Snowmobile Excursion: Olympic Athlete vs Nature

Rulon Gardner is no stranger to adversity. At the 2000 Olympic Games he won gold in Greco-Roman wrestling, against all the odds. But in 2002, he finds himself in a different kind of fight - a monumental clash of man versus nature in the mountains of Wyoming. A series of wrong turns sees an afternoon of snowmobiling veer off the rails. With the daylight disappearing, Rulon will need every last drop of willpower if he’s to make it out of the wilderness… A Noiser production, written by Nicole Edmunds. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02John Hopkins?

  It's February the 14th, 2002, around 4:00 p.m.

• 0:08John Hopkins?

  High up in the mountains of West Wyoming, 31-year-old Roland Gardner speeds along on his snowmobile.

• 0:16John Hopkins?

  He's surrounded by an expanse of whiteness, a maze of snowy plains and slopes interspersed with occasional pockets of trees.

• 0:26John Hopkins?

  A frosty wind whips behind, turning his every breath to fog amidst the darkening sky. Sinister shadows crawl across the ground.

• 0:37John Hopkins?

  Despite the deteriorating conditions, Roland plows forward, keeping his eyes peeled. His big, muscular frame hunches over the handlebars as he sprays fountains of snow particles with each turn.

• 0:54John Hopkins?

  He's on the lookout for his friend, from whom he's been separated for almost an hour. With every passing minute, their chances of finding each other diminish. What started as a day of fun and exploration is now something else entirely.

• 1:11John Hopkins?

  Roland keeps searching. He pushes up a snowy hillside, passing some more sparse trees and rough, craggy rocks.

• 1:21John Hopkins?

  Then suddenly, he reaches a point where he can go no further.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  I rode my snowmobile up to the edge because now it's starting to get dark. It's starting to hard to see any distance. And I come up to the edge and I just see it was kind of like a drop-off. It was like, straight off the side of the mountain.

• 1:40John Hopkins?

  Time isn't on his side. He has to make a decision. He can either turn back the way he came and wait for his friend on the deserted mountain, where he can drive off the ledge into the unknown.

• 1:53John Hopkins?

  Quickly, Roland makes his choice. He's going full steam ahead.

• 1:57Speaker 01

  I come up and I get to the edge. I'm like, "Well, here we go."

• 2:02John Hopkins?

  With a rev and a crunch, he takes the snowmobile forwards.

• 2:07John Hopkins?

  But the drop is much steeper than he envisaged. The second the front tips over the edge, the snowmobile accelerates down the vertical slope, charging through the thick powder with ferocious speed.

• 2:22John Hopkins?

  Ruland sticks his right leg out to the side and tries to scuff up the snow in a desperate attempt to slow down. His knuckles whiten as his left hand squeezes the brake. The vehicle bumps over rocks, crunches across stones, skids on sheet ice. It seems inevitable that a collision with something sharp or solid awaits. But then, at last... The land flattens out, and the snowmobile shudders to a halt. On shaking legs, Ruland stands on top of the vehicle, its singular beam illuminating the barren icy landscape that surrounds him.

• 3:05John Hopkins?

  Shivering in his thin fleece, he is a lone figure at the bottom of a mountain, frozen, isolated, and now completely lost.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  Through my experience in dropping off the side of the hill, I realized I had no idea where I was at, no clue what was ahead of me, but my whole goal was to survive.

• 3:35John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

• 3:58John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner. In 2002, the world champion wrestler finds himself in a different kind of fight, a monumental clash of man versus nature in the mountains of Wyoming. On Valentine's Day, Ruland and two friends head out for an afternoon of snowmobiling in the cold wilderness of the cowboy state. But within a few hours, they get separated from one another, and Ruland finds himself alone and under siege from the savage elements. With daylight disappearing and no idea where he is, he'll need every last drop of his will if he's to make it out of this snow-covered nightmare.

• 4:44Speaker 01

  I'm like, I won the Olympics. I'm like, I'm the best in the world. I can save myself. I, I'm okay. And I now have to think about self-preservation. What are you gonna do? What's your thought process? How are you gonna make it through this night?

• 4:58John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

• 5:31John Hopkins?

  It's midday on February the 14th, 2002, in Wyoming. And in the small towns nestled beneath the Rocky Mountains, love is in the air. Among the swooning couples celebrating Valentine's Day, 31-year-old Roland Gardner drives his truck through the streets, smiling at the love-heart decorations and cupid cutouts adorning the shop windows.

• 5:58John Hopkins?

  All around, he can see mountains. Nearby, the Salt River Range and the Wyoming Range meet, creating a complex, snow-speckled formation of summits and valleys bordered by dense, dark-green forests. That's where he's headed.

• 6:16John Hopkins?

  The excitement grows as he drives towards the wild, ready to begin an adventure he's dreamt of since he was a kid.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Growing up on the farm, we didn't have a lot of fun. And so when we were out in the fields, you know, we always looked at the mountains and we always thought, "Man, I wonder what it's like up there."

