"True courage. True stories of heroism and survival that shaped my personality." Bear Grylls. Courage. Unhackneyed thoughts about courage Bear Grylls true courage read

Are you here: Individual protection means

Current page: 1 (book has 15 pages total) [available reading passage: 10 pages]

Bear Grylls
True Courage
True stories of heroism and survival that shaped my personality

Dedicated to the heroes of the past and present.

To those already tempered by the difficulties remaining in memory,

thanks to perfect deeds and fortitude, and those

who are still young and don’t know what they have to go through

challenges and become the heroes of tomorrow

IN autumn forest, at the fork in the road,
I stood, lost in thought, at the turn;
There were two ways, and the world was wide,
However, I could not split myself in two,
And I had to decide on something.

Robert Frost (Translated from English by Grigory Kruzhkov)

* * *

Preface

I get asked one question over and over again: who are my heroes, what influences me, my inspiration?

This question is not easy to answer. What is certain is that my father was a hero for me: adventure-loving, cheerful, humble person of the people, a fearless risk-taker, a mountaineer, a commando and a loving, attentive parent.

But, for the most part, the sources that physically and morally pushed me to action were of a different origin.

I hope this book can surprise you with discoveries of some of the most inspiring, powerful, mind-blowing feats of human spirit and endurance ever accomplished in the world.

The choice of heroes was huge. Some stories you know, some you don't, each of them conveys pain and hardship, and they can be contrasted with other stories of even greater hardships - painful, heartbreaking, but inspiring in equal measure. I decided to present you the entire collection of episodes in chronological order, not only because each story touches my soul, but also because they cover a wide range of events and emotions: from the Antarctic hell to the desert, from acts of unprecedented bravery to encounters with unimaginable horror and the realization of the need to lose an arm in order to survive.

What pushes men and women to this abyss and forces them to take risks? Where do these inexhaustible reserves of resilience, courage and determination come from? Are we born with them, or do they appear in us as we gain life experience?

Again, this is not an easy question to answer. If I was able to learn anything, it was only one thing: there are no standards for heroes - their appearance can be the most unexpected. When people pass tests, they often surprise themselves.

At the same time, there is a certain element that distinguishes people who are destined for greatness. They train character and resilience, with youth cultivate self-confidence and determination. This undoubtedly benefits them when testing times come.

Ultimately, I like to think of a quote from Walt Unsworth in which he sums up the qualities of adventurers: “There are people for whom the unattainable is attractive. As a rule, they are not experts: their ambitions and fantasies are strong enough to cast aside all the doubts that plague the majority cautious people. Determination and faith are their main weapons.”

In addition, I am sure that we are all capable of doing great things, endowed with an incredible reserve of strength, the existence of which we sometimes do not suspect. To understand what the grapes are made of, you need to squeeze them thoroughly.

Likewise, people are able to explore the depths of the reservoir with courage, perseverance and resilience only when their life is compressed to the size of a raisin.

At such moments, some die, but there are also those who survive. But, having gone through the stage of struggle, they get the opportunity to touch something very important related to the understanding of what it means to be human - they find a fire inside themselves, and the awareness of this goes far beyond the physical understanding of the world.

I hope my book will serve as a reminder that this spirit is alive, an ember burns in each of us, you just need to be able to see the flame.

I hope the stories will inspire you, help you become braver and stronger, so that you are always ready for testing times.

And remember, Winston Churchill once said: “When you go through hell, don’t stop.”

Now sit back and let me introduce my heroes...

Nando Parrado: The Taste of Human Flesh

For twenty-two-year-old Nando Parrado, the upcoming trip looked like a pleasant family trip.

He played for the Uruguayan rugby team, which arranged a flight to Santiago in Chile for an exhibition match. He invited his mother Evgenia and sister Susie to go with him - they were to fly over the Andes on a twin-engine turboprop plane.

Flight 571 took off on Friday, October 13, 1972, and some of the guys chuckled that it was not a good day for pilots who would be flying over a mountain range where weather conditions could be difficult and even dangerous. Layers of hot air in the foothills collide with cold air at altitude near the snowy peaks. The resulting vortex is not conducive to easy flight of the aircraft. But their jokes seemed harmless, because the weather forecast was quite favorable.

