Snowmobile Survival: It’s a Trap…

Two brothers are pushed to the brink in the mountains of British Columbia. Chad and Brad MacDonald are enjoying a day of snowmobiling on the slopes near their hometown, keen to spend some much-needed time together. But the light-hearted atmosphere soon dissipates when a simple piece of misjudgement lands them in serious trouble. Trapped with minimal provisions, facing at least one freezing night in the open, their brotherly bond will be tested like never before… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Heléna Lewis | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound Supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Jacob Booth | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or 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.

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• 1:00John Hopkins?

  It's December 2000, a bright crisp morning in southwest Canada.

• 1:07John Hopkins?

  The mountains of British Columbia slumber beneath a mantle of deep, fresh snow, so white it's almost blinding.

• 1:15John Hopkins?

  Just outside the small city of Revelstoke, the slopes of the Boulder Mountain Resort reverberate with the dissonant rumble of snowmobile engines.

• 1:25John Hopkins?

  Riders race across the wintry landscape, weaving around pine trees and plowing through powdery drifts, sending showers of snow spraying out behind them. Already, the lower slopes are scarred by deep grooves, the powder beginning to thin.

• 1:42John Hopkins?

  In the hills above, two figures thread their way higher up the mountain, keen to get away from the crowds. They are brothers Chad and Brad McDonald, both in their late twenties. Chad, the more experienced snowmobiler, urges his machine forwards, seeking out more challenging ground to attempt some aerial tricks.

• 2:04Speaker 04

  I'm looking to have some fun. I'm looking for drops. I'm looking for steeper climbs. And I see this kind of perfect drop. It's probably about 23 feet, I would say, with this perfect little drop into deep powder. Which actually wasn't really that complicated. It should have been easy.

• 2:24John Hopkins?

  The opportunity is too good to resist. Brad hangs back, clearly uneasy about his brother's intentions, but Chad is confident in his own abilities. He powers up the slope and inches his snowmobile towards the edge of the drop, surveying the cushion of pristine powder below. At the last moment, he guns the machine's throttle. The engine roars, and the snowmobile shoots forwards, sailing into the air.

• 2:52John Hopkins?

  And as it does, Chad experiences a bizarre stomach-dropping sensation. Something is very wrong.

• 3:00Speaker 04

  As I was jumping off the edge, it was a strange sensation that the base of the mountain was kind of coming with me at the same time.

• 3:10John Hopkins?

  Chad grips the handlebars of his snowmobile, powerless to do anything but cling on as he plunges towards earth. And that's when the full horror of what has happened hits him. The movement of his snowmobile has triggered a small avalanche, and he is right in the center of it.

• 3:29Speaker 04

  It almost went in slow motion. I'm looking around and I see these huge boulders of snow break off the side of the mountain, and they're coming with me. And I'm like, oh, this isn't gonna be good.

• 3:48John 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.

• 4:10John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet winter sports enthusiast Chad McDonald. In December 2000, Chad and his brother are enjoying a day of snowmobiling in the mountains above their home of Revelstoke, keen to spend some much-needed time together. But the lighthearted atmosphere soon dissipates when a simple piece of misjudgment lands them in serious trouble.

• 4:31Speaker 04

  In wintertime in Revelstoke, by four o'clock, 4:30, it's dark. So it's kind of like tick-tock, you're against the clock. And if you're not up by the cabin by 3:30 in the afternoon, heading your way out, you're in trouble, and you could be spending the night there.

• 4:51John Hopkins?

  One bad decision soon spirals into a battle for survival when the brothers find themselves floundering in deep snow, unable to make it off the mountain. Trapped with minimal provisions and facing the prospect of a freezing night in the open, their courage, ingenuity, and brotherly bond will be tested like never before.

• 5:11Speaker 04

  The temperature was getting really cold. And then at that point, there's just this mode inside of you thinking, okay, we gotta do something to push through this. Because if we don't, we could be stuck up there, and that snow could be your snowy grave.

• 5:28John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is Real Survival Stories.

• 5:59John Hopkins?

  It's early morning, a cold, clear Saturday in December 2000. Just outside the small city of Revelstoke in British Columbia, a truck makes its way along a winding alpine road.

• 6:12John Hopkins?

  At the wheel is 27-year-old Chad McDonald. His 28-year-old brother Brad occupies the passenger seat beside him. The two men sip from takeaway coffees and chat excitedly about the day that lies ahead of them. They'll be spending the daylight hours doing something they both love: snowmobiling.

• 6:30Speaker 04

  We were just booming with enthusiasm. It wasn't gonna snow that day. There was even a chance of a little bit of sun breaking through the clouds. So that was the beauty about it. As far as pristine days go, it was a pretty good day to go up Boulder Mountain.

• 6:47John Hopkins?

  For the two brothers, today is a chance to catch up and unwind, something which has been increasingly hard to organize with their busy schedules. Being so close in age, Chad and Brad have always enjoyed a tight relationship, one forged in the landscape around Revelstoke where they grew up.