• 6:36John Hopkins?

  Raised on a dairy farm in the community of Afton, the youngest of nine siblings, there was little time to explore.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  I grew up in a climate where it's cold in the winter, it's beautiful in the summer, but for us being farmers, it was a lot of work. You know, we had fields, we had chores, we had hay, we had just so much agriculture that had to be done. The cows had to be milked twice a day. There was no day off from being a dairy farmer. The winter time, I loved to be out there feeding the cows, you know, when the temperature is freezing. It's just absolutely brutal. We had snow, you know, three, four feet deep out in the fields and it was just so brutally cold. And I just thought to myself as a kid growing up, how many people could survive this?

• 7:27John Hopkins?

  Survival was a recurring theme in Ruland's upbringing.

• 7:32John Hopkins?

  While the farm taught him nature's circle of life, his own existence was punctuated with near-death experiences. In fact, by the time Ruland had reached his early teens, he'd already racked up a significant number.

• 7:46John Hopkins?

  During a class show and tell, he was impaled with an arrow. Later, he was thrown off the back of a truck. Then there was the time he suffered a near-fatal infection, not to mention when he was branded by fire or run over by a farm vehicle.

• 8:02John Hopkins?

  But while danger seemed to stalk Ruland's every move and work on the farm was tough, his childhood was also filled with love.

• 8:11Speaker 01

  My mom, you know, she truly was always there for me, always supported me. And my siblings always say, "You were mom's favorite." I'm like, "No, I wasn't." And she, I was, you know, she always tried to protect me. I always tried to make sure I had everything I needed to. My mom made me the person I am today.

• 8:32John Hopkins?

  Aside from his mother, the other great influence in Ruland's life came further away from home. From a young age, he discovered a talent for one of the toughest, most physically demanding hobbies out there: wrestling.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  I got into wrestling because if I didn't wrestle or do sports, I was out working on the farm and I didn't like to work on the farm 24 hours a day. So for me, I got into sports because I'm like, well, I can get off the farm, I can go, and I can have friends.

• 9:03John Hopkins?

  What began as an after-school activity soon evolved into a lifelong passion.

• 9:10John Hopkins?

  Ruland grew into an enormous physical specimen. He wrestled his way through high school, collegiate, and national competitions. After graduating in 1996, a coach advised him to learn Greco-Roman wrestling, an official Olympic sport. And in the year 2000, after four years of training, Ruland found himself at the Sydney Olympic Games, standing face-to-face with the undefeated Russian champion, ready to battle for gold.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  I went into 2000 and had an opportunity to wrestle Alexander Karelin, 13-time world and Olympic champion. And I beat him 1-0 to win the Olympics in 2000. That was one of the biggest upsides of the Olympic Games.

• 9:57John Hopkins?

  Gold medal hanging from his neck, life changed for Ruland in an instant.

• 10:04John Hopkins?

  He became a national celebrity back home, chatting to Oprah Winfrey, Rosie O'Donnell, and David Letterman. He was even invited to the inauguration of President George W. Bush.

• 10:15John Hopkins?

  A year later, in 2001, he achieved the ultimate sporting double, when he fought his way to become world wrestling champion.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  And that's when, you know, life was good. Everything was really simple and didn't really have any issues with, you know, injuries or any of that stuff. And who would have known what was to come?

• 10:40John Hopkins?

  This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History Of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And, after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 11:23John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.

• 11:54John Hopkins?

  This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History Of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And, after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 12:37John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 12:46John Hopkins?

  Now, in the winter of 2002, Rulon has the world at his feet. He decides to take a quick hiatus from his newfound celebrity life and treat himself to a visit back home.

• 13:00John Hopkins?

  He hopes to spend a few days in the wilderness of Wyoming, the backdrop of his childhood.

• 13:08John Hopkins?

  Rulon's truck rumbles onwards into the mountains.

• 13:12John Hopkins?

  Joining him for today's excursion are his buddies Danny and Trent. The restless friends are outdoorsy, like him, so they've jumped at the chance to explore some beautiful forests and slopes on the back of Rulon's three recently purchased snowmobiles.

• 13:29John Hopkins?

  The men are by no means experts on the vehicles, but they're competent enough for what should be a straightforward trip. They can't be gone long, anyway. They're heading out to dinner with their respective partners later. It is Valentine's Day, after all.

• 13:44John Hopkins?

  The truck starts to climb upwards, deeper into the mountains.

• 13:49Speaker 01

  Our plan was to go up and, you know, it was gonna be mid-morning, we'd go up to what we called Cottonwood or Dry Creek. It's, you know, a level of the mountains that were about so, a mile to two miles from my house. You can get into the mountains and then, once you get on into one mountain, you can then ride to the next.

• 14:17John Hopkins?