However, in the mountains the weather changes quickly. And especially in these mountains. The flight lasted only a couple of hours when the pilot was forced to land the plane in the town of Mendoza in the foothills of the Andes.

They had to spend the night there. The next day, the pilots were still undecided whether to take off and continue the journey. Passengers wanting to start the match as soon as possible pressed them to get on the road.

As it turned out, the move was wrong.

The plane encountered turbulence over the Planchon pass. Four sharp blows. Some guys screamed with joy, as if they were riding a roller coaster. Nando's mother and sister looked scared and sat holding hands. Nando opened his mouth to calm them down a little, but the words got stuck in his throat - the plane plummeted a good hundred feet.

There were no more enthusiastic exclamations.

The plane shook with tremors. Many passengers were already screaming in fear. Nando's neighbor pointed out the porthole. Ten meters from the wing, Nando saw the side of a mountain: a huge wall of stone and snow.

The neighbor asked if they should fly so close. His voice trembled with horror.

Nando didn't answer. He was busy listening to the sound of the engines as the pilots desperately tried to gain altitude. The plane shook with such force that it seemed like it was about to fall apart.

Nando caught the frightened glances of his mother and sister.

And then everything happened.

A terrible grinding sound of metal on stone. The plane hit rocks and fell to pieces.

Nando raised his head and saw the sky above him and the clouds floating into the passage.

Streams of wind blew across my face.

There was no time even to pray. Not a minute to think about everything. An incredible force pushed him out of his chair, and everything around him turned into an endless rumble.

Nando had no doubt that he would die and his death would be terrible and painful.

With these thoughts he plunged into darkness.

For three days after the accident, Nando lay unconscious and did not see what injuries some of his comrades received.

One guy had an iron pipe pierced through his stomach, and when he tried to pull it out, his intestines fell out.

Another man's calf muscle was torn from the bone and wrapped around his shin. The bone was exposed, and the man had to put the muscle back in place before bandaging it.

One woman's body was covered with bleeding wounds, her leg was broken, she screamed heart-rendingly and fought in agony, but no one could do anything for her except leave her to die.

Nando was still breathing, but no one expected him to survive. Despite the gloomy forebodings of his comrades, three days later he came to his senses.

He lay on the floor of the destroyed fuselage, where the surviving passengers huddled. The bodies of the dead were piled outside in the snow. The plane's wings came off. The tail too. They were scattered across a snowy, rocky valley, looking around which one could only see rocky peaks. However, now all Nando’s thoughts were about his family.

The news was bad. His mother died.

Nando was painfully worried, but did not allow himself to cry. Tears contribute to the loss of salt, and without salt he will certainly die. He only regained consciousness a few minutes ago, but he had already promised himself not to give up.

You have to survive no matter what.

IN terrible disaster Fifteen people died, but now Nando was thinking about his sister. Susie was alive. Still alive. The face is covered in blood due to multiple fractures and injuries. internal organs every movement caused her pain. My legs were already black from frostbite. In delirium, she called her mother, asking her to take them home from this terrible cold. Nando held his sister in his arms all night, hoping that the warmth of his body would help her survive.

Fortunately, despite the horror of the situation, it was not as cold inside the plane as outside.

Night temperatures in the mountains drop to -40 degrees Celsius.

While Nando was in a coma, people filled the cracks of the fuselage with snow and bags to provide protection from the cold and gusts of frosty wind. However, when he woke up, his clothes were frozen to his body. Everyone's hair and lips were white with frost.

The plane's fuselage - their only possible refuge - is stuck on top of a huge glacier. They were very high, but nevertheless they had to lift their heads to see the peaks of the surrounding mountains. The mountain air burned my lungs, the shine of the snow blinded my eyes. From sun rays the skin was covered in blisters.

If they were at sea or in the desert, they would have a better chance of survival. There is life in both environments. No one can survive here. There are no animals or plants here.

They managed to find some food in the plane and luggage, but it was too little. Famine was soon to be faced.

