Last Time You Thought You Were Going To Die?

NateBizzoNateBizzo 2,328 Posts
edited December 2005 in Strut Central
Last season I was hiking in Stowe's Backcountry. I thought I knew where I was.I ended up picking this line that I was sure about. I ended up getting sucked into this sheer ice ravine that hung over this 80 foot cliff. I was hanging over this cliff by some roots and small shrubs for a few minutes trying to figure out my next move. I was sure I was dead. Some how I was able to sideslip diagnally to a lower section that was maybe only 30 feet. At that point I just let go and slid down this rocky cliff. I fucked my tailbone but that was about it. I've never had the feeling I had that day.Anyway.I've had some near death on-coming train/chicken moments and turbulence in a plane type things but nothing like hanging over a cliff by yourself.When was the last time you thought you were going to die?
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  • DocBeezyDocBeezy 1,918 Posts
    damn. No shit like that but......


    Just the other day my car slid into oncoming traffic. A Hummer was coming right for me. I closed my eyes and braced for impact. That hummer must have swerved at the last second. My car shook because of the wind when it passed.

    I think that is the only time I thought I might die.

  • Wow, that's heavy. I like hiking a lot but ice passages allways make me feel uncomfortable. Nothing ever happened though. I did feel I was going to die once when we were going up real steep and we totally screwed up our planning so we ended up on top of the pass when the dark set in and at that altitude it was soon far bellow zero and no matter how much clothes we put on we felt like we were freezing to death. I remember I started to cry like a lunatic and I hated myself for it but it might have been some odd reflex because crying really warms you up. Anyway, we tried to stay awake all night with some heavy winds blowing snow in our face. I felt like an idiot, getting stuck at that point. I think it must be a lot colder to actually freeze to death, but I did feel like it was my last night...

  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    North Philly house call 2 months ago. They are called the Badlands for a reason.

  • JLRJLR 3,835 Posts
    Interesting thing is that we live life pretending we're inmortal, cause I think it's the only way we can deal with death. I mean, how many times in a regular day you give death a second thought? But in a near-death situation you realize that you are as fragile as an old 45's paper sleeve. DEEP.



    Peace, JorgeLopezPlaton

  • DocBeezyDocBeezy 1,918 Posts
    I mean, how many times in a regular day you give death a second thought?




    I think about dying everyday. EVERYDAY. I think about it because of my son. I wonder if this is my last car trip/ will my heart stop etc......

    It doesnt hinder my life, and I dont obsess on it.

  • JLRJLR 3,835 Posts


    I think about dying everyday. EVERYDAY.

    Stop listening to Smashing Pumpkins, Breezy

  • DocBeezyDocBeezy 1,918 Posts


    I think about dying everyday. EVERYDAY.

    Stop listening to Smashing Pumpkins, Breezy

    hahaha.

    Not like I want to die, more like I am concious of the fact that I could die.

  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    probably from laughing at one of 's posts.

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    Kidney stones have made me wish for death [/b] at times.

  • stranded, on acid, in downtown Houston at 3AM. I had no idea where I was, this was pre-cell phone era, or how to get back to anyplace familar. The place is a ghosttown. I am standing on the sidewalk and a car pulls up and the dude gets out and starts walking towards me...I said to myself, "this is where I get jacked and shot"...but no, dude just asks me for a light and gets in his car and leaves.
    After two hours of wandering I find the bus station.

    Then last year I was held up at gunpoint, but for some reason I was calm and wasnt in total fear for my life, but it did cross my mind.

    I also have had some airplane moments, but that is what codiene is for.

  • knewjakknewjak 1,231 Posts
    One instance that comes to mind was when I was about 8. Some friends and I were chasing a guy who was moving a lawn (on a riding mower). We were being punks. Running up behind him, spitting on him, running away, repeat. Everything was fine, until he made a sudden turn, I fell, and he ran over me. I remember being pinned under the first set of wheels and there was nothing I could do but wait for it. Since he was mowing the lawn, I thought the blades were on. I braced myself and thought 'ok, this is it'. And one second later, the rear wheels rolled over me and I was free. I escaped with just some crazy tire-tread bruises which lasted a good two weeks. I couldnt believe it.

    Free advice. Don't spit on people mowing their lawn.


  • Kidney stones have made me wish for death [/b] at times.

    Hell yes...

    The last time (only time?) I thought I was gonna die was maybe 10 years ago, I had a really bad infection in my leg (called cellulitis, didn't know it at the time) that caused me to run a really high fever. I ended up in the hospital on one of those "water sheets" that they use to get your temperature down. I felt like my brain was in a vise. High fevers suck...

  • bluesnagbluesnag 1,285 Posts

    about 5 years ago i went on a rafting trip in northern cali for a bachelor's party. i'm not a very experienced rafter or anything, which was fine the first day because it was all easy. mostly just chilling and drinking beer and getting high while floating down the river. we camped, woke up the next day and i was hungover like a mug. later there were some tough spots. we each fell out of our respective rafts a few times. then on this one series of three rapids, about a half mile from where we were stopping, i got over the first 2 fine, and the third i got dumped again. but instead of popping up a little down the river i was getting twisted and turned at the bottom of the rapid. i didn't know to ball up so it would just spit me out, so i was struggling and kept on getting pulled under and swallowing water. after what seemed like a while of this happenning i was pretty convinced i was going to drown and die there. everyone else was down river, and all that went through my mind was how i wasted too much time smoking weed and didn't spend enough time with my grandmother. then i finally got spit out. lost my shorts and one contact and felt like someone had beat the shit out of me.

    then a week later i had severe pneumonia and an absess in my lung (from inhaling water). i had to have lung surgery and i was in the hospital for 8 days. that shit sucked ass. i had tubes coming out of my lungs for a week.

    haven't thought i was going to die since then.