  Rulon, Danny, and Trent all arrive and park up. The wilderness encircles them, an expanse of white and green, of angular summits and precipitous drops, a patchwork of snow and spruce, boulders and firs.

• 14:34John Hopkins?

  It's as if the mountains and the trees have come together to form the most elaborate of natural mazes. The men start prepping.

• 14:44John Hopkins?

  Planning to be outside for just three or four hours, Rulon leaves his thick snow coat in the truck. He's gonna be working hard out there, fighting against powdery snow on a 600-pound machine, and he doesn't want to get too hot.

• 14:59John Hopkins?

  Before setting off, Danny, the most experienced of the three, packs a survival kit in his backpack, just in case. Then, helmets on, the trio swing their legs over their snowmobiles, twist the keys in the ignition, and set off.

• 15:17John Hopkins?

  The first hour passes like a movie montage, as the men cruise along the range, exploring the peaks, tearing down hills, and racing each other through the snow.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  So I was just up there with two friends, just having a great time and enjoying some magnificent snow. The snow was, you know, six feet deep. You step off your snowmobile, you'd sink up to your chest in snow, and it was a real light, fluffy snow. And so you're riding in the snow, and you know, your head's above, you got your helmets on, and the snow is almost as high as your helmets as it's going over you, and it's just truly magnificent. It's almost like being in heaven, I think.

• 16:00John Hopkins?

  It's fun, for sure, but Rulon's always on the lookout for the next challenge. He tells his friends that he's gonna ride to the top of nearby Mount Wagner, where he hopes he'll be treated to a stunning view.

• 16:13John Hopkins?

  His friends nod their consent and agree to wait at the bottom as he speeds off into the distance.

• 16:21John Hopkins?

  But the slopes of the mountain are far steeper than Rulon had anticipated. As he climbs, the snow deepens further, engulfing the snowmobile and his legs. He revs the engine and squeezes the throttle as he wills it to move upwards. But then, when he's about twenty feet from the top, the vehicle sputters to a halt.

• 16:46John Hopkins?

  Shaking his head in frustration, Rulon turns around and begins to head back down. He'll check in with his friends, then have another go.

• 16:55John Hopkins?

  However, when Rulon reaches the bottom of the mountain at around 3:00 PM, Danny announces that he's had enough. His daughter is playing in a basketball game, and he should go to watch. Rulon and Trent think little of Danny's abrupt departure. The sun's still shining, and there's more exploring to do. And so Danny heads off, taking with him his snowmobile experience and their only survival pack.

• 17:25John Hopkins?

  The two remaining men agreed to spend one more hour on the mountains, and Rulon decides he'll have another go at climbing Wagner.

• 17:33John Hopkins?

  As before, Trent promises to wait at the bottom. But also, as before, Rulon fails to reach the top.

• 17:40Speaker 01

  You get to a certain point, it gets too steep, your snowmobile doesn't have enough speed, you get stuck in deep snow. And I got stuck at the top of the mountain, and that's when, you know, I realized, okay, I need to come back around, and that's when I went back to the bottom of the hill, and that's where things started getting a little bit crazy.

• 18:00John Hopkins?

  As Rulon travels back down the frosty slope, it's clear that something's wrong with his snowmobile. The repeated strain of climbing Wagner has worn through the belt on the motor, and it winds and creaks with exhaustion.

• 18:15John Hopkins?

  Exasperated, Rulon hops off and spends around 10 minutes fiddling with the machinery. Eventually, he's able to get the motor fixed, and he's ready to go again.

• 18:27John Hopkins?

  By now, the sun is lowering in the sky, and a gloom takes over. And as Rulon finally reaches the bottom of the slope, he's greeted by something unsettling. There's no sign of Trent. Rulon combs around, the imposing hillside surrounding him, the snow stretching for miles in all directions. There's nobody within sight. His friend has disappeared, and he is suddenly alone.

• 19:05John Hopkins?

  Despite losing his buddy in the mountains, Rulon initially shrugs off the situation.

• 19:12John Hopkins?

  Trent probably got bored waiting for him in the cold, and has gone off to do some more exploration of his own. There's a good chance he'll bump into him if he continues driving along the slopes.

• 19:25John Hopkins?

  Rulon sets off, and again takes in the wonder of his surroundings.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  The snow is just so cool. Think about a slight decline, you know, for a half a mile. And you have nothing but just crystal clear, you know, virgin snow, nothing in it. And once you ride in it, you know, you're kind of almost, you know, like just emotion. You're just kind of floating in air as you're on this snow and the snow is going over your helmet. It's cold, it's magnificent, you know, you're alive. And so every emotion is like, man, this is so cool. But you don't realize the danger you're really in.

• 20:10John Hopkins?

  The minutes pass and still Rulon can't find Trent. He starts to drive his snowmobile with more urgency.

• 20:19John Hopkins?

  Rulon checks the time on his phone. It's 3:30 PM. If they're going to make their dinner reservations, they'll need to head back soon.

