Pod Insights Real Survival Stories No Mans Canyon: Brothers in Trouble About this episode A college administrator and his older brother set out to explore Utah’s Robbers Roost. But when a tricky climbing manoeuvre in a remote desert slot canyon goes horribly wrong, David Cicotello finds himself stranded - without a rope and without his brother and mentor. Battling bitter cold and the ever-present danger of rockfall, David has no choice but to hunker down on a narrow ledge - with scant supplies and no means of escape…
A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins.
Written by Joe Viner | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:04 John Hopkins? It's Monday, March 7, 2011.
1:09 John Hopkins? Deep in the canyon lands of southeastern Utah, many miles from the nearest passable road, lies a wild, sun-baked swathe of wilderness known as Robber's Roost.
1:22 John Hopkins? In the days of the Old West, outlaws made their hideouts among its serpentine ravines and twisting red rock gullies.
1:32 John Hopkins? Today, aside from coyotes and cottontails, few venture out this far. The sheer remoteness proving too much for all but the most intrepid explorers.
1:46 John Hopkins? At the heart of this sprawling expanse, no man's canyon is a hairline crack in the earth's crust. A narrow, vein-like gorge that snakes off the main artery of the Dirty Devil River.
2:00 John Hopkins? Getting here means using a rope and harness to navigate miles of tight, mazy ravines, clambering over windswept mesas, and slogging through vast tracts of cactus-strewn desert.
2:13 John Hopkins? And getting here is the easy part. Getting out poses a far greater challenge.
2:23 John Hopkins? As fifty-seven-year-old David Chikatello knows all too well.
2:29 John Hopkins? David sits on a rocky ledge partway down No Man's Canyon. He is one hundred feet above the ground. Scattered around him are assorted pieces of climbing gear: a harness, a rappel device, some carabiners.
2:46 John Hopkins? But no rope. And without a rope, David is stranded.
2:54 Speaker 03 For me, the focus was in the form of a mantra: "Get to Friday, get to Friday, get to Friday." Now, I thought that would be the earliest day of my rescue, because when our loved ones didn't hear the phone call Thursday night, they would act.
3:12 John Hopkins? As night falls in the desert, the temperature plummets. A harsh wind whistles down the canyon, slicing through David's thin climbing clothes.
3:22 John Hopkins? Shivering, he stretches his fingers over a tiny campfire built from the few burnable scraps he could find in his pack. Get to Friday. The objective is simple enough. He should have just enough rations to make it through the next four days. It's going to be rough, physically and mentally, but doable.
3:45 John Hopkins? That is, as long as nothing unexpected happens.
3:52 Speaker 03 The physicality of heat and cold over time make sandstone fragile. And if there's enough hard rain coming down, it can loosen up rock that's already fragile from the thawing and the baking. And Monday night started to rain.
4:13 John Hopkins? It starts slowly, just a few drops. But within moments, the heavens open, a deluge.
4:23 John Hopkins? David looks up at the top of the canyon wall, far above his head, where the rain is now hammering the fragile sandstone ring.
4:32 Speaker 03 But what I hear during the night and in the darkness is I hear some rocks coming down.
4:41 John Hopkins? David scrambles to the back of the ledge, desperately searching for some protection from the downpour and from the falling rocks, each one threatening to make a fatal collision.
4:54 Speaker 03 I don't know if it's just fragments that are coming down or if there's going to be a big rock slide coming down. I was terrified, beyond all terror.
5:17 John 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.
5:39 John Hopkins? In this episode, we meet David Cicotello. In the spring of 2011, the college administrator is exploring Utah's canyons with his older brother, Louis. For David, these climbing trips are as much about bonding with his sibling as they are about enjoying nature. But when a tricky maneuver in a remote desert canyon goes horribly wrong, David finds himself stranded without a rope and without his brother and mentor.
6:08 Speaker 03 He had come down on the rope, and the rope went with him. And I shouted out his name, and there was no reply.
6:16 John Hopkins? Battling bitter cold and the ever-present danger of rockfall, David must hunker down on a narrow ledge with scant supplies and no means of escape.
6:26 Speaker 03 I have no rope. I had no equipment. There was just no way out.
6:32 John Hopkins? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.
7:01 John Hopkins? It's March the 5th, 2011, in Utah. Two brothers hike through a wide, flat desert valley, leaving footprints in the red, sun-baked clay.
7:14 John Hopkins? A mild breeze cuts in from the west, rustling the sagebrush.
7:19 John Hopkins? In the cobalt-blue sky, a bird of prey circles, scouring the arid landscape for lizards and jackrabbits.