• 7:03Speaker 04

  It's high mountains, it's deep snow, it's long winters. And I remember where we used to get, at any given time, big dumps of snow, three to four dumps of snow within 24 to 48 hours. And for kids, that's just a dream to be able to grow up in a place like that. In wintertime, we couldn't wait to get outside, just wanted to play outside as much as we could. We're making snow forts, we were throwing snowballs, we were climbing in the trees, whatever we could do. And we were always, I would say, a little bit wild.

• 7:44Speaker 04

  We were always looking for an adventure, and if there was an adventure in right in front of us, we would make it up.

• 7:50John Hopkins?

  The boys' free and adventurous spirits occasionally led them into scrapes and risky situations, but to them, it was all part of the thrill.

• 7:57Speaker 04

  We broke the rules. We would get caught, we'd get in trouble. And our lives just kind of carried on like that, you know, just really had a lot of fun. We were very close, Brad and I, we had lots of other friends. But it was him and I, like, we were buddies.

• 8:19John Hopkins?

  This October, on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world.

• 8:50John Hopkins?

  In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in the Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 9:10John Hopkins?

  Among the many sports and activities the brothers enjoyed, one in particular stood out.

• 9:15Speaker 04

  My grandfather had an old snowmobile and he would let us use it and we just took that thing out and we had a blast on it and it would break down and he would say, you know, boys, I'm never going to fix this thing again. You're too hard on it. But we loved it. It wasn't, it wasn't much of a machine, but we loved that snowmobile. And he would fix it and we would get out on it again. We have a blast on it. And that snowmobiling was always kind of like, ah, this is fun. When we can afford it, I always want to get a machine.

• 9:48John Hopkins?

  Revelstoke is legendary amongst snowmobilers, thanks to the area's heavy snowfall and range of trails. So when in his early twenties Chad was able to afford a machine of his own, he began to make the most of it. He quickly improved his technique and got to know the local terrain before upgrading to something more powerful, which allowed him to explore even further.

• 10:11Speaker 04

  It allows you to get up to areas that maybe you shouldn't be in. That's sometimes what happens, is that these hill climbs can be quite steep. And you can get up to the top of these hills, where once you get to the top, hey, man, now you got to ride this down. And it can be a heck of a ride. So with a powerful machine, you could get to better riding terrain, but you also had to be careful because it's more extreme and you can get yourself into trouble if you're not careful.

• 10:43John Hopkins?

  It was at times a risky business, but as Chad's skill increased, so too did his ambition.

• 10:50Speaker 04

  I started riding with some kind of higher level riders and they were into jumping off cliffs. They were into big aerial tricks. And, you know, watching these guys, I was like, oh, man, they're doing this. This is awesome. He just dropped a 25 foot cliff. I want to do it. So I started with smaller ones and then went on to bigger ones. And when you drop something like this, it's literally if you do it right, you kind of land in a marshmallow of snow and the snow just goes all over you. Yeah. And it's a lot of fun.

• 11:20John Hopkins?

  It was addictive. Chad's appetite for thrill seeking became central to his character and increased rather than diminished over the years.

• 11:28Speaker 04

  I just had this extreme side inside of me, a little bit more than Brad as more of a risk taker. And I think it was just ingrained in my personality. Right? So if we were on our bikes, instead of dropping one foot, I would drop three or four and keep pushing it until maybe I wiped out and hurt myself. I've injured myself many, many times. And I just had that adrenaline inside of me just to push the envelope. The adrenaline is something that really drove me, the thrill of it. So I would say it's, it's an innate quality. And then, you know, perhaps enjoying being a little bit in dangerous situations

• 12:11Speaker 04

  and then finding a way out.

• 12:18John Hopkins?

  However, today isn't about pushing extremes, but rather catching up and having fun together. After parking and sorting out their gear, Chad and Brad climb onto their machines and set off for the snowmobiling base cabin further up the mountain. Both quickly get into the groove of things. Though Brad lacks his younger brother's expertise and has a smaller, less powerful machine, he's experienced enough to keep up with Chad. About 40 minutes later, the two men arrive at the cabin. It's built on stilts to withstand heavy snowfall, and in summertime, hikers have to climb a 10 foot ladder to enter the building. But when the McDonald brothers arrive today, they find the snow is practically level with the cabin door.

• 13:03John Hopkins?

  With no bad weather forecast, Chad and Brad leave their bulkier gear at the cabin for later, including some layers and a rucksack containing extra food and water. Now, unencumbered, they set out to enjoy the trails.

• 13:22Speaker 04

  There was sugary white powder and just weaving around and throwing the sleds in this was a lot of fun. We were doing little hill climbs and I was showing Brad some lower level terrain. So you could say that he was getting his sled legs on, he was getting more comfortable on that machine. And as the morning progressed a little bit, you know, an hour and a half into it, I said, let's, let's get up a little bit higher. The lower level terrain is getting more, more ridden. So now you got to just explore.

• 13:56John Hopkins?

  The brothers weave upwards into the hills, leaving behind the crowds and well ridden terrain. Keen to practice some aerial tricks, Chad begins searching for a good place to jump from. And that's when he spots it.

