The Crux True Survival Stories

15-Year-Old Alone on Kit Carson Peak: A 200-Foot Fall | E262

A 15-year-old hiker set out on an ambitious three-day backpacking trip through Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, planning to summit four 14ers. He successfully climb

Lost in the Outback for 43 Days: The Man Who Didn't Want to be Found | E261

When tourists found an abandoned bicycle on a remote track in Australia's Great Sandy Desert, it triggered one of the strangest missing person searches in outback history

The 1967 Denali Disaster: 7 Climbers Trapped Above 19,000 Feet | Disaster Strikes E 260

In July 1967, only 213 people had ever stood on the summit of Denali. When an inexperienced climbing team was denied a permit, the National Park Service made an unusual d

A Four-Hour Float, Three Days Lost | E 259

A summer tubing trip on Michigan’s Muskegon River was supposed to last just four hours. But when two women and a nine-year-old boy failed to return, a massive search and

119 Days Upside Down; Trapped Inside the Capsized Rose-Noëlle | E258

At 6 AM on June 4, 1989, a wave the skipper estimated at sixty feet flipped the trimaran Rose-Noëlle upside down off New Zealand’s East Cape, trapping four men — a self-t

Forbidden Island, Certain Death: He Swam to Shore Anyway | Disaster Strikes

John Allen Chau spent years preparing for one mission: reach the Sentinelese — the world's most isolated tribe, on an island India has forbidden outsiders from entering s

15 Hours in a Crevasse: The Denali Rescue That Shouldn't Have Worked

Trauma surgeon Martin Takac came to Alaska to climb Denali, the highest mountain in North America. He reached the summit. The hardest part, it seemed, was behind him. The

Managing Fear: Survival Lessons from Megan Hine

This week, hosts Kaycee McIntosh and Julie Henningsen sit down with Megan Hine—expedition leader, wilderness survival expert, television survival consultant, and the surv

40 MPH Winds, One Meter of Visibility: The Stranger on Ben Nevis

January 2026. A blizzard is raging on Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in the Scottish Highlands — gale-force winds, sub-zero temperatures, and visibility of about one meter—w

Swallowed by the Nile; The Life and Death of Hendrik Coetzee | Disaster Strikes

Hendrik "Hendri" Coetzee was one of the most decorated whitewater explorers in the history of African river kayaking — a South African who had paddled the length of the N

Stranded in Death Valley: Six Days of Impossible Decisions

In April 2021, experienced hikers Emily Henkel and Alexander Lofgren set out to explore Death Valley National Park. They had maps, emergency gear, a backcountry plan, and

27 Years of Silence: Maine's North Pond Hermit

For decades, cabins around Maine's North Pond were burgled by someone who took food, books, and propane — and fixed the doors on his way out. Locals called him the North

Poisoned on Everest: The $20 Million Rescue Scam | Disaster Strikes

Most people think the greatest danger on Mount Everest is the mountain itself. But beginning in 2018, investigators uncovered an alleged $20 million Everest helicopter re

Five Hours Overboard in the Pacific

Commercial diver Scott Thompson is harvesting sea urchins off the California coast when a split-second accident leaves him overboard in the Pacific Ocean. With his boat d

He Woke Up Naked Beside a Polar Bear

Danish explorer Peter Freuchen and his family huddled in a Greenland cave to escape a brutal blizzard in the eatly 1900's. The temperature was thirty degrees below zero.

The Mount Cleveland Five: 188 Days Buried on Glacier National Park's Highest Peak | Disaster Strikes

In late December 1969, five accomplished young mountaineers set out to make history on Glacier National Park's highest peak—a 4,000-foot wall of rock and ice that had nev

He Left the Raft. Lost for 5 Days. Why?

Professional river guide and Eagle Scout Gabriel Vaughn knows Oregon's Illinois River better than most people ever will. But after a disagreement just above the infamous

60 Feet Away: How a 19-Year-Old Stopped a Grizzly Attack With His Bare Hands

On October 15, 2022, four college wrestlers hiked into Wyoming's Shoshone National Forest to hunt for shed antlers. They never saw the grizzly coming. When the bear attac

500 Yards From Safety: The 1971 Cairngorm Plateau Disaster: Disaster Strikes

On November 22, 1971, RAF rescuers spot a young woman crawling across the Cairngorm Plateau after two nights in a relentless blizzard. With only a few words, she points t

181 Miles in the Wrong Direction: Lost in the Sahara

In April 1994, Mauro Prosperi—a 38-year-old Olympic pentathlete and Italian police officer from Rome—entered the Marathon des Sables, a 156-mile ultramarathon across the