7:29 John Hopkins? Fifty-seven-year-old David Chikatella pauses for a breather. Puffing and panting, he lifts his head and looks up at his older brother Louis, striding out in front. David smiles. He's happy to be following in his brother's footsteps. He's been doing it, one way or another, since he was young.
7:50 John Hopkins? Louis is 13 years older. He was starting college when David was still in kindergarten. When it was David's turn to go off to university, his older brother already seemed impossibly worldly and urbane.
8:05 Speaker 03 He was in his early 30s. He was our professor. And I grew up a lot around him because he was a big influence. He introduced me to a lot of different things. I had my first Asian food. I went to a Grateful Dead concert. He was my guide to everything.
8:26 John Hopkins? David hitches his backpack onto his shoulders and hurries to keep up.
8:32 John Hopkins? Even at 70, Louis is still a trailblazer. After that initial period of bonding when David was at college, the two brothers drifted apart. David went off to become an English teacher, first in Nebraska, then in Tennessee, with Louis based hundreds of miles away, teaching art in Colorado. But then, a few years ago, they reconnected over a shared interest: exploring the dramatic landscapes of the American Southwest.
9:02 John Hopkins? As a keen rock climber, Louis suggested to David that he should learn too. It's the only way to properly explore this part of the world. David didn't take much convincing. If it meant spending more quality time with his brother, he was in.
9:18 Speaker 03 While I learned how to climb in a gym and got certified, I didn't learn how to climb until I went into the canyons with my brother. That was field work. That was field experience. And he was my sort of mentor and teacher there and coached me up and got me confident on the rope. And that was another one of those bonding periods, too.
9:49 John Hopkins? For David, it was like rolling back the years.
9:53 John Hopkins? Louis showing him how to use climbing ropes, the way he'd once shown him how to hold chopsticks or groove to eclectic rock music.
10:02 John Hopkins? Their hair might be a little grayer, their eyesight a little worse, but the brotherly bond was still very much intact.
10:10 John Hopkins? Once David had reached a sufficient level, they were out climbing in the wild side by side, helping each other scale and descend sheer rock faces. They'd get away whenever possible, usually one trip a year, but more if they can. Utah, Arizona, Colorado, collecting pins in their map of the Southwest.
10:31 John Hopkins? Though it's never really been about the climbing itself.
10:34 Speaker 03 It was those special moments alone where we could talk as we hiked, where we could sit around the campfire and enjoy our meal in silence and take in this beautiful landscape, this 360-degree view of, you know, the canyon lands with the Milky Way above you at night. And I really enjoyed learning something new. And my brother was there and we both enjoyed it. That was, yeah, that was part of it.
11:16 John Hopkins? It's just after 9 a.m. on Sunday, March 6. David and Louis are hiking up to the North Fork of No Man's Canyon.
11:26 John Hopkins? A red Martian landscape extends out in all directions. A rolling sea of sandstone, studded with bristly sagebrush, dropping away into hidden gulches and gullies.
11:41 John Hopkins? When they reach the trailhead, they spot only two sets of footprints, their own from the day before, when they came to scout this area.
11:50 John Hopkins? It means that nobody else has come up here. They're completely alone.
11:58 John Hopkins? Although in these parts, that's hardly unexpected. It's the remoteness of this region that draws in climbers and adventurers.
12:09 John Hopkins? The extreme isolation once attracted famous outlaws, who carved their hideaways into its stone-walled canyons, giving the place its name.
12:19 Speaker 03 Well, this part of Utah, which is known as Robber's Roost, goes back to the 19th century when outlaws, who would go into these canyons where the cowboys didn't even come, because they wanted to get away from, you know, the law. And Butch Cassidy and his gang were known to frequent these canyons in Robber's Roost, and no one would want to go in there because of its remoteness.
12:49 John Hopkins? Unlike Butch Cassidy and his gang, David and Louis have every intention of staying visible and easy to find. They've taken every possible precaution, going through the checklist to ensure that, should anything happen, there are contingencies in place. The first golden rule is to leave a map, clearly marked with their intended routes and destinations.
13:11 John Hopkins? David gave one to his partner Rhonda, Louis to his wife Millie.
13:16 Speaker 03 So that's number one, leave a map. Number two, we were going together. Louis and I were a team. We were two people, okay? I wasn't going alone, he wasn't going alone. And again, that's at the top of the list too, right? And thirdly, people knew where we were going.
13:43 John Hopkins? Out here, preparation is critical.
13:48 John Hopkins? Robber's Roost is a sprawling wilderness of nearly 3,000 square miles. A vast tract of desert, cut with a maze of sandstone canyons. On a map, these canyons resemble forks of lightning, ripping through the red earth.