• 14:10Speaker 04

  I see this kind of perfect drop. It's probably about 23 feet, I would say, with this perfect little drop into deep powder. Which actually wasn't really that complicated. It should have been easy.

• 14:24John Hopkins?

  Brad watches on uneasily as his brother approaches the edge. Suddenly Chad hairs towards the lip of a drop and flies confidently into the air. But as he does so, the snowy ledge crumbles.

• 14:41Speaker 04

  It was a strange sensation that the base of the mountain was kind of coming with me at the same time. It almost went in slow motion. I'm looking around and I see these huge boulders of snow break off the side of the mountain and they're coming with me. And I'm like, oh, this isn't going to be good.

• 15:02John Hopkins?

  Clinging to his snowmobile, Chad braces as the ground rises up to meet him, massive slabs of snow and debris cascading down around him.

• 15:12Speaker 04

  I'm looking around me and there's these big chunks of boulders landing around me. And they're the size of a pickup truck. So I guess you could say it triggered like a mini avalanche with these big chunks of snow. And as I'm landing, it was interesting because I'm landing like in between these big chunks and there was a huge boulder that came down and, and just missed me, landed beside me. And the machine kind of got lost in the rubble and I landed behind the machine and all of a sudden it was over.

• 15:50John Hopkins?

  Stunned, Chad surveys the crash site and gets cautiously to his feet.

• 15:56Speaker 04

  I'm kind of in this mess of deep boulders. Like, oh, that was close. You know, my heart is beating, my, my adrenaline's going. And I just got that feeling that, you know, that was a bit dangerous. And Brad ripped up right away on his machine. He says, whoa, he said, bro, that was crazy. He said, that's totally sketchy, dangerous. And then we looked for the machine and landed right between all the rubble, but nothing landed on it. So it was like, wow, it kind of dodged that one.

• 16:26John Hopkins?

  Incredibly, both Chad and his snowmobile have escaped completely unharmed. But the experience is undeniably shaking.

• 16:35Speaker 04

  I didn't have a scratch on me. I rode the machine out of that rubble with a little bit of a chuckle of cheating danger. And I don't think I'd go as far as saying cheating death, but you know, I could have got seriously hurt in that. And Brad was a little bit worried. He said, man, you got to be careful. You can't be taking risks like that. That was pretty high. And I said, okay, okay, let's, let's just be more careful for the rest of the day. We don't want an accident today. And that was what set the stage for the rest of the day and about what was to come.

• 17:10John Hopkins?

  Undeterred, but with renewed caution, Chad and Brad set off again. After a couple more hours of riding, they pause on a hillside overlooking a deep valley blanketed in thick, untouched snow. Chad tells his brother that, according to one of his snowmobiling friends, it's an amazing place to ride.

• 17:30Speaker 04

  He says, when everything gets kind of all tracked up on the mountain, drop down here. He said, it's, it's a decent drop, but when you get down there, it's higher level alpine terrain with hills and plateaus and kind of nicely spaced pine trees. And you can just rip around there through the powder all day and have a blast. So we're sitting there looking down this bank and I had actually never ridden down there. And as we're looking down, Brad and I are talking about it and these five guys pull up beside us.

• 18:07John Hopkins?

  Trundling towards the brothers is a small group of men. The newcomers are kitted out in top of the range gear and have impressive, high-end snowmobiles. It turns out they're from neighboring Alberta and are keen to get some local knowledge about the terrain.

• 18:23John Hopkins?

  Chad is happy to help.

• 18:25Speaker 04

  I said, you know, the mountain's getting pretty tracked up. Do you guys know any other places to ride? So I said, yeah, actually, I was just talking to Brad about it. And down there is some really good riding. And I started explaining about the terrain, what it's like. It's chutes to get down, but once you get down to the bottom, it's basically a snowmobiler's paradise.

• 18:50John Hopkins?

  The brothers tell the Albertans that they aren't going down there today because Brad's machine isn't advanced enough. So if the group chooses to go, they're on their own. It doesn't take long for the Albertans to decide that they want to see this paradise for themselves. After thanking the brothers, they plunge down the steep chute into the valley and disappear out of sight. Chad and Brad watch them go, then turn their attention to where they should explore next. But as they discuss their next steps, a kernel of unease grows in Chad's gut.

• 19:24Speaker 04

  I kind of get this sick feeling in my stomach, like, you know, where did I just send these guys? I didn't even tell them how to get out of there. There was a truck to get out of there and I didn't really give them that information. So I thought, that's not right. I have to go after these guys. I have to help them to get out.

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• 20:20Speaker 06

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• 20:22Speaker 07

  Yeah, I don't got this.

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• 20:34John Hopkins?

  Chad stares down at the valley. The out-of-towners have now disappeared from sight. By attempting to help, has he inadvertently sent them into danger? He neglected to tell the group of Albertans how to get back out of the valley. And so, he resolves to do something. He'll go after them and ensure that they're okay. Brad's machine isn't powerful enough to deal with the terrain down there. So Chad tells his brother to stay put and wait for his return. Then he sets off in pursuit of the Albertans speeding down the slope.

