I Will Survive - Jason Daley

Rating - ****

The key to success when put in dangerous and life threatening situations in the outdoors is to eliminate all thoughts about your pain, emotions and fear. The tale of Colby Coombs, a 25-year-old national outdoors leadership school instructor proves that what is in the way of your survival is the mental things.

This article is informative and gives great advice on how to overcome fears and emotions when you least need them to survive. It tells the story of Coombs, who was vacationing in the Alaska Range with his college friends, Tom Walter and Ritt Kellogg. They took on 17,400-foot Mount Foraker and tried to finish the ‘Pink Panther’ route over three days. The three men had almost reached their goal when a huge storm hit the mountain and let loose. Coombs was knocked 800 feet down the side of the mountain and after six hours he woke up dangling from his rope. He found both of his friends after hiking for another day, dead and covered in ice.

The rest of the article talked about how Coombs was able to carry on down the mountain with two fractured vertebrae in his neck, a broken shoulder blade and a fractured ankle, leaving his friends behind. Coombs is living proof that you need think about your goals and focus on meeting them; don’t focus on your pain and fear. Feeling sorry for yourself will only set you back. Today the 37- year-old emphasizes teaching safety at his Alaska Mountaineering school.

In the outdoors you have to be prepared for anything and everything, you may be encountered with scary and painful situations. Through this article I have learned that you must be physically ready for anything, but most importantly mentally prepared.

Daley, Jason. "I Will Survive - The Top Ten Wilderness Survival Stories" Outside Magazine online. Sep. 2004