14:06 Speaker 03 Most of them are slot canyons, which means they're not the Grand Canyon. They are very narrow in places in which you have to use your physical abilities to chimney up narrow areas and then climb down to get over obstacles. Okay, so this is a lot of how the problem solved through narrow slots.
14:31 John Hopkins? For rock climbers, this place is like a theme park. An endless variety of tricky descents down tunnels gouged by water and wind. But it's not all fun and games. When canyoneering, danger comes in many forms. Flash floods can strike at any moment, filling a dry canyon with a deluge of whitewater. Then there's the risk of rockfalls, scorpion stings, and of course, the remoteness.
14:58 John Hopkins? Out here, with rescue often days away, even a non-fatal injury can be a death sentence.
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16:15 John Hopkins? It's about midday. David and Louis are descending into No Man's Canyon, a hairline crack in the earth, leading 100 feet down to a dry creek bed.
16:27 John Hopkins? Their plan is to down-climb through No Man's, then exit through the North Fork and hike back to the trailhead. Louis goes first, rappelling partway down to a small, sloping ledge.
16:41 John Hopkins? Ordinarily, the Chikotella brothers are hard to tell apart. Both are tall and rangy, with soft, paintbrush mustaches and wisps of gray hair curling out from underneath their baseball caps. When climbing, though, it's easy to spot who's the more experienced.
16:59 John Hopkins? David has become proficient these past few years, but Louis is a total natural. His movements are effortless and self-assured, with none of the hesitation that can still sometimes creep into David's technique.
17:14 John Hopkins? The younger Chikotella waits until he hears his brother call up,
17:19 John Hopkins? then clips his rope into the harness and eases himself past the rim down to where Louis is waiting for him.
17:28 John Hopkins? There they assess the next stage of the climb.
17:32 Speaker 03 This part of the slop slopes about 20 feet to the edge, to the actual edge, and then it drops. But in that place, it's very narrow, and only one climber can go down that sort of sloopy area to the edge, stand, and then go down. So Louis and I could not go down together and stand together at the edge. It had to be one climber at a time.
18:00 John Hopkins? As always, Louis goes first.
18:04 John Hopkins? David watches him make his way down the sloping section towards the edge.
18:10 John Hopkins? To make this 100-foot descent, the brothers are using a single 200-foot rope, the middle of which they've marked with a piece of white tape. It's a simple, but important trick.
18:23 John Hopkins? When setting up this rappel, it's crucial to have equal lengths of rope hanging on both sides of the anchor. Otherwise, they could run out of rope before reaching the ground. By pulling the rope through the anchor until the tape appears, the brothers know the rope is perfectly centered and thus safe to use.
18:41 Speaker 03 We saw that piece of tape and we stopped. And Louis was to go first. And he ties in and begins to go down that slopy area to the edge. And I'm back in about 20 feet watching him go down.
19:01 John Hopkins? At 200 feet, the rope they're using is only just long enough because a rappel rope should be at least double the length of the descent. Ideally, the rope should be significantly longer than the wall to leave a margin for error and to avoid the risk of coming up short before reaching the ground. But by using the white tape to center the rope at the anchor, the brothers have ensured they have enough rope on each side. It should be plain sailing.
19:28 John Hopkins? David catches a final glimpse of Louis, his bright, spectacled eyes squinting in concentration before he slides out of view.
19:40 Speaker 03 All I'm seeing now from my position back in that slotty area is the rope, as taut as it could be, over the edge. And I don't see my brother anymore because it's a blind view. He's over the edge and going down.
20:00 John Hopkins? David watches the rope snake through the rappel ring, stretched tight across the smooth rust-colored stone.
20:08 John Hopkins? Louis is on a free-hanging rappel. That is, his body isn't touching the rock. He's just hanging from the rope, dangling above a lofty 100-foot drop, making a controlled descent.
20:21 John Hopkins? After a few moments, David hears his brother's voice.
20:25 Speaker 03 He says, "Oops!
20:29 Speaker 03 The rope is short." Now, in that moment, I froze, and I could imagine what he was saying. Because to say, "Oops, the rope is short," means that the strands are not equal.
20:43 John Hopkins? David's stomach drops.
20:46 John Hopkins? This isn't good. If the strands aren't equal, Louis might be descending on the shorter side of the rope. It seems he's now suspended above the canyon floor, hanging on the line with no way to safely descend the final distance. David, still unable to see him, has no clue how high above the ground Louis is. Could be 5 feet, 10 feet, 50.
21:11 John Hopkins? But just as the panic starts to rise, Louis calls out again.
21:16 Speaker 03 As quickly as my brother said, "Oops, the rope is short," the next thing he says to me is, "No biggie." Now, when my dear brother said, "No biggie," that was all I needed to know to understand that he had it under control.