• 21:08Speaker 04

  I dropped down that chute, and wow, yeah, it was steep. It wasn't super, super extreme, but you had to have some technical skills to ride that. And there wasn't really any place to stop. You had to keep going down. You couldn't turn around and go back up.

• 21:24John Hopkins?

  Chad powers smoothly down the steep slope, eyes locked on the way ahead. He white knuckles it down the sharp incline until it begins to ease and he emerges into the valley. It is a beautiful bowl of fresh, untracked powder. A great white amphitheater. But he isn't prepared for the worrying sights that greets him.

• 21:49Speaker 04

  When I got down to the bottom and I stopped my machine, what I saw, it was just mayhem, chaotic, sleds, and these guys were just really, really stuck.

• 22:04John Hopkins?

  The Albertans' snowmobiles are completely buried in the deep snow. It seems Chad has unwittingly sent them into a trap. Keen to help, he jumps off his own snowmobile and immediately sinks deep into the powder.

• 22:20Speaker 04

  When I stepped into that snow, it went almost up to my thigh, and I just kind of got that feeling of, oh, oh, this is really deep, and we're in trouble.

• 22:32John Hopkins?

  Upon spotting Chad, one of the Albertans wade through the snow towards him, a furious look on his face.

• 22:38Speaker 04

  He walks up to me and said, hey, what did you get us into here? Right? He said, this is really deep down here. Are we going to get out of here? And I just had that confidence, kind of cocky feeling inside me. He says, hey, hey, don't worry. I said, it's a little bit deeper than I thought, but I know how to get out of here.

• 22:57John Hopkins?

  The valley is surrounded by near-vertical walls of rock and ice. The slope they used to descend is too steep to climb back up, meaning the only way out is via a multi-level plateau system, tackling one small incline at a time, zigzagging their way upwards to safety. But to do that, the men first have to dig out the snowmobiles. Chad sets about trying to organize the group, but is interrupted by a low, humming sound getting closer.

• 23:27Speaker 04

  Who's that? And all of a sudden, the whining of the snowmobile comes down, and sure enough, it's Brad. I'm like, oh, no, now we're really in trouble. And he pulls up beside me, he said, oh, I said, that was awesome. I said, I can't believe I rode that drop down. It was so much fun. And he gets off the machine, and he steps into the deep powder, and he's looking around. And he looks at these snowmobilers, and he gets that look on his face like, oh, this is not good.

• 24:01John Hopkins?

  Despite Chad's warnings, it's only natural that his brother should come looking for him when he failed to return from the valley. Now, however, all seven men are stuck, and even more worryingly, nobody is aware they're down there. Chad quickly takes charge of the situation.

• 24:19Speaker 04

  I started huddling everybody together, and it became very clear that, you know, I was the one with the most experience on the mountain. I got them into that situation, although they made their own choice. And I told them I'd never ridden down there before. But I had that sense of responsibility to get us out of this. And I kind of felt to myself that if I can just show them that I have the confidence, and they have a fearless leader, they're going to get behind me, and they're going to put their faith in me, they're going to put their hope in me, and I can lead them out of there.

• 24:51John Hopkins?

  Under Chad's direction, the men begin the laborious process of digging out the snowmobiles, using a combination of avalanche shovels and their bare hands. On average, these machines weigh around 500 pounds or 225 kilos. And it isn't long before everyone is feeling the strain. Films of sweat appear on brows, backs are bent and strained, hands grow numb from the snow.

• 25:18Speaker 04

  Getting a snowmobile unstuck is like playing basketball or playing hockey at full tilt, right? You're just sweating, and your heart's beating. These guys were out of shape, so right away, everybody was winded. And lifting your feet as you're walking in the snow, that in itself was hard, because as you lift your foot out of the snow, you have snow on your boot. You're sinking in well over your knee, up to your thigh. The strain on your muscles, on your back, on your legs, and then you're sweating inside. It's kind of like your gear and your jacket and your pants that are to keep you warm, all of a sudden turns into like you have a plastic bag you're wearing,

• 26:02Speaker 04

  and you're just sweating, and your heart's beating inside of it.

• 26:07John Hopkins?

  It's exhausting work, but they make steady progress. Eventually, all the snowmobiles are freed. Next, the group focuses on tramping down a short path of compacted snow in front of the first machine, stamping and shoveling the powder as best they can. By the time they're done, everyone is winded, but keen to get going and escape the valley. The first rider jumps onto a snowmobile and revs the engine, then hurtles forwards along the newly constructed path.

• 26:40Speaker 04

  He gets through that 10, 15 feet of a pack snow that we have, and then he only gets another 10 feet, and his back end sinks down, and he's stuck again. And at that point, I get that sick feeling in my gut like, oh, we are in for one heck of a day here.

• 27:00John Hopkins?

