Sources, notes etc are available here: bit.ly/3soD84D (links to a public Patreon post). Any mistakes, edits, corrections will be posted on this pinned comment. Thank you so much for all of your feedback, it means the world :') Corrections: 14:40 Austrian TV, not German
Just a quick note: the cylinders we use to dive contain air (21% Oxygen) or other gaz mixes, not 100% oxygen. It would be better to say " air cylinder". Thanks for the great video!
@@stephenpmurphy591I literally just got to the part of the video where she said that! I can't believe this is the second time this happened! That's why I was so confused I was just coming down here to edit my comment thank you for explaining LMAO
Cavediving sounds like such a nightmare to me. It combines all my biggest fears (claustrophobia, drowning/suffocating, getting stuck, getting disoriented, creepy sea life, darkness, and so on)
I don’t want to be underground by choice while I’m alive! It’s strange how people have their own fears. Like maybe one of these spelunker people might be absolutely horrified by speaking in front of a crowd or getting a shot or flying. We have our strengths and we have our weaknesses…
It really surprises me the BASE jumping is more dangerous than cave diving. What can go wrong in BASE jumping? Parachute malfunction, or hitting the object from which you jumped. What can go wrong with cave diving? Pretty much anything and everything. You can take the best cave diver in the world and send them down with perfectly functioning equipment and still, they make one tiny mistake and the end.
If you find yourself lost in the woods: 1. Stop as soon as you realize. 2. If you have anything colorful or that stands out, mark the spot you are at. Wrap a piece of clothing around a tree. Lay your tent out, whatever. That is your center marker now. 3. Choose a tree (Make sure you can see the base of the tree clearly!) straight in one direction and while walking to it, constantly turn around to make sure you can see your base camp. 4. If you did not see the trail or anything that resembles civilization. Mark the tree with something that visually stands out and go back to base camp. From there choose another direction and tree to walk to, always looking at base camp. Repeat this process for all 4 directions from your center marker 5. If all 4 directions turn up in nothing, go out to any of the previously marked trees, and now choose another tree further out in the same direction. Always keeping sight on the previous tree. Do this in all 4 directions. Keep repeating this process until the distances are simply too large or you run out of items to mark the trees with. ONLY choose trees that you can clearly see the base of, as it means you will be able to see the tree you are currently at from it. And only walk in directions you know you can return from, avoid steep slopes, rivers, marshy or swampy land etc..
@@daytradersanonymous9955Not a fan of telling people to shut up but you do realize that writing nothing would have been more productive than this right?
One time I was hiking in the rainforests of Vancouver Island, and started following some neon trail marker ribbons... Except as I went deeper the trail started becoming really bizarre, going under collapsed giant trees and through muddy quagmires. Eventually, every direction I looked had a trail ribbon. I felt like I had lost my mind, and felt panic creeping up because the sun would soon set. I started scrambling back the way I came, horrified at not only being lost, but spending the night in the rainforest alone. It was then that I realized the ribbons had faded writing on them that faintly read "search and rescue." The entire time I hadn't been following trail markers for my route, and instead was retracing an old search and rescue effort for someone else who had gone off trail. The irony of how I had become lost was almost as ridiculous as how I was saved. Two stoned barefoot men ran into me when they heard me screaming and helped me find the trail again. I was left with an enduring gratitude for hippies, and intense fear of dense forests. They are almost liminal and claustrophobic.
As someone who lives in the deep woods of northern Minnesota, there is nothing scarier than realizing you have no idea where you are. Due to the lack of snow this winter, I got lost in my woods because I couldn't recognize it without the snow. I stopped immediately, pulled out my compass, and said a prayer. Thankfully I found a nearby dirt road and made my way back but it's a good reminder to ALWAYS have your compass and know HOW to use it when in the woods.
What do you mean by lack of snow? (it doesn't snow in my country) i mean wouldn't it be easier if there wasn't snow?? Snow literally covers everything...?!
@jannatunnaim5139 it's best not to go hiking in a blizzard. But for the 99% of times you do go hiking in the snow and it's not snowing so hard you lose your trail then, yeah.
@@randysavage1we're talking about post-war Europe. This isn't a question of instinct, but of mentality. Loyalty, camaraderie, and obedience to a certain extent were valued virtues, as well as perseverance. Those boys probably had a very strict upbringing, while also spending much time outside without parental control. My guess is that they didn't seriously question their teacher for a long part of the hike, didn't want to act against the group, and perhaps had already been in enough uncomfortable situations in their lives that they thought they would be able to simply stick it out.
I’m so glad you mentioned Keast, because I did like 5 takes when the video opened like “This…wait didn’t we already do stubborn German teacher foolishly leads boys up a mountain to their deaths?” The fact that this happened more than once is incredible.
If I had a nickel for every time a stubborn German teacher foolishly led boys up a mountain to their deaths I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
I was thinking the same thing. I even accidently quoted the video before the narrator did about how surely this wasn't happening *again*?! Such a tragedy, and one that was 100% avoidable. I feel so sad for the families of those kids, and also for the people who tried to warn him about the weather, etc.
@@mysurrealsynapse yeah, Mr Keast was a British German language teacher who led his (English) group up a mountain in Freiburg, Germany (on a school trip), and Mr Seiler was a German (and also a teacher) who led his (German) group up a mountain in Austria on a "community" trip (which was mostly the local school). I can totally see how it would be confusing! Bernd (the gentleman who originally wrote the book about the "English calamity") suggested it. Those photos just... I don't know. They upset me. And I wanted to cover it because the narrative has been a bit disjointed. There was a very 'old school' approach to it ("just let it go, no point making accusations") until quite recently when the kids and other adults who were there came forward with a little more nuance.
In the southern U.S., "Why, bless your heart" means, "Go f*ck yourself." Once I was in a court room a judge had just given a sentence to a thug who told the judge, as he was lead out in cuffs, "Have a BLESSed day, your Honor!" Without looking up, the judge said, "Same to you." @@BeanFace-oj2en
Expressive aphasia is a common stroke complication where the patient can understand language (spoken, written, ASL even braille) but cannot express language (cannot speak, write, point out letters, etc.). (The reverse is receptive aphasia.) A harsh reality is that most people die without other ppl in the room. Since strokes and expressive aphasia are common, that curse "May you die silent and alone" comes to pass frequently. In fact, I suspect the situation I just described is likely its origin.
@@felixfelix8940 I found out last year that apparently, when people "die peacefully in their sleep", this is actually a myth, it's a kind lie to make loved ones of the deceased feel better. Because what actually happens most of the time is that the dying person wakes up, knows they're dying, and dies terrified and alone because everyone else is also asleep. They are too weak to call for help, they know they're dying and just don't have the strength to do anything about it. To actually die peacefully in your sleep is a lot rarer than we're told. But it's truly a blessing, for that to happen. It's much kinder, than dying alone and afraid. But you don't get to choose how you're born or how you die. I'm just hoping that some of them manage to find some sort of peace right before they go, so the terror doesn't last too long, and they just realise that their time is up and they've had a good innings and it's time for them to go, and so they accept it.
@n18OK, let me debunk all of that. To start, I'm a board-certified internist. I've seen so many ppl die when I crunched the numbers it was ridiculous. It's not that ppl die "in their sleep," they die while unconscious, which is peaceful, and lives right next door to "in their sleep." Ppl don't whisper final words when they die, because they're DYING. People don't wake up while dying b/c they are DYING. You said it yourself, "they are too weak," but dying ppl are too weak to wake up in the first place. Exceptions are that the pain of a heart attack or a sub-arachnoid intracranial hemorrhage will wake that person. The arrythmias or paralysis that comes with these things will render you incapable of calling for help. Terrifying, yes, but in these instances the drastic changes in blood flow to the brain from low cardiac output or brain swelling renders them incapable of basic thinking. It's a quick death. We soften things for family members but we do not lie. Heart disease kills most Americans and cancer comes next. Most old folks have weak hearts and abnormal rhythms and at some point, poof, that's enough to shut you off in your sleep. Cancer death is often from it spreading to vital organs, so we are back at comas, unconsciousness, etc. I f you read your source from the web, remember that Lincoln said believe half of what you read and none of what you hear. An example is "What your doctor doesn't want you to know about [xyz]." There is nothing your doctor doesn't want you to know. Other click bait is "medical myth" and my favorite, "Scientists stunned by..." The cold hard truth is that except for hospice, death is almost always ugly or painful, and most ppl die alone. That's why we hide it behind curtains, closed doors, and hospices. American's delicate psyches and TV/movie stereotypes make for a gross misunderstanding of some thing exactly as natural and common as birth itself. Old age and terminal illness both usually bring that acceptance you mention, not at the last minute, but much much earlier. That's why I think dying ppl go into that in-and-out state towards the end, they're pre-shutting off. Ppl who survive failed parachute or failed suicide by jumping sometimes report separating from their body before impact, which I think is a similar mechanism to the in-and-out state of those near death. But many of can choose a peaceful death: death with dignity. It's MUCH better than those last three month of a cancer death. You do it while your mind is sharp, surrounded by your peeps, in a nice room with a beautiful view, drink a glass of OJ and slip away. They spread your ashes the next day. Screw the funeral industry driven by profits that preys on grief.
Yes that’s about as bad of a way to go as I can imagine. The only worse thing I’ve heard is the story of this man in the late 19th or early 20th century who got stuck in Sand Cave (near mammoth cave) and multiple other caves opened for paid tours in Kentucky USA. So he was hoping this cave on his property could be worth exploring in the hopes of finding big caverns or other interesting things that would attract tourists. He was crawling along on his stomach in a position where he was facing head down when a rock broke off the wall causing his leg to both brake and get stuck. He had the luck [it seemed at the time] of his brother noticing he was missing early on and finding him. Then more false hope as a rescue effort began slowly at first with his brother trying to get him unstuck and eventually a huge rescue, media, and public effort was underway. Then a cave in blocked off the cavern he was located in leaving him alone, stuck upside down, and in complete darkness. That didn’t stop the rescue it just redirected it. They eventually dug down from the surface to find him dead from starvation and removed his remains only for him and his casket to be returned to the cave as part of a tourist attraction. He was exploring the cave to begin with in the hopes of making it a tourist attraction anyway so 🤷♂️. Upside down, with a broken and stuck leg, in complete darkness, starving to death..after you thought they were going to be able to get you out sounds like my worst nightmare. I like going in caves but never in a situation where I had to crawl and squeeze my way through and absolutely 1000000% nope.. no.. not a chance in hell would I ever go cave diving.
@@ben-jam-in6941 I saw that story, as well. How sad. Just like the Colorado teenager who left his home one day to go for a walk, never to return and it wasn't until 7 years later when a neighboring cabin owner, demolishing his cabin, discovered the teenagers' skeletal remains, stuck in the cabin's chimney. (Just a mile from his home). Who knows for how long he suffered, all alone. May all these poor souls, RIP.
@@isabellind1292 Ya that was a horrific story as well especially since he was just a teen with his entire life ahead of him. I agree may they all rest in peace and may fewer people make bad decisions and get into those situations. (I say fewer rather than none because I know bad stuff like that’s always gonna happen).
@@isabellind1292I remember that story too. Like lil bro u ain't Santa my man wth u climbing in a chimney for? Reminds me of those divers that got sucked into that pipe in the Carribean last year I think it was. Stuck in an enclosed space w no clue of what's what and no hope. Damn😔
Pieters last dive is so viscerally terrifying I cannot explain it. I’ve seen a lot of cave diving videos, as well as accidents. All terrifying in their own right. But the fact he did manage to find an air pocket.. and he survived for 3 WEEKS in pitch black darkness.. I can’t explain the sense of dread i feel.
Legit absolutely terrifying. I hate the dark as a 44-year-old man. I couldn't imagine living in it for 3 weeks and slowly losing my mind and hallucinating without seeing anything and every sound would be a monster or something coming to get me. I'm sure if you had a handgun he would have ended it a lot sooner. I'll do respect to him. That's arguably one of the worst fates.
That was horrible, it’s awful but I almost think it would’ve been better for him to drown, as awful as that is he wouldn’t have been in the dark for so long by himself
I feel as though I would have rather suffocated trying to get out especially with the last remaining light than slowly go mad over the course of 3 weeks of starvation and pitch black
@@InsidiousTop500The fight or flight mode kicked in and he chose to flight and surrender to his predicament, the longer he stayed the less he would have been able to fight it , utter terrifying horror of knowing after a few days that no1 is coming for you and you are on your own in the dark cold wet cave.😢
The second story is beyond tragic. Imagine surviving for that long and choosing to put your trust in the rescuers and wait, only for no one to find you. It's stories like these that make me wonder what will happen if I ever get lost and follow the well-known piece of advice "if you ever get lost stay put, help is on the way". I can't even imagine what it must have felt like to be in the pitch black without proper food and water or any way to tell time.
I feel very angry towards the authorities. If they let his mates in to help look for Peter, they would've found him (since they did find him quickly once the cave was reopened). I also don't like how they abandoned efforts with the excuse that "Peter drowned" when his mates knew the cave better and told them it was possible for Peter to be in an air pocket.
Hearing the part about Nuno experiencing something similar later in his life (losing the guideline and being lucky enough to find his way back to it) made me wonder what he was thinking before choosing a direction to go back into the water. I can only imagine he must have been reliving how Pieter must have felt, and wondering if he would meet a similar fate. I bet any reluctance he had toward going back in vs staying to wait for rescue was minimal after what happened to his friend.
I became lost in the woods with my mother as a child. One moment we were on a trail, and the next, we weren't. I still remember the tall, blue flowers that covered the forest floor where the trail should have been behind us. An undetermined amount of time later (still the same day, thank God) we found a highway and walked alongside it until we got back to the parking lot where we started. At that time my mother would have been 25yo at most, yet she carried me on her back for an unknown distance. Listening to stories like this make me feel lucky that we made it home that day.
While this sounds like an act we think most parents would do, this act by your mother is still one of the greatest things a human being could ever hope to do…care for their child even in cases where death is looming.
I also got lost once with my grandma when I was little, there was a fork in the trail it was a 50/50 shot and we took the wrong way. We didn't know we took the wrong trail because it was our first time taking that route and ended up walking for around 12 miles before we found a place where there was service, and we were picked up by a ranger. I remember not being scared because of how calm my grandma was, she just recently got diagnosed with dementia and i miss hiking on trails with her.
that's what it is, luck. you step off the trail, release the guideline, whatever, for a second then... it's gone. i've been lucky to find my bearings again and make it home, late after terrifying my paranoid parents. but there's the issue, how many times until i don't find my way again? how many times until i'm a story just like these, a body in the woods, a footnote, a tragedy, and a warning. you and your mother were graced with survival, much like a golden few, but there are a countless many that haven't, and their voices call you to join them.
Gerry and Pieter's is so depressing. So close to being saved or saving themselves. So close. Sure we can say "Why didnt they do this or that?" But anxiety, panicking and fear can mess with anybody's mind. Logic is basically shoved out the window.
Especially for Gerry. She was almost 70, being elderly and alone as well as lost in unforgiving terrain but have been absolutely terrifying. I struggle to understand why her hiking partner left her knowing her age and existing deficits in her survival knowledge. Like was their no one to step in to replace her? Could her family not convince her to come home and try another day? Idk, I couldn't in good conscious leave an elderly woman in a large wooded area for any amount of time all alone
@@TheZombifiedFairy what do you mean her hiking partner left her? Her family left her, this and that, why nobody stepped up and went with her? No one was responsible for her! She was an adult and she made her own reckless decision to continue hiking alone after her hiking partner had to leave for an emergency. I'm much younger and wouldn't dare even a day hike on my own. Instead of blaming everybody else for not dancing around her, she should have simply discontinued the hike. That would've been the responsible thing to do. But if she tended to get combative after she made mistakes, you can imagine her reaction to people telling her to stay home. Sounded a bit stubborn and bossy so people preferred just to give in and let her do whatever she wanted. It's sad how she died but sadly, she could've prevented this, even if she just had been better prepared.
@kokoskokso I said the hiking partner AND her family. They both could have done something to prevent this outcome. The hiking partner left her in the middle of the woods and her family enabled rather than convinced her to come home and try again at a later date. She's an adult... she's also almost 70 YEARS OLD. There is no way she should have been out there alone. Not even many fit 20-30 year olds are soloing such a hike. The hiking partner had an emergency, I'm not saying she should have ignored it, I am questioning why no one came together to get her to reschedule when the hiking partner was available again. Idk about her family, but the hiking partner has intimate knowledge of Gerry's survival skills, as exemplified by their quotes after her death. There is NOTHING in the video to suggest she was the combative type as they have nothing but good things to say about her. She's to blame, but I'm also blaming those around her because (again) she was almost 70. Don't enable her by leaving her in the woods (hiking partner) or bringing supplies every week (family) because she wants to do something dangerous. I don't believe that they were helplessly watching this go on and had no shortcomings at play. She holds ultimate blame, but those who enabled this to happen has some blame too. I don't care how we try to skirt around that by saying she's an adult.
@@TheZombifiedFairy it literally says that at 44:00. Sure, if it was my family, I'd do my best to convince them not to continue. But ultimately she made her decision. Remember she was well enough to go on a hike for several weeks.