21:36 John Hopkins? Reassured, David relaxes. Louis has everything in hand. Of course he does, he's just said so. A few more seconds pass.
21:46 Speaker 03 And I'm watching the rope, and that rope is tuck through the rappel ring and down over the edge. And I've been asked many times, "How long was it before you saw that rope zip through the rappel ring and go down over the edge?" And when I think about that and try to reconstruct that moment, I may be able to count 1,001, 1,002, 1,003. Can't say for certain, but it was rapid.
22:28 John Hopkins? David blinks. Not quite processing what he's just seen. He stares at the empty rappel ring, as if by looking hard enough, he might will the rope to reappear. But it's gone.
22:43 John Hopkins? Zipped through the ring, and down over the edge.
22:47 Speaker 03 In that moment, I knew what happened. He had come down on the rope, and the rope went with him. And I shouted out his name,
22:57 Speaker 03 and there was no reply.
23:12 John Hopkins? It's lunchtime, on Sunday, March 6, 2011.
23:17 John Hopkins? Somewhere in the wilderness of southeastern Utah, David Chikotelo stands on a narrow ledge, partway down a deep, slot canyon. His heart drums inside his ribs, and a cold sweat prickles across his skin.
23:32 John Hopkins? He calls out Louis's name,
23:35 John Hopkins? but the wind sighing through the canyon is his only reply.
23:41 John Hopkins? Moments ago, David watched as the rope his brother was using to descend suddenly slipped through the rappel ring. It can mean only one thing. Louis must have fallen.
23:55 Speaker 03 He did not cry out. He did not land hard, because I heard nothing from my vantage point. And by the way, in those slot canyons, it's more like the Carnegie Hall. It's wonderful acoustics in there. But I heard no crying out, and I heard no hard landing.
24:15 John Hopkins? The questions pile up. Why didn't Louis cry out when he fell? Why wasn't there a sound? No impact, no thud. Just seconds before, he had shouted "No biggie", as if everything was under control. So what went wrong?
24:33 John Hopkins? David keeps calling out, his voice choked with panicked tears. Whatever condition Lewis is in, he's clearly not able to reply.
24:43 John Hopkins? Instinctively, David moves forwards.
24:47 John Hopkins? But in the next instant, he freezes.
24:51 John Hopkins? The 200-foot rope that fell with Lewis was their only full-length climbing rope. All he has now is a short 20-foot static rope, useful for setting anchors or backups, but far too short to descend with.
25:06 John Hopkins? Unable to climb down from this ledge, maybe his only option is back up.
25:12 John Hopkins? David squints, shielding his eyes from the blazing afternoon sun. There is an overhanging mantle 10 feet above him, a jutting shelf of sandstone. Climbing past that obstacle without a proper rope would be impossible.
25:30 John Hopkins? In short, he has no way up, no way down, no way out.
25:37 Speaker 03 I had no equipment to use with my static rope to throw over that mantle, to hook onto something and climb over it, okay? There was just no way out the way we came in.
25:53 John Hopkins? David inhales slowly, trying to keep himself centered. Clearly, his options are limited. There's zero cell service out here, so he isn't able to call for help.
26:05 John Hopkins? Without appropriate equipment, any attempts to scramble or climb out of here would likely end in disaster.
26:13 John Hopkins? It's at this point that David's time in the Boy Scouts comes in useful.
26:18 John Hopkins? There's an old rule: If you ever get lost in the wilderness, don't try to immediately find your way back. You'll only risk stumbling into deeper trouble. Instead, stay in place. Your best hope of rescue is often by sitting tight and waiting.
26:36 John Hopkins? And so, even though it means giving up on reaching Lewis for now, that's what David does.
26:43 John Hopkins? With tears coursing down his cheeks, he slumps down on the stony ground and waits.
26:52 John Hopkins? But then...
26:55 Speaker 03 Within a few minutes of making this decision, I heard my brother moan. And it was the only time I heard any audible sounds. And he did a little moaning, and I rushed to that kind of slotty opening and called out his name to see if I could have any kind of conversation. And it stopped.
27:27 John Hopkins? David cranes his neck. But he can't see past the sloping edge of the wall. Any closer to the drop, he'd risk falling. He calls out again and again, pleading for Louis to respond. It's no use. His brother is out of reach and out of earshot. Maybe he's also out of time.
27:52 John Hopkins? But David is endangered too, however much it pains him. For now, he has to focus on his own situation.
28:01 Speaker 03 So I would imagine it's about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Sunday, March 6. And it's survival time.
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29:19 John Hopkins? He takes off his pack and empties it onto the ledge.