The days turned into frosty nights, followed by days again.

On the fifth day after the disaster, the five strongest survivors decided to try to get out of the valley. They returned several hours later, exhausted from lack of oxygen and tired. And they told the others that this was impossible.

The word "impossible" is dangerous in a situation where you are trying to do everything to survive.

On the eighth day, Nando's sister died in his arms. And again, choking with grief, he held back his tears.

Nando buried his sister in the snow. Now he had no one except his father, who remained in Uruguay. Nando mentally swore to him that he would not allow himself to die here in the snowy Andes.

They had water, though in the form of snow.

Soon, eating snow became unbearably painful, because the cold caused my lips to crack and begin to bleed. They suffered from thirst until one man constructed a device to melt snow from a sheet of aluminum. Snow was laid out on it and left to melt in the sun.

But no amount of water could help suppress the feeling of hunger.

The food supply ran out in a week. In high mountains, at low temperatures, the human body needs increased nutrition, and they have nothing left. They needed protein, otherwise they would die. Everything is very simple.

The only source of food was the bodies of the dead lying in the snow. At sub-zero temperatures, their flesh was perfectly preserved. Nando was the first to suggest using them to survive. On the other side of the scale was only the expectation of death, and he was not ready for this.

They started with the pilot.

Four of the survivors found a piece of glass and cut the corpse's chest with it. Nando took a piece of meat. Naturally, it was hard and greyish-white.

He held it in the palm of his hand and looked, out of the corner of his eye seeing others doing the same. Some had already put a piece of human meat into their mouths and were having difficulty chewing.

“It’s just meat,” he told himself. “Meat and nothing more.”

Opening his bloody lips, he placed a piece of meat on his tongue.

Nando couldn't taste it. I just realized that the texture is hard and stringy. He chewed it and with difficulty pushed it into the esophagus.

He had no feeling of guilt, only anger that it had to come to this. And although human meat did not satisfy their hunger, it gave them hope that they could survive until rescuers arrived.

After all, every rescue team in Uruguay will be looking for them, right? They won't have to stay on this cruel diet for long. Is it true?

One of the survivors found pieces of a small transistor and was able to get it to work. A day after they dined on human meat for the first time, they managed to tune the receiver to a news channel.

And they heard something they never wanted to know. Rescuers stopped searching for them. The conditions are too difficult. In such a situation, people have no chance of survival.

“Breathe,” they told themselves when despair began to seize them in a vice. “If you breathe, it means you’re alive.”

But now, when there was no longer any hope of salvation, everyone began to wonder: how much longer did they have to breathe?

Mountains can terrify a person. Another attack of fear occurred during the night avalanche. Countless tons of snow slid along the fuselage, lost in the night hurricane. Most of it made its way inside, drowning Nando and his comrades. Suffocated under this icy blanket, six died.

Nando later compared their situation to being trapped in a submarine at the bottom of the sea. The furious wind continued to blow, and the captives were afraid to try to go outside, not knowing how thick the snow was that covered them. At some point it began to seem that it would become their icy grave.

The water-producing device no longer worked because it was hidden from the sun. The bodies of only recently deceased remained nearby. First see how human body Only those brave men who did this had to cut off the meat. Now this was happening in front of everyone. Yet only a few were able to stay nearby. The sun did not dry out the bodies, so the meat was completely different. Not hard and dry, but soft and greasy.

It was bleeding and full of cartilage. However, it could not be called tasteless.

Nando and everyone else struggled to keep from choking as they stuffed the pieces into themselves, choking on the foul smell of human fat and skin.

The snowstorm is over. It took Nando and his comrades eight days to remove all the snow from the fuselage.

They knew that there were batteries in the tail of the plane, with the help of which the onboard communications could work and make it possible to call for help. Nando and three of his friends spent grueling hours searching but eventually found the batteries. The following days they tried to establish communication, but their efforts were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, the crash site became more and more terrifying.

To begin with, the survivors had to limit themselves to only small pieces of the flesh of their once living comrades. Some refused, but soon realized that they had no choice. As time passed, the cruelty of their way of subsistence began to appear everywhere.