  There is nothing for it but to dig the machine out once more and try again. But despite their efforts, it quickly becomes clear the snowmobiles are only able to make it a short distance before the deep powder collapses under their weight and buries them. Every time a machine sinks into the snow, the group must repeat the back-breaking work of digging it out and clearing a path for it. After about 20 minutes of this grueling cycle, the men manage to struggle up to the first plateau. Everyone is utterly drained, and they've only completed a fraction of their journey. Angry, worried eyes glare at Chad.

• 27:39Speaker 04

  They're all looking at me. I have my doubts, a little bit about getting out of there at this point. But I've got to show that I have confidence. I says, hey, guys, let's not get discouraged here. Everyone gets a drink of water. We have all day here, so all we've got to do is just get up plateau by plateau, and we'll be fine.

• 28:02John Hopkins?

  After a brief rest, the group moves off towards the next plateau. It's a punishing, energy-sapping process, made even harder by Brad's smaller, less powerful snowmobile.

• 28:13Speaker 04

  It was a burden having that smaller machine there, and it was a little bit frustrating for those guys because like, you're kind of pulling the weak link up along the way and slowing us down. It's like the slow guy in a hiking trail.

• 28:26John Hopkins?

  Whilst the Albertans are fairly well-stocked with provisions, Chad and Brad are not, having left their rucksack at the base cabin that morning. The lack of food comes with particular problems for Chad.

• 28:39Speaker 04

  I had struggled a little bit when I was younger with hypoglycemia. And it was never really officially medically diagnosed. But I definitely had all the symptoms, like the shakiness, the weakness, and a little bit of lightheadedness, and that would affect my judgment sometimes. I would always have to have regular food. So that was in the back of my mind, and Brad was a little bit worried about that, too.

• 29:06John Hopkins?

  All he can hope is that they'll get out of this valley before his symptoms become too debilitating. The pace, however, is achingly slow, and by early afternoon, it's becoming hard just to keep going.

• 29:18John Hopkins?

  Partway up the maze of ascending plateaus, everybody stops, breath rasping in the frigid air.

• 29:26Speaker 04

  The progress that we made was minimal. It was just this mechanical assembly line of grunting and sweating. And just points where guys were just dropping by their machines and these Albertans saying, "I just can't do it anymore. I can't push my machine anymore." Your arms are just pounding, your legs are sore, your back. But I kept on pushing these guys, saying, "Come on, guys, we gotta keep going. We gotta keep going. We gotta get out of here. You do not want to spend the night up here. Things will get a lot worse."

• 29:58John Hopkins?

  The threat of nightfall soon becomes a reality.

• 30:03John Hopkins?

  At 3:00 PM, the light quickly begins to fade, shadows bleeding across the valley. Within a couple of hours, it will be completely dark. It becomes obvious to everyone that there is no way that they can summit the remaining plateaus before then.

• 30:18John Hopkins?

  Attempting to remain level-headed, Chad scans around for other options. He spies a break in the trees a little way away.

• 30:27John Hopkins?

  Could it be a hidden exit?

• 30:30John Hopkins?

  Latching on to this potential escape route, the group decides they have nothing to lose by checking it out. They struggle through the snow, their machines grunting and revving and spluttering through the cold depths. At last, they find themselves peering down a steep, forested slope.

• 30:48Speaker 04

  We're all looking down it, and it was thin trees. And I thought to myself, "Maybe that's another way out. Maybe that'll take us down to the highway." And I was kind of navigating in my mind, and I said to the guys, "You know what? I'm pretty sure I can ride this out. How about I go down here, I'll ride this out, I'll get help, I'll send up help after you guys."

• 31:12John Hopkins?

  The others, however, are unconvinced. Although the visible part of the slope seems ridable, it's still perilously steep. There's no telling where it leads, what happens further down beyond their line of sight. Brad approaches his brother to have a word.

• 31:29Speaker 04

  Brad comes up and he says, "Chad, hey, I know you, right? You can't ride down that. It's too dangerous. You don't know what's beyond that drop." And I'm laughing at him like, "Yeah, Brad, come on, I can do this. There's nothing. I've done way harder than this. Just let me ride it out." And I'm kind of pacing back on the mountain, looking at it. And these Albertans are looking at me, and I think one of them says, "Hey, hey, buddy, like, this doesn't look good." So I thought to myself, "Okay, I'm the only one that feels confident to ride down this, but the group's against me. I need to acquiesce." And I said, "Okay, okay, I won't do it."

• 32:07John Hopkins?

  Faced with spending the night on the mountain, the group decide to retrace their steps to the base of the chute that led into the valley, hoping to make themselves more visible to any search parties following their tracks. They head back through the paths they carved out of the snow early in the day, arriving near the bottom of the chute at around 4:00 PM.

• 32:28John Hopkins?

  With darkness falling, the Albertans come to a decision. They're going to try to climb back up the precipitous slope.

• 32:37John Hopkins?

  Chad is openly skeptical about their chances of making it past the first couple of hundred meters, but they cannot be dissuaded. Clearly, Brad's smaller snowmobile doesn't have a hope of tackling the near-vertical incline, so the brothers have no choice but to stay here. With dread thick in the air, they stand and watch as their companions climb onto their machines and disappear.