29:23 John Hopkins? The plan had been to camp out here in the desert until Friday, five days from now. But they'd intended to return to their campsite this evening, which means David only has enough food and water on him for a single day.
29:40 Speaker 03 I deconstructed my lunch and decided that I was gonna ration my sandwich, ration my orange, ration my power bar, and ration my trail mix. I had a 16-ounce plastic bottle of water and I had a liter of iced tea that I had put a large slice of lemon in that morning, because I like lemon in my iced tea.
30:05 John Hopkins? David peers at the warm liquid sloshing around his half-liter water bottle. He can already feel the saliva thickening on his tongue. A drink right now would be very welcome, but he needs to pace himself.
30:19 John Hopkins? The sun shimmers overhead, its radiance spilling down into the narrow slot. David looks around for shade. At the back of the ledge, the overhanging mantle offers some shelter, a spot where he can stay cool and, if necessary, dry. Even in the desert, sudden rainstorms aren't unheard of.
30:41 Speaker 03 I was protected from the elements. If there was gonna be rain, it wasn't gonna be raining right on top of me, because that part of the area was kinda cave-y, so I was protected back there.
30:56 John Hopkins? Next, David takes inventory of the rest of his supplies. He spreads everything out on the ground at his feet: a couple of metal clips, a roll of climbing tape, his penknife, some spare clothes. Then he pulls apart the backpack itself, ripping out the styrofoam padding and laying it alongside the rest of the gear.
31:17 John Hopkins? He frowns at his modest stockpile. He's a long way from an ideal survival kit. But then, with some creativity, perhaps he can make these few items work to his advantage.
31:30 John Hopkins? He places his empty backpack at the rear of the ledge underneath the overhang and lies down on it.
31:37 John Hopkins? As an improvised sleeping mat, it's not bad.
31:41 John Hopkins? He gazes up at the azure stripe of sky sandwiched between the canyon walls. And closes his eyes.
31:51 Speaker 03 For me, the focus was in the form of a mantra. Get to Friday, get to Friday, get to Friday. Now, I thought that would be the earliest day of my rescue. Because when our loved ones didn't hear the phone call Thursday night, they would act.
32:09 John Hopkins? Night descends quickly and brings with it a sharp drop in temperature.
32:16 John Hopkins? David pulls a pair of woolen leggings on underneath his climbing trousers. He rolls up some spare socks and tucks them under his baseball cap as makeshift earmuffs. It is going to be a tough night.
32:31 John Hopkins? In this part of Utah, the daytime warmth can be misleading. Despite being a desert, this region sits at a very high elevation. When the sun goes down, the cold picks up.
32:47 Speaker 03 The temperature forecast that week in Utah was perfect. It was going to be in the mid-sixties and sunny during the day. Great for day hiking. But at night, it would be freezing or in the twenties. And we're talking about Fahrenheit, of course. So I tried to get as creative as possible with keeping myself warm at night.
33:13 John Hopkins? David takes the styrofoam padding from his backpack and shoves it under his shirt for one final additional layer.
33:21 John Hopkins? Then, with his arms wrapped around his chest, he sits back and tries to get some sleep. Get to Friday. It's a simple enough plan, but putting those words into practice is anything but simple. This isn't just a test of patience, it's a test of mental toughness. Not everyone could keep themselves sane and centered in such circumstances. But David has been through hell before.
33:51 John Hopkins? A few years ago, he suffered a devastating loss.
33:55 Speaker 03 I lost a dear son at thirty. He passed away from brain cancer. That moment in my life to lose a child at that young age, he was thirty, if I did not have that kind of positivity and how to handle adversity, it kind of leveled up in me that resilience.
34:21 Speaker 03 You know, the twenty-third psalm, let me be a preacher here for a moment. Though we walk through the valley, King David says "through the valley", he doesn't say "we're stopping", "through the valley", and so that metaphor has really resonated with me. I'm gonna get through this. I'm gonna get through this.
34:53 John Hopkins? After a sleepless night, David's first full day in the canyon passes slowly. An uncomfortable, mind-numbing procession of empty hours, his ever-increasing hunger is the only way to differentiate one moment from the next.
35:10 John Hopkins? When darkness falls again, he manages to gather together some scraps of paper from his backpack and burn them, keep his fingers warm.
35:20 John Hopkins? He is sitting there, hands outstretched above his makeshift campfire, when he feels it.
35:29 John Hopkins? A single drop of rain.
35:33 Speaker 03 The one night that I was terrified beyond all terror was a night that rain came. And that's not a good thing to have in slot canyons because the physicality of heat and cold over time make sandstone fragile. And if there's enough hard rain coming down, it can loosen up rock that's already fragile from the thawing and the baking. And Monday night started to rain.
