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  • Left Boots on the Rail: How One Pint Kept Him Alive

    Left Boots on the Rail: How One Pint Kept Him Alive
    2026/10/29
    Left Boots on the Rail: How One Pint Kept Him Alive

    A quiet pre-dawn scene - a pair of barely worn hiking boots deliberately placed on a canyon guardrail - set off a full missing-person response that would search for a man who had been home for days. How did Paul Christensen survive six days in a slot canyon on one pint of water and four granola bars, then walk out undetected and return to his life?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Paul’s January 3rd hike on the Sorado Canyon Rim Walk through the search operations that began when a paperboy found the boots, and we trace the exact survival choices that kept him alive. What small, improvise-and-ration decisions bridged the gap between survivable and unsurvivable?

    Person: Paul Christensen
    Date: January 3-14, 2009
    Location: Sorado Canyon, Ochre Rim trailhead
    Event: Missing-person search with 31 volunteers, 2 helicopter passes, and a K-9 team
    Status: Paul was at home for four days after the hike

    - Paul parked at the Ochre Rim trailhead at 9:15 AM on January 3 and locked his truck before starting the hike.
    - He carried one pint of water, four granola bars, a rain shell, a headlamp, a phone with no signal, and an orange Rite in the Rain notebook.
    - At 11:40 AM he wrote in his notebook: "Committed below third drop. Continuing forward. Water: one pint minus two sips. Time: eleven forty."
    - By 3:45 PM he reached the canyon floor where four pouroffs above him, the tallest a 22-foot sheer drop, prevented reverse travel.
    - He found a seep releasing 3-4 ounces of water per hour at mid-morning and used his undershirt to collect and ration that water.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • She Finished 102 Miles - Then Left a Shoe as a Signal

    She Finished 102 Miles - Then Left a Shoe as a Signal
    2026/10/28
    She Finished 102 Miles - Then Left a Shoe as a Signal

    A lone neon-orange shoe on an empty snowy road led a grader operator to a woman lying in a bivy sack-alive at 11°F with a GPS showing a single waypoint labeled HOME. How did a hydrologist who finished a 102-mile self-supported ultramarathon end up deliberately leaving a shoe as a message in the middle of Drover Pass Road?

    In this episode, we follow the events of Jean Harrison’s Saddleback Hundred run and the discovery on December 9 that revealed why she chose that precise signal. What did her preparation, route knowledge, and the single glowing waypoint mean for how she survived and where she intended to be found?

    Person: Jean Harrison
    Event: Saddleback Hundred ultramarathon
    Date: December 7 (race start) and December 9 (discovery at 6:14 AM)
    Location: Drover Pass Road, Drover Pass trailhead, Saddleback Hundred
    Temperature: 11 degrees Fahrenheit at discovery (19°F at race start)

    - 41 runners started the 102-mile race at 6:00 AM on Saturday, December 7.
    - Jean carried a bivy sack and an extra insulating layer added to mandatory gear after a forecast change.
    - At 6:14 AM on December 9, Russell Padgett found a neon-orange men’s size 10 running shoe upright in the center of Drover Pass Road.
    - Inside the shoe was a folded silver Mylar emergency blanket and a Garmin GPS displaying a single saved waypoint labeled "HOME."
    - Jean was found alive and conscious 30 yards east of the shoe, lying in a silver bivy sack at 6:18 AM.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • Left on the Ridge: How One Missed Call Nearly Killed Him

    Left on the Ridge: How One Missed Call Nearly Killed Him
    2026/10/27
    Left on the Ridge: How One Missed Call Nearly Killed Him

    Adrenaline and dread: a single missed evening call set off a cascade of reasonable decisions that left a man alone at 9,100 feet for five days - with a damaged radio that could transmit but not receive and a three-inch mirror as his only signaling device. How did clerical lists, a partial radio, and four nights of cloud cover combine to hide him from every search team?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the moment Scott Brooks stayed behind on Saddleback service road to the delayed search that followed, laying out how paperwork and field conditions diverged and asking whether one routine call could have changed everything.

