Epic Survival Stories

"Epic" is a mountaineering term that evokes a sense of treacherous disaster. The climb that went wrong: fighting blinding snowstorms and horrific avalanches; days spent tentbound running low on food, water, and oxygen; surviving broken bones and shattered spirits. This program offers a collection of the most memorable accounts of legend-making expeditions to the world's most famous peaks, often in the worst possible conditions.

A mountain girl in the early 1900’s copes with a marriage arranged by her dad. Her story is titled from an old saying “I own my land, heaven-high and hell-deep.” “Your pa gave his consent for us to marry,” he said the words as though it was a simple matter. It wasn’t a romantic proposal of love and devotion. It wasn’t a proposal at all. I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I tried again. “I don’t know your name,” I managed to say as I felt my chest constrict. There was a pain in me that started at my toes and went to the roots of my hair. Dad had come up with a ...

In the spring of 1983, massive flooding along the length of the Colorado River confronted a team of engineers at the Glen Canyon Dam with an unprecedented emergency that may have resulted in the most catastrophic dam failure in history. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named “The Emerald Mile” at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd, but downright suicidal.

The Unfiltered Truth Behind Sailing’s Greatest Madness The Vendée Globe is not just a race—it is a solitary pilgrimage across the planet’s most hostile oceans, a test of endurance, ingenuity, and raw will. In The Epic Story of the Vendée Globe 2020–21, the drama of the world’s toughest sailing challenge unfolds in all its brutal beauty. The 2020-21 Vendée Globe was supposed to be just another edition of the world’s toughest solo yacht race. Instead, it became a white-knuckle psychodrama of shattered boats, broken minds, and the kind of raw human moments that get scrubbed from...

He stole my freedom to save his honor. I’ll steal his heart to reclaim my future. Alexandra This is not how my story ends. I’m Alexandra Turner—Manhattan-born, Prada-bred, and impossible to break. Sure, my bank account might be empty, my credit cards maxed out, and now I’m abducted by some muscle-bound alien brute. He watches me like I’m his prize, but if he thinks I’ll play along, he’s delusional. Fine, he stole me. Big deal. I know how to survive, and I’m not above playing dirty to win. He’s all brawn and fury, but there’s something in his gaze that stirs me—a ...

An old-fashioned quest by a modern-day adventurer. When A. J. Mackinnon quits his job in Australia, he knows only that he longs to travel to the well at the world’s end, a mysterious pool on a remote Scottish island whose waters, legend has it, hold the secret to eternal youth.

Laia is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire's greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.

On November 5, 1942, a U.S. cargo plane slammed into the Greenland ice cap. Four days later, a B-17 on the search-and-rescue mission also crashed. Miraculously, all nine men on the B-17 survived. The U.S. military launched a second daring rescue operation, but the Grumman Duck amphibious plane sent to find the men vanished. In this thrilling adventure, Mitchell Zuckoff offers a spellbinding account of these harrowing crashes and the fate of the survivors and their would-be saviors.

In this gripping narrative, Ben Macintyre tackles one of the most famous prison stories in history and makes it utterly his own. During World War II, the German army used the towering Colditz Castle to hold the most defiant Allied prisoners. For four years, these prisoners of the castle tested its walls and its guards with ingenious escape attempts that would become legend. But as Macintyre shows, the story of Colditz was about much more than escape.

Renowned storyteller Philip Pullman returns to the parallel world of Lyra Belacqua and His Dark Materials for a thrilling and epic adventure in which daemons, alethiometers, and the Magisterium all play parts.

The windows between the many worlds have been sealed, and the momentous adventures of Lyra Silvertongue’s youth are long behind her - or so she thought. Lyra is now a 20-year-old undergraduate at St. Sophia’s College, and intrigue is swirling around her once more. Her daemon, Pantalaimon, is witness to a brutal murder, and the dying man entrusts them with secrets that carry echoes from their past. The more Lyra is drawn into these mysteries, the less she is sure of.