36:06 John Hopkins? It was rainwater flowing through these cracks in the sedimentary bedrock that first began carving these canyons millions of years ago.
36:15 John Hopkins? It will go on shaping them for millions more, eroding their sandstone walls in powerful surging flash floods.
36:24 John Hopkins? As the rain intensifies, David crawls to the back of the ledge.
36:28 John Hopkins? He sits beneath the semi-protective overhang, knees drawn into his chest, trying to stay dry. The downpour is torrential, heavy sheets thundering into the canyon, soaking him despite his meager shelter. And getting wet, that's the least of his worries.
36:48 Speaker 03 But what I hear during the night and in the darkness, and there's only the stars to light up this area, as I hear some rocks coming down. I don't know if it's just fragments that are coming down, or if there's going to be a big rock slide coming down.
37:11 John Hopkins? Rocks flash past in the rain-filled darkness, echoing off the walls, splintering into shrapnel. Flinching, David covers his head with his arms and braces for what is starting to feel like the inevitable.
37:25 John Hopkins? But mercifully, the deadly avalanche doesn't come.
37:31 John Hopkins? The rain gradually eases off, the danger passes. For now.
37:39 John Hopkins? At some point, he must have drifted off, because when David opens his eyes, it's day again, bright and crisp. He stretches out, warming his limbs in the pool of sunlight creeping across the shadowed ledge. After last night's scare, the fact that he's still breathing counts for something, a small victory to help him get through another morning.
38:03 John Hopkins? He looks up at the sky, clear again, as if last night's rain never happened.
38:10 John Hopkins? Come Friday, if all goes well, the brothers will be reported missing, and a helicopter will be sent out to scour these canyons.
38:19 John Hopkins? David turns his attention to making himself easier to spot. He looks around at the items littered about this ledge. His gaze settles on a sheet of stiff plastic pulled from the inside of his backpack, then on the webbing pockets lining the pack's exterior. Maybe it's enough to construct a help sign.
38:41 Speaker 03 I used webbing to put the letters H E L. Then I stopped and said, "What are you doing cutting webbing? It's taking too much time. Get your climbers' tape out." And I made L and P with white climbing tape, so I had a multicolored help word.
38:58 John Hopkins? David admires his handiwork. He lays the sign out flat on the sloping ledge, held in place with a couple of rocks. It's a solid piece of improvisation, but will it be enough?
39:15 John Hopkins? He looks up again at the sliver of sky peeking down through the canyon. This ravine is one of hundreds in the area, a single offshoot of a tree branch with countless others exactly like it.
39:29 John Hopkins? The odds are incredibly slim, but he has to trust that an eagle-eyed helicopter pilot will somehow spot him.
39:36 John Hopkins? And so he sits on his empty backpack and resumes his agonizing wait.
39:43 Speaker 03 I became engaged in my surroundings. Those days were beautiful. And while tedious and boring, I looked out that slot exit every day and watched the ravens and watched the skyline and watched the contrails come across from the jet airplanes. And at night, I was able to track Orion across that slot. And that's how I kept time.
40:09 John Hopkins? From his lonely perch, David watches the world go by.
40:14 John Hopkins? Despite everything, there is a quiet comfort in the rhythm of it all. The steady turning of the earth, the certainty of day turning into night and night into day, only for it all to start again.
40:28 John Hopkins? The birds, the stars, the airplanes, the fading contrails.
40:34 John Hopkins? Amid the clockwork-like monotony, David seeks diversion where he can find it.
40:40 Speaker 03 I began to sing. Oh, beautiful, for space. It just came to me. And later, in therapy, I learned from my therapist that singing is comforting. And that just came to me naturally. Now, I didn't belt out tune after tune, but it was something to occupy my time.
41:07 John Hopkins? Throughout all this, keeping calm is a relentless battle, suppressing negative thoughts and emotional outbursts, made all the more difficult because Lewis's fate is still unknown.
41:21 Speaker 03 I knew how I was experiencing it in the moments after he fell. I was weeping uncontrollably. And that's no way to get to Friday if you're in that state. And so, that idea of pushing the beach ball underneath the water for that week, and it's really between the ears. It's getting your mind focused on survival and engaging in things that sort of support that.
41:51 John Hopkins? Tuesday seeps into Wednesday, which bleeds into Thursday.
41:58 John Hopkins? David's rations are now running very thin. He only has a few scraps of food left, and he's down to the last drops of water.
42:06 John Hopkins? Thankfully, he's still got that liter bottle of iced tea, a final reserve he held back for when things turned desperate. On Thursday, hoping this will be his last day on the ledge, he goes to take a swig of what promises to be a mightily refreshing drink. But when he picks up the bottle of iced tea, he can tell something's wrong.