Human bones and amputated arms and legs lay here and there. The uneaten pieces of meat were stored in a specially designated area in the cabin - a terrible but easily accessible storage room. Layers of human fat were laid out on the roof to dry in the sun. The survivors now ate not only human flesh, but also organs. Kidneys. Liver. Heart. Lungs. They even broke the skulls of the dead to get the brains. Broken, mangled skulls were scattered nearby. Two bodies were still intact. Out of respect for Nando, the corpses of his mother and sister were not touched. However, he understood that the food available could not remain untouched for long. There will come a time when the desire to survive will prevail over the feeling of respect. It is necessary that help arrive before he is forced to eat own family. He must fight the mountains.

Nando knew that he might die in this struggle, but it was better than not trying at all.

* * *

Their snow captivity had already lasted sixty days when Nando and two of his comrades - Roberto and Tintin - went for help. From the place where the plane crashed there was no way down to the foot; they could only climb even higher. Then they did not imagine that they would have to conquer the highest peak of the Andes - a peak almost 5000 meters above sea level.

Experienced climbers would not think about such a thing. And of course, they would not risk making the climb after sixty days of half-starvation, without the equipment necessary for extreme mountaineering.

Nando and his comrades had no grappling hooks, no ice axes, and no data on weather changes. There weren't even ropes or steel anchors. They were wearing clothes that they could make from bags and suitcases, they were weakened by hunger, thirst, hardship and the high mountain climate. This was their first time going to the mountains. It won't be long before Nando's inexperience becomes apparent.

If you've never suffered from altitude sickness, you won't understand what it is. My head is pounding with pain. Dizziness makes it difficult to stand. If you go too high, you can get brain damage and die. They say that at certain altitudes you should not climb more than 300 meters per day to give the body time to acclimatize.

Neither Nando nor his friends knew about this. On the first morning they covered 600 meters. The blood in their bodies thickened, trying to conserve oxygen. Breathing rapidly and suffering from dehydration, they continued walking.

Their only food was meat cut from corpses and stored in an old sock.

However, now cannibalism was the least of their worries. The biggest challenge was the scale of the task facing them.

Due to inexperience, they chose the most difficult route. Nando walked ahead, he had to learn mountaineering in practice and make his way along mountain peaks covered with a crust of ice. One had to be very careful not to fall into the deadly steep gorge, walking along narrow and slippery ledges.

Nando did not lose heart even when he saw in front of him the almost smooth surface of a rock 30 meters high, covered with dense snow with a shell of ice. Using a sharpened stick, he hollowed out steps in it.

At night, the temperature dropped so much that the water in the bottle froze and the glass cracked. Even during the day, people could hardly restrain their trembling from the cold and nervous exhaustion. Against all odds, they climbed to the top of the mountain, but the cruel Andes had one more blow in store for the travelers. Nando hoped that he would be able to see something over the ridge, however, looking around from the very high point, saw only the tops of the peaks, occupying the entire space as far as the eye could see.

No greenery.

No settlement.

There is no one to ask for help.

Nothing but snow, ice and mountain peaks.

When a person is fighting for survival, fighting spirit is everything. Despite the monstrous disappointment, Nando did not allow himself to be discouraged. He was able to make out two lower peaks, the tops of which were not covered with ice. Maybe this is a good sign? Perhaps this is an indication of the edge of a mountain range? He estimated the distance to be at least 80 kilometers. The supply of meat was not enough for all three to go further. So Tintin, the weakest of them all, was sent back to the scene of the disaster. Nando and Roberto continued on their way. It took Tintin only an hour to roll down the mountain and end up with his comrades in their temporary shelter.

Now Nando and Roberto were descending, at the mercy not only of the mountains, but also of gravity.

Nando fell and crashed straight into a wall of ice. His emaciated body was covered with bruises and bumps. And yet she and Roberto walked and, overcoming incredible torment, forced themselves to take each next step.

As they decreased, the air temperature increased. The meat hidden in the sock began to first melt and then rot. The stench of rotting flesh was unbearable, but this, in addition to all the inconveniences, meant that there was no more food left. If help cannot be found, they will soon die.