My dad works for the national park service so i grew up basically living from park to park, the amount of people that die because they refuse to listen to workers or they overestimate their abilities is astonishing. Those “few extra miles” or a small detour can mean not making it back.
I leaned this the hard way on a trip to the grand canyon. We had an hour to hike in and back. The guide split us into 3 groups based ok our athletic ability (it was a school trip) and I demanded to be put in group three which would go 1.5 miles down the canyon and back (group two 1 mile and group one .5 miles). The guide had his doubts, but I assured him that I walked 1.5 miles to school everyday, and that I would be fine. This wasn't a lie, but I failed to account for the slope. The first mile was fine, light work even. But the last half mile the canyon was unforgiving, and became about twice as steep as it had been the first mile. By the time i got to the 1.5 mile marker, I had been going for 35 minutes, and now had only 25 to make my way back up the trail (which would be even harder because of gravity). I only made it about two thirds of the way up before I was on the verge of passing out, had thrown up from both de and over hydration. One of the football players came back down and threw my arm over his shoulder, and "carried" although perhaps dragged is a better word, back to the top of the trail and onto the bus. Needless to say, my friends and GF reprimanded me fiercely for demanding the tour guide to put me in the most advanced group (they didn't know until after the fact since they had left with group one on the .5 mile descent), and I learned a very valuable lesson about listening to people who do what they do for a living.
SMB it may benefit you to go to therapy. If multiple people are telling you not to do something like this and you dont listen. Combined with the dramatic narrative you give it makes it sound like you could benefit from therapy. Some of us need help to learn to give others benefit of the doubt that they are knowledgeable and therapy can help those of us that need that bump to trust others. I hope you never get in a situation like this again. Good luck!
@@Couscous77thank you. The dramatic wording is just something I'm prone to, I like entertaining, but the cliffnotes (I was stubborn on a school trip, I got sick from being dehydrated and then drinking way too much to fast at a trail stop, I was supported out by a football player) are all true. I normally don't argue with authority figures I just really really hated this particular tour guide (he was just an asshole in general) and I wanted to pick a fight. I've tried therapy but I find it often doesn't go anywhere and I can't really afford it anyway, but if I ever get the opportunity for a good therapist I'll prolly take it for other reasons (since I know I got some stuff going on I just push through it most days by necessity)
So many of the fatal stories are of 'highly experienced' people getting complacent, thinking they're invincible, so ignoring warnings and ending up lost /dead
Gerry's story touch me deeply. I can not even imagine the panic that was going through her mind. Poor thing, she even left a journal. In her situation, I probably would've just kept walking around crying and screaming for help. She did what was right, but too late. It broke my heart to hear what she went through, the guilt and horror she must've felt. A dream became a nightmare just so quickly. This is so so sad.
@@00st307-m It's difficult to be sympathetic for a person who willingly wandered off trail knowing full well they don't know how to read a compass, they have medical issues, they didn't bring the necessary supplies and they "have a knack for getting lost". It's not of matter of if she was going to wander off and die, just of when.
Gerry's story is so heartbreaking, but also so frustrating to me. This wonderful soul was apparently making preparations for ages to go hike her dream trail, and yet she didn't take the time to learn the absolute basics of survival (or take along a waterproof book about it), nor did she buy all of the right kind of equipment and learn to use it (like the toy compass). It's also frustratingly sad because she did lots of the correct things for getting people to notice and find her like spreading out her shiny survival blanket, and yet she still wasn't found. Her lifelong dream turned into a nightmare. My heart breaks for her and her family. Hans, on the other hand, can kindly go join Keast in Hell.
Ayep. A young woman once asked people for advice on traveling the country in only her car. I repeated some advice I was given: practice in your own driveway/parking lot first. What problems you will have will be fast discovered and you can try out fun things like peeing in a portable female urinal inside your car.
Even worse is the idea that had she carried a Satelitte phone, A PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) or even a loud whistle or other way to signal, she could have been found and survived. Basically, had she even noted which way she was stepping off the trail, she could have been found. Still a very sad case.
I've heard her story several times, it is very sad! Unfortunately though, once her friend couldn't make it, she never should have continued on alone, she wasn't 100% confident to do so, but she went anyway. Very sad.
Geraldine‘s case is so tragic. I have gotten lost once in the mountains in Slovenia, I was never in any real danger and found my way back by myself. Just dehydrated, exhausted and stressed out. But this was the most terrifying experience in my life. My advice: if you are hiking alone and have to go to the (non-existing) bathroom, don’t leave the trail so far that you can’t see it anymore. Yes, maybe someone could see you peeing- so what?! It’s not worth risking your life! And it’s soooo easy to get lost. Take care ❤
Great advice, the best one for women. I know from experience which is why I have now a device that allows me to pee standing up, without having to pull down the pants to me knees. I hope my comment is appropriate, but it is one thing I have always with me when I am out hiking.
I agree . I keep thinking of that poor man in total darkness. Hungry and afraid. I can’t imagine how it would feel to sleep and wake up every day in total darkness and realizing exactly where you’re at. When did he give up hope .
It is indeed and also the first video on this channel about the Nutty Putty cave accident. That one is also a nightmare I've been thinking about for days.
Han’s story is angering, gerry’s is heartbreaking, but for me, pieters was devastating. I can imagine being in a cold, wet cavern with nothing but your growing hunger and an oxygen tank. It’s been a few days and you have debated going back in the water, but you lost track of which tunnel you first came out. You know if you go back in you probably won’t come out. You wished you had never climbed up, you wished you had went back down as soon as you knew you went the wrong way. No one will hear the noise you make or see the light you shine. A rescuer eventually comes up into your cave. You are probably in a comatose-like state, over come with grief and regret. You didn’t see their flashlight, or hear their voice. You will have another 3 weeks to live with this torment. you are stuck in a dark, damp, world. Pieter’s story was the worst
To understand his torment and anguish, despairing alone in the pitch black starving freezing hallucinating all the time knowing salvation is only a short swim down the correct tunnel and having the means to complete the task. Until your torch dies then your mind goes and no amount of air in your tank is enough then to save you, yeah that’s a bad predicament to find one’s self in…
Those poor children were completely innocent and their lives were lost for absolutely no reason. The arrogance of Hans truly lead everyone to their deaths.
Watch the previous one. The one in the Black Forest. It's somehow worse. At least Hans paid for his hubris. The other teacher survived and lied about what happened.
Hans's poor planning was infuriating, but the way he was found is also heartbreaking. The fact that he was clearly huddling with the youngest boy and likely doing what little he could to help the kid who was probably the most vulnerable in the group does make it clear that he realized how horrible his choices were. :(
@@FRLN500 A dead body only stays warm for a very short time, even living bodies in the cold. All blood flow to the skin and extremities is shut down to keep the inner organs warm as long is possible.
I agree, he was just an arrogant man. Like… I’m smarter than anyone & can do this. People like this can cause such harm & even death like here. His arrogance finally ended! Condolences to the young boys & their families. 👵🏻👩🌾❣️
I'm an English professor by training and have rarely come across such beautiful prose in a documentary. Your writing is exceptional and your delivery is perfect - elegant and reverent, yet conversational and welcoming. Thanks so much and can't wait for more!
Could not agree with this more! I would hasten to add that this same transcendent quality level is (bewilderingly) consistent through all 6 videos released so far.
The first story is a great example of a general rule of thumb: Mother Nature may have very few consistencies, but punishing those arrogant, unprepared, and inexperienced enough to believe they could overcome her is one of them.
@@LucrativeLarryNature is predominantly referred to with feminine pronouns in many cultures. Mother Nature/Earth, Gaia, Terra, and many others are personified as female. Especially as the poster used “Mother Nature,” it’s definitely appropriate to use she/her pronouns.
@@Laura_5757 not op, just throwing in my two-cents: while I do agree she/her works and honestly just sounds better in this case, I feel like they/them is technically more accurate since Nature encompasses multiple individuals. But idk.
The last story really brought back horrors for me, like Gerry I walked off the trail to relieve myself and suddenly everything around me looked familiar and yet unknown and I had no idea what to do. Trying to retrace footsteps in thicket is impossible but with incredible luck I stumbled across the original trail some hours later...I was only 30 feet away from the trail...That Mind Monster is real!!! R.I.P. Gerry
@@SanctusBacchus Have you heard of this nifty phrase called ’there’s a time and place for everything’? Yeah, shut the fuck up. This is not the time for you to be a smartass, not a single soul is impressed by your extremely mediocre ability to detect flaws in hindsight.
It's extremely negligent to go out into a forest trail entirely on your own, without a compass or any previous thought about how to rescue yourself if something went wrong. If she had a compass she could have set up a tent, and walked in straight lines away from her tent in multiple direction, always being able to find back to the tent using her Compass. She could also have walked in any direction, marking trees or branches along the way to find her way back. Basically, what she did was like going swimming far out into the ocean without knowing how to swim. It's not a nice thing to say, but she was basically an idiot. Its definitely sad, but the group of teenage boys being led into certain death by their mentor is a lot worse in my opinion. They died with no fault of their own.
I've known about this story for a few years and I can't help but think that if She'd had a whistle, this could have been avoided. I'm not a hiker but if I were, I would never go anywhere without a whistle.
@@carlpanzram7081 I agree. When it said she used to get lost frequently and then would get combative it solidified it for me. Sure I'm sorry for everyone dying a miserable death and she does sound like a lovely lady. But she was woefully unprepared and stubborn. As an elderly lady with back issues and lame orientation, plus no survival skills it's really hazardous to go on such a long hike alone. I'm still young but wouldn't dare going on a day hike alone. You never know if you stumble and twist your ankle, run into an animal or human predator, whatever. Being self-righteous prevents you from remaining teachable. Pride goes before the fall. I'm sorry for her and her family. Not knowing what happened to her for years must've been awful, on top of rumors that it was you who did something to her.
@@carlpanzram7081yes exactly. If you have a compass, every time you go off the trail you can check what direction that is and immediately know what direction is back to the trail. I cannot fathom hiking alone in the wilderness without a legit compass. Or hell at that point get a satellite phone. My God, stupidity kills.
I rarely comment on RUclips, I spend a lot of time enjoying the eclectic variety provided. Having said that. I am profoundly moved and grief stricken from these stories. The narrator delicately tells the tales with genuine empathy for the lost. I had no knowledge of these incidents before today. Now I can carry the memories of the lost with me. I applaud you. You have taken lost tragic lives and made them immortal. I know I'll never forget them. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. ❤
@ElizabethSanto22 one doesn't need to be a time traveler to assist others but it would certainly help and i personally plan on making that possibility a reality in due course
Other time travelers want to change society, alter the course of history..I also fantasize about fixing the small things. Being that helpful person who was there at just the right time, the right place.
@pissiole5654 you don't believe things happen for a reason, that messing with the timeline might cause unintended and unpredictably devastating consequences?
I’m from Maine and I can’t believe I’ve never heard of the story with Gerry. Maine’s forests are incredibly, incredibly dense. It must’ve been horrific. I feel so sorry for her and her family that had to wait two years to find out.
Sounds like she was a very determined woman. She should have returned with her partner & planned again for a later hike. There are so many things she could have done but she didn’t. Frustrating? Yes. Fear? Yes. Exhaustion? Yes. Condolences to her family. 👵🏻👩🌾❣️
Maine's forests are like nothing else I've ever seen, I'm from the Pacific Northwest originally and our tree coverage is nothing to sneer at, but Maine? I would never try to venture in those woods alone. There are so many places that are SO isolated up there like I've never seen, add in the unforgiving cold and I'd be terrified to be turned around in any Maine forest.
If I'm not mistaken, she was in the "100 Mile Wilderness". A notoriously miserable area to hike through. And there would be no opportunity for a cell signal, even at an increased altitude. (That would be something I would try if lost in Maine, go to higher altitude to try for a single, as it usually works.) One definitely should know some basic survival skills prior to attempting some of these terrains!
The voice over for this is amazing. I like that I can hear the emotion in your voice in some spots. A lot of video essayists, especially for this type of topic, sound clinical and detached. You sound like you genuinely care about the people in the stories you’re telling.
The first one reminds me of the Thai cave rescue, which I also just watched. Young people being led into peril by an over-confident, clueless adult. Poor kids must have felt so helpless once they realised they’d put their trust in someone who had no idea what they were doing.
The boys being stuck in the Thai cave was not the fault of their assistant coach. If anything, the boys and their parents attribute the coach being a major factor in the boys' survival at all. It was not the rainy season yet, and they genuinely could not have expected the freak rainstorm. Even one of the experts recruited because he had mapped the cave have planned on going there some days later.
As someone who lives in Maine, it is unbelievably easy to get lost in the woods here. If someone dropped you a hundred yards from the highway in certain areas you’d likely die. Extremely dense forest, very easy to get turned around.
As someone who has hiked the AT starting at Springer Mountain in Georgia, and finishing just a few days shy of 7 months later on Mt Katahdin in Maine, this is 100% true! Maine has some incredibly deep and dense wilderness areas. Like, words just dont even do it justice, and you can't even comprehend what it's like if you haven't actually been out in it. There is a wilderness area called the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine. Its called that because thats literally what it is. Its 100 miles of nothing but dense wilderness, without ever coming across a road or town or anything. Hikers have gone missing out there and have never been found in that wilderness. People go missing out there just by walking off trail just a few steps to take a leak, and that's not an exaggeration either. Maine wilderness is no joke. And in the winter months, its just a frozen forest hellscape. Maine wilderness is just a very, very easy place to die in.
One of the worst feelings I've ever had was the day i was night hiking with my dogs in the wilderness here in Oregon (like I've done a ton before) but one of my dogs somehow got separated from me. I think she saw & chased a deer? Then i spent nearly 2 hrs hiking thru the pitch black woods, losing my voice yelling for my dog. I was so stressed, it's never happened before. We have gone on so many long hikes in the dense woods together. It really made me so worried about if something happened to her? There are mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats around here and i even worried about any landscape related accidents that could of maybe happened...? I knew it was really unlikely but i just couldn't find her ANYWHERE & i hiked so much, checking anything i could. I eventually called a family member to let them know what i was doing and my flashlight battery was dying and so i hiked back to my truck with the idea that my brother was going to run me one of my other 18v rechargeable battery packs so i could continue on searching for my dog.. it takes me awhile but as i was walking up to my truck i thought i was seeing eyes reflecting back at me..? A deer? No, is it... It is!! It's my dog! My baby girl! She surprised me so much that after she got separated from me, she was able to find her way to regroup back at the truck. Which was far away from where we got separated on the hike.. We literally had one of those cliche (running in slow motion in a field of flowers type moments) and when i reconnected with her i just sat down on the ground and she just ran around me showing her emotions and as i was laughing and hugging her i just uncontrollably started to cry. Like cry, cry. I haven't felt that type of emotion in a very long time. It was such a relief and yet i also experienced such a vast amount of stress, dread, worry, physical exhaustion, all the stages of fear... It was such a true sense of feeling lost. Even tho i wasn't lost.. i felt lost.. so this video just made me think about it and i happened to write it down. Sorry for the long rambling comment.. This video is such high quality content
@@marine463 me too! Thank you a bunch for that. It sounds like nothing compared to what these people have gone through in these other stories of "getting lost" but the feeling in general is scary. I've hiked in the woods a lot & seen (missing dog flyers on trees) so it added to my concern about if i was actually going to find my dog. Especially with how vast & dense of an area i was in. Anyways i hope you have a wonderful day
I've heard a number of these stories before, but you cover them and such detail, and with such passion that I feel like I'm hearing them for the first time. Once again, amazing work.
Gerry’s story is so sad to me, and frightening in its simplicity. I top embarked on an AT home from Harper’s Ferry,WV. While I only hiked for about 15-20 miles or so and then camped for 3 days and then returned I discovered first hand just how easily and fast things could go sideways. From losing your orientation, improper storage of food, water filtration, weather the list goes on. And I was literally decked out in probably too much gear and had received training from trail guides on previous excursions. Yet still, it was abundantly clear I was one misstep from tragedy the whole time.
The horror I felt at multiple times in this video... the fact that yet another teacher ignored advice to go on a dangerous hike, the fact that the cave divers thought their friend was right behind them but he wasn’t, and the fact that the solo hiker didn't even know how to make a camp fire... nightmare fuel. The editing in this video is amazing. Thank you for sharing these stories.
Now you put it like that it really does seem the common thread is being arrogant, self-righteous, knowing better than anybody and refusing to heed any kind of common-sense advice because you know best. I'm just not going to care and take precautions because I'm so special and nothing can happen to me. It's really infuriating especially with the boys. The first photo was so beautiful, full of life and joy, peak time.
@@kokoskokso maybe someone refuses to ask for advice or listen to any advice because for them it was a very negative experience. Maybe they tried before and were humiliated badly or mocked by 'advisers'.
"Clearly not happy with mainlining the secrets of the universe in private" had me chuckling. This narrator has got to be one of my favorites. Even with the arsonist episode, her soothing voice made it hard to get too upset, and the fact that I had already known the story and still was impacted like the first time I heard it is a credit to their unbelievable voice
I was lost in the woods in Newfoundland when i was maybe 3.5 or 4. I barely remember anything about it but the only thing I can recall was that a crow led me to safety all the way back to the parking lot for the trail. I still think about the kindliness of that bird to help a young creature in need ❤️
Even the creatures are nice in Canada, especially on Newfoundland: the nicest place on Earth. Glad you still feel grateful for that bird saving your life.