42:27 Speaker 03 That wonderful iced tea that I had, and I'd fixed that wonderful piece of lemon, that lemon turned brown and black by midweek, and I was so damn angry that it happened. When I opened it up on Thursday, and I could smell the rancidness, I got so enraged that I just tossed that bottle back and forth in my hands, and the tea went everywhere.
42:53 John Hopkins? David throws the empty bottle aside, seething with frustration.
43:02 John Hopkins? It's tiny moments like this that can be the difference between life and death. Incensed, he slumps down on the ground and picks up his main water bottle.
43:13 John Hopkins? Just a few milliliters remain. His mouth burns with dehydration, but he doesn't take a sip. Instead, he makes a pledge.
43:25 Speaker 03 I'm not gonna drink the rest of that water until I'm rescued, and that's what my goal is. And even if I do become in a kind of a hallucination sort of situation, and I'm feeling like I'm gonna pass out, my plan was to just let it happen. That's about as far as I got to thinking about my mortality.
43:46 John Hopkins? It shouldn't come to that, surely.
43:49 John Hopkins? Today is Thursday, the final full day of their trip. Right about now, David's partner Rhonda should be expecting a call, telling her he's on his way home.
44:00 John Hopkins? When she doesn't hear from him, she'll promptly notify the authorities, and the search and rescue party will be sent out. As night falls, David's optimism builds. Tomorrow, this will be all over.
44:14 Speaker 03 And so that Thursday night, that was my night of like anticipation because everything has been geared up for getting rescued on Friday. Well, that wasn't the plan because Friday came and it came and it came and it went. And no rescue. And I was very disappointed. I mean, I was dejected.
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45:42 John Hopkins? It's Friday night in the Utah desert. David lies on his back in the dark, still processing the disappointment of not being rescued. Get to Friday. That had been his plan. Now what? Before, there was an end point, a destination to focus on. Now, time stretches out endlessly before him. A great yawning void, and with his supplies all but gone, it seems the only thing that awaits is a death sentence. The canyon walls appear somehow taller than before, his ledge even more sunken and obscured
46:26 John Hopkins? in shadow. Nobody will find him here. But then... Then he hears it.
46:39 Speaker 03 Heard the helicopter. And later I was told it was about eleven o'clock when the Utah State Patrol helicopter came down that canyon and was searching at night.
46:53 John Hopkins? David jumps to his feet, his heart pounding. The chopper swoops low over the canyon, the dazzling beam of its searchlight flashing across the opening.
47:04 Speaker 03 I stood up on that interior ledge and I said, "I'm here!" And shouted, "They couldn't hear me, but that was the impulse." And in that moment, I felt this relief, "They're searching for us," and felt confident that they would come around the next day.
47:25 John Hopkins? The helicopter moves off, but the fact that they're looking in the right spot is what matters.
47:31 John Hopkins? Tomorrow, when it's light, they'll come back. Just a few more hours.
47:40 John Hopkins? And sure enough, when the next morning arrives...
47:44 Speaker 03 I hear them again, I see them again, I get up off that interior ledge, have my "help" sign in my hand, stand up where they can see me, and they acknowledge with their horn that they've seen me.
48:01 John Hopkins? It's the sound he's been praying for. A few moments later, a search and rescue officer rappels down to the ledge. He asks what happened, and David explains as best he can about Louis, the accident, and his six days alone in the slot canyon.
48:21 John Hopkins? The officer straps him into a device, a kind of harness attached to a winch that will enable him to climb past the overhanging mantle and out of the canyon.
48:31 John Hopkins? With members of the search and rescue team operating the winch, David is able to clamber up from the ledge.
48:39 Speaker 03 And I just walked up that rock face. And they turned this and turned it and turned it and kind of pulled me up. And when I got up to that place where the mantle was that I couldn't climb over, I was able to reach up to them, the rescue guys, and they picked me up over the mantle. They just hauled me over the edge there. And I was out of where I was for six days.
49:06 John Hopkins? David climbs inside the helicopter.
49:10 John Hopkins? The rescue team reassure him they'll come back for Lewis, but their priority right now is getting him to safety.
49:16 John Hopkins? At this point, he still doesn't have definitive confirmation that his brother is dead, even if the chance of a different outcome is practically nonexistent.
49:26 John Hopkins? The aircraft roars as it turns a full 180 and chugs back to the trailhead, where David's truck is parked and where he needs to retrieve his cellphone and wallet.
49:39 John Hopkins? It's here that his worst fears are confirmed.