On the ninth day of the journey, luck smiled on the friends. They saw a man.

On the tenth day the man brought help with him.

Among other things, he brought food. For the first time in seventy-two days, Nando and Roberto ate hot food rather than human flesh. However, the most important thing is that Nando conveyed the message with which he went to people: “I am from a plane that crashed in the mountains…. There are still fourteen survivors there."

Thus, on December 22 and 23, just before Christmas, a helicopter carried surviving passengers from the crash site.

Of the forty-five people on that ill-fated flight, sixteen survived.

The most amazing thing is that during all this time not one of them died.

* * *

Having heard the story of Nando Parrado and his comrades, many perceive it only as a story about a case of cannibalism. Some even criticize these people for the decision they made then.

Of course they are wrong.

On one of the dark days spent in the mountains, the survivors entered into an agreement, and each of them agreed that his body could be eaten in case of death. They understood that by eating the meat of the dead they were not disrespecting human life. On the contrary, they demonstrate how precious it is. It was so precious that they clung to it to the last in these unbearable conditions and did everything possible to preserve it.

The surviving passengers of Flight 571 demonstrated amazing resilience, courage, ingenuity and, I believe, dignity. They confirmed a truth as old as life itself: when death seems inevitable, the first human reaction is an unwillingness to give in, to lie down and let it win.

Bear Grylls

True Courage

True stories of heroism and survival that shaped my personality

Dedicated to the heroes of the past and present.

To those already tempered by the difficulties remaining in memory,

thanks to perfect deeds and fortitude, and those

who are still young and don’t know what they have to go through

challenges and become the heroes of tomorrow

In the autumn forest, at a fork in the road,

I stood, lost in thought, at the turn;

There were two ways, and the world was wide,

However, I could not split myself in two,

And I had to decide on something.

Robert Frost (Translated from English by Grigory Kruzhkov)

Preface

I get asked one question over and over again: who are my heroes, what influences me, my inspiration?

This question is not easy to answer. What is certain is that my father was a hero to me: an adventurer, a cheerful, modest man of the people, a risk-taker without fear, a mountaineer, a commando and a loving, attentive parent.

But, for the most part, the sources that physically and morally pushed me to action were of a different origin.

I hope this book can surprise you with discoveries of some of the most inspiring, powerful, mind-blowing feats of human spirit and endurance ever accomplished in the world.

The choice of heroes was huge. Some stories you know, some you don't, each of them conveys pain and hardship, and they can be contrasted with other stories of even greater hardships - painful, heartbreaking, but inspiring in equal measure. I decided to present the entire collection of episodes to you in chronological order, not only because each story touches my soul, but also because they cover a wide range of events and emotions: from Antarctic hell to desert, from unprecedented acts of bravery to clashes with unimaginable horror and the realization of the need to lose an arm in order to survive.

At the same time, there is a certain element that distinguishes people who are destined for greatness. They train character and resilience, cultivating self-confidence and determination from a young age. This undoubtedly benefits them when testing times come.

Ultimately, I like to think of a quote from Walt Unsworth in which he sums up the qualities of adventurers: “There are people for whom the unattainable is attractive. As a rule, they are not experts: their ambitions and fantasies are strong enough to cast aside all the doubts that plague most cautious people. Determination and faith are their main weapons.”

Likewise, people are able to explore the depths of the reservoir with courage, perseverance and resilience only when their life is compressed to the size of a raisin.

I hope my book will serve as a reminder that this spirit is alive, an ember burns in each of us, you just need to be able to see the flame.

I hope the stories will inspire you, help you become braver and stronger, so that you are always ready for testing times.

And remember, Winston Churchill once said: “When you go through hell, don’t stop.”

Now sit back and let me introduce my heroes...

Nando Parrado: The Taste of Human Flesh

For twenty-two-year-old Nando Parrado, the upcoming trip looked like a pleasant family trip.

As it turned out, the move was wrong.

There were no more enthusiastic exclamations.

The neighbor asked if they should fly so close. His voice trembled with horror.

Nando caught the frightened glances of his mother and sister.

And then everything happened.