@@meghansullivan6812 I don't clearly remember much because I was so small, the memory is barely on the edges of my consciousness. What I do remember is that I was in a silent strop so that's why I slipped away from my mum, and I remember the bird walking very steadily in front of me and occasionally flapping a wing out to keep my attention. He kept me on the trail until we got back to the parking lot where someone found me still playing with the bird. I was very lucky to find the bird and know to follow him because the wilderness in Newfoundland is very harsh and just a few steps off the trail could have meant I was lost forever. Who knows how often similar stories play out but they never make it to the news because they have happy endings!
RUclips has an automatic captioning option now, I think. But if anything, there are programs that can automatically transcribe them for you and you just need to review them for minor errors. It’s nice to see content creators who make sure their videos are accessible.
If I had a nickel for every German teacher that led students to their deaths hiking on a mountain in a foreign country, I would have 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice
As an Appalachia native… I’ll tell folks that the embarrassment of getting caught taking a leak is a helluva lot better than getting lost in the mountains. Also FYI 2 miles in the mountains can take A LOT more than 30 minutes to travel… obv it depends where you’re at but if you’re lost in an area without a path, 2 miles could take 2 hours or the most part of a day
honestly if lost in north american areas where you know at some point you will find infrastructure try and find powerlines or rivers, unlike many places for the most part the east coast you can always walk and eventually find something, the problem is not everyone can last that long
I think for a lone woman like Gerry’s case beyond embarrassment there’s the fear of violence if someone finds you in a vulnerable position like that which is another reason having a hiking buddy is so useful
You can get lost and die in an amazingly small area. Because all humans are asymmetrical, walking in a circle is unavoidable. People have walked for hours only to end up right back where they started, get upset and choose a totally different direction and end up right back where they started. If, as you say, there's a mountain that you can summit or a river to follow, that's hopeful, but many areas are flat and surprisingly uniform without flowing water. And you can easily follow a creek or stream only to end up in a pond, somewhere where no human has been in decades, even in America, which has been, as you alluded, completely developed from coast to coast. @@circleinforthecube5170
I have watched quite a number of YT videos about Gerry. They're all respectful to her memory, but I personally think yours does her the most justice. While they do not dehumanize her by any means, most other videos tend to be very detached and clinical. For instance, they just reuse the same photo of Gerry over and over again. But I truly appreciate that you went to great lengths to look at her for the person she was, by looking up pictures of her other than the last one taken of her, by looking up the emails and letters she had sent to her loved ones, and looking up quotes from the people who knew her best. Just goes to show that her legacy is more than just the way she died. Also, as a more generalized comment, I truly love your style of narration - very melancholy, empathic, with a touch of dry humor when appropriate. Thank you for your hard work.
The script for this video is beautifully crafted. One of the finest I've come across. Empathetic, but not soppy, and erudite, but not pompous in any way. Lovely work.
I can not stress enough how much I enjoy the way in which you tell the story. I was listening to the one premised around the "point of origin" and was utterly hooked. I sat in the parking lot for an hour, completely transfixed. Thank you so much for the time and work you put into these - very much appreciated 👏.
i really appreciate the art that you make, RH. i have a very shaky relationship with disaster chronicles and truecrime because a lot of the people who make that kind of content are here for the thrill of the death and the carnage. the genre often feels extremely voyeuristic and ghoulish to me. But you always center the humanity in each disaster: you reverently honor each person lost, you acknowledge the systemic failures that led to each disaster, you are deeply invested in the humanity lost in all these awful events you've chronicled. And i respect you and your art deeply for this.
I'm from Austria, and specifically from a small mountain village, so I grew up around hiking and the wilderness. Inexperienced hikers are still a big problem today, many people really underestimate the danger the mountains can bring if you're not careful. Around summertime our "Bergrettung" (the part of the ambulance that is specifically trained in mountain rescue) rescues at least one person per week because they underestimated how dangerous even an established hiking path can be.
so true... went to the Herzogstand in Bavaria in late May. There was still snow on top and some Asian tourists where walking around in Flip Flops, slipping and sliding all the way, still trying to reach the peak. And Herzogstand sure is no challenging peak.
i noticed during the video you mentioned Gerry not knowing survival skills, one of said skills mentioned was following water down stream to find civilization. although this tip is usually helpful, it is extremely dangerous to do so in appalachia due to the geography of the appalachian mountains. none the less i love the video and think you did an amazing job sharing the true innate human fear of becoming lost.
Pieter's oxygen tank being relatively full reminded be of something similar I heard. When people get lost and die in the desert and they are found, they are frequently found with water still in their water containers. It is thought that they over-ration their water for fear of running out, and end up dying of thirst.
Your channel is one of the most professional and respectful tragedy coverage channels on RUclips. You don't steal footage, you don't sensationalize, you don't plagiarize, and you seem to take your work very seriously.
The amount of joy I get from seeing a new Real Horror upload is quickly quashed as I get more into the video and lie in bed wondering what it would be like to get lost.
As a german i can confirm that a movie is not considered to be of suffitient quality here unless it features at least two suspicious looking goats in a scene that doesnt make any sense other than featuring said goats
I’ll never forget Gerry’s case. It was so heartbreaking for all of us when the forest finally gave her back and we knew for certain her fate. The Maine woods can be so unforgiving
Right but she was so close to the trail. How do you not walk in every direction atleast once ? And how far you really go off the trail to piss . It was a suicide. She knew she was about to see her husband again and realized she didn’t love him so killed herself
I feel like that feeling of dread is very similar to the feeling on freezing to death. No matter how hard you try, you know you won't be found, just like no matter how hard to try you know you won't get warm again. I almost froze to death in a wilderness therapy camp and suffered severe lasting effects of hypothermia, and can relate to that feeling of knowing your time is almost up.
I’m from Johannesburg and I actually went on a school tour to the Sterkfontein caves when I was younger. I remember our guide referencing someone who had dived into the cave and hadn’t resurfaced but I never knew the full story. It’s an eerie place even just walking in the dry cave system, I cannot imagine how terrifying it is underwater. May you rest in peace, Pieter.
When I was just a little kid, my number one fear was getting lost, and so much as even taking a wrong turn on the highway was enough to send me into hysterics. I've since gotten over that fear for the most part, and I think it mostly stemmed from my parents arguing whenever we took a wrong turn. It was stressful as a small child. But... That fear still holds a little bit of weight. Most of the time, human kindness will get you back on the right track when you're lost (assuming that you're lost in an area where there's people). But sometimes it won't! And sometimes your mistakes will come back to bite you.
I *love* the amount of research that goes into these videos, but something really emotionally touched me when the video included personal details about Gerry. The descriptions about her passion for exploring and the willingness to sew on potentially silly pockets to carry bird feed or other items - it really helped me pause and take heartbreaking notice that this was a real person. This was someone who loved life, and will be desperately missed.
I thought I had heard this one but then you reminded me that was the English group, I can’t believe this happened again! How can someone in charge of children be so reckless?! Very informative video it is truly documentary quality!
Keast, Hans Seiler, and the hubris of man. Although grim, Hans died with his mistake but took victims with him. Keast had the audacity to continue on with life as a false hero (may he rot). edit: Gerry and Pieter's stories are haunting. So close to rescue..
At least Hans had the decency to try to protect the youngest boy, and likely at least realized his foolishness where as Keast tried to paint himself as a hero afterwards.
@@HeyLeFay I will have to read into Keast. I assumed he died during the incident from the way the video went, but he lived? I am going to research this.
Just found this channel, can I say how beautifully and wonderfully told these stories are! You have managed to capture the grim circumstances, the emotions, and the raw fear these people likely experienced in their ordeals. Your videos give a sense of dread and uncertainty that other documentations just simply cannot convey.
I was lost once. Seriously lost. For six hours . In the northern Ontario wilderness. As the sun began to set, I leaned on a rock in despair, shed some tears, and began to pray.....Please Lord God, help me find my way out. I wiped my tears, and miraculously picked the exact direction that led me to the road. I was there within minutes. I still consider this as a miracle in my life. It happened 30 years ago.
I have been lost too. I would like to believe in God or a higher power but can't. Why did God point you in the right direction but not Gerry. Gerry appeared to be a very good person. Why were you chosen and not her? Unfortunately, I think it comes down to chance or good judgment. I say unfortunately because I would like to believe in God but can't make the logical jump..
I try not to forget moments like that myself. I'm not a hypochondriac but thought I had rabies and insisted on a pep shot because a bat was in a room I was sleeping in. All doctors told me I'd have known if I was bit, and would have woken up, despite all research to the contrary. Somehow the sense of dread lead my hand, an despite +$12k in medical debt, I feel like I saved my own life. That sense of possibly losing everything changes your perspective. Old friends might see you different from that point onward. Those are rare experiences where you truly know what in your life truly matters. From goals, to thoughts, to family members, to values. What in life is truly living, and truly important? Those are the things to know.
I have no idea how God works. Its not like a voice came down from heaven and told me the direction to pick. All I know is what I wrote - I prayed. I became calm. I somehow set my feet in the absolute correct direction. I don't know why, or how, or why some die instead of finding their way. Its a mystery to me. I just felt confident somehow. I can't explain it. @@davidc3839
No words for Gerry's story, such a wonderful person was lost from a mere bathroom break. Really goes to show how fast things can go off the rail in thick forestry.
So heartbreaking that Geri was only half a mile from the trail. She really sounds like, from every source I've read or listened to (and there have been many) that she was an exemplary human ❤️ and a true gem.
These are so well made and read. You have great command of the English language, it sounds so professional but you add your own personality into it too. This channel is very underrated
I live in Maine and remember the year that Gerry went missing. I took a school field trip to go hiking at Katahdin. We stopped at this little like resource/rest stop and there was a missing poster of her put up in the building. I remember really hoping they’d find her, and was so saddened when I heard she had passed.
Her being such a short walk from the trail is heartbreaking. And all because she left the course to use the toilet! It's hard trying to understand how she walked in what can only be assumed to be a straight line off the trail, used the toilet, then walked that straight short distance back to the trail only for it not to be there. How on earth did that occur? Maybe she did walk back in the right direction but not quite far enough and turned back just a bit too early? From there it was over I suppose because she from then on only picked the wrong directions to try...
@@k1dn1ce76. I have a terrible sense of direction and can consequently relate to Gerry’s. I’d read about Geraldine before. One thing that was pointed out in the last piece l read about Gerry is that she set up her tent under a canopy of trees. This move added to her demise. If she’d set up her tent in an open area, she might have been found. Heartbreaking…..
@@wendycrawford1792 I wonder why she walked so far off the trail when she went to the toilet? I'm wondering if she walked a lot further in a straight line than she realised and hence misjudged the distance required to retrace the linear distance back. This would account for her walking back in the correct orientation but not finding the course upon doing so, as her direction was correct but she needed to carry on somewhat further to eventually come back upon the course. Once she made this mistake and turned back too early it was over for her as she took the opposite direction and headed continually further into the wilderness! This theory at least somewhat makes sense.
@@k1dn1ce76 She walked so far off the trail because she's a woman. The video even pointed out that she would go less far off usually, when she had a second person with her, but it's a different story on your own. This is actually a huge problem in many countries in the world for women living in poor conditions without access to toilets. The danger of men finding you alone in such a vulnerable position is significant, so you go out further into the wilderness, which (as this video very clearly shows) comes with its own dangers.
its exetremley easy to get turned around in the woods, even small pockets are confusing, so having this massive expanse with difficult terrain on top of that,,, who knows if she walked back in the proper direction. One thing for certain is that this is an extremeley sad story that people on hikes can learn from, count your steps, get a reliable compass, and dont wander far off the trail even when it doesnt feel like a long walk. i hope she died at peace and with the knowledge that her family loved her and tried everything to get her back R.I.P. @@k1dn1ce76
I was lost once backpacking in Joshua Tree, I made one mistake which was not noting which direction I had gone off-trail (taking my GPS for granted) then come daytime I was out of water and had to head back but the heat of the day had my phone overheat which was not only my GPS but also my means of communication with emergency services via satellite. Clear view of the sky seems doable until it's 100 degrees out so at that point I was officially alone and left to my own intuition to get out of it, panic quickly set in when I realized this. Luckily I had been a boy scout when I was younger and one of the things we learned is what to do when lost, I recalled the first step being to stay calm because I thought it was peculiar until I had this experience, I truly believe the panic almost killed me in the heat. Once I was calm, I remembered the general direction I had gone off trail and luckily was still oriented enough to walk in that general direction -- until this point I'd been walking in the general direction of the road which had me parallel to the trail I was looking for. To make things worse it was full-spike season and I was wearing crocs, by the time I got back to the trail my feet were really messed up with spikes and I had to change socks. I almost kissed the ground when I was back on trail, but I still had miles of hiking through heat without water before I was home free. Luckily I made it with minor heat exhaustion and lots of lessons learned. Stay found, take notes, and don't rely on electronics alone as a means of navigating, have a PLB or Garmin InReach for emergencies, and if you get lost STOP and calm down to try to figure out which way to go. In panic, you WILL spin yourself around frantically searching for an exit, this will make you more lost, don't panic.
I'm so glad I found this channel. I love that you approach the stories with a genuine sense of empathy for the people involved, but still manage to work in little funny bits at appropriate moments. It's so clear that a lot of thought and care goes into making these stories. Would you ever consider doing an episode on the Sewol ferry disaster? There was so much that could have been avoided and so many children died because of terrible calls made by people in charge.
Extremely well narrated. These events are tragic but video is wonderfully made. Can't imagine all the efforts that went into making this video. From researching to animating to getting information from the people involved. Creator deserves appreciation.
Thanks for the A+ content. I can’t believe this is only the 7th video for your channel - it feels so dang polished and well made (just like the videos before it). Thanks for the incredible content.
I teared up at Gerry's letter about sending her possessions to her family :( what horrific stories presented in such a beautiful, gripping manner! Love your videos so much!
Your narration is incredible. The way you chose to remain silent during the shot of the line of coffins demonstrated such respect for those people. And also gave the sense of, there's nothing to be said at this point...the image of those coffins says enough. Knowing when not to speak is as important as knowing what to say while narrating, IMO. I love your channel so much. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!
The main mistake Gerry made was hiking ALONE after her partner left. You just do not hike alone especially if you're an amateur of modest health and physical condition. Going on such a long hike while not being able to use a compass of all things is strange to me, too. Why would a family let an elderly lady hike through the country alone? Anything can happen and she would be defenceless and vulnerable.
@@krishanson5503if she had a compass and basic reasoning skills, she could have found the trail within 3-5 hours. You set up your tent, take your Compas and walk north for half an hour. No trail in sight? Go back south in a straight line, back to your tent. Do the same into 3 other directions and you are guaranteed to find the trail. You also could have used any other method of finding your way back to the tent. Basically venture out as far as you safely can without loosing your way back to your tent. This is what I would have done. (or Maybe I would have lost my tent and then ran as far as I could, panicked and in any random direction until I collapse due to exhaustion.)
@@carlpanzram7081 That's what I kept on thinking. Just walk around, mark your way, worst case come back and try a different route. I wouldn't allow her to go on a day hike alone, let alone the AT for days on her own. It's irresponsible. Even if you just stumble and fall and hit your head, whatever. Being older, back issues, confused and self-righteous was a disaster waiting to happen. But like you say, who knows what we'd done in her shoes. People react in strange ways when in panic mode. I'm going to check out the survival books that were show at the end of the video, that was a nice move.
@@carlpanzram7081 it does seem to be strange and to be honest, even the writer of the book was a little confused at points! But when you consider the following: a) she didn't have a working compass (the writer tested out the model she had - it was useless), b) she went deeper into the forest and lost all orientation, c) the trail is north-south bound but it isn't straight (meaning if you become lost you have to be exceptionally precise in your navigation), d) the forest is extremely dense, you can't always just go north or south very easily on foot and e) it rained for the first few days she was missing, making navigation via the sun very difficult - then it does kind of make a bit more sense. And that's not even considering the rapid cognitive decline due to starvation. Just really awful and unfortunate.
I get what you're saying but don't blame her family. Yeah she was elderly and unprepared, but she was still an autonomous adult. How exactly would you not "let" her do something she was determined to do?
If by narrator you mean a third party reading a script, there is none. The woman reading is the one who runs the channel and writes and researches everything. She's a journalist.
@@Ama-Elaini I know. Sadly there's so many channels right now with AI scripts and AI voices that a channel like this by a real human being can get lost in the mix. But she does such a great job that it really does stand out. That human advantage 🙂
I agree, just one thing I don't like is the fake "eeeeh" kind of stuttering she does sometimes. It feels a bit forced. That's the only thing I have to remark on though, other than that it's a 10/10.
I've seen this channel pop up on my feed recently and I sorta avoided it for fear that it was going to be another sensational true crime channel. The kind that treats the stories they tell as JUST stories, and not real things that happened to real people. But having watched the most recent video, and now binging several more, I am so happy to say that I was wrong. The research is so thorough and detailed. Social issues happening at the time of the case being discussed is always brought up. Upmost sensitivity and respect is given to the people who were personally affected by these tragedies. And through all the facts and exploration, the personality of the video maker comes through. It's quiet, respectful, playful when you're able to but never to the extent up disrespecting or derailing whatever story is being told. I adore this style, and again, I am SO so happy that my first impression was wrong. This is stellar work.
