against all odds and with a slim chance
of survival you read their history or
you make history welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
counting down our picks for the top 10
amazing survivor stories for this list
we’re sharing the most incredible
accounts of unfortunate individuals who
managed to cheat death whether it was
luck an act of God or the will to live
these survivors shocked the world by
shooing off the Reaper number 10 the
Donner Party it wasn’t an easy feat and
surely wasn’t easy on the feet back in
the day when pioneers were seeking
better lives there’s a land of
opportunity you can make of yourself
what you bought you’re only held back by
your own desires in May 1846
James F Reid and George Donner led a
group of Americans by wagon train to
California hoping to reach the state
before snowfall they took a new route
and reported shortcut called the
Hastings cutoff Hastings cutoff is said
to be a saving of 400 miles we are
informed it is a fine level road with
plenty of water and grass though it
should have been an easy route the
Donner Party ultimately found themselves
snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains
during the winter of 1846 to 1847 their
food supplies slowly became scarce which
meant that some of the pioneers turned
to cannibalism in the end only 48 of the
87 members of the party survived to tell
this riveting tale if I don’t see you
again
you did the best you can ah
number nine Hugh glass he was mauled so
bad these ribs are visible from behind
this American frontiersman lived a life
with a high tolerance for pain in 1823
Hugh glass was on a fur trading venture
with dozens of men when he encountered a
grizzly bear that started his journey of
agony he killed the bear but at a price
of multiple flesh lacerations and a
broken leg that had the rest of the
expedition consider him a goner it
wasn’t if he was going to die it was
just how long he would live glass was
promised a proper burial after his death
when the leader of the expedition asked
for two volunteers to stay behind but he
was instead deserted and betrayed glass
then took a rain check on the burial and
crawled his way to the nearest camp it
took six weeks but he managed to survive
by consuming berries and preventing
gangrene by letting maggots eat his
infected flesh
number eight that weathers I was very
fortunate that I was able to be strong
enough to get back to Dallas
those that tread Mount Everest have two
goals in mind reaching the summit and
staying alive to tell the tale this is
my death certificate this is a fax that
was received by my wife Speights
basically that I’ve died it tells where
I am on the mountain on May 10th 1996 49
year old Beck weathers was suffering
from health problems during his climb to
the summit after going almost entirely
blind he stopped his ascent and was
waiting for his guide when a massive
blizzard struck throughout his time on
the mountain he slipped in and out of
consciousness spent multiple hours in
the sub-zero temperatures and was left
for dead on numerous occasions though he
managed to walk down to camp and survive
these extreme conditions weathers didn’t
come out unscathed
as he ended up losing his nose and
having most of his left hand and right
arm amputated I gave up some body parts
but I got back my relationship with my
wife with my kids I was forced to
reevaluate my life I always lived in the
future and I live in the present number
seven
Brad Kavanagh and Deborah scale and
Kylee
watch and it was wildly out of control
but started off as a simple sailboat
delivery from Maine to Florida quickly
turned into an absolute nightmare after
bad weather shipwrecked a crew of five
in October of 1982 sailor Deborah scale
and Kylee was hired to crew a sailing
yacht named the Trashmen when the heavy
rain and winds of a sudden storm
unexpectedly hit now we had no engine no
sail and we were just floating out there
in the ocean after the boat sinks the
crew members begin to lose their minds
and their wills It was as if I had
dropped the final curtain on the show
they just all kind of set back and
looked at me like I’d lost my mind
meanwhile sharks dehydration and
infections from injuries threatened
their lives five days later only Kylie
and Brad Cavanaugh remain alive barely
and they are rescued by a Soviet cargo
ship that just happens to be passing by
I didn’t care where I was going I didn’t
care who these people were I was lying
there and Brad was there my wife number
six Phineas Gage on September 13th 1848
Phineas Gage was in charge of blasting
rocks for railroads when he accidentally
aligned his face with the blast hole
after being distracted by his workers
this allowed the over three-foot tamping
iron just enough time to shoot through
his face and out through his head
even after the debilitating accident
gage was conscious and while he was
being examined by his physicians he
reportedly lost a chunk of his front
brain when it fell onto the floor
although he recovered gage was left
emotionally unstable which sparked
discussions of personality changes
linked the damage of the front lobe Paul
won’t miss this little piece which is
the part of the prefrontal lobe which
they say is the seat of good Nana’s
number five aron ralston you’re gonna go
out just go with a friend please yeah
yeah the buddy system
Aaron learned that right I know we all
learned that one were five but yeah in
this story the Impractical becomes
practical even if it means shedding some