This is an epic poem that takes you on a sweeping, immersive trip into Africa's vast and untamed environment. It celebrates FitzPatrick's ageless bond with his loyal friend, Jock, using rich, poetic language and evocative imagery. Its length allows the plot to unfold with deliberate depth and grandeur, capturing both peaceful beauty and intense, heart-pounding action. Therefore,readers are invited to linger in the rhythms of the wild, where each stanza builds on the previous one, creating a tapestry of courage, adventure, and enduring friendship. This is a poetry to be savored slowly, a ...

After the war, when humans were nearly turned into cattle, Ethan Edwards assembled the most lethal vampire hunting crew in the post apocalyptic world. But when he purchases a seemingly useless android, strange things start to happen...things nobody can explain. As he and his team enter a long-abandoned hotel, reality seems to distort, trapping them inside something other than a run-down building harboring nests of their enemies. It almost seems as if they're pawns in a bigger game...expendable characters controlled by unknown forces. And they're running out of time...or are they? "Intense, ...

A historical adventure book set on a small, isolated island during the early nineteenth century."Pacific Shipwreck" is a gripping tale of survival, friendship, and resilience set against the backdrop of a mysterious, uninhabited island. Packed with thrilling adventures, high-sea battles, and life-altering decisions, the book offers readers a riveting emotional journey.The story revolves around the harrowing experiences of the passengers and crew of the ship "Pacific," namely Captain Peterson, the second mate Ready, and the tight-knit Hendrickson family, who intend to make a new beginning in...

On the afternoon of September 8, 1900, 200-mile-per-hour winds and 15-foot waves slammed into Galveston, the prosperous and growing port city on Texas' Gulf Coast. By dawn the next day, when the storm had passed, the city that had existed just hours before was gone. Shattered, grief-stricken survivors emerged to witness a level of destruction never before seen: 8,000 corpses littered the streets and were buried under the massive wreckage.

Hava sails across the sea toward Monsea with her sister, the royal entourage, and the world’s only copies of the formulas for the zilfium weapon she saved at the end of Winterkeep. During the crossing, Hava makes an unexpected discovery about one of the ship’s crew, but before she can unravel the mystery, storms drive their ship off course, wrecking them in the ice far north of the Royal Continent.

All her life, Katherine Keith has hungered for remote, wild places that fill her soul with freedom and peace. Her travels take her across America, but it is in the vast and rugged landscape of Alaska that she finds her true home. Alaska is known as a place where people disappear - at least a couple thousand go missing each year. But the same vast and rugged landscape that contributed to so many people being lost is precisely what has gotten her found.

A LitRPG of Diplomacy, Defense, and the Next Stone Laid The goblins were just the beginning. With winter closing in and goblin raiders repelled, Edwin and the settlers of Greenreach face a new challenge: politics. As regional lords take notice of their rising stronghold, an offer arrives—one that could secure their survival… or cost them their independence. But while alliances are forged in council halls, danger stirs beneath the stone. ⚔️ New threats emerge—supernatural horrors, rival warbands, and whispers of forgotten mines filled with ancient power. 🛡️ The Stronghold ...

From Lisa Ann Verge, RITA-nominated author of romantic, adventurous, historical novels "An absorbing, exciting romantic adventure!" --RT Book Reviews "Lisa Ann Verge breathes fresh life into the romance genre." -- Affaire de Coeur Struggling to survive on the streets of Paris, Genevieve agrees to a dangerous masquerade: She switches places with a King’s Girl, a young noblewoman about to be shipped to the colonies. It’s a risky venture with a high price—once overseas, Genny must marry a stranger....

Read by Sophie Aldred (Doctor Who). ‘Thrilling, terrifying and fascinating’ Tim Peake, British ESA astronaut They looked into darkness. The darkness looked back . . . An utterly gripping story of survival and first contact on a hostile planet from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C...