Mud and Snow. A True story of horror. 2014, my cousin Eric and I in the Nevada highlands. Our grandfather was moving so we decided to cruise down to help and make a roadtrip out of it. We had planned to just drive through the night one sleep if needed. Well, we changed plans. Why not pop the flask and head in to the campground and have a fire under the stars. Hell yeah. "No, no, further in, lets go all the way to the back so the bonfire can't be seen from the highway" An hour later we were blasting music and buzzed had a fire...we were five miles deep into a closed campground, totally out of season... no one around for a hundred miles, and some snow flakes started. It was pristine. Take a picture of that. Within 60 minutes. We were in a fight for our lives. A few facts had emerged by that time. Neither one of us had any service on our phones and hadn't and didn't expect to. We were out of gas. It was a white out blizzard, sideways. We had no winter clothes, not even a jacket - we were headed to Vegas, dumbasses in shorts and t-shirts. The dirt road was no longer visible, and being March, what wasn't "road" at best wasn't much more than mud. We had to get back to the highway. We knew it was about "5 miles tops that way" But Anytime I'd get the truck off the trail - a total guessing game - even just a little bit, I'm running the risk of spinning tires. Pools of mud and slush, perfectly concealed with this layer of fast rising snow. Margin for error so slim, traveling with any speed meant sliding off the road and a wrestling match with nature to get back on it. First time in my life I've ever been that scared with another person. I mean, I've gotten myself in some sht before, but it's usually just me. Another person there was new. And I thank God it was Eric. A Bull. A fucking Savage bull who with brute strength and balls of steel, I'm convinced, saved our lives that day. We got to a junction after an hour of exhaustive, minimal travel, couldnt see more than a few feet, had no more than a few minutes worth of gas, the engine was going to sputter out any second. We had two choices. Eric thought left, I thought right. But he was surer than me, and he's the kinda guy that ain't sure unless he's sure. So we took the left path and we get going downhill. A quick downhill into a big uphill... I was terrified, it meant we were going to be stuck in a bowl, even if it was the right way, we can't get this truck out now. We didn't have the speed or traction to get up...and before I could make a sound, door flies open, eric jumps out and is pushing the back end...i thought it was a futile excercise but i swear to god he was able to plant his feet against a tree stump and he brute force kept the back end from sliding into the ditch and somehow, i don't know how, the tires got a grip and he's screaming GO GOGOGO GOGOG... From there on we were gravy...he was right, that was the correct path...just 4 miles or so of flat, dilineated clearly define road, no mud, still no no visibility, but no mud to worry about. My meant death and we coulnd't see it. You ever been in situation where you're covered in mud but all you can see in all directions is white?...it's a mindfck. This beuuitufl peaceful flawless snow, covering up thick dark mud... 20+ inches of snow came down that night up there. thankfully we didn't have to walk through four miles worth of the most unholy cookies and cream nightmare sauce imaginable. It was the first time I recognized the truth of the line that this video starts with. That when you put yourself into the elements, small changes in environment coupled with your small mistakes can mean your ass. I was thinking:, man how fckin dumb am I? People gonna find my frozen corpse dressed for summer. Anyway, stay frosty out there. Never bring the "everything always works out" mentality into nature. It may be a good philosophy for much in life, but not the elements.
That’s just the reality of grossly overestimating your own abilities in combination with a pride that won’t let you admit defeat. An experienced mountaineer wouldn’t feel the need to prove themselves nor would they have gone through with the hike. If Hans truly had had knowledge in the field, even if they got lost, he’d know what to do if they did. Which he clearly didn’t…
This is one of the best documentary style RUclips videos I've ever watched. I was enthralled the entire time, you have an incredible storytelling ability.
The little bits of dry humor really help add some levity to such a dark video without being inappropriate. Even so, these stories hit like a hammer. Gerry’s story particularity so.
Yes another Real Horror video. Absolutely love your stuff! Thanks for liking my tweets about you too! Love you're voice too, very soothing - a good juxtaposition...
Lengthy story incoming. You've been warned. About three years ago, I was travelling solo in Cumbria, North of England, to see the Lake District. The hotel I was staying at was in a little town called Seascape, roughly ten miles west of the Lake District. I went in early October so the weather was rather temperamental. Cold, raining and gale force winds, but I was wrapped up quite well. I left my hotel early on the first morning, grabbed some fruit, bread, and a couple bottles of water and prepared myself to walk towards the Lake District. I love long walks and always have, especially solo ones. I walked miles and miles until I found a steep mountain path which led me directly into an imposing forest. It took me nearly an hour and a half to reach the end of this path to where I eventually came out to a clearing. Tall mountains stood in the distance and I wanted to get as close to them as possible. At this point of my journey, it had just gone 1pm and it was getting colder. Throughout the entirety of my walk, I never saw a single soul. I was completely alone and I loved it. As I got closer to the mountains, the grass around me became higher and higher, subsequently reaching my shoulders, and I found myself walking through increasingly tougher terrain. But I had no idea that I was walking straight towards a very well-hidden stream of water. A poorly-placed step resulted in me falling head first into the stream, spraining my ankle and hitting my head on a rock. Immediately, I fell unconscious. I didn't regain consciousness until about 8:15pm that evening. I was disorientated, had an agonising headache, my foot was swollen and I was soaked. But the worst part was that it was dark. Very, very dark to the point where I could barely see my own hand in front of my face. I kid you not, for a few seconds when I awoke, I thought I had somehow permanently lost my vision. Thankfully I quickly located my phone, but the battery was in the single digits. There was no signal either. Once I managed to pick myself up and compose myself, I gradually began to make my way back by sparingly using the torchlight on my phone to light my way. However, my phone went off after about fifteen minutes, leaving me in complete darkness. It was extremely cold, I was wet and very hungry, and in a place that might aswell have been another planet. Plus, I was worried that I might have had a concussion from when I hit my head. I had no choice but to just keep walking (well, limping) and pray for the best. It took me 3-4 hours to walk back down the mountain path. I kept thinking to myself, what if there is someone lurking out there in the darkness? What if I pass out again from exhaustion? I was vulnerable and lost. As I somehow found the mountain path again, my eyes had eventually adjusted and my route was partially lit by some stars and a clouded moon. After what felt like forever, I finally reached the bottom of the path in a much more well-lit area, and then eventually a small town where I managed to book a taxi to take me back to my hotel. The driver must have noticed my exhausted expression and damp clothing as he asked me if I was okay, to which I replied, with a blasé smile, that I was. I got back to the hotel just before midnight. I cannot explain to you the overwhelming sense of relief I experienced when I returned to the warmth of my hotel room, jumped in the shower and switched on the television. I managed to order a late night meal and sat in my room, staying at a wall thinking to myself "I could've died out there... in the elongated grass, at the bottom of that stream, and my body could've never been found. My mother, my family, my friends... they never would've known what happened to me." I will never forget the paralysing chill that ran down my spine from this one thought. I never ended up going to the hospital, which realistically was probably a very stupid idea. I just wanted to forget that day existed. Although I managed to enjoy the rest of my holiday, I refrained from walking long distances and chose to take public transport as much as possible. I think the moral of the story is that it really can take surprisingly little to end up in a perilous situation and be overwhelmed by fear of death, the unknown and getting lost, even in the places we would probably least expect it to happen. It doesn't have to be an underwater cave. It could be a field in an area you're not familiar with. But one thing I can admit with utmost certainty --- I have never been more terrified than I was when my phone ran out of battery and I was left stumbling through complete darkness, unbearably cold, wet, injured and starved, and not knowing who, or what, was out there with me. Thanks for reading. Stay safe, my friend.
Mate, if you haven't gone to the hospital or doctor to check your noggin, you really need to do so. Head injuries aren't always a straightforward, immediate thing. Please think about this.
i clicked this video very unaware of how horrible I would end up feeling for these stories, but still worth the watch, for both the atmosphere and the respect for these stories. I think the fact some of them were so, so close to rescue is so depressing and so terrifying
I remember Gerry's story well as Stephen King has a novel called "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" that starts with a young girl going off trail to use the restroom and immediately becoming lost in the dense Maine forest. The second I heard a relatively inexperienced "elderly" hiker went missing in Maine on the AT I knew she was lost and couldn't believe some of the speculative BS I read online. To know that searchers were SO close to her is heartbreaking, she was likely so afraid and hopeless as time went on despite her attempts to be visible.
Gerry's sad story reminds me of that Stephen King book as well. It's one of my favorites. *SPOILER ALERT* It's so unfortunate that the ending wasn't different for Gerry.
@ElizabethSanto22Nutty putty was a freak getting off of being rescued multiple times. He repeatedly put himself in dangerous, tight places and either barely survived or needed others to risk their lives for his. Not even having a family was enough, like a serial killer, he couldn't stop himself and got stuck one last time. Thankfully, nobody died trying to save him.
@@ChessJourneymanthe nutty putty guy hadn’t been caving in many years so I’m not sure what you are on about. He was visiting his family over Thanksgiving and decided to go caving since they had done it with their dad as kids. He made a mistake and paid for it with his life. I wouldn’t describe him as someone who was constantly putting himself into dangerous situations .
@@ChessJourneymanyou think the guy who died in the Putty continued to purposely get himself stuck? And how was he exactly a freak ? You make it sound like he enjoyed having people risk their lives to try and save him. And he made a big mistake. You’re upset because he put other people’s lives in danger in trying to rescue him? Humans are explorers and it’s in our nature. And don’t worry. You didn’t sign up to put your life at risk to rescue someone from a cave.
Living in Maine, with many teachers who have hiked the Appalachian Trail, I grew up with stories of Gerry. I felt a connection to her, despite never knowing her personally. Rest in peace, darling old gal ❤
As heartbreaking as their stories are, I am glad that Pieter and Gerry were able to leave messages for their loved ones. Hopefully, their words provided some measure of comfort to those left behind.
It makes me so sad that in the end most people aren’t thinking about themselves but of their loved ones, Probably feeling so much regret and sadness that they won’t see them again
I almost got lost one night (or did temporarily) in mountainous terrain here in Colorado several Novembers ago, and it still haunts me whenever I think about it. I'm ashamed to admit I made every stupid mistake in the book: no water, inadequate clothing, and had told nobody where I was. It was supposed to be a quick trip to a waterfall I thought I could find without problem. I was wrong. Not only did I never reach the intended location, I became unsure as to the exact route I had taken, and it was getting late in the day. By the mercy of God I found my truck just as daylight was fading into dark (otherwise I was stuck). I literally fell to my knees in thanksgiving. My overconfidence nearly had disastrous consequences. Don't ever be the fool that I was.
@@pradeepchauhan6784 picked a random direction and tried to walk my way out in a straight line, I had to hit something eventually. I finally heard a motor changed direction towards the motor. Still took a few more hours to find where I'd come from. there is no addresses in grawin and I didn't live there so didn't know how to get thru the rabbit waren to get back to my sister's. I'm so thankful to the man who rescued me and took hours to make sure I got back to where I should be, he could have left me at their local pub but he made sure I got back there. 🖤🖤🖤 I wish I could remember his name but I was freaking out and all the emotions I'd been holding in the whole time I was lost just came blubbering out.
A stellar video! So well done it’s made me decide not to start reading books again…yet. Thank you for the distinguished storytelling and voiceovers that make us want to hear more!
Sources, notes etc are available here: bit.ly/3soD84D (links to a public Patreon post).
Any mistakes, edits, corrections will be posted on this pinned comment.
Thank you so much for all of your feedback, it means the world :')
Corrections:
14:40 Austrian TV, not German
I checked your channel yesterday to see if you posted recently and today you did.
Excellent content.
Isn't this a repost? My phone says this video just came out 2 hours ago?
Just a quick note: the cylinders we use to dive contain air (21% Oxygen) or other gaz mixes, not 100% oxygen. It would be better to say " air cylinder". Thanks for the great video!
@@WhitneyDahlin The lost school boys story was covered in a previous video.
@@stephenpmurphy591I literally just got to the part of the video where she said that! I can't believe this is the second time this happened! That's why I was so confused I was just coming down here to edit my comment thank you for explaining LMAO
Cavediving sounds like such a nightmare to me. It combines all my biggest fears (claustrophobia, drowning/suffocating, getting stuck, getting disoriented, creepy sea life, darkness, and so on)
Yes. There is my 'bucket' list and there is my 'f*ck it' list. And cave diving is definitely on that second list.
Me too! I wouldn’t cave dive even if someone paid me. Lol
I don’t want to be underground by choice while I’m alive! It’s strange how people have their own fears. Like maybe one of these spelunker people might be absolutely horrified by speaking in front of a crowd or getting a shot or flying. We have our strengths and we have our weaknesses…
It really surprises me the BASE jumping is more dangerous than cave diving. What can go wrong in BASE jumping? Parachute malfunction, or hitting the object from which you jumped.
What can go wrong with cave diving? Pretty much anything and everything. You can take the best cave diver in the world and send them down with perfectly functioning equipment and still, they make one tiny mistake and the end.
@@scottbubb2946yeah but also base jumping still sounds the most stupid of all. at least some cave divings are for science
If you find yourself lost in the woods:
1. Stop as soon as you realize.
2. If you have anything colorful or that stands out, mark the spot you are at. Wrap a piece of clothing around a tree. Lay your tent out, whatever. That is your center marker now.
3. Choose a tree (Make sure you can see the base of the tree clearly!) straight in one direction and while walking to it, constantly turn around to make sure you can see your base camp.
4. If you did not see the trail or anything that resembles civilization. Mark the tree with something that visually stands out and go back to base camp. From there choose another direction and tree to walk to, always looking at base camp. Repeat this process for all 4 directions from your center marker
5. If all 4 directions turn up in nothing, go out to any of the previously marked trees, and now choose another tree further out in the same direction. Always keeping sight on the previous tree. Do this in all 4 directions.
Keep repeating this process until the distances are simply too large or you run out of items to mark the trees with.
ONLY choose trees that you can clearly see the base of, as it means you will be able to see the tree you are currently at from it. And only walk in directions you know you can return from, avoid steep slopes, rivers, marshy or swampy land etc..
This is such important information. You should do a video about this. ❤️
@@daytradersanonymous9955Fr bruh
@@daytradersanonymous9955Not a fan of telling people to shut up but you do realize that writing nothing would have been more productive than this right?
4. don't wear a "one more MILF" tshirt
Always take a map and a compass with you and never go alone.
One time I was hiking in the rainforests of Vancouver Island, and started following some neon trail marker ribbons... Except as I went deeper the trail started becoming really bizarre, going under collapsed giant trees and through muddy quagmires.
Eventually, every direction I looked had a trail ribbon. I felt like I had lost my mind, and felt panic creeping up because the sun would soon set.
I started scrambling back the way I came, horrified at not only being lost, but spending the night in the rainforest alone. It was then that I realized the ribbons had faded writing on them that faintly read "search and rescue."
The entire time I hadn't been following trail markers for my route, and instead was retracing an old search and rescue effort for someone else who had gone off trail.
The irony of how I had become lost was almost as ridiculous as how I was saved. Two stoned barefoot men ran into me when they heard me screaming and helped me find the trail again.
I was left with an enduring gratitude for hippies, and intense fear of dense forests. They are almost liminal and claustrophobic.
Would you be available for interview?
Brother, I hope you are doing good now but bruhh this sacred the sh*t out of me as I m good with imagination and puting myself on your place 😨😰
Wow, this story could be made into a movie. 😮
@@paolorossi5989 theres similar movies such as the forest watch it its really good
I enjoyed reading this! But also because I have been to Vancouver island 😮
As someone who lives in the deep woods of northern Minnesota, there is nothing scarier than realizing you have no idea where you are. Due to the lack of snow this winter, I got lost in my woods because I couldn't recognize it without the snow. I stopped immediately, pulled out my compass, and said a prayer. Thankfully I found a nearby dirt road and made my way back but it's a good reminder to ALWAYS have your compass and know HOW to use it when in the woods.
What do you mean by lack of snow? (it doesn't snow in my country) i mean wouldn't it be easier if there wasn't snow?? Snow literally covers everything...?!
@@jannatunnaim5139 I think it is because you can see your trail in the snow
@@JamesZheyuXu what do you do when there's heavy snowfall and your trail disappears?
@@jannatunnaim5139 Then, you get lost basically, in that case that is what happens
@jannatunnaim5139 it's best not to go hiking in a blizzard. But for the 99% of times you do go hiking in the snow and it's not snowing so hard you lose your trail then, yeah.
I swear RUclips content is getting better than tv nowadays. I love coming across hidden gems like this channel.
My exact sentiments!
So true. The way this was edited, the storytelling... just very well-made.
Haven’t watch tv in over 10 years lol minus breaking bad back when it was around
Same!
@@stevefromyellowstone7911 same haha, only Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Peaky Blinders are my three exceptions, otherwise RUclips IS my TV!
If Hans wanted to put his life at risk, that's not great, but acceptable. Putting others at risk, especially children, is UNACCEPTABLE.
But then how would people know about how cool and smart he is?
That's the problem with these types.