blood what would I do if I were in a
situation where my life was on the line
oh you really wanted to know well here
you’re gonna find out here in April 2003
Ralston went on an ordinary hike through
Blue John Canyon after a boulder
unexpectedly dislodged while he was
descending his right hand was crushed
against the canyon wall for five days he
remained trapped while slowly eating
away at wet little food he had and even
resorting to drinking his own urine when
he ran out of water with no one aware of
his whereabouts
Ralston ultimately did the unthinkable
using a multi-tool he amputated his
right arm with a dull blade which took
about an hour
it may have been a slow and painful
process but it turned out to be the
decision that saved his life no regrets
at all if I had to do it all over again
today and now with the blessings of my
life that I have today I mean I would
cut my other hand off in order to get
back to my son
number four jose salvador Alvarenga i
didn’t think i was going to die
i always thought i was going to make it
out alive while Olympic runner and world
war ii prisoner of war survivor Louis
Zamperini also survived drifting at sea
for 47 days it’s the story of the
Salvadoran man who survived 13 months
adrift in the Pacific Ocean that makes
our list in November 2012 two fishermen
Alvarenga and Esquivel Cordoba departed
from the coast of Mexico but were thrown
off course after a storm they are not a
thing where did they neoui oh I think
that they probably embeddable losing the
will to survive cordoba stopped eating
and died leaving al gore enga to
consider suicide for many months
surviving on urine sea birds turtles and
fish it was on the 438 day of his voyage
that Alvarenga spotted an island of
ebony toll to which he swam and from
which he was ultimately rescued weak and
appearing overwhelmed was unable to
speak number 3 Nando parado the person
had an accident like the one and allowed
the treatment we would do nowadays in
the 21st century is actually exactly
what nature did to Nando
total serendipity in 1972 on Friday the
13th in October of 1972 the Uruguayan
rugby team along with their family and
friends was flying over the Andes
Mountains enroute to an upcoming match
terrible weather conditions caused the
plane to crash on a peak now called the
glacier of tears with a dozen people
killed due to and following the crash
itself the time we did know that the
safety record of that model was
absolutely horrible had we known that we
would have never got into that airplane
an avalanche ultimately killed several
more survivors meanwhile with few
sources of food multiple injuries and
tons of snow those left alive were
forced to turn to cannibalism we said if
I die I read very proud of you take me I
need me until some day we’ll go out from
this mountain after two months in the
mountains Nando Prado and a partner
eventually sought help trekking for ten
days through the Andes until they made
contact with the Chilean man a rescue
team was finally sent the only 16 of the
27 that had survived the original plane
crash were still alive by then I got
used to it very very easily because my
mind was fighting and things that were
more important number 2 Ernest
Shackleton although built to maneuver
through ice the ship known as the
endurance found herself lodged in the
ice of the Weddell Sea her skipper
Ernest Shackleton and his crew converted
the ice bound vessel into a winter camp
as spring arrived the hull began giving
way and the ship sank leaving the crew
to set up camp on the drifting ice it
was a new thing I mean it changed I was
a kid but never set foot on that iceberg
like that Shackleton led his men from
ice floe to ice floe with the hopes of
arriving safely at Paulette Island but a
month into his journey and just 60 miles
from the island the ice broke forcing
the men into lifeboats just days later
the adventure came to an end at Elephant
Island for a total of four hundred and
ninety seven days at sea the roughest
ocean in the world we were trying to
cross in a boat that’s just not designed
for a 22-foot rowboat with sails added
on afterwards so no keel before we
unveil our top pick here are a few
honorable mentions on Halloween of 2003
surfing with my friend and her brother
and dad and then I lost my arm to a
shark a shark just came a bit off three
and a half day they walked down from the
crash 11,000 feet out of these
Nevernever mouths five days and still no
sign of a rescue attempt some of the men
began to lose hope number one best of
olive itch few people have survived
airline crashes but nothing compares to
the momentum of vesna vulovic chess ball
in january 1972 flight attendant vesna
vulovic was on a plane when a bomb
exploded while they were in mid-air
Vesna fell over 33,000 feet she still
has no recollection of the landing it
did leave her with a fractured skull
broken legs and broken vertebrae that
left her temporarily paralyzed as well
as with the Guinness Book of Records
title for the survival of the highest
fall without a parachute following the
fall
bulla which was in a coma for 27 days
and only discovered upon waking up that
she was the sole survivor of the crash
do you agree with our list or do you
have other amazing stories of survivors
you’d like to share for more top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com pretty much right that
I knew I’d be surfing and being in the
ocean
for as long as I could live I have the
ability to do it