    Person: Scott Brooks
    Date: November 9, 2019 (discovery), incident began November 4, 2019
    Location: Saddleback service road, 9,100 feet above sea level
    Status: Survived after five days alone on the mountain
    Role: Expedition cook, logged as support staff through the university facilities office

    - Brooks was 54 years old and had 22 years of high-altitude field experience.
    - The radio in camp could transmit but could not receive after a storage bin fell on it on November 4.
    - The helicopter that left the ridge carried six names on its manifest while the university roster listed seven people.
    - Brooks carried a three-inch signal mirror that was zip-tied to a transformer pole and angled south-southeast when found.
    - Pepper, Brooks’s 14-year-old diabetic orange tabby, required insulin every 12 hours and missed an injection only until neighbor Alvin Torres administered it.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    17 分
  • Hours on a Sandstone Ledge: How She Measured Time

    Hours on a Sandstone Ledge: How She Measured Time
    2026/10/26
    Hours on a Sandstone Ledge: How She Measured Time

    The thought of being stranded where water can rise four feet in an hour is a quiet kind of terror - and Dawn West spent seventy-two hours measuring every passing moment by carving marks into sandstone with a Leatherman file. How did a methodical twenty-three-year-old, who planned every route and even carried a tiny green brachiosaurus, turn meticulous preparation into a minute-by-minute survival ledger?

    In this episode, you will hear the timeline of what happened when Dawn entered Calloway Canyon and the canyon filled; we follow her route plan, the rising water, and the exact marks she left to record time as the exit remained submerged. What did her marks, times, and initials reveal about her understanding of how much longer she had?

    Person: Dawn West
    Date: October 1-4, 2019
    Location: Calloway Canyon, Marble Fork trailhead northeast of Durango, Colorado
    Duration: Seventy-two hours stranded
    Item: small green plastic brachiosaurus

    - Dawn filed a route plan with Entry: Tuesday, October 1 and Planned exit: Thursday, October 3.
    - One point two five inches of rain fell across the Calloway drainage basin over eighteen hours.
    - Flash floods raised water levels by four additional feet by Tuesday night, submerging the exit under six feet of moving water.
    - Dawn stood on a ledge approximately fourteen feet long and four feet wide, eight feet above the canyon floor.
    - She marked the sandstone with a Leatherman file every two hours, inscribing the time and her initials D.W.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    17 分
  • He Swam Wrong Way Through Gibraltar - Found Alive After 31 Hours

    He Swam Wrong Way Through Gibraltar - Found Alive After 31 Hours
    2026/10/25
    He Swam Wrong Way Through Gibraltar - Found Alive After 31 Hours

    Adrenaline hits first: a competitive open-water swimmer disappears for thirty-one hours in the Strait of Gibraltar and is later found alive in a locked courtyard five kilometers from every planned search area - how did currents and one man’s choices conspire to flip every prediction? What decision kept him breathing when every model said he should have been lost?

    In this episode, we tell what happened from entry to discovery, laying out the timeline, conditions, and the unexpected route that contradicted all drift models - and ask how Neil Hamilton used that contradictory information to survive.

    Person: Neil Hamilton
    Date: September 17-19, 2019
    Location: Strait of Gibraltar; Calle de los Pinos, Algeciras, Spain
    Event: Solo open-water crossing attempt
    Escort vessel: Monarca (skipper Teo Villanueva)

    - Neil entered the water at 05:14 on September 17, 2019, from Punta Paloma and was last seen roughly three hours into the crossing.
    - Sea temperature at entry was 22 degrees Celsius and landing coast of Morocco was 17 kilometers south.
    - Neil had logged a planned crossing time of 4.5 to 5.5 hours with departure Tarifa 04:40 and current window 05:10 in his green notebook.
    - He spent approximately 18 minutes inside a 400-meter-wide “washing-machine zone” of churning water beginning around 08:14.
    - He was found alive nearly 40 hours after last seen, breathing in a storage nook on Calle de los Pinos with a wet swim brief and a dinner-plate-sized water stain beneath it.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    17 分
  • She Rode 14 Miles On Broken Ribs - How Judith Survived Alone

    She Rode 14 Miles On Broken Ribs - How Judith Survived Alone
    2026/10/24
    She Rode 14 Miles On Broken Ribs - How Judith Survived Alone

    Fear and determination collide: a 61-year-old competitive masters cyclist carried her bike 14 miles with fractured ribs, survived 11 days alone eating cattail shoots, and was found sitting by a milepost-how did she keep going with just ~400 kcal and one half-full 700 ml water bottle?