• 20:29John Hopkins?

  The trouble is, Rulon's now traveled so far in one direction looking for Trent, that he's ended up on an isolated slope.

• 20:38John Hopkins?

  There are no tracks here, no discernible landmarks. And the daylight is fast disappearing.

• 20:47John Hopkins?

  After reaching the bottom of the slope, Rulon wrestles with the snowmobile to turn it around, planning on slogging back up the hill he just descended.

• 20:56John Hopkins?

  But there is a problem. The powder is too deep and his snowmobile too heavy. He can't climb the slope.

• 21:06Speaker 01

  When you have, you know, roughly six feet of snow and it's a lot of fluff, you know, you turn to go up, the snowmobile just digs in the snow. And my weight plus the snowmobile being a stock snowmobile, you can't create a lot of track speed. And the back end of the snowmobile just sits and spins and, you know, there's no snow to get. And so at that point, I'm like, I got stuck. And I'm like, okay, well, this sucks.

• 21:31John Hopkins?

  Literally minutes ago, all was well. A simple trip is rapidly becoming far more complicated.

• 21:44John Hopkins?

  With turning back no longer an option, Rulon decides to traverse around the side of the mountain, trying to build momentum and find a spot where he'll have a better chance of climbing the snowy incline.

• 21:57John Hopkins?

  He squeezes the gas, chugging forwards. But the terrain is unpredictable and labyrinthine. And soon, he drives into a narrow gully which encloses him on both sides.

• 22:10John Hopkins?

  Again, this isn't where he expected to find himself.

• 22:14Speaker 01

  There's two mountains and it comes together, and as it drops off the side, it turns into a gully. And it started getting really narrow. Then it finally got to a place where I'm like, "Well, this sucks because I have nowhere else to go."

• 22:29John Hopkins?

  But then, Rulon spots something more comforting.

• 22:33John Hopkins?

  Running parallel to his path is a creek, which he recognizes as the start of the Salt River. Having grown up close to this area, he presumes the stream will lead him back home, or at least to lands he knows well.

• 22:50John Hopkins?

  He follows the river as it snakes through the barren mountains, growing wider with every meter. Eventually, it leads him out of the gully.

• 23:00John Hopkins?

  But now, on this more open terrain, the river's waters begin to flood the land, making it dangerously icy in places and causing the snowmobile to skid under Rulon's grip.

• 23:12John Hopkins?

  Without full control of his vehicle, he zigzags over a mixture of slush, rock, and ice.

• 23:19John Hopkins?

  The path is pockmarked with gaping holes of freezing cold water. And just then, as he tries to cross this glacial gauntlet, Rulon feels the rear of his snowmobile tip backwards with a chilling splash.

• 23:37John Hopkins?

  His vehicle is sunk, semi-submerged in a water hole. The front points in the air while the back rocks dangerously in the chilly liquid.

• 23:48John Hopkins?

  Rulon feels the water clam up his legs.

• 23:52John Hopkins?

  He revs, trying to force the snowmobile out. No good.

• 23:58John Hopkins?

  There's nothing else for it. He'll have to lower himself into the icy waters and heave his snowmobile up.

• 24:07Speaker 01

  And so it was still light enough to where you could see, but it was getting darker. And so I jumped into the water and I sunk up to my shoulders and I had to pick up my snowmobile down in the water and reach in and grab it. At that point, I knew now I was wet. I had a limited time before I'd get in trouble.

• 24:29John Hopkins?

  Using his immense strength, Rulon pushes the back of the snowmobile up out of the frigid water, lifting the 600-pound machine with an Olympian's might. Simultaneously, he reaches forwards and grasps for the ignition.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  And then I'd reach up, I'd turn the key on, and then I'd have to start the snowmobile while I'm holding the snowmobile up and then push it out of the river and then ride it out of this little pond.

• 24:56John Hopkins?

  With a shivering strain, Rulon extricates the snowmobile and himself from the pool.

• 25:04John Hopkins?

  But it's come at a price. Instantly, the icy wetness starts to creep through his clothes. Wearing just thin fleece layers, the risk of hypothermia is huge. There's hardly any sunlight to warm him up, and his body temperature is dropping by the minute.

• 25:22John Hopkins?

  He needs to get moving.

• 25:27John Hopkins?

  Back onto his vehicle, he powers on, squinting through the gloom, trying to shake the cold from his bones.

• 25:35John Hopkins?

  He follows a white hillside and powers up it, trying to reach a new vantage point. Perhaps a spot where he'll be able to work out his location or find Trent.

• 25:46John Hopkins?

  But soon, he comes to a point where he can go no further.

• 25:51Speaker 01

  I rode my snowmobile to the edge because now it's starting to get dark. It's starting to hard to see any distance. And I come up to the edge and I just see it was kind of like a drop-off. It was like straight off the side of the mountain.

• 26:05John Hopkins?