of survival you read their history or
you make history welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
counting down our picks for the top 10
amazing survivor stories for this list
we’re sharing the most incredible
accounts of unfortunate individuals who
managed to cheat death whether it was
luck an act of God or the will to live
these survivors shocked the world by
shooing off the Reaper number 10 the
Donner Party it wasn’t an easy feat and
surely wasn’t easy on the feet back in
the day when pioneers were seeking
better lives there’s a land of
opportunity you can make of yourself
what you bought you’re only held back by
your own desires in May 1846
James F Reid and George Donner led a
group of Americans by wagon train to
California hoping to reach the state
before snowfall they took a new route
and reported shortcut called the
Hastings cutoff Hastings cutoff is said
to be a saving of 400 miles we are
informed it is a fine level road with
plenty of water and grass though it
should have been an easy route the
Donner Party ultimately found themselves
snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains
during the winter of 1846 to 1847 their
food supplies slowly became scarce which
meant that some of the pioneers turned
to cannibalism in the end only 48 of the
87 members of the party survived to tell
this riveting tale if I don’t see you
again
you did the best you can ah
number nine Hugh glass he was mauled so
bad these ribs are visible from behind
this American frontiersman lived a life
with a high tolerance for pain in 1823
Hugh glass was on a fur trading venture
with dozens of men when he encountered a
grizzly bear that started his journey of
agony he killed the bear but at a price
of multiple flesh lacerations and a
broken leg that had the rest of the
expedition consider him a goner it
wasn’t if he was going to die it was
just how long he would live glass was
promised a proper burial after his death
when the leader of the expedition asked
for two volunteers to stay behind but he
was instead deserted and betrayed glass
then took a rain check on the burial and
crawled his way to the nearest camp it
took six weeks but he managed to survive
by consuming berries and preventing
gangrene by letting maggots eat his
infected flesh
number eight that weathers I was very
fortunate that I was able to be strong
enough to get back to Dallas
those that tread Mount Everest have two
goals in mind reaching the summit and
staying alive to tell the tale this is
my death certificate this is a fax that
was received by my wife Speights
basically that I’ve died it tells where
I am on the mountain on May 10th 1996 49
year old Beck weathers was suffering
from health problems during his climb to
the summit after going almost entirely
blind he stopped his ascent and was
waiting for his guide when a massive
blizzard struck throughout his time on
the mountain he slipped in and out of
consciousness spent multiple hours in
the sub-zero temperatures and was left
for dead on numerous occasions though he
managed to walk down to camp and survive
these extreme conditions weathers didn’t
come out unscathed
as he ended up losing his nose and
having most of his left hand and right
arm amputated I gave up some body parts
but I got back my relationship with my
wife with my kids I was forced to
reevaluate my life I always lived in the
future and I live in the present number
seven
Brad Kavanagh and Deborah scale and
Kylee
watch and it was wildly out of control
but started off as a simple sailboat
delivery from Maine to Florida quickly
turned into an absolute nightmare after
bad weather shipwrecked a crew of five
in October of 1982 sailor Deborah scale
and Kylee was hired to crew a sailing
yacht named the Trashmen when the heavy
rain and winds of a sudden storm
unexpectedly hit now we had no engine no
sail and we were just floating out there
in the ocean after the boat sinks the
crew members begin to lose their minds
and their wills It was as if I had
dropped the final curtain on the show
they just all kind of set back and
looked at me like I’d lost my mind
meanwhile sharks dehydration and
infections from injuries threatened
their lives five days later only Kylie
and Brad Cavanaugh remain alive barely
and they are rescued by a Soviet cargo
ship that just happens to be passing by
I didn’t care where I was going I didn’t
care who these people were I was lying
there and Brad was there my wife number
six Phineas Gage on September 13th 1848
Phineas Gage was in charge of blasting
rocks for railroads when he accidentally
aligned his face with the blast hole
after being distracted by his workers
this allowed the over three-foot tamping
iron just enough time to shoot through
his face and out through his head
even after the debilitating accident
gage was conscious and while he was
being examined by his physicians he
reportedly lost a chunk of his front
brain when it fell onto the floor
although he recovered gage was left
emotionally unstable which sparked
discussions of personality changes
linked the damage of the front lobe Paul
won’t miss this little piece which is
the part of the prefrontal lobe which
they say is the seat of good Nana’s
number five aron ralston you’re gonna go
out just go with a friend please yeah
yeah the buddy system
Aaron learned that right I know we all
learned that one were five but yeah in
this story the Impractical becomes
practical even if it means shedding some
blood what would I do if I were in a