A terrible grinding sound of metal on stone. The plane hit rocks and fell to pieces.

Nando raised his head and saw the sky above him and the clouds floating into the passage.

Streams of wind blew across my face.

There was no time even to pray. Not a minute to think about everything. An incredible force pushed him out of his chair, and everything around him turned into an endless rumble.

Nando had no doubt that he would die and his death would be terrible and painful.

With these thoughts he plunged into darkness.

For three days after the accident, Nando lay unconscious and did not see what injuries some of his comrades received.

One guy had an iron pipe pierced through his stomach, and when he tried to pull it out, his intestines fell out.

BEAR GRILLS

TRUE COURAGE

Real stories about heroism and survival skills that shaped my personality

Dedicated to the heroes of the past and present. To those already tempered by the difficulties remaining in memory, thanks to perfect deeds and fortitude, and those who are still young and don’t know what they have to go through challenges and become the heroes of tomorrow * * *

In the autumn forest, at a fork in the road,
I stood, lost in thought, at the turn;
There were two ways, and the world was wide,
However, I could not split myself in two,
And I had to decide on something.

Robert Frost (Translated from English by Grigory Kruzhkov)

I get asked one question over and over again: who are my heroes, what influences me, my inspiration?

But, for the most part, the sources that physically and morally pushed me to action were of a different origin.

I hope this book can surprise you with discoveries of some of the most inspiring, powerful, mind-blowing feats of human spirit and endurance ever accomplished in the world.

The choice of heroes was huge. Some stories are familiar to you, some are not, each of them conveys pain and hardship, they can be contrasted with other stories of even greater hardships - painful, heartbreaking, but inspiring in equal measure. I decided to present the entire collection of episodes to you in chronological order, not only because each story touches my soul, but also because they cover a wide range of events and emotions: from Antarctic hell to desert, from unprecedented acts of bravery to clashes with unimaginable horror and the realization of the need to lose an arm in order to survive.

Ultimately, I like to think of a quote from Walt Unsworth in which he sums up the qualities of adventurers: “There are people for whom the unattainable is attractive. As a rule, they are not experts: their ambitions and fantasies are strong enough to cast aside all the doubts that plague most cautious people. Determination and faith are their main weapons.”

Likewise, people are able to explore the depths of the reservoir with courage, perseverance and resilience only when their life is compressed to the size of a raisin.

I hope my book will serve as a reminder that this spirit is alive, an ember burns in each of us, you just need to be able to see the flame.

I hope the stories will inspire you, help you become braver and stronger, so that you are always ready for testing times.

And remember, Winston Churchill once said: “When you go through hell, don’t stop.”

Now sit back and let me introduce my heroes...

Nando Parrado:

The taste of human meat

For twenty-two-year-old Nando Parrado, the upcoming trip looked like a pleasant family trip.

As it turned out, the move was wrong.

The plane encountered turbulence over the Planchon Pass. Four sharp blows. Some guys screamed with joy, as if they were riding a roller coaster. Nando's mother and sister looked scared and sat holding hands. Nando opened his mouth to calm them down a little, but the words got stuck in his throat - the plane plummeted a good hundred feet.

There were no more enthusiastic exclamations.

The neighbor asked if they should fly so close. His voice trembled with horror.

Nando caught the frightened glances of his mother and sister.

And then everything happened.

A terrible grinding sound of metal on stone. The plane hit rocks and fell to pieces.

Nando raised his head and saw the sky above him and the clouds floating into the passage.

Streams of wind blew across my face.

There was no time even to pray. Not a minute to think about everything. An incredible force pushed him out of his chair, and everything around him turned into an endless rumble.

Nando had no doubt that he would die and his death would be terrible and painful.

With these thoughts he plunged into darkness.

* * *

For three days after the accident, Nando lay unconscious and did not see what injuries some of his comrades received.

One guy had an iron pipe pierced through his stomach, and when he tried to pull it out, his intestines fell out.

Another man's calf muscle was torn from the bone and wrapped around his shin. The bone was exposed, and the man had to put the muscle back in place before bandaging it.