  With the cold and the dark gripping him ever tighter, Rulon makes a bold choice. He can barely see what's beneath him, but he is plowing on nonetheless. His snowmobile teeters for a second before plummeting downwards at an alarming pace.

• 26:24John Hopkins?

  As he descends, the night makes Rulon totally unaware of the dangers lurking in his path.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  What I didn't know is the guys that came out later, they're like, "How did you miss the trees and the rocks that were in front of you as you were going off the hill?" I'm like, "It was getting dark enough. I didn't see them." As I came off the hill, I came off the bottom. I got to the bottom and I'm like, "Okay, cool."

• 26:49John Hopkins?

  The snowmobile speeds to the bottom of the slope, somehow avoiding the trees, rocks, and branches, before it judders to a standstill.

• 26:59John Hopkins?

  Steading his breathing, Rulon gives himself time to pause and take in his surroundings.

• 27:08John Hopkins?

  To his right, the river gently meanders by while the mountains loom behind. Way out in the distance are snow-covered trees and ice caps as far as the eye can see.

• 27:22John Hopkins?

  Though Rulon's only a few miles from the area he grew up in, there's no denying he is completely lost.

• 27:30John Hopkins?

  And then, through the silvery beam of his snowmobile's headlight, Rulon spots thick grooves in the snow. They're indented with the unmistakable tread of tyres. Another snowmobiler has been down here. If they manage to find a way out, surely Rulon can too. Placing his faith in the tracks, Rulon once again presses the throttle and heads off.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  I just started going. And now it's getting to the point where it's almost completely dark.

• 28:06John Hopkins?

  Rulon weaves his way forwards, following the tracks. And then, quite suddenly, they disappear. Another punch in the stomach.

• 28:20Speaker 01

  And I'm like, you know what? I could go, it's probably a half a mile back to where the tracks were, and I'm already this far, so I might as well keep going and follow in the river, thinking that maybe I'll meet up with the tracks again, or maybe I'll just follow the river back to, you know, back to home.

• 28:44John Hopkins?

  This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Ötzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Fall.

• 29:27John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.

• 29:58John Hopkins?

  This November on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 30:41John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 30:54John Hopkins?

  Committed to this path, Rulon carries on.

• 30:58John Hopkins?

  Eventually, he emerges from the trees into a wide, snow-engulfed meadow. It's now around 5:00 PM.

• 31:07John Hopkins?

  In front of him, the river starts to bend back and forth, going on as far as he can see, cutting off any clear path forwards. Going around isn't an option. He'll have to try to traverse the river's various curves and crossings.

• 31:24John Hopkins?

  Fortunately, in most places, the water is shallow enough for Rulon to cross, which he does four, five, six times.

• 31:34John Hopkins?

  But each one is a struggle. He becomes wetter, colder, more exhausted.

• 31:42John Hopkins?

  At times, he's penned in by slopes and has no choice but to ride on through the river itself.

• 31:49Speaker 01

  There was mountains on both sides, so I didn't really have anywhere else to go. And so at that point, I ride my snowmobile down into the river, and now you're riding on rocks, you're riding on, you know, whatever's down there, and then you get to the other side, and then it's ice again. So then I'd have to go up and grab my snowmobile and lift my snowmobile on top of the ice, and I did this probably for about 100 yards.

• 32:20John Hopkins?

  His body is dripping with water from his waist down. But the constant movement on and off his feet is helping to keep him warm. He river hops like this for around forty-five minutes. Until, as Rulon goes to cross yet another section of water, his vehicle crunches into a jumble of boulders and comes to an abrupt stop.

• 32:45John Hopkins?

  Disaster has struck.

• 32:49Speaker 01

  Finally, I got to a point where my snowmobile got stuck between two rocks. And now I'm sitting there, it's stuck. I'm like, what am I gonna do? I'm like, you know, you gotta get it unstuck. And so I go and I grab the back of my snowmobile and I start pulling it. And once I start pulling it backwards, my hands slip and I fall into the river. And now I go to my back and then I turn over and I stand up and I'm like, okay, you know, now you're completely wet, everything is soaked. You're in a lot of trouble.

• 33:20John Hopkins?

  The situation is bleaker than ever. Night covers every inch of the mountain range, and there's no telling which way is north, south, east, or west. The river, which he's been following so religiously, has led him even further from safety. With his entire body soaked, Rulon cannot stand still. But with his vehicle immobilized, there's only one thing for it.

• 33:46Speaker 01

  My snowmobile's still in the river. At that point, I'm like, what do I do? I'm like, you gotta leave your snowmobile. Just leave it.

• 34:00John Hopkins?

  The freezing wind batters Rulon as he shuffles along the icy path, wading through snow that reaches his hips.

• 34:09John Hopkins?

  With his snowmobile abandoned in the darkness behind him, every yard is a battle. Step by step, he trudges on until he comes to another steep slope.

• 34:21John Hopkins?

  The prospect of clambering up the incline is unappealing. But it also sparks an idea.