They should have watched dual survivor
They should've turned around...and went back down the mountain. At 16 I wouldn't have listened to him lol. I would've followed my instincts
@@randysavage1we're talking about post-war Europe. This isn't a question of instinct, but of mentality. Loyalty, camaraderie, and obedience to a certain extent were valued virtues, as well as perseverance. Those boys probably had a very strict upbringing, while also spending much time outside without parental control. My guess is that they didn't seriously question their teacher for a long part of the hike, didn't want to act against the group, and perhaps had already been in enough uncomfortable situations in their lives that they thought they would be able to simply stick it out.
He was an evil man
I’m so glad you mentioned Keast, because I did like 5 takes when the video opened like “This…wait didn’t we already do stubborn German teacher foolishly leads boys up a mountain to their deaths?”
The fact that this happened more than once is incredible.
I was about to write everything you said.
If I had a nickel for every time a stubborn German teacher foolishly led boys up a mountain to their deaths I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
Wasn't the first one was a stubborn British teacher?
I was thinking the same thing. I even accidently quoted the video before the narrator did about how surely this wasn't happening *again*?! Such a tragedy, and one that was 100% avoidable. I feel so sad for the families of those kids, and also for the people who tried to warn him about the weather, etc.
@@mysurrealsynapse yeah, Mr Keast was a British German language teacher who led his (English) group up a mountain in Freiburg, Germany (on a school trip), and Mr Seiler was a German (and also a teacher) who led his (German) group up a mountain in Austria on a "community" trip (which was mostly the local school). I can totally see how it would be confusing! Bernd (the gentleman who originally wrote the book about the "English calamity") suggested it. Those photos just... I don't know. They upset me. And I wanted to cover it because the narrative has been a bit disjointed. There was a very 'old school' approach to it ("just let it go, no point making accusations") until quite recently when the kids and other adults who were there came forward with a little more nuance.
I once saw a TV show where one person cursed the other one with, "May you die silent and alone."
I don't think I've ever heard anything more chilling.
Have a nice life is a harsh one too, delivery depending
In the southern U.S., "Why, bless your heart" means, "Go f*ck yourself." Once I was in a court room a judge had just given a sentence to a thug who told the judge, as he was lead out in cuffs, "Have a BLESSed day, your Honor!" Without looking up, the judge said, "Same to you." @@BeanFace-oj2en
Expressive aphasia is a common stroke complication where the patient can understand language (spoken, written, ASL even braille) but cannot express language (cannot speak, write, point out letters, etc.). (The reverse is receptive aphasia.) A harsh reality is that most people die without other ppl in the room. Since strokes and expressive aphasia are common, that curse "May you die silent and alone" comes to pass frequently. In fact, I suspect the situation I just described is likely its origin.
@@felixfelix8940 I found out last year that apparently, when people "die peacefully in their sleep", this is actually a myth, it's a kind lie to make loved ones of the deceased feel better. Because what actually happens most of the time is that the dying person wakes up, knows they're dying, and dies terrified and alone because everyone else is also asleep. They are too weak to call for help, they know they're dying and just don't have the strength to do anything about it.
To actually die peacefully in your sleep is a lot rarer than we're told. But it's truly a blessing, for that to happen. It's much kinder, than dying alone and afraid. But you don't get to choose how you're born or how you die. I'm just hoping that some of them manage to find some sort of peace right before they go, so the terror doesn't last too long, and they just realise that their time is up and they've had a good innings and it's time for them to go, and so they accept it.
@n18OK, let me debunk all of that. To start, I'm a board-certified internist. I've seen so many ppl die when I crunched the numbers it was ridiculous. It's not that ppl die "in their sleep," they die while unconscious, which is peaceful, and lives right next door to "in their sleep." Ppl don't whisper final words when they die, because they're DYING. People don't wake up while dying b/c they are DYING. You said it yourself, "they are too weak," but dying ppl are too weak to wake up in the first place.
Exceptions are that the pain of a heart attack or a sub-arachnoid intracranial hemorrhage will wake that person. The arrythmias or paralysis that comes with these things will render you incapable of calling for help. Terrifying, yes, but in these instances the drastic changes in blood flow to the brain from low cardiac output or brain swelling renders them incapable of basic thinking. It's a quick death.
We soften things for family members but we do not lie. Heart disease kills most Americans and cancer comes next. Most old folks have weak hearts and abnormal rhythms and at some point, poof, that's enough to shut you off in your sleep. Cancer death is often from it spreading to vital organs, so we are back at comas, unconsciousness, etc. I
f you read your source from the web, remember that Lincoln said believe half of what you read and none of what you hear. An example is "What your doctor doesn't want you to know about [xyz]." There is nothing your doctor doesn't want you to know. Other click bait is "medical myth" and my favorite, "Scientists stunned by..." The cold hard truth is that except for hospice, death is almost always ugly or painful, and most ppl die alone. That's why we hide it behind curtains, closed doors, and hospices. American's delicate psyches and TV/movie stereotypes make for a gross misunderstanding of some thing exactly as natural and common as birth itself.
Old age and terminal illness both usually bring that acceptance you mention, not at the last minute, but much much earlier. That's why I think dying ppl go into that in-and-out state towards the end, they're pre-shutting off. Ppl who survive failed parachute or failed suicide by jumping sometimes report separating from their body before impact, which I think is a similar mechanism to the in-and-out state of those near death.
But many of can choose a peaceful death: death with dignity. It's MUCH better than those last three month of a cancer death. You do it while your mind is sharp, surrounded by your peeps, in a nice room with a beautiful view, drink a glass of OJ and slip away. They spread your ashes the next day. Screw the funeral industry driven by profits that preys on grief.
Slowly dying of starvation in a pitch black cave for 3 weeks is beyond nightmarish
Yes that’s about as bad of a way to go as I can imagine. The only worse thing I’ve heard is the story of this man in the late 19th or early 20th century who got stuck in Sand Cave (near mammoth cave) and multiple other caves opened for paid tours in Kentucky USA. So he was hoping this cave on his property could be worth exploring in the hopes of finding big caverns or other interesting things that would attract tourists. He was crawling along on his stomach in a position where he was facing head down when a rock broke off the wall causing his leg to both brake and get stuck. He had the luck [it seemed at the time] of his brother noticing he was missing early on and finding him. Then more false hope as a rescue effort began slowly at first with his brother trying to get him unstuck and eventually a huge rescue, media, and public effort was underway. Then a cave in blocked off the cavern he was located in leaving him alone, stuck upside down, and in complete darkness. That didn’t stop the rescue it just redirected it. They eventually dug down from the surface to find him dead from starvation and removed his remains only for him and his casket to be returned to the cave as part of a tourist attraction. He was exploring the cave to begin with in the hopes of making it a tourist attraction anyway so 🤷♂️.
Upside down, with a broken and stuck leg, in complete darkness, starving to death..after you thought they were going to be able to get you out sounds like my worst nightmare. I like going in caves but never in a situation where I had to crawl and squeeze my way through and absolutely 1000000% nope.. no.. not a chance in hell would I ever go cave diving.
@@ben-jam-in6941 I saw that story, as well. How sad. Just like the Colorado teenager who left his home one day to go for a walk, never to return and it wasn't until 7 years later when a neighboring cabin owner, demolishing his cabin, discovered the teenagers' skeletal remains, stuck in the cabin's chimney. (Just a mile from his home). Who knows for how long he suffered, all alone. May all these poor souls, RIP.
@@isabellind1292 Ya that was a horrific story as well especially since he was just a teen with his entire life ahead of him. I agree may they all rest in peace and may fewer people make bad decisions and get into those situations. (I say fewer rather than none because I know bad stuff like that’s always gonna happen).
Not as bad as slavery done to black people😮😮
@@isabellind1292I remember that story too. Like lil bro u ain't Santa my man wth u climbing in a chimney for? Reminds me of those divers that got sucked into that pipe in the Carribean last year I think it was. Stuck in an enclosed space w no clue of what's what and no hope. Damn😔
Pieters last dive is so viscerally terrifying I cannot explain it. I’ve seen a lot of cave diving videos, as well as accidents. All terrifying in their own right. But the fact he did manage to find an air pocket.. and he survived for 3 WEEKS in pitch black darkness.. I can’t explain the sense of dread i feel.
Legit absolutely terrifying. I hate the dark as a 44-year-old man. I couldn't imagine living in it for 3 weeks and slowly losing my mind and hallucinating without seeing anything and every sound would be a monster or something coming to get me. I'm sure if you had a handgun he would have ended it a lot sooner. I'll do respect to him. That's arguably one of the worst fates.
That was horrible, it’s awful but I almost think it would’ve been better for him to drown, as awful as that is he wouldn’t have been in the dark for so long by himself
As someone who is claustrophobic, I’d rather be burned alive.
I feel as though I would have rather suffocated trying to get out especially with the last remaining light than slowly go mad over the course of 3 weeks of starvation and pitch black
@@InsidiousTop500The fight or flight mode kicked in and he chose to flight and surrender to his predicament, the longer he stayed the less he would have been able to fight it , utter terrifying horror of knowing after a few days that no1 is coming for you and you are on your own in the dark cold wet cave.😢
The second story is beyond tragic. Imagine surviving for that long and choosing to put your trust in the rescuers and wait, only for no one to find you. It's stories like these that make me wonder what will happen if I ever get lost and follow the well-known piece of advice "if you ever get lost stay put, help is on the way". I can't even imagine what it must have felt like to be in the pitch black without proper food and water or any way to tell time.
That person placed himself there.
Most humans wouldn't.
That dude was a fucking idiot, did he expect everyone to babysit him and make sure he wasn’t wandering away?
I feel very angry towards the authorities. If they let his mates in to help look for Peter, they would've found him (since they did find him quickly once the cave was reopened). I also don't like how they abandoned efforts with the excuse that "Peter drowned" when his mates knew the cave better and told them it was possible for Peter to be in an air pocket.
Don’t go cave diving, simple
The first thing is, why would you people go ALONE and UNPREPARED to these places to begin with?
Hearing the part about Nuno experiencing something similar later in his life (losing the guideline and being lucky enough to find his way back to it) made me wonder what he was thinking before choosing a direction to go back into the water. I can only imagine he must have been reliving how Pieter must have felt, and wondering if he would meet a similar fate. I bet any reluctance he had toward going back in vs staying to wait for rescue was minimal after what happened to his friend.
I became lost in the woods with my mother as a child. One moment we were on a trail, and the next, we weren't. I still remember the tall, blue flowers that covered the forest floor where the trail should have been behind us. An undetermined amount of time later (still the same day, thank God) we found a highway and walked alongside it until we got back to the parking lot where we started. At that time my mother would have been 25yo at most, yet she carried me on her back for an unknown distance. Listening to stories like this make me feel lucky that we made it home that day.
While this sounds like an act we think most parents would do, this act by your mother is still one of the greatest things a human being could ever hope to do…care for their child even in cases where death is looming.
I also got lost once with my grandma when I was little, there was a fork in the trail it was a 50/50 shot and we took the wrong way. We didn't know we took the wrong trail because it was our first time taking that route and ended up walking for around 12 miles before we found a place where there was service, and we were picked up by a ranger. I remember not being scared because of how calm my grandma was, she just recently got diagnosed with dementia and i miss hiking on trails with her.
that's what it is, luck. you step off the trail, release the guideline, whatever, for a second then... it's gone. i've been lucky to find my bearings again and make it home, late after terrifying my paranoid parents. but there's the issue, how many times until i don't find my way again? how many times until i'm a story just like these, a body in the woods, a footnote, a tragedy, and a warning.
you and your mother were graced with survival, much like a golden few, but there are a countless many that haven't, and their voices call you to join them.
Rest in peace
Just having a great time. Yes thank God it worked out😊😊
Gerry and Pieter's is so depressing. So close to being saved or saving themselves. So close.
Sure we can say "Why didnt they do this or that?" But anxiety, panicking and fear can mess with anybody's mind. Logic is basically shoved out the window.
Especially for Gerry. She was almost 70, being elderly and alone as well as lost in unforgiving terrain but have been absolutely terrifying. I struggle to understand why her hiking partner left her knowing her age and existing deficits in her survival knowledge. Like was their no one to step in to replace her? Could her family not convince her to come home and try another day? Idk, I couldn't in good conscious leave an elderly woman in a large wooded area for any amount of time all alone
@@TheZombifiedFairy what do you mean her hiking partner left her? Her family left her, this and that, why nobody stepped up and went with her? No one was responsible for her! She was an adult and she made her own reckless decision to continue hiking alone after her hiking partner had to leave for an emergency. I'm much younger and wouldn't dare even a day hike on my own. Instead of blaming everybody else for not dancing around her, she should have simply discontinued the hike. That would've been the responsible thing to do. But if she tended to get combative after she made mistakes, you can imagine her reaction to people telling her to stay home. Sounded a bit stubborn and bossy so people preferred just to give in and let her do whatever she wanted. It's sad how she died but sadly, she could've prevented this, even if she just had been better prepared.
Gerry didnt bring a compass with her….
@kokoskokso I said the hiking partner AND her family. They both could have done something to prevent this outcome. The hiking partner left her in the middle of the woods and her family enabled rather than convinced her to come home and try again at a later date. She's an adult... she's also almost 70 YEARS OLD. There is no way she should have been out there alone. Not even many fit 20-30 year olds are soloing such a hike.
The hiking partner had an emergency, I'm not saying she should have ignored it, I am questioning why no one came together to get her to reschedule when the hiking partner was available again. Idk about her family, but the hiking partner has intimate knowledge of Gerry's survival skills, as exemplified by their quotes after her death.
There is NOTHING in the video to suggest she was the combative type as they have nothing but good things to say about her. She's to blame, but I'm also blaming those around her because (again) she was almost 70. Don't enable her by leaving her in the woods (hiking partner) or bringing supplies every week (family) because she wants to do something dangerous. I don't believe that they were helplessly watching this go on and had no shortcomings at play. She holds ultimate blame, but those who enabled this to happen has some blame too. I don't care how we try to skirt around that by saying she's an adult.
@@TheZombifiedFairy it literally says that at 44:00.
Sure, if it was my family, I'd do my best to convince them not to continue. But ultimately she made her decision. Remember she was well enough to go on a hike for several weeks.
My dad works for the national park service so i grew up basically living from park to park, the amount of people that die because they refuse to listen to workers or they overestimate their abilities is astonishing. Those “few extra miles” or a small detour can mean not making it back.
I leaned this the hard way on a trip to the grand canyon. We had an hour to hike in and back. The guide split us into 3 groups based ok our athletic ability (it was a school trip) and I demanded to be put in group three which would go 1.5 miles down the canyon and back (group two 1 mile and group one .5 miles). The guide had his doubts, but I assured him that I walked 1.5 miles to
school everyday, and that I would be fine. This wasn't a lie, but I failed to account for the slope. The first mile was fine, light work even. But the last half mile the canyon was unforgiving, and became about twice as steep as it had been the first mile. By the time i got to the 1.5 mile marker, I had been going for 35 minutes, and now had only 25 to make my way back up the trail (which would be even harder because of gravity). I only made it about two thirds of the way up before I was on the verge of passing out, had thrown up from both de and over hydration. One of the football players came back down and threw my arm
over his shoulder, and "carried" although perhaps dragged is a better word, back to the top of the trail and onto the bus. Needless to say, my friends and GF reprimanded me fiercely for demanding the tour guide to put me in the most advanced group (they didn't know until after the fact since they had left with group one on the .5 mile descent), and I learned a very valuable lesson about listening to people who do what they do for a living.
SMB it may benefit you to go to therapy. If multiple people are telling you not to do something like this and you dont listen. Combined with the dramatic narrative you give it makes it sound like you could benefit from therapy. Some of us need help to learn to give others benefit of the doubt that they are knowledgeable and therapy can help those of us that need that bump to trust others. I hope you never get in a situation like this again. Good luck!
@@Couscous77thank you. The dramatic wording is just something I'm prone to, I like entertaining, but the cliffnotes (I was stubborn on a school trip, I got sick from being dehydrated and then drinking way too much to fast at a trail stop, I was supported out by a football player) are all true. I normally don't argue with authority figures I just really really hated this particular tour guide (he was just an asshole in general) and I wanted to pick a fight. I've tried therapy but I find it often doesn't go anywhere and I can't really afford it anyway, but if I ever get the opportunity for a good therapist I'll prolly take it for other reasons (since I know I got some stuff going on I just push through it most days by necessity)
So many of the fatal stories are of 'highly experienced' people getting complacent, thinking they're invincible, so ignoring warnings and ending up lost /dead
@@Couscous77 Ridiculous comment. Not everything is traumatic, and why do you consider a disregard for authority to be something that needs therapy?
Gerry's story touch me deeply. I can not even imagine the panic that was going through her mind. Poor thing, she even left a journal. In her situation, I probably would've just kept walking around crying and screaming for help. She did what was right, but too late. It broke my heart to hear what she went through, the guilt and horror she must've felt. A dream became a nightmare just so quickly. This is so so sad.
She irritated me. Darwin award winner, for sure. No sympathy from me.
@@ssmith968Empathy and sympathy require higher intelligence, so it makes sense why you’re not experiencing it.
@@ssmith968Why did she irritate you?