49:44 Speaker 03 When I got back to the truck, Sheriff was there. And the sheriff informed me officially about my brother's passing. He gave me the notification and shared his condolences.
49:58 Speaker 03 And then I got back in the helicopter and went to Moab.
50:12 John Hopkins? David is admitted to hospital in Moab, where a doctor checks his vitals and gets him fed and rehydrated.
50:19 John Hopkins? Lying in his hospital bed, the survival mindset that kept him focused in the canyon finally switches off, leaving space for the grief that he's been keeping at bay.
50:32 John Hopkins? He also begins to work out what must have happened to Lewis, how this skilled and experienced climber could have made such a fatal error.
50:42 John Hopkins? The piece of white tape marking the center of the rope must have shifted during the previous rappels. When Lewis began his descent, the rope was not evenly distributed on either side of the rappel device. One end was shorter than the other, stranding him partway down the wall. As for what exactly happened next, there is no way of knowing for sure. But David says he has a theory for the likeliest explanation. Lewis was descending on the shorter strand of rope. When he reached the end of the rope, he decided to take a leap of faith.
51:18 Speaker 03 When he said "no biggie," what was in his mind was that he was planning to go down to where that short piece ended, because he couldn't go any further. And what we expect he did was to get down as close as he could and jump the rest of the way.
51:39 John Hopkins? When Lewis jumped, the rope must have slipped through the anchor device and fallen with him. This is what left David stranded. Whether the jump was ultimately too big for Lewis, or something else unforeseen happened, the leap clearly did not go to plan. Based on the autopsy report, Lewis broke his pelvis when he made impact with the ground. Though it wasn't in itself a fatal injury, it left him critically incapacitated.
52:08 Speaker 03 He was immobilized. He couldn't move. And being a type 2 diabetic, he couldn't take his medicine. And so eventually, he went into a diabetic coma, and he passed away.
52:21 John Hopkins? After leaving hospital, David goes home to Tennessee. He returns to his teaching job, tries to recover some semblance of a normal life. But his grief casts a shadow, often manifesting in strange, unanticipated ways.
52:40 Speaker 03 I was dealing with some things that were quite unexpected with grief. Because at one point, I was angry at Lewis. Because why in the hell did you do what you did? And put me in this position? And I got through that. I had to deal with what I would call intrusive thoughts. When I would lay down at night at sleep, my mind, I was back in that canyon. I was back on that ledge for months. That was the image in my head.
53:13 John Hopkins? It takes many difficult and painful months. But gradually, with the help of his family, his therapist, and his priest, David starts to heal.
53:24 John Hopkins? In the years since, he's found new ways to process his trauma, new avenues to channel his pain into something constructive. He's written a memoir and gives motivational speeches, sharing his message of survival and brotherly love. David says he finds comfort in talking about the accident, about his survival on the ledge, and ultimately about Lewis.
53:47 Speaker 03 He was a tour de force. He was valedictorian of his high school class. He went to Carnegie Institute of Technology. And he spoke his mind too, which, again, sort of emboldened me to have opinions and speak them confidently.
54:08 Speaker 03 I would say, each time I make a presentation and this manuscript that would get published is to honor my brother. And that's where we're back to. We're back to the beginning. We're back to Lewis. And that's what's meaningful at the end of the day.
54:32 John Hopkins? In the next episode, we journey to one of the hottest places on Earth, where temperatures can soar to over 50 degrees Celsius. In 2016, Chaz Powell embarks on an epic quest to walk the full length of the Zambezi River from source to mouth, a staggering 2,000-mile-long trek through harsh terrain and even harsher weather. After two months, Chaz is making good headway, until his progress grinds to a sudden halt. Before long, he will find himself exposed on the wide-open savanna with no shade, no water, and unimaginable heat.
55:11 John Hopkins? Somehow, with grim irony, a journey along one of Africa's largest sources of fresh water will transform into a desperate battle against dehydration.
55:23 John Hopkins? That's next time on Real Survival Stories.
55:29 John Hopkins? Listen today without waiting and without ads by subscribing to Noiser Plus.
55:35 Speaker 00 Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. Then, sometimes you make great ones, like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options, so you can be sure you have the right coverage. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.
56:06 Speaker 01 The award-winning American Airlines Advantage program rewards more than travel. It takes your whole life to new heights. Earn miles when you fly, as well as with thousands of your favorite brands, and then redeem those miles for flights, upgrades, and experiences worldwide. Advantage members also enjoy earlier boarding and free high-speed Wi-Fi in-flight. Join for free and start earning towards your next adventure at aa.com/spotify.
Previous Earthquake in India: Buried Alive Next Alone in Zambia: Scorching Sun, Out of Water Page updated November 1, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated