Survival Books

[Dark Muse]

I have recently started reading a book called The Silent Land. I just started so I don't know what direction it is going to take, but it starts out with this couple who go out skiing and get caught in an avalanche. This is the sort of thing that right away draws my interest.

I loved the movie Alive, I don't know if anyone where remembers it, or has seen it, but it is about this group of people who survive a plane crash but are stranded in the mountains (I cannot remember what part of the world) and it does get to the point of cannibalism as a necessitity for survival.

As I kid I loved the book Hatchet and of other simillar stories, such as the book Julia of the Wolves.

I really love those sort of survivor stories, of man being reduced to his primitive state and having to struggle within the elements.

Can anyone recommend any good books that are along these lines?

[Paulclem]

I have recently started reading a book called The Silent Land. I just started so I don't know what direction it is going to take, but it starts out with this couple who go out skiing and get caught in an avalanche. This is the sort of thing that right away draws my interest.

I loved the movie Alive, I don't know if anyone where remembers it, or has seen it, but it is about this group of people who survive a plane crash but are stranded in the mountains (I cannot remember what part of the world) and it does get to the point of cannibalism as a necessitity for survival.

As I kid I loved the book Hatchet and of other simillar stories, such as the book Julia of the Wolves.

I really love those sort of survivor stories, of man being reduced to his primitive state and having to struggle within the elements.

Can anyone recommend any good books that are along these lines?

That's a book I've been considering getting. I think the cannibalism occurred in the Andes. Weren't the survivors part of a rugby team?

[mal4mac]

Aron Lee Ralston amputated his right hand with a swiss army knife to free himself from a dislodged boulder, which had trapped him in the mountains for several days. I've only seen the film (127 hours), but the book is also supposed to be very good. British "expeditions gone wrong" are always good for survival stories, we always try too hard. Try looking for accounts of Scott & Shackleton's mis-adventures, or climbing stories like Joe Simpson's "Touching the Void" (film or book).

[Dark Muse]

That's a book I've been considering getting. I think the cannibalism occurred in the Andes. Weren't the survivors part of a rugby team?

They might have been, it has been years since I have seen that movie.

[Volya]

I can't remember the name of it but there is a book about some (real) guy who wanted to be free and become an explorer so he decided to go live in the Alaskan wilderness without a map or food or anything (spoiler: he died). I think it's a fairly well known book so maybe somebody else on the forum knows what it was called?

[Ecurb]

Yes. It's "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer (who also wrote "Into Thin Air", the best selling mountaineering book of all time).

[Volya]

That's the one, thanks Ecurb :)

[Paulclem]

Heinrich Harrer's book -7 years in Tibet charts two German mountain climbers who escaped into Tibet from India. It was made into a film with Brad Pitt.

[qimissung]

The Long Walk by Slowomir Rawicz

[Dark Muse]

The Long Walk by Slowomir Rawicz

I wanted to see that movie, but then I forgot what it was called, so thank you for remindming me, now I can netflix it. And I will have to look into the book.