@@00st307-m It's difficult to be sympathetic for a person who willingly wandered off trail knowing full well they don't know how to read a compass, they have medical issues, they didn't bring the necessary supplies and they "have a knack for getting lost". It's not of matter of if she was going to wander off and die, just of when.
Gerry's story is so heartbreaking, but also so frustrating to me. This wonderful soul was apparently making preparations for ages to go hike her dream trail, and yet she didn't take the time to learn the absolute basics of survival (or take along a waterproof book about it), nor did she buy all of the right kind of equipment and learn to use it (like the toy compass). It's also frustratingly sad because she did lots of the correct things for getting people to notice and find her like spreading out her shiny survival blanket, and yet she still wasn't found. Her lifelong dream turned into a nightmare. My heart breaks for her and her family.
Hans, on the other hand, can kindly go join Keast in Hell.
Ayep. A young woman once asked people for advice on traveling the country in only her car. I repeated some advice I was given: practice in your own driveway/parking lot first. What problems you will have will be fast discovered and you can try out fun things like peeing in a portable female urinal inside your car.
Hans and Keast are in good company I suppose.
Even worse is the idea that had she carried a Satelitte phone, A PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) or even a loud whistle or other way to signal, she could have been found and survived. Basically, had she even noted which way she was stepping off the trail, she could have been found. Still a very sad case.
I've heard her story several times, it is very sad! Unfortunately though, once her friend couldn't make it, she never should have continued on alone, she wasn't 100% confident to do so, but she went anyway. Very sad.
Why hell, what he do against u 😢
Geraldine‘s case is so tragic. I have gotten lost once in the mountains in Slovenia, I was never in any real danger and found my way back by myself. Just dehydrated, exhausted and stressed out. But this was the most terrifying experience in my life.
My advice: if you are hiking alone and have to go to the (non-existing) bathroom, don’t leave the trail so far that you can’t see it anymore. Yes, maybe someone could see you peeing- so what?! It’s not worth risking your life! And it’s soooo easy to get lost.
Take care ❤
Great advice, the best one for women. I know from experience which is why I have now a device that allows me to pee standing up, without having to pull down the pants to me knees. I hope my comment is appropriate, but it is one thing I have always with me when I am out hiking.
@@c.g.ku.9479Why?
@@EndritVj Why "why"?
@@c.g.ku.9479 The device.
Gerry was a Liberal big surprise the wilderness took her.
The story about Pieter is the most horrifying story I've ever heard. Poor guy.
He fucked around & found out….his dumb
I agree . I keep thinking of that poor man in total darkness. Hungry and afraid. I can’t imagine how it would feel to sleep and wake up every day in total darkness and realizing exactly where you’re at. When did he give up hope .
It is indeed and also the first video on this channel about the Nutty Putty cave accident. That one is also a nightmare I've been thinking about for days.
Hearing that he stayed there for 3 whole weeks before dying really solidified it for me…..
The most horrifying story I heard before this one was the nutty putty cave incident. This one is more haunting i think.
the moment of silence got me. i teared up. this is truely one of the best channels out there
Han’s story is angering, gerry’s is heartbreaking, but for me, pieters was devastating.
I can imagine being in a cold, wet cavern with nothing but your growing hunger and an oxygen tank. It’s been a few days and you have debated going back in the water, but you lost track of which tunnel you first came out. You know if you go back in you probably won’t come out. You wished you had never climbed up, you wished you had went back down as soon as you knew you went the wrong way. No one will hear the noise you make or see the light you shine. A rescuer eventually comes up into your cave. You are probably in a comatose-like state, over come with grief and regret. You didn’t see their flashlight, or hear their voice. You will have another 3 weeks to live with this torment. you are stuck in a dark, damp, world. Pieter’s story was the worst
To understand his torment and anguish, despairing alone in the pitch black starving freezing hallucinating all the time knowing salvation is only a short swim down the correct tunnel and having the means to complete the task. Until your torch dies then your mind goes and no amount of air in your tank is enough then to save you, yeah that’s a bad predicament to find one’s self in…
@n3h3m he got trapped for 3 week's poor chap, died of starvation, alone in pitch black. 😢
how do you get lost there's like 4 tunnels lmao
@@jgwentworth6735 the tunnels are patrolled by trolls
@@princeamongmen7064 you're more disrespectful than I am. drop your attitude and answer my question, thanks
Those poor children were completely innocent and their lives were lost for absolutely no reason. The arrogance of Hans truly lead everyone to their deaths.
Watch the previous one. The one in the Black Forest. It's somehow worse. At least Hans paid for his hubris. The other teacher survived and lied about what happened.
Hans's poor planning was infuriating, but the way he was found is also heartbreaking. The fact that he was clearly huddling with the youngest boy and likely doing what little he could to help the kid who was probably the most vulnerable in the group does make it clear that he realized how horrible his choices were. :(
@@HeyLeFay or he was trying to use the kids body heat to keep himself alive.
@@FRLN500 A dead body only stays warm for a very short time, even living bodies in the cold. All blood flow to the skin and extremities is shut down to keep the inner organs warm as long is possible.
I agree, he was just an arrogant man. Like… I’m smarter than anyone & can do this.
People like this can cause such harm & even death like here.
His arrogance finally ended! Condolences to the young boys & their families. 👵🏻👩🌾❣️
I'm an English professor by training and have rarely come across such beautiful prose in a documentary. Your writing is exceptional and your delivery is perfect - elegant and reverent, yet conversational and welcoming. Thanks so much and can't wait for more!
Thank you! this means a lot :)
Could not agree with this more! I would hasten to add that this same transcendent quality level is (bewilderingly) consistent through all 6 videos released so far.
I thought you were about to announce a hiking trip with your students on a snowy mountain
@@ELTABULLObring your mittens kiddoes
@@ELTABULLO😂😂😂
Gerry Largay seems like the sweetest person. Thank you for covering her story so respectfully.
The first story is a great example of a general rule of thumb: Mother Nature may have very few consistencies, but punishing those arrogant, unprepared, and inexperienced enough to believe they could overcome her is one of them.
It’s not her it’s the/they nature
@@LucrativeLarryshut up
@@LucrativeLarryNature is predominantly referred to with feminine pronouns in many cultures. Mother Nature/Earth, Gaia, Terra, and many others are personified as female. Especially as the poster used “Mother Nature,” it’s definitely appropriate to use she/her pronouns.
@@Laura_5757 not op, just throwing in my two-cents: while I do agree she/her works and honestly just sounds better in this case, I feel like they/them is technically more accurate since Nature encompasses multiple individuals. But idk.
@@JuniLily In the Western Context, we mostly use her (in the same way that all ships are feminine, including HMS King George V)
The last story really brought back horrors for me, like Gerry I walked off the trail to relieve myself and suddenly everything around me looked familiar and yet unknown and I had no idea what to do. Trying to retrace footsteps in thicket is impossible but with incredible luck I stumbled across the original trail some hours later...I was only 30 feet away from the trail...That Mind Monster is real!!! R.I.P. Gerry
Remember this, like one of our men said,
EVERYBODY has a breaking point.
Ughhhjj so scary cuz u don’t wanna venture too far in any direction and potentially get even more lost, but to be only 30 feet away!!
Do you know we have a nifty invention, it's called a compass?
You are so clever, hope it NEVER happens to you when faced with the ultimate decision...which way do I turn.@@SanctusBacchus
@@SanctusBacchus Have you heard of this nifty phrase called ’there’s a time and place for everything’? Yeah, shut the fuck up. This is not the time for you to be a smartass, not a single soul is impressed by your extremely mediocre ability to detect flaws in hindsight.
Gerry's story is the most sad to me. She just went off the trail to go to the bathroom and got turned around. And she was half a mile from the trail.
It's extremely negligent to go out into a forest trail entirely on your own, without a compass or any previous thought about how to rescue yourself if something went wrong.
If she had a compass she could have set up a tent, and walked in straight lines away from her tent in multiple direction, always being able to find back to the tent using her Compass.
She could also have walked in any direction, marking trees or branches along the way to find her way back.
Basically, what she did was like going swimming far out into the ocean without knowing how to swim.
It's not a nice thing to say, but she was basically an idiot.
Its definitely sad, but the group of teenage boys being led into certain death by their mentor is a lot worse in my opinion. They died with no fault of their own.
I've known about this story for a few years and I can't help but think that if She'd had a whistle, this could have been avoided. I'm not a hiker but if I were, I would never go anywhere without a whistle.
@@carlpanzram7081 Okay. You're entitled to your own opinion. This one was mine
@@carlpanzram7081 I agree. When it said she used to get lost frequently and then would get combative it solidified it for me. Sure I'm sorry for everyone dying a miserable death and she does sound like a lovely lady. But she was woefully unprepared and stubborn. As an elderly lady with back issues and lame orientation, plus no survival skills it's really hazardous to go on such a long hike alone. I'm still young but wouldn't dare going on a day hike alone. You never know if you stumble and twist your ankle, run into an animal or human predator, whatever. Being self-righteous prevents you from remaining teachable. Pride goes before the fall. I'm sorry for her and her family. Not knowing what happened to her for years must've been awful, on top of rumors that it was you who did something to her.
@@carlpanzram7081yes exactly. If you have a compass, every time you go off the trail you can check what direction that is and immediately know what direction is back to the trail.
I cannot fathom hiking alone in the wilderness without a legit compass. Or hell at that point get a satellite phone. My God, stupidity kills.
I rarely comment on RUclips, I spend a lot of time enjoying the eclectic variety provided.
Having said that. I am profoundly moved and grief stricken from these stories.
The narrator delicately tells the tales with genuine empathy for the lost.
I had no knowledge of these incidents before today.
Now I can carry the memories of the lost with me.
I applaud you.
You have taken lost tragic lives and made them immortal.
I know I'll never forget them.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. ❤
Its stories like Gerry's that always make we wish deep down I could be a time traveler and just be at the right places at the right times.
@ElizabethSanto22 one doesn't need to be a time traveler to assist others but it would certainly help and i personally plan on making that possibility a reality in due course
Other time travelers want to change society, alter the course of history..I also fantasize about fixing the small things. Being that helpful person who was there at just the right time, the right place.
@pissiole5654 you don't believe things happen for a reason, that messing with the timeline might cause unintended and unpredictably devastating consequences?
@@cleanserene6330 thats exactly what im hoping for
Same...
You are just so good at making documentaries. Thank you!
Woah! Thank you so much!
I’m from Maine and I can’t believe I’ve never heard of the story with Gerry. Maine’s forests are incredibly, incredibly dense. It must’ve been horrific. I feel so sorry for her and her family that had to wait two years to find out.
Sounds like she was a very determined woman. She should have returned with her partner & planned again for a later hike.
There are so many things she could have done but she didn’t. Frustrating? Yes. Fear? Yes. Exhaustion? Yes.
Condolences to her family. 👵🏻👩🌾❣️
Maine's forests are like nothing else I've ever seen, I'm from the Pacific Northwest originally and our tree coverage is nothing to sneer at, but Maine? I would never try to venture in those woods alone. There are so many places that are SO isolated up there like I've never seen, add in the unforgiving cold and I'd be terrified to be turned around in any Maine forest.
If I'm not mistaken, she was in the "100 Mile Wilderness". A notoriously miserable area to hike through. And there would be no opportunity for a cell signal, even at an increased altitude. (That would be something I would try if lost in Maine, go to higher altitude to try for a single, as it usually works.) One definitely should know some basic survival skills prior to attempting some of these terrains!
The voice over for this is amazing. I like that I can hear the emotion in your voice in some spots. A lot of video essayists, especially for this type of topic, sound clinical and detached. You sound like you genuinely care about the people in the stories you’re telling.
The first one reminds me of the Thai cave rescue, which I also just watched. Young people being led into peril by an over-confident, clueless adult. Poor kids must have felt so helpless once they realised they’d put their trust in someone who had no idea what they were doing.
I watched the Thai incident on a local TV channel. Very horrifying.
German tourists getting lost in the Austrian Alps is tradition at this point.
The boys being stuck in the Thai cave was not the fault of their assistant coach. If anything, the boys and their parents attribute the coach being a major factor in the boys' survival at all. It was not the rainy season yet, and they genuinely could not have expected the freak rainstorm. Even one of the experts recruited because he had mapped the cave have planned on going there some days later.
As someone who lives in Maine, it is unbelievably easy to get lost in the woods here. If someone dropped you a hundred yards from the highway in certain areas you’d likely die. Extremely dense forest, very easy to get turned around.
Those pictures were giving me flashbacks to the Blair Witch movie. :P
At first I was like “oh but you could follow the moon or sun” but then it hit me the forest is so dense you can’t see crap out the branches 😂
As someone who has hiked the AT starting at Springer Mountain in Georgia, and finishing just a few days shy of 7 months later on Mt Katahdin in Maine, this is 100% true! Maine has some incredibly deep and dense wilderness areas. Like, words just dont even do it justice, and you can't even comprehend what it's like if you haven't actually been out in it. There is a wilderness area called the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine. Its called that because thats literally what it is. Its 100 miles of nothing but dense wilderness, without ever coming across a road or town or anything. Hikers have gone missing out there and have never been found in that wilderness. People go missing out there just by walking off trail just a few steps to take a leak, and that's not an exaggeration either. Maine wilderness is no joke. And in the winter months, its just a frozen forest hellscape. Maine wilderness is just a very, very easy place to die in.
@@mattjack3983 bruh I’m gonna look up like a video of this. I live in AZ and i don’t think I can actually comprehend how dense forests can get.
@Drexyl_Durden i was over here like duuuhh Gerry just use the moon as a guide 🤣🤣. Talk about not knowing what you’re talking about 🤣
One of the worst feelings I've ever had was the day i was night hiking with my dogs in the wilderness here in Oregon (like I've done a ton before) but one of my dogs somehow got separated from me. I think she saw & chased a deer? Then i spent nearly 2 hrs hiking thru the pitch black woods, losing my voice yelling for my dog. I was so stressed, it's never happened before. We have gone on so many long hikes in the dense woods together. It really made me so worried about if something happened to her? There are mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats around here and i even worried about any landscape related accidents that could of maybe happened...? I knew it was really unlikely but i just couldn't find her ANYWHERE & i hiked so much, checking anything i could. I eventually called a family member to let them know what i was doing and my flashlight battery was dying and so i hiked back to my truck with the idea that my brother was going to run me one of my other 18v rechargeable battery packs so i could continue on searching for my dog.. it takes me awhile but as i was walking up to my truck i thought i was seeing eyes reflecting back at me..? A deer? No, is it... It is!! It's my dog! My baby girl! She surprised me so much that after she got separated from me, she was able to find her way to regroup back at the truck. Which was far away from where we got separated on the hike.. We literally had one of those cliche (running in slow motion in a field of flowers type moments) and when i reconnected with her i just sat down on the ground and she just ran around me showing her emotions and as i was laughing and hugging her i just uncontrollably started to cry. Like cry, cry. I haven't felt that type of emotion in a very long time. It was such a relief and yet i also experienced such a vast amount of stress, dread, worry, physical exhaustion, all the stages of fear... It was such a true sense of feeling lost. Even tho i wasn't lost.. i felt lost.. so this video just made me think about it and i happened to write it down. Sorry for the long rambling comment.. This video is such high quality content
So glad you found your dog!
@@marine463 me too! Thank you a bunch for that. It sounds like nothing compared to what these people have gone through in these other stories of "getting lost" but the feeling in general is scary. I've hiked in the woods a lot & seen (missing dog flyers on trees) so it added to my concern about if i was actually going to find my dog. Especially with how vast & dense of an area i was in. Anyways i hope you have a wonderful day
@@benmcreynolds8581 Thank you you too!
Thanks for sharing your story. I’m glad it had a happy ending 🙂
beautiful moment you've shared
You really are the best narrator I've ever heard, either professionally or as an amateur. Truly brilliant. Please keep these coming!
I've heard a number of these stories before, but you cover them and such detail, and with such passion that I feel like I'm hearing them for the first time.
Once again, amazing work.
And a really nice voice as a bonus.
For real I agreee
@@DaisyMaeMoses I agree, the content is interesting but I think I would enjoy listening to anything she has to say just to hear her say it.
Phenomenal job with this video and I HAD to subscribe ❤
fancy seeing you here good sir
Gerry’s story is so sad to me, and frightening in its simplicity. I top embarked on an AT home from Harper’s Ferry,WV. While I only hiked for about 15-20 miles or so and then camped for 3 days and then returned I discovered first hand just how easily and fast things could go sideways. From losing your orientation, improper storage of food, water filtration, weather the list goes on. And I was literally decked out in probably too much gear and had received training from trail guides on previous excursions. Yet still, it was abundantly clear I was one misstep from tragedy the whole time.
The horror I felt at multiple times in this video... the fact that yet another teacher ignored advice to go on a dangerous hike, the fact that the cave divers thought their friend was right behind them but he wasn’t, and the fact that the solo hiker didn't even know how to make a camp fire... nightmare fuel. The editing in this video is amazing. Thank you for sharing these stories.
Now you put it like that it really does seem the common thread is being arrogant, self-righteous, knowing better than anybody and refusing to heed any kind of common-sense advice because you know best. I'm just not going to care and take precautions because I'm so special and nothing can happen to me. It's really infuriating especially with the boys. The first photo was so beautiful, full of life and joy, peak time.
Same, I have a sick feeling in my stomach thinking about it, I hope I don’t have nightmares about the underwater cave one tonight…
@@kokoskokso maybe someone refuses to ask for advice or listen to any advice because for them it was a very negative experience.
Maybe they tried before and were humiliated badly or mocked by 'advisers'.
"Clearly not happy with mainlining the secrets of the universe in private" had me chuckling. This narrator has got to be one of my favorites. Even with the arsonist episode, her soothing voice made it hard to get too upset, and the fact that I had already known the story and still was impacted like the first time I heard it is a credit to their unbelievable voice
I was lost in the woods in Newfoundland when i was maybe 3.5 or 4. I barely remember anything about it but the only thing I can recall was that a crow led me to safety all the way back to the parking lot for the trail. I still think about the kindliness of that bird to help a young creature in need ❤️
Even the creatures are nice in Canada, especially on Newfoundland: the nicest place on Earth. Glad you still feel grateful for that bird saving your life.
Wow!!!!! Do you remember how you figured out to follow the crow?
A crow led me to my lost cat in a tree in the forest
Animals are the silent servants of God
@@meghansullivan6812 I don't clearly remember much because I was so small, the memory is barely on the edges of my consciousness. What I do remember is that I was in a silent strop so that's why I slipped away from my mum, and I remember the bird walking very steadily in front of me and occasionally flapping a wing out to keep my attention. He kept me on the trail until we got back to the parking lot where someone found me still playing with the bird. I was very lucky to find the bird and know to follow him because the wilderness in Newfoundland is very harsh and just a few steps off the trail could have meant I was lost forever.
Who knows how often similar stories play out but they never make it to the news because they have happy endings!
Pierre’s end is so scary for me, starving slowly over time in pitch black darkness, while your mind goes mad is every nightmare I’ve ever had.
IT WAS RELEASED WITH SUBTITLES!!! Not many creators do that and it takes a few days or someone making the subtitles for them. Thank you!
Yes, I really appreciate it. I find I don't watch any that don't have closed captioning because it is so frustrating. Her voice is clear, too.
Most YT videos have the full transcript in the description. You can click on the numbered time stamps to backtrack or move forward.
@@rt66vintage16 Yes, but then you have to try to read along in small font. It's exasperating.
RUclips has an automatic captioning option now, I think. But if anything, there are programs that can automatically transcribe them for you and you just need to review them for minor errors. It’s nice to see content creators who make sure their videos are accessible.
If I had a nickel for every German teacher that led students to their deaths hiking on a mountain in a foreign country, I would have 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice
As an Appalachia native… I’ll tell folks that the embarrassment of getting caught taking a leak is a helluva lot better than getting lost in the mountains. Also FYI 2 miles in the mountains can take A LOT more than 30 minutes to travel… obv it depends where you’re at but if you’re lost in an area without a path, 2 miles could take 2 hours or the most part of a day
honestly if lost in north american areas where you know at some point you will find infrastructure try and find powerlines or rivers, unlike many places for the most part the east coast you can always walk and eventually find something, the problem is not everyone can last that long
What do you say, Never underestimate the mountains?
Is that a good warning to live by, sir? What do you say?
I think for a lone woman like Gerry’s case beyond embarrassment there’s the fear of violence if someone finds you in a vulnerable position like that which is another reason having a hiking buddy is so useful
@@analyticalhabitrails9857what say you, sir!
You can get lost and die in an amazingly small area. Because all humans are asymmetrical, walking in a circle is unavoidable. People have walked for hours only to end up right back where they started, get upset and choose a totally different direction and end up right back where they started. If, as you say, there's a mountain that you can summit or a river to follow, that's hopeful, but many areas are flat and surprisingly uniform without flowing water. And you can easily follow a creek or stream only to end up in a pond, somewhere where no human has been in decades, even in America, which has been, as you alluded, completely developed from coast to coast. @@circleinforthecube5170
I have watched quite a number of YT videos about Gerry. They're all respectful to her memory, but I personally think yours does her the most justice. While they do not dehumanize her by any means, most other videos tend to be very detached and clinical. For instance, they just reuse the same photo of Gerry over and over again. But I truly appreciate that you went to great lengths to look at her for the person she was, by looking up pictures of her other than the last one taken of her, by looking up the emails and letters she had sent to her loved ones, and looking up quotes from the people who knew her best. Just goes to show that her legacy is more than just the way she died. Also, as a more generalized comment, I truly love your style of narration - very melancholy, empathic, with a touch of dry humor when appropriate. Thank you for your hard work.
The script for this video is beautifully crafted. One of the finest I've come across. Empathetic, but not soppy, and erudite, but not pompous in any way. Lovely work.
I can not stress enough how much I enjoy the way in which you tell the story. I was listening to the one premised around the "point of origin" and was utterly hooked. I sat in the parking lot for an hour, completely transfixed. Thank you so much for the time and work you put into these - very much appreciated 👏.
i really appreciate the art that you make, RH. i have a very shaky relationship with disaster chronicles and truecrime because a lot of the people who make that kind of content are here for the thrill of the death and the carnage. the genre often feels extremely voyeuristic and ghoulish to me. But you always center the humanity in each disaster: you reverently honor each person lost, you acknowledge the systemic failures that led to each disaster, you are deeply invested in the humanity lost in all these awful events you've chronicled. And i respect you and your art deeply for this.
A particular appreciation for getting some of the accounts and physical documentation. That takes a lot of time, but adds a lot to the story.
I'm from Austria, and specifically from a small mountain village, so I grew up around hiking and the wilderness. Inexperienced hikers are still a big problem today, many people really underestimate the danger the mountains can bring if you're not careful.
Around summertime our "Bergrettung" (the part of the ambulance that is specifically trained in mountain rescue) rescues at least one person per week because they underestimated how dangerous even an established hiking path can be.
kudos from Bavaria. And most of the time, they are not even injured, but simply exhausted and stuck.
Sir, I feel sick!!
Dangerous even on established hiking path...?!?!
O_O
I love kangaroos
so true... went to the Herzogstand in Bavaria in late May. There was still snow on top and some Asian tourists where walking around in Flip Flops, slipping and sliding all the way, still trying to reach the peak. And Herzogstand sure is no challenging peak.
Gerry’s story legit made me tear up. She reminded me of my own grandmother and I would be devastated if something like this had happened to her too
i noticed during the video you mentioned Gerry not knowing survival skills, one of said skills mentioned was following water down stream to find civilization. although this tip is usually helpful, it is extremely dangerous to do so in appalachia due to the geography of the appalachian mountains. none the less i love the video and think you did an amazing job sharing the true innate human fear of becoming lost.
Pieter's oxygen tank being relatively full reminded be of something similar I heard. When people get lost and die in the desert and they are found, they are frequently found with water still in their water containers. It is thought that they over-ration their water for fear of running out, and end up dying of thirst.
Your channel is one of the most professional and respectful tragedy coverage channels on RUclips. You don't steal footage, you don't sensationalize, you don't plagiarize, and you seem to take your work very seriously.
I agree! But I wish there were more than 9 videos!
The amount of joy I get from seeing a new Real Horror upload is quickly quashed as I get more into the video and lie in bed wondering what it would be like to get lost.
As a german i can confirm that a movie is not considered to be of suffitient quality here unless it features at least two suspicious looking goats in a scene that doesnt make any sense other than featuring said goats
Witzig. Sehr witzig.
I’ll never forget Gerry’s case. It was so heartbreaking for all of us when the forest finally gave her back and we knew for certain her fate. The Maine woods can be so unforgiving
Right but she was so close to the trail. How do you not walk in every direction atleast once ? And how far you really go off the trail to piss .
It was a suicide. She knew she was about to see her husband again and realized she didn’t love him so killed herself
@@JoeRogansForehead i've seen much better bait
@@acklesis bait? It’s true
@@JoeRogansForehead Spoken as somebody who has never walked in the forest
Spoken like a true jor rogan fan @@JoeRogansForehead
I feel like that feeling of dread is very similar to the feeling on freezing to death. No matter how hard you try, you know you won't be found, just like no matter how hard to try you know you won't get warm again. I almost froze to death in a wilderness therapy camp and suffered severe lasting effects of hypothermia, and can relate to that feeling of knowing your time is almost up.
The Jacob Geller channel made a few Fear Of.. videos and I thought this was another of them. I think he has one on cold.
"Wilderness Therapy Camp" sounds like a 1984 euphemism for prison.
I’m from Johannesburg and I actually went on a school tour to the Sterkfontein caves when I was younger. I remember our guide referencing someone who had dived into the cave and hadn’t resurfaced but I never knew the full story. It’s an eerie place even just walking in the dry cave system, I cannot imagine how terrifying it is underwater. May you rest in peace, Pieter.
When I was just a little kid, my number one fear was getting lost, and so much as even taking a wrong turn on the highway was enough to send me into hysterics. I've since gotten over that fear for the most part, and I think it mostly stemmed from my parents arguing whenever we took a wrong turn. It was stressful as a small child.
But... That fear still holds a little bit of weight. Most of the time, human kindness will get you back on the right track when you're lost (assuming that you're lost in an area where there's people). But sometimes it won't! And sometimes your mistakes will come back to bite you.
I *love* the amount of research that goes into these videos, but something really emotionally touched me when the video included personal details about Gerry. The descriptions about her passion for exploring and the willingness to sew on potentially silly pockets to carry bird feed or other items - it really helped me pause and take heartbreaking notice that this was a real person. This was someone who loved life, and will be desperately missed.
I thought I had heard this one but then you reminded me that was the English group, I can’t believe this happened again! How can someone in charge of children be so reckless?! Very informative video it is truly documentary quality!
yeah there were so many paralells that at first I thought I had already seen this video and was mis-remembering
@@yerabbitit's the same for me, I had thought maybe I had seen someone else cover the same story
A similar incident happened on Mount Hood in 1986 in the United States. It was also a school trip.
Keast, Hans Seiler, and the hubris of man. Although grim, Hans died with his mistake but took victims with him. Keast had the audacity to continue on with life as a false hero (may he rot).
edit: Gerry and Pieter's stories are haunting. So close to rescue..
At least Hans had the decency to try to protect the youngest boy, and likely at least realized his foolishness where as Keast tried to paint himself as a hero afterwards.
@@HeyLeFay I will have to read into Keast. I assumed he died during the incident from the way the video went, but he lived? I am going to research this.
Just found this channel, can I say how beautifully and wonderfully told these stories are! You have managed to capture the grim circumstances, the emotions, and the raw fear these people likely experienced in their ordeals. Your videos give a sense of dread and uncertainty that other documentations just simply cannot convey.
I was lost once. Seriously lost. For six hours . In the northern Ontario wilderness. As the sun began to set, I leaned on a rock in despair, shed some tears, and began to pray.....Please Lord God, help me find my way out. I wiped my tears, and miraculously picked the exact direction that led me to the road. I was there within minutes. I still consider this as a miracle in my life. It happened 30 years ago.
A true miracle 🙌🏾
I have been lost too. I would like to believe in God or a higher power but can't. Why did God point you in the right direction but not Gerry. Gerry appeared to be a very good person. Why were you chosen and not her? Unfortunately, I think it comes down to chance or good judgment. I say unfortunately because I would like to believe in God but can't make the logical jump..
Maybe simply good luck or judgment.@@lynch8418
I try not to forget moments like that myself. I'm not a hypochondriac but thought I had rabies and insisted on a pep shot because a bat was in a room I was sleeping in. All doctors told me I'd have known if I was bit, and would have woken up, despite all research to the contrary. Somehow the sense of dread lead my hand, an despite +$12k in medical debt, I feel like I saved my own life. That sense of possibly losing everything changes your perspective. Old friends might see you different from that point onward. Those are rare experiences where you truly know what in your life truly matters. From goals, to thoughts, to family members, to values. What in life is truly living, and truly important? Those are the things to know.
I have no idea how God works. Its not like a voice came down from heaven and told me the direction to pick. All I know is what I wrote - I prayed. I became calm. I somehow set my feet in the absolute correct direction. I don't know why, or how, or why some die instead of finding their way. Its a mystery to me. I just felt confident somehow. I can't explain it. @@davidc3839
No words for Gerry's story, such a wonderful person was lost from a mere bathroom break. Really goes to show how fast things can go off the rail in thick forestry.
I can think of a word: moron.
So heartbreaking that Geri was only half a mile from the trail. She really sounds like, from every source I've read or listened to (and there have been many) that she was an exemplary human ❤️ and a true gem.
It’s amazing they couldn’t find her in such a small search area. Then again I’ve never been to the forest in Maine.
These are so well made and read. You have great command of the English language, it sounds so professional but you add your own personality into it too.
This channel is very underrated
I live in Maine and remember the year that Gerry went missing. I took a school field trip to go hiking at Katahdin. We stopped at this little like resource/rest stop and there was a missing poster of her put up in the building. I remember really hoping they’d find her, and was so saddened when I heard she had passed.
Your videos are extremely well produced. I love these types of psychological and existential horror topics. You’ve earned a long time subscriber
Gerry's story is so so so sad. But at least she didn't die in the dark. Hopefully she was hearing birds and wind and looking up to the stars.
Her being such a short walk from the trail is heartbreaking. And all because she left the course to use the toilet! It's hard trying to understand how she walked in what can only be assumed to be a straight line off the trail, used the toilet, then walked that straight short distance back to the trail only for it not to be there. How on earth did that occur? Maybe she did walk back in the right direction but not quite far enough and turned back just a bit too early? From there it was over I suppose because she from then on only picked the wrong directions to try...
@@k1dn1ce76. I have a terrible sense of direction and can consequently relate to Gerry’s. I’d read about Geraldine before. One thing that was pointed out in the last piece l read about Gerry is that she set up her tent under a canopy of trees. This move added to her demise. If she’d set up her tent in an open area, she might have been found. Heartbreaking…..
@@wendycrawford1792 I wonder why she walked so far off the trail when she went to the toilet? I'm wondering if she walked a lot further in a straight line than she realised and hence misjudged the distance required to retrace the linear distance back. This would account for her walking back in the correct orientation but not finding the course upon doing so, as her direction was correct but she needed to carry on somewhat further to eventually come back upon the course. Once she made this mistake and turned back too early it was over for her as she took the opposite direction and headed continually further into the wilderness! This theory at least somewhat makes sense.
@@k1dn1ce76 She walked so far off the trail because she's a woman. The video even pointed out that she would go less far off usually, when she had a second person with her, but it's a different story on your own.
This is actually a huge problem in many countries in the world for women living in poor conditions without access to toilets. The danger of men finding you alone in such a vulnerable position is significant, so you go out further into the wilderness, which (as this video very clearly shows) comes with its own dangers.
its exetremley easy to get turned around in the woods, even small pockets are confusing, so having this massive expanse with difficult terrain on top of that,,, who knows if she walked back in the proper direction. One thing for certain is that this is an extremeley sad story that people on hikes can learn from, count your steps, get a reliable compass, and dont wander far off the trail even when it doesnt feel like a long walk. i hope she died at peace and with the knowledge that her family loved her and tried everything to get her back R.I.P. @@k1dn1ce76
I was lost once backpacking in Joshua Tree, I made one mistake which was not noting which direction I had gone off-trail (taking my GPS for granted) then come daytime I was out of water and had to head back but the heat of the day had my phone overheat which was not only my GPS but also my means of communication with emergency services via satellite. Clear view of the sky seems doable until it's 100 degrees out so at that point I was officially alone and left to my own intuition to get out of it, panic quickly set in when I realized this. Luckily I had been a boy scout when I was younger and one of the things we learned is what to do when lost, I recalled the first step being to stay calm because I thought it was peculiar until I had this experience, I truly believe the panic almost killed me in the heat. Once I was calm, I remembered the general direction I had gone off trail and luckily was still oriented enough to walk in that general direction -- until this point I'd been walking in the general direction of the road which had me parallel to the trail I was looking for. To make things worse it was full-spike season and I was wearing crocs, by the time I got back to the trail my feet were really messed up with spikes and I had to change socks. I almost kissed the ground when I was back on trail, but I still had miles of hiking through heat without water before I was home free. Luckily I made it with minor heat exhaustion and lots of lessons learned. Stay found, take notes, and don't rely on electronics alone as a means of navigating, have a PLB or Garmin InReach for emergencies, and if you get lost STOP and calm down to try to figure out which way to go. In panic, you WILL spin yourself around frantically searching for an exit, this will make you more lost, don't panic.
All 3 stories told are so tragic and it’s great to see you cover them with such respect and quality, amazing video
Each time I hear Gerry’s story, I wish for a different ending where she returns safely to her family.
Beautifully written and narrated.
I'm so glad I found this channel. I love that you approach the stories with a genuine sense of empathy for the people involved, but still manage to work in little funny bits at appropriate moments. It's so clear that a lot of thought and care goes into making these stories.
Would you ever consider doing an episode on the Sewol ferry disaster? There was so much that could have been avoided and so many children died because of terrible calls made by people in charge.
Extremely well narrated. These events are tragic but video is wonderfully made. Can't imagine all the efforts that went into making this video. From researching to animating to getting information from the people involved. Creator deserves appreciation.
Thanks for the A+ content. I can’t believe this is only the 7th video for your channel - it feels so dang polished and well made (just like the videos before it). Thanks for the incredible content.
I teared up at Gerry's letter about sending her possessions to her family :( what horrific stories presented in such a beautiful, gripping manner! Love your videos so much!
RIP Gerry, Pieter, and all involved in the mountain incident. 💚
Your narration is incredible. The way you chose to remain silent during the shot of the line of coffins demonstrated such respect for those people. And also gave the sense of, there's nothing to be said at this point...the image of those coffins says enough. Knowing when not to speak is as important as knowing what to say while narrating, IMO. I love your channel so much. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!
The main mistake Gerry made was hiking ALONE after her partner left. You just do not hike alone especially if you're an amateur of modest health and physical condition. Going on such a long hike while not being able to use a compass of all things is strange to me, too. Why would a family let an elderly lady hike through the country alone? Anything can happen and she would be defenceless and vulnerable.
Imagine if she could have started a big fire with pine needles and leaves on it for smoke. That was her biggest mistake, having 0 survival skills.
@@krishanson5503if she had a compass and basic reasoning skills, she could have found the trail within 3-5 hours.
You set up your tent, take your Compas and walk north for half an hour.
No trail in sight? Go back south in a straight line, back to your tent.
Do the same into 3 other directions and you are guaranteed to find the trail.
You also could have used any other method of finding your way back to the tent. Basically venture out as far as you safely can without loosing your way back to your tent.
This is what I would have done. (or Maybe I would have lost my tent and then ran as far as I could, panicked and in any random direction until I collapse due to exhaustion.)
@@carlpanzram7081 That's what I kept on thinking. Just walk around, mark your way, worst case come back and try a different route. I wouldn't allow her to go on a day hike alone, let alone the AT for days on her own. It's irresponsible. Even if you just stumble and fall and hit your head, whatever. Being older, back issues, confused and self-righteous was a disaster waiting to happen. But like you say, who knows what we'd done in her shoes. People react in strange ways when in panic mode. I'm going to check out the survival books that were show at the end of the video, that was a nice move.
@@carlpanzram7081 it does seem to be strange and to be honest, even the writer of the book was a little confused at points! But when you consider the following: a) she didn't have a working compass (the writer tested out the model she had - it was useless), b) she went deeper into the forest and lost all orientation, c) the trail is north-south bound but it isn't straight (meaning if you become lost you have to be exceptionally precise in your navigation), d) the forest is extremely dense, you can't always just go north or south very easily on foot and e) it rained for the first few days she was missing, making navigation via the sun very difficult - then it does kind of make a bit more sense. And that's not even considering the rapid cognitive decline due to starvation. Just really awful and unfortunate.
I get what you're saying but don't blame her family. Yeah she was elderly and unprepared, but she was still an autonomous adult. How exactly would you not "let" her do something she was determined to do?
Whoever is narrating this, you're an incredible storyteller.
Agreed, not annoying like others on YT. Kudos, narrator!
If by narrator you mean a third party reading a script, there is none. The woman reading is the one who runs the channel and writes and researches everything. She's a journalist.
@@BlakouttheMM That's all the more impressive, even more so with RUclips recently being flooded with robot voices over stock footage.
@@Ama-Elaini I know. Sadly there's so many channels right now with AI scripts and AI voices that a channel like this by a real human being can get lost in the mix. But she does such a great job that it really does stand out. That human advantage 🙂
I agree, just one thing I don't like is the fake "eeeeh" kind of stuttering she does sometimes. It feels a bit forced. That's the only thing I have to remark on though, other than that it's a 10/10.
I've seen this channel pop up on my feed recently and I sorta avoided it for fear that it was going to be another sensational true crime channel. The kind that treats the stories they tell as JUST stories, and not real things that happened to real people. But having watched the most recent video, and now binging several more, I am so happy to say that I was wrong.
The research is so thorough and detailed. Social issues happening at the time of the case being discussed is always brought up. Upmost sensitivity and respect is given to the people who were personally affected by these tragedies. And through all the facts and exploration, the personality of the video maker comes through. It's quiet, respectful, playful when you're able to but never to the extent up disrespecting or derailing whatever story is being told. I adore this style, and again, I am SO so happy that my first impression was wrong. This is stellar work.
Mud and Snow. A True story of horror.
2014, my cousin Eric and I in the Nevada highlands. Our grandfather was moving so we decided to cruise down to help and make a roadtrip out of it. We had planned to just drive through the night one sleep if needed. Well, we changed plans. Why not pop the flask and head in to the campground and have a fire under the stars.
Hell yeah. "No, no, further in, lets go all the way to the back so the bonfire can't be seen from the highway"
An hour later we were blasting music and buzzed had a fire...we were five miles deep into a closed campground, totally out of season... no one around for a hundred miles, and some snow flakes started. It was pristine. Take a picture of that.
Within 60 minutes. We were in a fight for our lives.
A few facts had emerged by that time. Neither one of us had any service on our phones and hadn't and didn't expect to. We were out of gas. It was a white out blizzard, sideways. We had no winter clothes, not even a jacket - we were headed to Vegas, dumbasses in shorts and t-shirts. The dirt road was no longer visible, and being March, what wasn't "road" at best wasn't much more than mud.
We had to get back to the highway. We knew it was about "5 miles tops that way"
But Anytime I'd get the truck off the trail - a total guessing game - even just a little bit, I'm running the risk of spinning tires. Pools of mud and slush, perfectly concealed with this layer of fast rising snow. Margin for error so slim, traveling with any speed meant sliding off the road and a wrestling match with nature to get back on it.
First time in my life I've ever been that scared with another person. I mean, I've gotten myself in some sht before, but it's usually just me. Another person there was new.
And I thank God it was Eric. A Bull. A fucking Savage bull who with brute strength and balls of steel, I'm convinced, saved our lives that day.
We got to a junction after an hour of exhaustive, minimal travel, couldnt see more than a few feet, had no more than a few minutes worth of gas, the engine was going to sputter out any second. We had two choices. Eric thought left, I thought right.
But he was surer than me, and he's the kinda guy that ain't sure unless he's sure.
So we took the left path and we get going downhill. A quick downhill into a big uphill...
I was terrified, it meant we were going to be stuck in a bowl, even if it was the right way, we can't get this truck out now. We didn't have the speed or traction to get up...and before I could make a sound, door flies open, eric jumps out and is pushing the back end...i thought it was a futile excercise but i swear to god he was able to plant his feet against a tree stump and he brute force kept the back end from sliding into the ditch and somehow, i don't know how, the tires got a grip and he's screaming GO GOGOGO GOGOG...
From there on we were gravy...he was right, that was the correct path...just 4 miles or so of flat, dilineated clearly define road, no mud, still no no visibility, but no mud to worry about. My meant death and we coulnd't see it. You ever been in situation where you're covered in mud but all you can see in all directions is white?...it's a mindfck. This beuuitufl peaceful flawless snow, covering up thick dark mud... 20+ inches of snow came down that night up there. thankfully we didn't have to walk through four miles worth of the most unholy cookies and cream nightmare sauce imaginable.
It was the first time I recognized the truth of the line that this video starts with. That when you put yourself into the elements, small changes in environment coupled with your small mistakes can mean your ass.
I was thinking:, man how fckin dumb am I? People gonna find my frozen corpse dressed for summer.
Anyway, stay frosty out there. Never bring the "everything always works out" mentality into nature. It may be a good philosophy for much in life, but not the elements.
Wow! Glad you made it out.
wow, what a story. And a lot of honesty on your part. Congrats to making it out and giving Eric the credit (and you the cleverness to listen to him),
Oh wow!! There isn't really a word I can think of. "Congrats" isn't really right but it's the closest one!
I just shit my pants reading your story.....Glad you made it...
Even if Hans was as good a mountaineer as he thought he was. Apparently he never stopped to think whether everyone in his class also was.
That’s just the reality of grossly overestimating your own abilities in combination with a pride that won’t let you admit defeat. An experienced mountaineer wouldn’t feel the need to prove themselves nor would they have gone through with the hike. If Hans truly had had knowledge in the field, even if they got lost, he’d know what to do if they did. Which he clearly didn’t…
I literally yelled "Oh my God!" hearing about the warnings.
I'm convinced people who are confident should not be allowed on mountains.
Its not confidence, its arrogance
This is one of the best documentary style RUclips videos I've ever watched. I was enthralled the entire time, you have an incredible storytelling ability.
The little bits of dry humor really help add some levity to such a dark video without being inappropriate. Even so, these stories hit like a hammer. Gerry’s story particularity so.
Yes another Real Horror video. Absolutely love your stuff! Thanks for liking my tweets about you too! Love you're voice too, very soothing - a good juxtaposition...
Lengthy story incoming. You've been warned.
About three years ago, I was travelling solo in Cumbria, North of England, to see the Lake District. The hotel I was staying at was in a little town called Seascape, roughly ten miles west of the Lake District. I went in early October so the weather was rather temperamental. Cold, raining and gale force winds, but I was wrapped up quite well. I left my hotel early on the first morning, grabbed some fruit, bread, and a couple bottles of water and prepared myself to walk towards the Lake District. I love long walks and always have, especially solo ones. I walked miles and miles until I found a steep mountain path which led me directly into an imposing forest. It took me nearly an hour and a half to reach the end of this path to where I eventually came out to a clearing. Tall mountains stood in the distance and I wanted to get as close to them as possible. At this point of my journey, it had just gone 1pm and it was getting colder. Throughout the entirety of my walk, I never saw a single soul. I was completely alone and I loved it.
As I got closer to the mountains, the grass around me became higher and higher, subsequently reaching my shoulders, and I found myself walking through increasingly tougher terrain. But I had no idea that I was walking straight towards a very well-hidden stream of water. A poorly-placed step resulted in me falling head first into the stream, spraining my ankle and hitting my head on a rock. Immediately, I fell unconscious.
I didn't regain consciousness until about 8:15pm that evening. I was disorientated, had an agonising headache, my foot was swollen and I was soaked. But the worst part was that it was dark. Very, very dark to the point where I could barely see my own hand in front of my face. I kid you not, for a few seconds when I awoke, I thought I had somehow permanently lost my vision. Thankfully I quickly located my phone, but the battery was in the single digits. There was no signal either. Once I managed to pick myself up and compose myself, I gradually began to make my way back by sparingly using the torchlight on my phone to light my way. However, my phone went off after about fifteen minutes, leaving me in complete darkness. It was extremely cold, I was wet and very hungry, and in a place that might aswell have been another planet. Plus, I was worried that I might have had a concussion from when I hit my head. I had no choice but to just keep walking (well, limping) and pray for the best. It took me 3-4 hours to walk back down the mountain path. I kept thinking to myself, what if there is someone lurking out there in the darkness? What if I pass out again from exhaustion? I was vulnerable and lost. As I somehow found the mountain path again, my eyes had eventually adjusted and my route was partially lit by some stars and a clouded moon.
After what felt like forever, I finally reached the bottom of the path in a much more well-lit area, and then eventually a small town where I managed to book a taxi to take me back to my hotel. The driver must have noticed my exhausted expression and damp clothing as he asked me if I was okay, to which I replied, with a blasé smile, that I was. I got back to the hotel just before midnight. I cannot explain to you the overwhelming sense of relief I experienced when I returned to the warmth of my hotel room, jumped in the shower and switched on the television. I managed to order a late night meal and sat in my room, staying at a wall thinking to myself "I could've died out there... in the elongated grass, at the bottom of that stream, and my body could've never been found. My mother, my family, my friends... they never would've known what happened to me." I will never forget the paralysing chill that ran down my spine from this one thought.
I never ended up going to the hospital, which realistically was probably a very stupid idea. I just wanted to forget that day existed. Although I managed to enjoy the rest of my holiday, I refrained from walking long distances and chose to take public transport as much as possible.
I think the moral of the story is that it really can take surprisingly little to end up in a perilous situation and be overwhelmed by fear of death, the unknown and getting lost, even in the places we would probably least expect it to happen. It doesn't have to be an underwater cave. It could be a field in an area you're not familiar with. But one thing I can admit with utmost certainty --- I have never been more terrified than I was when my phone ran out of battery and I was left stumbling through complete darkness, unbearably cold, wet, injured and starved, and not knowing who, or what, was out there with me.
Thanks for reading. Stay safe, my friend.
What a read man. Glad you're safe and alright
Mate, if you haven't gone to the hospital or doctor to check your noggin, you really need to do so. Head injuries aren't always a straightforward, immediate thing. Please think about this.
Thank God you made it. It took a lot of strength to keep yourself going and not give up.
well that was quite stupid wasn't it lol, walking alone in an unfamiliar place. hope you bring a friend next time.
He is at risk for developing seizures later in life @@daisy3869
i clicked this video very unaware of how horrible I would end up feeling for these stories, but still worth the watch, for both the atmosphere and the respect for these stories. I think the fact some of them were so, so close to rescue is so depressing and so terrifying
This is so sad, but so beautifully done. You are really, really good at this kind of storytelling, and I for one am very grateful.
I remember Gerry's story well as Stephen King has a novel called "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" that starts with a young girl going off trail to use the restroom and immediately becoming lost in the dense Maine forest. The second I heard a relatively inexperienced "elderly" hiker went missing in Maine on the AT I knew she was lost and couldn't believe some of the speculative BS I read online. To know that searchers were SO close to her is heartbreaking, she was likely so afraid and hopeless as time went on despite her attempts to be visible.
Gerry's sad story reminds me of that Stephen King book as well. It's one of my favorites.
*SPOILER ALERT*
It's so unfortunate that the ending wasn't different for Gerry.
@@shelleyfowler8064Stop spoiling the novel for those who haven't read it. 🤫😬🤨
@@paolorossi5989 Yikes! You're right! I apologize for that! I've edited my post.
@@shelleyfowler8064 You should have deleted the last sentence. 😒
@@paolorossi5989Spoiler Alerts are like road blocks. If someone chooses to climb over it...?🤷
"Pieter's Last Dive" is more horrifying than anything Stephen King has ever written.
@ElizabethSanto22Nutty putty was a freak getting off of being rescued multiple times. He repeatedly put himself in dangerous, tight places and either barely survived or needed others to risk their lives for his. Not even having a family was enough, like a serial killer, he couldn't stop himself and got stuck one last time. Thankfully, nobody died trying to save him.
@@ChessJourneymanthe nutty putty guy hadn’t been caving in many years so I’m not sure what you are on about. He was visiting his family over Thanksgiving and decided to go caving since they had done it with their dad as kids. He made a mistake and paid for it with his life. I wouldn’t describe him as someone who was constantly putting himself into dangerous situations
.
@@ChessJourneymanyou think the guy who died in the Putty continued to purposely get himself stuck? And how was he exactly a freak ? You make it sound like he enjoyed having people risk their lives to try and save him. And he made a big mistake. You’re upset because he put other people’s lives in danger in trying to rescue him? Humans are explorers and it’s in our nature. And don’t worry. You didn’t sign up to put your life at risk to rescue someone from a cave.
Of course its scarier because its true. Wtf kind of comparison is that?
@@niksonrex88 - I just write comparisons like this trigger the miserable, unhappy RUclipsrs. It worked again..
Living in Maine, with many teachers who have hiked the Appalachian Trail, I grew up with stories of Gerry. I felt a connection to her, despite never knowing her personally. Rest in peace, darling old gal ❤
As heartbreaking as their stories are, I am glad that Pieter and Gerry were able to leave messages for their loved ones. Hopefully, their words provided some measure of comfort to those left behind.
It makes me so sad that in the end most people aren’t thinking about themselves but of their loved ones,
Probably feeling so much regret and sadness that they won’t see them again
I almost got lost one night (or did temporarily) in mountainous terrain here in Colorado several Novembers ago, and it still haunts me whenever I think about it. I'm ashamed to admit I made every stupid mistake in the book: no water, inadequate clothing, and had told nobody where I was. It was supposed to be a quick trip to a waterfall I thought I could find without problem. I was wrong. Not only did I never reach the intended location, I became unsure as to the exact route I had taken, and it was getting late in the day. By the mercy of God I found my truck just as daylight was fading into dark (otherwise I was stuck). I literally fell to my knees in thanksgiving. My overconfidence nearly had disastrous consequences. Don't ever be the fool that I was.
I was lost in the Australian outback as a 12yo. It was terrifying, i looked around and couldn't even find my own footprints.
That's scary
How did you get back?
@@pradeepchauhan6784 picked a random direction and tried to walk my way out in a straight line, I had to hit something eventually. I finally heard a motor changed direction towards the motor. Still took a few more hours to find where I'd come from. there is no addresses in grawin and I didn't live there so didn't know how to get thru the rabbit waren to get back to my sister's. I'm so thankful to the man who rescued me and took hours to make sure I got back to where I should be, he could have left me at their local pub but he made sure I got back there. 🖤🖤🖤 I wish I could remember his name but I was freaking out and all the emotions I'd been holding in the whole time I was lost just came blubbering out.
Trail of bread crumbs aka Hansel and gretel. J/k 😂
@@DavidThomas-qq4hf wasnt it Ginger bread happy holiday
A stellar video! So well done it’s made me decide not to start reading books again…yet. Thank you for the distinguished storytelling and voiceovers that make us want to hear more!