• 34:29Speaker 01

  Maybe I can, you know, climb the hill and get a cell signal. And so I'm climbing through the snow and I'm climbing through the snow. I probably did it two or three minutes and I moved about a foot. And the snow was so deep and, you know, you're trying to move on top of it and I'm like, there's no way.

• 34:52John Hopkins?

  Defeated, Rulon turns back around. It seems every path he takes just results in more setbacks, more energy being drained from his body.

• 35:03John Hopkins?

  He continues along the river again as the blackness swallows him, making it near impossible to see.

• 35:10John Hopkins?

  Sometimes he walks on the frozen surface of the river, only for it to suddenly crack and send him into the glacial water again.

• 35:22John Hopkins?

  Finally, some shapes appear through the dark, a small thicket of trees on the horizon. Rulon stumbles towards them.

• 35:32John Hopkins?

  The trees are skinny and twig-like, hardly the shelter he needs.

• 35:39Speaker 01

  I got three trees, you know, typically everybody say, well, you need to make a snow cave, you need to make a lean-to, you need to make X, Y, Z. But the problem was, there was no low-lying branches. There was no leaves I could get and take. So all the leaves were, you know, a lot higher than I could reach and around me there was no bushes, there was really nothing. I could go out scavenging for stuff, but I've just wasted all this energy, I'm now tired, I'm now wet, my clothes are freezing. There was three trees and I was kind of in between them and I was just sitting there just, just thinking, I'm like, okay, just stay here, everything's good, you're gonna be fine, just relax and just take it and everything's gonna be okay.

• 36:21Speaker 01

  And that was my thought process, but who knew how bad it was gonna get.

• 36:30John Hopkins?

  It's around 6:30 PM. Less than four hours ago, Rulon was enjoying a day out with his friends.

• 36:38John Hopkins?

  But he tries not to focus on the negatives. Dinner reservations tonight are at 7:30. By now, his friends will be wondering where he is. And soon, they'll know something is wrong.

• 36:52John Hopkins?

  He just needs to stay calm and coherent until they reach him.

• 36:58Speaker 01

  They talk about the mindset when you're out there and what you go through. And you kind of learn to, I think, not being an expert in it, but you learn to accept that you're freezing to death. You learn to accept that I'm gonna die. And that's what the process that people go through. And being a wrestler and being, I was hopefully mentally strong, you put yourself in that situation where like, I know this is gonna happen. I know I'm gonna die. I know this. It's like, no, you're not. Uh-uh. You're not gonna think that way because this is what you're gonna do. This is what you're gonna think. I now have to think about self-preservation. What are you gonna do? What's your thought process? How are you gonna make it through this night?

• 37:42John Hopkins?

  Rulon starts focusing on simple steps he can take to preserve himself. One is just trying to stay warm.

• 37:52John Hopkins?

  He paces up and down, swinging his arms. He tries to wiggle his toes, but this has little effect. They're rigid, covered in ice.

• 38:03John Hopkins?

  Determined to keep frostbite at bay, Rulon props himself against one of the trees and unties his left boot. His sock is soggy with freezing water. He peels it off and tries to rub some feeling into his foot.

• 38:20John Hopkins?

  The skin is red and prickly as he places it back into the boot.

• 38:26John Hopkins?

  Next, Rulon leans forward to carry out the same procedure on his right foot. But as he wrestles with the frozen laces, his fingers become slower and slower as the cold spreads through them.

• 38:38Speaker 01

  I'm breathing on my hands. I'm, you know, trying to keep my fingers from becoming really painful. And I understand the process of, you know, your fingers get really cold and then they turn to frostbite.

• 38:50John Hopkins?

  Deciding his fingers are more valuable than his toes, Rulon abandons the effort to warm his right foot and instead stuffs his hands inside his fleece.

• 39:02John Hopkins?

  They brush against his cellphone, which he flips open to see the time, 7:30 PM.

• 39:09John Hopkins?

  A very long night awaits.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  I'm not going to get frustrated, I'm not going to get down, and you know, going to keep positive. You know, I'm like, I won the Olympics. I'm the best in the world. I can save myself. I'm okay.

• 39:25John Hopkins?

  Rulon sets himself a challenge. The sun will start to rise at around 5 or 6 AM, bringing warmth, light, and hopefully a rescue mission. If he doesn't check his phone until sunrise, the time should pass faster and his cellphone battery will last longer.

• 39:47John Hopkins?

  As the time ticks over to 7:31, Rulon sticks his phone back into his pocket and waits.

• 39:55John Hopkins?

  The minutes blur into hours, each one more painful than the last as the freezing air gnaws into his body. He keeps walking up and down, keeps moving his limbs, and keeps an ear out for any sign of life.

• 40:10John Hopkins?

  After an eternity of waiting, Rulon has had enough. It must be nearly morning by now. It must be.

• 40:19John Hopkins?