• 33:01Speaker 04

  All of a sudden, this reality comes upon us, and Brad, he turns to me and says, "Hey, you know what? Those guys are gone. They got all the survival gear. They had big packs, they had extra food, they had water, they had avalanche shovels. Maybe they even had tents. For all we know, we had no idea. But he's like, "Chad, we got nothing. Our water was finished. We had already eaten our last sandwich." And at this point, I could feel, you know, the bit of hypoglycemia coming in on me, and I was starting to get weak and a little bit lightheaded. And Brad says to me, "You don't have any food. This is going to be really rough."

• 33:43John Hopkins?

  Unable to do anything about their lack of food, the most pressing need is warmth.

• 33:50John Hopkins?

  The nearby trees bear virtually no foliage, making them useless for constructing a worthwhile shelter. And without a lighter, starting a fire appears impossible.

• 34:00John Hopkins?

  But it's already well below freezing, and the temperature is only going to drop further, leaving Chad and Brad at the very real risk of hypothermia.

• 34:09John Hopkins?

  The brothers comb their surroundings, searching for anything that might help them.

• 34:13Speaker 04

  Then all of a sudden, I had this eureka moment. I was like, "Oh! You know, we're so stupid. I mean, we're on snowmobiles. We have gas in our tank. We have spark plugs that are connected to the engine. I had a basic toolkit, and I thought to myself, "All we gotta do is take a spark plug out, pull the cord, and we're gonna have spark. Spark ignites gasoline."

• 34:41John Hopkins?

  Getting a spark is one thing, but what can they burn? Then, another eureka moment. The trees are covered in patches of hard, green moss, something resembling dried algae. It's lichen.

• 34:57John Hopkins?

  With renewed enthusiasm, the brothers snap off some lower branches thick with dry, burnable lichen. Following Chad's inventive plan, they may now have a chance.

• 35:09John Hopkins?

  Using some tools in his kit, he releases the spark plug from his snowmobile, then he dips the branches in the gas tank. He holds the spark plug to the branches and... let there be light.

• 35:23Speaker 04

  That moment was awesome. You know, we had light, we had fire, and we thought, "Okay, this is it." You know, this whole night just got a lot more comfortable. Although we didn't have water, at least we could be warm.

• 35:35John Hopkins?

  The brothers clump together more branches and lichen on the ground to grow the fire and gather around it. The heat is extremely welcome, but their hunger, and more pressingly, their thirst, remain. Despite the snow all around them, the brothers have no vessel to melt it in, and eating it would cause their core body temperatures to plummet, leaving them even more vulnerable to hypothermia.

• 36:00John Hopkins?

  For now, all they can do is keep huddling by the fire.

• 36:05John Hopkins?

  But after 10 minutes or so, a problem arises. The strong flames begin to shrink, waning until there are only a few small, orange flickers. With nothing solid to use as a base, the compacted snow beneath the fire is melting, making it sink into a newly formed crater.

• 36:25Speaker 04

  It became a bit of a battle of the flames dying down and going into the snow and the fire going out after a few minutes. And you had to get more sticks and feed the fire. It became obvious that it's going to be a whole night of breaking off branches and feeding this to be able to keep it, to keep us warm, but there really wasn't much warmth on the fire anymore. I was getting really weak at this time. You know, I'm kind of bending over with my elbows on my knees. Brad's getting a little bit worried about me. And I think, you know, it got to the point where he knew that he had to do the brotherly thing and that his mission that night was, "Let's keep Chad alive."

• 37:09John Hopkins?

  As the hours pass, Chad's condition continues to deteriorate.

• 37:14John Hopkins?

  Soon, his hypoglycemia is so severe that he can barely walk. His head swims, light and dizzy. His limbs are weak and barely responding.

• 37:25John Hopkins?

  It's hard to fathom just how wrong things have gone. In the space of just a few hours, they've gone from a simple day out to a bitter fight to stay alive.

• 37:37John Hopkins?

  All Chad can do now is shiver by the meagre fire, clinging to the hope that it will be enough to see him through to dawn.

• 37:44Speaker 04

  It got scary, and I got thinking to myself, "Hypothermia, it was a reality, and that this could happen." The temperature was getting really cold. And then, at that point, there's just this mode inside of you thinking, "Okay, we gotta do something to push through this. Because if we don't, we could be stuck up there, and that snow could be your snowy grave."

• 38:16Speaker 06

  At Edward Jones, we believe rich is about taking care of what gives your life meaning. That's why your financial advisor personalizes your plan to help you preserve your progress and create something that lasts. Let's find your rich. Edward Jones. Member SIPC.

• 38:31John Hopkins?

  This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more

• 39:15John Hopkins?

  early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 39:22John Hopkins?

  As the freezing hours of the night drag on, Chad grows weaker. Darkness and cold encircle the brothers, seeming to grow closer and more intense with every passing minute.

• 39:34John Hopkins?