One woman's body was covered with bleeding wounds, her leg was broken, she screamed heart-rendingly and fought in agony, but no one could do anything for her except leave her to die.

Nando was still breathing, but no one expected him to survive. Despite the gloomy forebodings of his comrades, three days later he came to his senses.

The news was bad. His mother died.

Dedicated to the heroes of the past and present.

To those already tempered by the difficulties remaining in memory,

thanks to perfect deeds and fortitude, and those

who are still young and don’t know what they have to go through

challenges and become the heroes of tomorrow

In the autumn forest, at a fork in the road,
I stood, lost in thought, at the turn;
There were two ways, and the world was wide,
However, I could not split myself in two,
And I had to decide on something.

Robert Frost (Translated from English by Grigory Kruzhkov)

* * *

Preface

I get asked one question over and over again: who are my heroes, what influences me, my inspiration?

But, for the most part, the sources that physically and morally pushed me to action were of a different origin.

I hope this book can surprise you with discoveries of some of the most inspiring, powerful, mind-blowing feats of human spirit and endurance ever accomplished in the world.

The choice of heroes was huge. Some stories you know, some you don't, each of them conveys pain and hardship, and they can be contrasted with other stories of even greater hardships - painful, heartbreaking, but inspiring in equal measure. I decided to present the entire collection of episodes to you in chronological order, not only because each story touches my soul, but also because they cover a wide range of events and emotions: from Antarctic hell to desert, from unprecedented acts of bravery to clashes with unimaginable horror and the realization of the need to lose an arm in order to survive.

This undoubtedly benefits them when testing times come.

Ultimately, I like to think of a quote from Walt Unsworth in which he sums up the qualities of adventurers: “There are people for whom the unattainable is attractive. As a rule, they are not experts: their ambitions and fantasies are strong enough to cast aside all the doubts that plague most cautious people. Determination and faith are their main weapons.”

Likewise, people are able to explore the depths of the reservoir with courage, perseverance and resilience only when their life is compressed to the size of a raisin.

I hope my book will serve as a reminder that this spirit is alive, an ember burns in each of us, you just need to be able to see the flame.

I hope the stories will inspire you, help you become braver and stronger, so that you are always ready for testing times.

And remember, Winston Churchill once said: “When you go through hell, don’t stop.”

Now sit back and let me introduce my heroes...

Nando Parrado: The Taste of Human Flesh

For twenty-two-year-old Nando Parrado, the upcoming trip looked like a pleasant family trip.

As it turned out, the move was wrong.

There were no more enthusiastic exclamations.

The neighbor asked if they should fly so close. His voice trembled with horror.

Nando caught the frightened glances of his mother and sister.

And then everything happened.

A terrible grinding sound of metal on stone. The plane hit rocks and fell to pieces.

Nando raised his head and saw the sky above him and the clouds floating into the passage.

Streams of wind blew across my face.

There was no time even to pray. Not a minute to think about everything. An incredible force pushed him out of his chair, and everything around him turned into an endless rumble.

Nando had no doubt that he would die and his death would be terrible and painful.

With these thoughts he plunged into darkness.

For three days after the accident, Nando lay unconscious and did not see what injuries some of his comrades received.

One guy had an iron pipe pierced through his stomach, and when he tried to pull it out, his intestines fell out.

Another man's calf muscle was torn from the bone and wrapped around his shin. The bone was exposed, and the man had to put the muscle back in place before bandaging it.

One woman's body was covered with bleeding wounds, her leg was broken, she screamed heart-rendingly and fought in agony, but no one could do anything for her except leave her to die.

Nando was still breathing, but no one expected him to survive. Despite the gloomy forebodings of his comrades, three days later he came to his senses.

The news was bad. His mother died.

You have to survive no matter what.

Fifteen people died in the terrible disaster, but now Nando was thinking about his sister. Susie was alive. Still alive. Her face was covered in blood; due to multiple fractures and injuries to internal organs, every movement caused her pain. My legs were already black from frostbite. In delirium, she called her mother, asking her to take them home from this terrible cold. Nando held his sister in his arms all night, hoping that the warmth of his body would help her survive.