  He reaches into his jacket and pulls out his phone.

• 40:23Speaker 01

  I expected it to be 4 to 6 o'clock in the morning and I turned my phone on and it was midnight. So I'd make it from 7:30 until midnight and I turned my phone on, I'm like, "You gotta be freaking kidding me." I'm like, "You're in trouble." Because everything I had to that point was to get to, you know, the sunrise. It just crushed me. It just broke me. And I'm like, "Oh, what am I gonna do?"

• 40:52John Hopkins?

  This time, Rulon doesn't have an answer. It's taken all of his physical and emotional strength to reach this point and he is utterly exhausted.

• 41:03John Hopkins?

  He collapses in a heap on the ground.

• 41:11John Hopkins?

  But then, at around 2:30 a.m., the eerie quiet is broken by the distant rumble of engines. Rulon strains his ears. It's the sound of snowmobiles.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  And I could hear them and I wah wah wah and I hear them stop. And so then I'm like, oh, hey, they're coming, they're gonna come get me. And so then I'm like, I'm gonna start whistling.

• 41:38John Hopkins?

  Filling his lungs, he whistles as loud as he can through the darkness.

• 41:46John Hopkins?

  The search party is tantalizingly close. Rulon can even make out the sounds of their boots crunching in the snow.

• 41:54John Hopkins?

  But while he can hear them, the direction of the wind is making it impossible for them to hear him.

• 42:06John Hopkins?

  After 15 minutes, the snowmobiles start up again, and the rumble of their engines fades into the distance.

• 42:17John Hopkins?

  Crushed, Rulon leans his head against a tree and lets exhaustion overcome him.

• 42:23John Hopkins?

  He drifts in and out of consciousness in a hypothermic daze.

• 42:29Speaker 01

  And then all of a sudden, I fall asleep. And I have a vision where I see Jesus, I see God, and I see my brother. And I had a brother that passed away when I was eight years old. And they all came to me and it was a white area. And I guess it was kind of like they were behind a table. I didn't really see that, but I saw their faces and their figures. And I'm like, oh, hi, Jesus, hi, God. I'm like, oh, it's Ronald, it's my brother. And I was sitting there and they're like, it's time to come home. And I'm like, uh-uh. I'm like, I got stuff to do. I just won the Olympics, won the Worlds, and, you know, I'm just finally realizing my potential in the sport of wrestling. I've, you know, got so many crazy things going on.

• 43:11Speaker 01

  It's the best time of my life, and why would I want not to be on this earth? And so I'm like, I want to come back and I want to, you know, continue to follow my dreams. And when I woke up, I'm like, yes. I'm like, I know there's life after death and life is good, God is here, and I got to see Ronald. I'm like, oh, yeah, you're still freezing to death.

• 43:38John Hopkins?

  Finally, however, there is a silver lining. Sun rises around the corner.

• 43:46John Hopkins?

  The sky starts to lighten. Slowly at first, pale blue streaks creep across the horizon. Then, the first golden rays break through the trees.

• 43:58John Hopkins?

  It brings warmth and hope.

• 44:02John Hopkins?

  Suddenly overcome by an awesome thirst, Rulon hauls himself to his feet and stumbles through the snow to a nearby stream.

• 44:11John Hopkins?

  He shovels water into his mouth, lapping it up as though he hasn't drunk in days.

• 44:17John Hopkins?

  He lays down on the snow and stares at the lightning blue sky above.

• 44:23John Hopkins?

  And that's when he sees it.

• 44:26Speaker 01

  I'm watching the stars disappearing and I'm probably there for about 10 minutes and all of a sudden I hear a It was an airplane. I was delusional because of the hypothermia and the mental stuff and I see him and I wave at him and he tips his wings like this and I know that he knows that I'm there.

• 44:47John Hopkins?

  Rulon lays on the ground, slipping in and out of hallucinations as a rescue mission unfolds around him.

• 44:57John Hopkins?

  The plane continues circling, keeping an eye on Rulon and reporting his condition. At one point, the pilot even throws down a coat to keep him warm.

• 45:08John Hopkins?

  But the clock is ticking. After almost 18 hours, Rulon's body is losing its fight against the cold. Every second counts.

• 45:19John Hopkins?

  Finally, at around 6:00 AM, with Rulon barely able to tell dreams from reality, a helicopter descends from the sky and lands in a clearing 30 yards away.

• 45:32John Hopkins?

  A section of river separates Rulon from the rotorcraft. Despite being utterly depleted, he doesn't hesitate.

• 45:40Speaker 01

  Then finally, I'm like, start swimming. So I just start, you know, fast as I can getting to him and I don't know how long, for me it was like a second. You know, I just was ready to get there and...

• 45:53John Hopkins?

  Delirious, shaking with cold, Rulon clambers on board the helicopter. Salvation.

• 46:06Speaker 02

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• 46:21John Hopkins?

  This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 47:04John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.