    In this episode, we tell the events of that August morning through the facts: where Judith went, what she packed, the injuries she sustained, and the choices that kept her alive-can a routine ride turn into a multi-day survival test, and what did Judith do that search teams missed?

    Person: Judith McCarthy
    Date: August 9, 2019
    Location: Agate Basin Road, Haskell County, Colorado
    Status: Found alive after 11 days in wilderness
    Event: Bicycle crash leading to fractured ribs and extended solo survival

    - Age: 61 years old
    - Distance carried bike: 14 miles from crash site to milepost
    - Time alone: 11 days before being found on August 20, 2019 at 6:40 AM
    - Food at start: ~400 kilocalories in jersey pockets; >2000 kilocalories in handlebar bag left at car
    - Water: one 700-milliliter bottle, about half full when she started

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 分
  • She Tied Herself to a Tree to Survive a Frozen Lake Night

    She Tied Herself to a Tree to Survive a Frozen Lake Night
    2026/10/23
    She Tied Herself to a Tree to Survive a Frozen Lake Night

    Cold-blooded survival: a 26-year-old rancher fell into 53°F water at 8:50 PM and spent the next nine-hour night alive by improvising with a still-running snowmobile and a rope tied to a pine - but why did searchers look in the wrong place? What single decision kept her alive until morning?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline of what happened on Cutter Lake on July 9, 2023, the choices the woman made after the snowmobile broke through honeycombed ice, and the evidence recovered months later that explains how she survived the night - could a length of rubber cargo strapping and a running engine be the key?

    Person: Rhonda Novak
    Date: July 9, 2023
    Location: Cutter Lake, Kettrick County
    Age: 26
    Event: Snowmobile broke through honeycombed ice at 8:50 PM

    - The water temperature when she entered the lake was 53 degrees Fahrenheit.
    - The snowmobile's engine was still running for a sustained period, confirmed by burn pattern on the chassis.
    - Investigators recovered a length of rubber cargo strapping tied from the snowmobile rear hitch to a lodgepole pine, running up 20 feet to a low branch.
    - The incident occurred at approximately 8:50 PM after she left the barn at approximately 8:15 PM.
    - Winter 2022-2023 produced ice up to 31 inches in some places and was the coldest since 1978, causing honeycombed ice on the north shore.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • Tide, Fog, and a Sealed Camera Bag: How Shannon Vanished

    Tide, Fog, and a Sealed Camera Bag: How Shannon Vanished
    2026/10/22
    Tide, Fog, and a Sealed Camera Bag: How Shannon Vanished

    A dry camera bag stood upright in four inches of cold water on a tidal plain, perfectly sealed, with no footprints and no sign of the woman whose license was inside-so how did Shannon simply disappear into the marsh? Photographers fear fog and tides; here a seventeen-minute chart discrepancy, collapsing visibility, and incoming water combined into a living trap-what exactly happened on that flat in those minutes before dawn?

    In this episode, we trace the timeline of Shannon Evans’s last known morning on Harrow Flats, the items found in the bag, and the environmental and navigational facts that made a familiar route deadly. What did the laminated tide chart, the fog, and the geography of Pelican Sound do to a careful, experienced photographer?

    Person: Shannon Evans
    Location: Harrow Flats, near Fenwick Road, Merritt Landing
    Date: Tuesday morning (before dawn), June (year not specified in transcript)
    Item found: Dry camera bag containing three Nikon bodies, eleven lenses, laminated tide chart, and Washington State driver's license
    Condition: Bag standing upright in four inches of water, strap coiled neatly, perfectly sealed

    - The bag contained three Nikon camera bodies and eleven lenses wrapped in microfiber cloth.
    - Judith Cole discovered the upright bag at 6:42 AM on a tidal mudflat north of Fenwick Road.
    - The laminated tide chart Shannon carried referenced Cutter Bay (northern station) while Harrow Flats is governed by a southern reference point 17 minutes different.
    - Shannon had slept in her green Subaru in the Fenwick Road parking lot and left at 3:50 AM with a headlamp.
    - The tide chart indicated low tide at 3:48 AM and significant tidal return at 7:15 AM according to the northern reference station.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分