  If the fire goes out, their fates will be sealed. Chad is now totally reliant on his brother. It's only thanks to Brad's continued efforts that the small fire remains alight.

• 39:48Speaker 04

  Brad would get up, he would go out. It would take him longer and longer because he had to go out deeper into the forest to get more wood. And I would just sit there and wait for him. And I tried. I tried a couple of times. And I walked out, said, Brad, I gotta help you. I can't let you do this all night. And I would walk out with him. But lightheadedness, disorientation, and then kind of dropping down to my knees and just getting weak, I just, I honestly couldn't do it. Like, I had nothing left of me. I was spent. And he said, just get back to the fire. Stay warm. So that's what I did. I felt terrible about it. But he kept on doing it. I don't know where he got the energy

• 40:27Speaker 04

  from. But he kept on doing it. Like, he was just in that survivor mode to keep us alive, to keep me going. And he had something inside of him that was pushing him.

• 40:40John Hopkins?

  Between Brad's foraging trips, he and Chad occasionally discuss the possibility of rescue come daybreak, certain that their families will have raised the alarm by now.

• 40:51John Hopkins?

  But as the night wears on, their conversation is more often than not replaced by silence.

• 40:57Speaker 04

  You would think maybe in that situation that you would have lots to talk about. But you're kind of deep in your thoughts, and you're thinking about survival. And there really wasn't much depth of conversation as the night went through.

• 41:15John Hopkins?

  At 5:00 AM, Brad returns from the woods yet again, and Chad watches as his brother's legs wobble. His breath is shallow and labored. Brad collapses by the flames. He too is now in real trouble.

• 41:30Speaker 04

  He just came and he dropped beside the fire. And he had like one stick in his hand. And I'm looking at the fire, thinking this fire's gonna go out. Brad's got nothing left in him. He said, Chad, I don't know if I can do it anymore. And he was just laying in the snow like panting, kind of like a dog, so tired, right? And I just sat there for two or three minutes. And I thought, okay, well, you know, this is my time to help my brother. And I just reached deep inside of me. And I said, okay, you gotta do something.

• 42:06John Hopkins?

  Seeing his brother in such a bad way somehow galvanizes Chad's exhausted body. With his last shreds of strength, he forces himself to his feet. Vision swimming, he lurches towards the trees, determined to help Brad. All the lower branches within a couple of hundred meters have been stripped, so Chad is forced to go even further than he'd expected to find fuel. Deeper he goes, into the black, unforgiving forest.

• 42:38Speaker 04

  Something happened inside of me, and I got this adrenaline, and I got this drive, and I got this energy to be able to save us. I've always been a fan of survival stories and reading about them. And I've heard even firsthand accounts of ones that have been in dangerous situations, that have even had this superhuman strength inside of them that have like lifted a car off a loved one, off their husband, off their wife. And I'm not saying I had that superhuman strength at this time, but there was something definitely there, for sure. Something was pushing me. And it seemed like that hypoglycemia symptoms, they just kind of disappeared.

• 43:18John Hopkins?

  With a surge of strength, Chad staggers through the trees and sets to work. In a strange, almost animalistic frenzy, he manages to snap several sturdy branches. Swaying with exhaustion and weakness, he stumbles back to camp with his bounty.

• 43:38Speaker 04

  So I had this huge, huge, massive bundle of dry sticks. And I got back to the fire, and I dropped them right by the fire. And Brad, he just looks up at me, and he's like, man, he said, how did you do that? And I said, I don't know. So I started feeding the fire and kind of taking care of Brad. But I collapsed. It's like, you know, the lightheadedness, the disorientation, the shivering, everything just came immediately back. It was like it was gone for half an hour, but then it came back. And I had absolutely nothing left inside of me.

• 44:17John Hopkins?

  Now both completely spent, they huddle by the flames, feeding the dwindling blaze with the sticks Chad collected. From their earliest days, the brothers have been through all kinds of adventures together. As the night streaks on, and they lie together in the snow, it seems this may well be their last.

• 44:39John Hopkins?

  Around 7:00 AM, the first glimmers of dawn inch their way over the frosty landscape.

• 44:47John Hopkins?

  There is a slight increase in temperature and a gentle twitter of birdsong as Chad's exhausted eyes watch the sun rising again. He and Brad have made it through the night, but both are in very bad shape. Too exhausted to move far, Chad and Brad are forced to lie and wait as the light grows. Until finally, a sound breaks the stillness.

• 45:16Speaker 04

  And maybe it was about 9:30, 10:00 in the morning, where all of a sudden, in the faint distance, we heard something. At first, we couldn't make it out what it was, but it started to get closer and closer. And we're like, oh, it's a helicopter.

• 45:36John Hopkins?

  The brothers strain their eyes to the sky as the thunder of the chopper grows closer.

• 45:42John Hopkins?

