Gone are the days when someone sheepishly falls down on a hiking trail and keeps it to themselves. The other side of Instagram glory — where peak gloating is on display alongside all other fabulous outdoor escapades being shared — are the tales of how things went wrong.
In rare cases, a misadventure is so awful it becomes news, such as climber Aaron Ralston’s self-amputation in 2003 to unpin his right arm from a boulder. Yet as any search-and-rescue team can share, there are countless stories every day of ordinary people who find themselves in precarious situations while trying to enjoy time outdoors.
And they’re now being told in a variety of podcasts.
Some of these stories are inherently a lesson without the need for a teaching moment spelled out. Others might include a footnote about how to properly prepare for even the simplest outing so there can hopefully be a safe rescue, if needed, or what the reality is of being up close to wild animals.
“One of the common themes in our survival stories — that I don’t think I would have fully appreciated if we weren’t making so many of them — is that it’s almost never just one thing that goes wrong,” shared Peter Frick-Wright, host of the Outside Podcast, in an email interview. “Most people who come close to dying in the wilderness are unlucky or unprepared in two or three different ways that compound on each other to cause a crisis. You lose your firestarter AND fall in the freezing river AND you don’t have a dry set of clothes. You can overcome any two of those problems, but when all three happen you’re in trouble. It’s amazing how consistent it is.”
The Outside podcast is part of Outside Magazine, which is now based in Boulder, Colorado, and not all of its episodes involve accidents. In fact, many of the episodes are the opposite: people who have pushed themselves physically and conquered challenges in the outdoors and now they are sharing how they did it.
“Way, Way Too Close to a Whale” is an episode from earlier this year about two women who go kayaking off the coast of California to chase humpback whales. The story builds with why they went kayaking, what fears and experience they had beforehand, and the dramatic moment when they were suddenly swallowed by a whale. Lesson: Keep your distance from wildlife.
Colorado-based adventure photographer Pete McBride is also interviewed for a brief episode that highlights his startling encounter with an orca.
While many of these stories are told solely from the perspective of the individuals who experienced the near mishap, some episodes get the other side of the story from rescuers. For example, “A Bold Rescue on a Moab Cliff” is not about the BASE jumper whose chute got snagged on the cliff when he struck the rocks and was seriously injured, but the mountain biker who literally swung into action to save his life.
KZMU Community Radio in Moab has decided to take the stories from Grand County Search and Rescue (GCSAR) for a new podcast that will debut later this year.
“The goal of this podcast is to entertain and also educate,” said Molly Marcello, news and public affairs director at KZMU. “There are so many ways to recreate here, which is one of the reasons that Moab is so special for outdoor enthusiasts. That also means there are so many ways to get into trouble.”
Upcoming episodes will highlight the many (!) broken ankles that happen on a popular hike where, despite signs warning against doing so, people jump into a small pond at the bottom of a waterfall; mountain bikers experiencing extreme dehydration on Whole Enchilada Trail; and inventive ways to self-rescue from a slot canyon using your pants.
“The stories that I’ve heard involve a mixture of tourists and locals,” Marcello said. “People can get into trouble by not being prepared or by making sketchy decisions, but accidents do also just happen. We’re hoping people will plan for the worst even if it’s a short hike.”
It’s important to note that search-and-rescue organizations like this are typically made up of volunteers and there can be costs to your rescue, depending on what resources are needed.
Wyoming Public Radio’s HumaNature podcast is recorded in Laramie, and it also has stories of people from anywhere, not just in Wyoming, who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances in the wild. Maybe you just want to hear about the guy who broke a record by pushing a peanut with his nose up Pikes Peak (the summit is 14,115 feet above sea level), but you can also listen to episodes about an experienced hunter who gets lost in the woods or more tales of people who learned the hard way that you need to keep your distance from wildlife.
If you have a wild tale to tell, you can submit it to HumaNature and possibly be featured on a future episode. Frick-Wright said that the majority of their stories come from contributors to Outside — or even just when a producer hears a good story around the campfire.
The next time you live to tell after a narrow escape in the great outdoors, consider which podcast you want to interview you about the nitty-gritty details.