• 47:35John Hopkins?

  As they take to the sky, a nurse measures Rulon's temperature. It's dropped to 26 degrees Celsius, 11 degrees below the norm. There's no way he should be alive right now, let alone coherent. The helicopter speeds to the nearest hospital, where Rulon is rushed in. Due to his severe frostbite, the doctor's priority is to get him out of his icy clothes as quickly as possible.

• 48:04John Hopkins?

  But his boots are frozen to his feet.

• 48:08John Hopkins?

  The doctors have to use a saw to cut them off.

• 48:12Speaker 01

  One of the guys that pulled the boots off of my feet, his comment was, "It was like a frozen hamburger on a metal table." Because my feet were frozen solid.

• 48:25John Hopkins?

  Gravely, the doctors warn him that he'll likely lose all his toes. He'll be lucky to walk again.

• 48:35John Hopkins?

  But as Rulon is dragged from hospital to hospital, taken in and out of surgeries, he focuses on the positives of his situation.

• 48:44Speaker 01

  I start laughing, and they're like, "What are you laughing about?" I'm like, "'Cause I made it."

• 48:49Speaker 01

  You know, I made it. I'm here.

• 48:53Speaker 01

  And through the night, the process was is, "I don't care how bad it gets, as long as I have my brain and my body. I can lose body parts, I can lose my feet, I can lose my hands, and I can still function."

• 49:08John Hopkins?

  Slowly, Rulon's injuries start to heal. He undergoes skin grafts on both feet, though the right foot, which remained in the sock all night, is substantially worse and requires a toe to be amputated.

• 49:26John Hopkins?

  While in hospital, Rulon is also able to piece together the story of exactly what happened.

• 49:33John Hopkins?

  It turns out that his friend, Trent, left the mountain shortly after Danny. So while Rulon was frantically searching for him, Trent was actually on his way back home.

• 49:46John Hopkins?

  When Rulon didn't show up for dinner, Trent and Danny contacted Mountain Rescue, who dispatched a search party that night.

• 49:55John Hopkins?

  But after that, one disaster led to another. The search party's radios died. The edge Rulon dropped off was too steep for them to descend.

• 50:05John Hopkins?

  And when the plane located him the next morning, a helicopter was prevented from reaching him for hours because of a no-fly zone implemented due to the Winter Olympics taking place in nearby Salt Lake City.

• 50:18John Hopkins?

  It was a series of unfortunate events, and everything pointed against his survival.

• 50:24John Hopkins?

  But Rulon is a fighter.

• 50:27John Hopkins?

  Proving all the doctors wrong, he's back on his feet within months, and not just walking.

• 50:34John Hopkins?

  By September 2002, seven months after the incident, Rulon is wrestling full-time again and secures his place on the national team.

• 50:46John Hopkins?

  Two years later, he travels to Athens for the Olympic Games, where he wins a bronze medal. It's an incredible journey, one which medics, coaches, and training partners believed was impossible. But for Rulon, it's bittersweet.

• 51:02Speaker 01

  What kind of sucked and kind of was stupid and just irresponsible is the media runs up and they're like, "You're a failure, you're a loser. You didn't win two gold medals, and you're gonna wrestle for a bronze. Aren't you devastated?" I'm like, "Yeah, I'm devastated, but not a failure. I didn't wrestle to win medals. I wrestled to prove something to myself. Every day, everything in my life, I've had to prove something to me, and I wanted to prove something to myself. That's why I've been through so much adversity. That's why I've been through so many challenges. That's why I have the mentality I do." What made me survive, you don't know until you're in that situation. And for me, more than anything, my mom.

• 51:46Speaker 01

  To know that she would have lost me from a bad decision that I made, it would have doubly broke my heart to know that I caused my mom pain. You know, and that was always the one thing I never wanted to do. I never wanted my mom to ever say, "Rulon, you made a bad decision." Knowing that they would find me and knowing that I would be frozen and my mom would have to see that was the one reason I survived. She was just the person that made me realize what was important and what is significant in the value of life itself.

• 52:30John Hopkins?

  Next time on Real Survival Stories.

• 52:34John Hopkins?

  We meet Dick Barton, a man whose job is to recover artifacts from the world's most iconic shipwreck. In August 1994, Dick leads a dive down to an uncharted section of the sunken Titanic.

• 52:49John Hopkins?

  The mission is going off without a hitch until their sub is knocked off course by a freak ocean current.

• 52:57John Hopkins?

  Trapped within the wreckage with dwindling oxygen supplies and zero contact with the surface, Dick and his colleagues must find a solution to their problem fast, or they too will suffer a tragic fate 82 years after Titanic met hers. That's next time on Real Survival Stories.

• 53:21John Hopkins?

  Listen now without waiting a week by subscribing to Noiser Plus.

• 53:26John Hopkins?

  This November on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 54:09John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 54:18John Hopkins?

  This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural-human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And, after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 55:01John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.