  After signaling that it has seen them, the helicopter disappears again in search of somewhere to land. About half an hour later, a blurry figure appears in the distance, skiing towards Chad and Brad. It's someone from search and rescue. Swiftly, he guides the brothers to a nearby clearing where the helicopter is waiting. Already on board are a couple of the Albertans, who it turns out were forced to make camp partway up the chute into the valley after trying and failing to climb back up it. Grateful to see they too have made it through, Chad and Brad clamber on board, and the blades of the aircraft

• 46:22John Hopkins?

  begin to thud into life. Once airborne, they're given much-needed food and water.

• 46:29Speaker 04

  I could literally feel the energy and the calories going to every organ of my body. It's almost like my body started to reactivate. And you could feel the energy just going to your blood and going through your body and bringing life back to you.

• 46:52John Hopkins?

  Eventually Chad, Brad and all of the Albertans are taken to safety.

• 46:58John Hopkins?

  The relief of being saved isn't even dampened by the reprimand they receive from search and rescue.

• 47:04Speaker 04

  They start to explain to us the situation. All the Albertans were there and he says, okay, this was a pretty big search and rescue operation here. This was the most people lost at one time on Boulder Mountain. The whole Boulder Mountain is shut down for you guys. There was a massive search going on to get you out of here. And we were so thankful for what they did. They start explaining about getting the snowmobiles out and that you're going to have to pay for this. And it's going to be expensive. And we're just like, we don't care. Right? We were so thankful to be out of there. And as I'm talking with one of the search and rescue team members,

• 47:49Speaker 04

  I started explaining to him about our process of getting out. And he said, you guys weren't even close. There's no way you were getting out of there. It was so far out.

• 47:59John Hopkins?

  Chad tells his rescuer about the break in the trees he saw and the slope he believed might be a hidden exit.

• 48:07John Hopkins?

  What he learns in response is shocking.

• 48:10Speaker 04

  He says, you know what? He says, if you would have continued off, you would have rode your snowmobile right off a two, 300 foot cliff, right down to the Travis Canada Highway. And I was like, no way. He said, you would have been dead. So it's a good thing you turned around and went back. In that moment, you know, him saying that, I kind of got like a little bit of appreciation. And a wake up call, like a baseball bat in the side of the head and said, you know, Chad, you idiot. You could have rode that sled right off a cliff.

• 48:43John Hopkins?

  Chad and Brad are checked over, cared for and cleared with no major long-term physical issues. It's an extraordinarily lucky escape.

• 48:53John Hopkins?

  But Chad's experience on the mountain ends up being a pivotal event.

• 48:57Speaker 04

  Life goes back to normal and I'm able to carry on with snowmobiling and sports and getting that level of confidence back. But I wasn't the same because it was a survival story. We could have very easily died up there. So my appreciation, my value for life got stronger. I had a little bit of extreme edge I had taken off, just came to realization. It's like, hey, you know, you can enjoy the outdoors, you can enjoy life without putting yourself in danger or others.

• 49:37Speaker 04

  And you know, if we never made it out of there, we leave our loved ones behind. They're the ones that are left with the pain and all because of a stupid decision. So I started to enjoy life and reflect on that moment and view it more. Is yes, it was dangerous, but it was a valuable lesson.

• 49:58John Hopkins?

  Their brush with mortality cements the brother's bond even further, but it also makes Chad reassess his appetite for risk. He becomes more aware of how fragile life is and finds that what really matters isn't chasing thrills, but instead celebrating the quieter everyday joys and making memories with those he cares about.

• 50:17Speaker 04

  For Brad and I, it drew us closer to one another. And we've talked about it throughout the days, throughout the years and him saying, Chad, man, you were so stupid back then. And yeah, I was, right? But if we can have a valuable life lesson out of this, and if anybody else can learn from this, then we're taking something positive from it. You know, it's been a positive experience to be able to make life better, to appreciate the bonds that we have with friends and family and make those stronger and make those the highlights of our lives. You know, sitting around a campfire,

• 50:59Speaker 04

  not jumping off a cliff. You don't need to do that, but make the important moments really matter and have those be the highlights of our life.

• 51:24John Hopkins?

  Next time on Real Survival Stories, an epic seafaring tale that embraces the spirit of the Viking Age. In 2024, Swiss skipper and adventurer Andy Fittze sets out to recreate history. He assembles a small crew and together they embark on a daring voyage across the North Sea aboard the Naderder, a replica Viking ship. Their aim is to honor the region's rich culture and history and encourage a future generation of explorers. But in a traditional style boat such as this, nothing is plain sailing.

• 52:01John Hopkins?

  When the Naderder encounters unexpectedly bad weather, the crew will be thrust into a fierce battle for survival against the might of the North Atlantic. They will be forced to call upon all their training, skills and comradeship if they want to make it out alive. But even that may not be enough to avert tragedy.

• 52:21John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen right now without ads and without waiting by joining Noiser Plus.

• 52:30Speaker 05

  At Edward Jones, we believe rich isn't about having life all figured out. It's opening yourself to all the possibilities. That's why your dedicated financial advisor provides long-term planning built around you, meeting you where you are and helping you get closer to where you want to be. So no matter where you're starting from, you can move forward with confidence. The key to being rich is knowing what counts. Let's find your rich. Edward Jones. Member SIPC.

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