Epics

The pilot transmitted a mayday moments before ditching in the open ocean. Frank, wrapped in Ken's pullover and new windproofs, was still lashed semi-conscious to the stretcher. Sugar couldn't swim.

How do you walk away from a 40-foot groundfall?

“Will it go trad?” my climbing buddy asked. “Hmmm, I hadn’t thought of that. Wonder if it could?” I wanted all my hard work of route developing to pay off. I wanted something that others could climb, that was the best it could be.

I plummeted in darkness, stars swirling sickeningly over my head, thinking only, I am falling. I am still falling. As I started to wonder what my injuries would consist of, I hit. I have hit before, falling off a fence or out of a tree. This was different. This was not a bonk, “Ow!” This was a wham.

For two brothers, being trapped on a mountain was the easy part.

Bee attack in Belize.

A narrow escape in the Tetons.

One ... two ... three ... Four counts of silence. SMASH!

Ed Wright describes a medical crisis high on a 600-foot wall.

In Some Lost Place is Sandy Allan’s book about team’s first ascent of the Mazeno Ridge of Nanga Parbat (8,126 metres) in 2012. A team of six---Sandy, Rick Allen, Cathy O’Dowd, Lhakpa Rangdu, Lhakpa Nuru and Lakpa Zarok---reached the Mazeno Gap, before Sandy and Rick went on to the summit...

Squinting across and up the gully I saw a backlit brown disk, spinning, the size of a couch pillow, heading straight toward me.

A blown rappel usually results in death, but luckily we don’t end there in this Epic. Listen as Richard Wright recalls his partner's close call as his rappel device falls hundreds of feet below them.