave, it's

34:07

heavenly.

34:11

The smell of the inside of a helicopter,

34:13

of the kerosene burning and the turbine

34:16

of the machine oil

34:18

of the climbers was just the most ... that

34:23

was the most magical smell that you

34:25

can think of.

34:36

Some hours later, Marx

34:39

is blinking, squinting up at the

34:41

rows of blinding hospital ceiling lights as

34:44

his stretcher is wheeled through the wards. Only

34:48

now, back down in the world,

34:50

will Marx and Phil start to learn the full

34:53

extent of the efforts to rescue them

34:55

and the press interest that their story has generated.

34:57

Stuck

35:02

in Middle Peak Hotel, they

35:04

had no idea that Don Bovge and his team had

35:06

started sending up reconnaissance flights from the

35:08

very first moment the weather allowed. Trusting

35:11

that Marx and Phil were still alive, they'd

35:14

scoured the mountain, steadily narrowing

35:16

down the list of possible hideouts.

35:19

Early on, a helicopter

35:21

had barely avoided crashing headlong into the mountain

35:23

ridge. Finally,

35:26

they'd located the survivors on Middle Peak. That's

35:28

when they dropped the supplies. And

35:31

then, the closest shave

35:33

yet, another would-be

35:35

rescue chopper actually did crash,

35:38

straight into the Upper Empress shelf, two

35:40

hours' climb beneath Middle Peak Hotel.

35:44

Upended in the ice, propellers bent out

35:46

of shape. It's utterly remarkable

35:48

that no one was injured in the accident, let

35:50

alone killed.

35:52

Not only that, to top

35:54

it all, it was just the very next day

35:56

that the rescue mission had reached its successful

35:59

conclusion.

36:03

In the coming weeks, Mark and Phil

36:06

will take in this barely believable

36:08

tale, one almost as extraordinary

36:10

as their own. But

36:13

for now, as he's hurried through the hospital,

36:16

Mark has more pressing

36:17

concerns.

36:19

He's half listening to the muffled voices of the doctors,

36:22

catching snippets of conversation about

36:24

the severity of his frostbite and

36:27

the likelihood of amputation. Mark

36:31

closes his eyes and blocks out the

36:33

white noise.

36:36

But then a familiar voice cuts through the

36:38

background blur. He opens

36:40

his eyes again and sees the face of

36:42

his wife, Anne, who smothers

36:45

him in a tearful embrace.

36:47

And from that initial relief, then

36:50

becomes all the other bits and pieces. The

36:54

regret, the worry that you'd put

36:56

everyone to so much trouble. The

36:59

concern of your own incompetence is

37:01

stuffing up because that's what happened,

37:03

you know? As much as we can say that

37:06

it was the longest spell of

37:08

bad weather in recorded history at the time

37:10

at Mount Cook, that doesn't

37:12

cut the mustard when you're a search and rescue

37:14

mountaineer, you have that old

37:16

guilt over you as well.

37:22

Despite the doctors' best efforts,

37:24

Mark's feet are never going to recover from the frostbite.

37:27

They're beginning to turn gangrenous.

37:30

The news is broken to him, but they need to

37:32

amputate not just his feet, but

37:34

most of each leg just below the knee. Phil

37:38

is facing a similar prognosis. Mark's

37:42

operation is duly scheduled for

37:44

Christmas Eve.

37:59

All I could think was

38:02

just cut the bloody things off. You

38:04

know, let me out of here. The only

38:06

problem is that you wake up on

38:09

Christmas Day, you ain't

38:11

going to grow leaves back. That's

38:14

the first thing that hits you in the mind. Even

38:17

before you have them cut off, you just

38:19

can't understand the feeling

38:22

of lying in that bed knowing

38:25

that you can't grow them back.

38:28

The next days and weeks are a

38:30

desperately dark time.

38:33

During this period, as well as his family, Mark

38:35

is comforted by some of those who know him best, his

38:38

fellow climbers.

38:41

And you know, Mountaineers are hard buggers, you

38:43

know. They're not there to give you sympathy.

38:46

They're there to smuggle some whisky into your

38:48

hospital. They're there to smuggle

38:51

you out of hospital and take you on a drive

38:53

around the city on New

38:56

Year's Day and stopping

38:59

at a bar while you're still

39:01

tied to a wheelchair.

39:03

People that will

39:04

give you no quarter, they

39:07

don't give you sympathy. They give

39:09

you a reason to pick your arse up and

39:11

get on with life and that's really

39:14

what you really need to do.

39:19

Needless to say, his chances of ever climbing

39:21

again are pretty much non-existent.

39:24

Or so you'd assume.

39:27

He works hard to adapt to his new condition

39:30

and slowly but surely

39:32

discovers a new lease of lease. Remarkably,

39:36

in the coming years, despite double amputations,

39:39

both Mark and Phil will make

39:41

triumphant returns to Mountaineering. And

39:46

Mark will make history with the 2000

39:48

Paralympic Games in Sydney when

39:51

he wins a silver medal in cycling.

39:55

He doesn't stop there.

39:58

that I've

40:01

really come to learn is that whenever you

40:03

achieve something it's like standing on a podium.

40:07

It's like standing on the height of a mountain and you

40:09

can just see so much more. You know and that's

40:11

what getting my silver medal New Zealand's

40:13

first ever medal in cycling at the

40:15

Paralympics was in 2000. You know and as

40:18

soon as that medal went around my neck I thought I've

40:20

got to go climb now, cock again. You

40:23

know and I tried a few times and Phil

40:25

had done some climbing as well but it was

40:27

like let's go and do this and

40:29

and that's what I did and then after

40:32

it you know it took me two attempts but standing on the

40:34

summit of Aoraki Mount Cock again you know

40:36

I thought if I can do that then I really can

40:39

do Everest.

40:41

In 2006 its

40:43

mission complete.

40:45

Mark Inglis becomes the first double

40:48

amputee to summit the Earth's

40:50

highest peak. 24 years

40:53

after his terrifying ordeal on Aoraki

40:56

Mount Cook he

40:58

stands on top of the

41:00

world.

41:13

In the next episode

41:14

we meet Julie and Greg Welch, a

41:17

couple from Michigan whose serene kayaking

41:19

trip is thrown into chaos by

41:21

a devastating wildfire. Given

41:24

assurances that everything is under control, Greg

41:27

and Julie are oblivious as they paddle

41:29

deep into nature far away

41:31

from civilization. Suddenly

41:34

they'll find themselves surrounded by a 20-foot

41:37

wall of flames.

41:39

Encircled by the towering inferno with

41:42

smoke filling the air they will need a miracle

41:44

to make it out alive.

41:47

That's next time on Real

41:49

Survival Stories.

41:56

Thanks for listening.

41:57

If you enjoyed this episode then simply search

41:59

Real stories in your podcast app and

42:01

hit follow for new episodes

42:03

every Thursday.