situation where my life was on the line
oh you really wanted to know well here
you’re gonna find out here in April 2003
Ralston went on an ordinary hike through
Blue John Canyon after a boulder
unexpectedly dislodged while he was
descending his right hand was crushed
against the canyon wall for five days he
remained trapped while slowly eating
away at wet little food he had and even
resorting to drinking his own urine when
he ran out of water with no one aware of
his whereabouts
Ralston ultimately did the unthinkable
using a multi-tool he amputated his
right arm with a dull blade which took
about an hour
it may have been a slow and painful
process but it turned out to be the
decision that saved his life no regrets
at all if I had to do it all over again
today and now with the blessings of my
life that I have today I mean I would
cut my other hand off in order to get
back to my son
number four jose salvador Alvarenga i
didn’t think i was going to die
i always thought i was going to make it
out alive while Olympic runner and world
war ii prisoner of war survivor Louis
Zamperini also survived drifting at sea
for 47 days it’s the story of the
Salvadoran man who survived 13 months
adrift in the Pacific Ocean that makes
our list in November 2012 two fishermen
Alvarenga and Esquivel Cordoba departed
from the coast of Mexico but were thrown
off course after a storm they are not a
thing where did they neoui oh I think
that they probably embeddable losing the
will to survive cordoba stopped eating
and died leaving al gore enga to
consider suicide for many months
surviving on urine sea birds turtles and
fish it was on the 438 day of his voyage
that Alvarenga spotted an island of
ebony toll to which he swam and from
which he was ultimately rescued weak and
appearing overwhelmed was unable to
speak number 3 Nando parado the person
had an accident like the one and allowed
the treatment we would do nowadays in
the 21st century is actually exactly
what nature did to Nando
total serendipity in 1972 on Friday the
13th in October of 1972 the Uruguayan
rugby team along with their family and
friends was flying over the Andes
Mountains enroute to an upcoming match
terrible weather conditions caused the
plane to crash on a peak now called the
glacier of tears with a dozen people
killed due to and following the crash
itself the time we did know that the
safety record of that model was
absolutely horrible had we known that we
would have never got into that airplane
an avalanche ultimately killed several
more survivors meanwhile with few
sources of food multiple injuries and
tons of snow those left alive were
forced to turn to cannibalism we said if
I die I read very proud of you take me I
need me until some day we’ll go out from
this mountain after two months in the
mountains Nando Prado and a partner
eventually sought help trekking for ten
days through the Andes until they made
contact with the Chilean man a rescue
team was finally sent the only 16 of the
27 that had survived the original plane
crash were still alive by then I got
used to it very very easily because my
mind was fighting and things that were
more important number 2 Ernest
Shackleton although built to maneuver
through ice the ship known as the
endurance found herself lodged in the
ice of the Weddell Sea her skipper
Ernest Shackleton and his crew converted
the ice bound vessel into a winter camp
as spring arrived the hull began giving
way and the ship sank leaving the crew
to set up camp on the drifting ice it
was a new thing I mean it changed I was
a kid but never set foot on that iceberg
like that Shackleton led his men from
ice floe to ice floe with the hopes of
arriving safely at Paulette Island but a
month into his journey and just 60 miles
from the island the ice broke forcing
the men into lifeboats just days later
the adventure came to an end at Elephant
Island for a total of four hundred and
ninety seven days at sea the roughest
ocean in the world we were trying to
cross in a boat that’s just not designed
for a 22-foot rowboat with sails added
on afterwards so no keel before we
unveil our top pick here are a few
honorable mentions on Halloween of 2003
surfing with my friend and her brother
and dad and then I lost my arm to a
shark a shark just came a bit off three
and a half day they walked down from the
crash 11,000 feet out of these
Nevernever mouths five days and still no
sign of a rescue attempt some of the men
began to lose hope number one best of
olive itch few people have survived
airline crashes but nothing compares to
the momentum of vesna vulovic chess ball
in january 1972 flight attendant vesna
vulovic was on a plane when a bomb
exploded while they were in mid-air
Vesna fell over 33,000 feet she still
has no recollection of the landing it
did leave her with a fractured skull
broken legs and broken vertebrae that
left her temporarily paralyzed as well
as with the Guinness Book of Records
title for the survival of the highest
fall without a parachute following the
fall
bulla which was in a coma for 27 days
and only discovered upon waking up that
she was the sole survivor of the crash
do you agree with our list or do you
have other amazing stories of survivors
you’d like to share for more top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com pretty much right that
I knew I’d be surfing and being in the
ocean
for as long as I could live I have the
ability to do it
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