  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,391 Posts
    15 years ago, plane crash in West Africa in a twin prop small passenger plane. Came down on a dirt runway at a crazy angle all tilted up to one side, bounced up again and came down hard on the other side which sheared the wheel and snapped the wing which dug into the ground and span us. Don't like small planes any more.

  • canonicalcanonical 2,100 Posts
    Last season I was hiking in Stowe's Backcountry. I thought I knew where I was.

    I ended up picking this line that I was sure about. I ended up getting sucked into this sheer ice ravine that hung over this 80 foot cliff. I was hanging over this cliff by some roots and small shrubs for a few minutes trying to figure out my next move. I was sure I was dead.

    Some how I was able to sideslip diagnally to a lower section that was maybe only 30 feet. At that point I just let go and slid down this rocky cliff. I fucked my tailbone but that was about it. I've never had the feeling I had that day.
    Man this one time I was ice climbing and I slipped and my leg bone came through my knee. Then my friend had to cut the rope connecting us and I landed in a glacier. Then I had to use my ice axe as a crutch while my friend ditched me. Then I actually lived to write a book about it.

    Just kidding. But I just finished watching Touching The Void ( ) and your post reminded me of that. Movie was unsane.

  • SwayzeSwayze 14,705 Posts
    Interesting thing is that we live life pretending we're inmortal, cause I think it's the only way we can deal with death. I mean, how many times in a regular day you give death a second thought? But in a near-death situation you realize that you are as fragile as an old 45's paper sleeve. DEEP.



    Peace, JorgeLopezPlaton

    I've accepted death and it has actually given me a brighter outlook on life.

  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,413 Posts
    wow, crazy stories. that first one makes me cringe...ehh


    once i fell asleep driving on the interstate, doing 80 with cruise control on, woke up in the ditch approaching the guard rails on either side of a bridge...that was kinda scary.

    lucky i pulled out with no injury to me or the car.


    of course this doesnt come close to any of your shit, but youre probably twice my age

  • Actually both ice stories were a movie called Cliff Hanger, starring Sly Stone.

    3 yrs ago I left a recording session in the Bronx. Stoned as fuck, I walked in the subway station, there were these two dudes mugging me, so I mugged em back like what. they followed me down the platform, one dude started talking about how I fucked with him in prison (which I didn't) while the other one snuck around me. Sneaky dude punched the side of my head and snapped it back into the metal pillar. I woke up ten minutes later with my face on the concrete in a pool of blood.

    Then it was Warriors style the rest of the night back to Brooklyn, I knew they were on the train, so I had to jump cars, switch at 59th St. etc Crazy.

    Fucked up face, mad bruises and a concussion. But they didn't get my money!! Bitches!!

  • SwayzeSwayze 14,705 Posts
    twice, within 9months of one another, when i was 17... first one, my friend (since 5th grade)'s brother smoked two joints with me at a party. i watched him roll them, so i didn't question anything. the brother was 3yrs older than me, and a real trouble maker that was always going out of his way to hit animals with his car. after we smoked, he started laughing, surprised that i was still standing... turned out that shit was laced with PCP, and after 5-10min, i was laying flat on my back in the front yard. i thought my chest was going to cave in, and that i was on a ferris wheel that was spinning so fast, it was throwing me off. the cops came and i stumbled into the next door neighbor's yard, couldn't hop the fence, so i rolled over it. fucked up part was that the next yard was a 15ft drop and i fell into a holly bush, lost my shirt and was all bloody walking down the street to my other buddy's house.

    the other time, i got jumped by the boyfriend (and a few of his friends) of a girl i went out with in 8th grade. back when i was dating her, this other kid asked me if we had had sex yet, and trying to sound cool, i said "yeah". that was that for 3-1/2yrs, until new years of 1993/1994, when the new boyfriend asked me why i said that. i had just drank a 64oz of st. ides, and was too wasted to respond, so his friend punched me right in the face, and as i fell, my hand got caught in his collar and i pulled his face into the corner of a sliding glass door, cutting him all up. this is all his friends saw, and they all came out to kick me in the head as many times as they could. when i finally got out of there (crawling), this fucker (that actually got arrested for raping a girl with a tennis racquet a year later) put a .38 up into my face and started asking me if i wanted him to shoot me. he was really drunk, so his friends tackled him, not knowing what he was capable of at that point. if i saw that guy today, freezing on the side of the road, i'd pour some kerosene on him, and light a match to help him keep warm.

  • Danno3000Danno3000 2,851 Posts
    nothing like hanging over a cliff by yourself.





    When was the last time you thought you were going to die?



    Actually, I know all about hanging over a cliff by myself. I can think of at least two incidents when I've been climbing and recognised death as the very probable outcome of the situation. In these circumstances, I've only focus on how to get out alive. I've never reconciled myself to dying. Like most people, I think I'm hardwired to avoid death at most costs. I suppose I would react differentky if death was a certainty, ie those brief seconds before hitting the ground, but that, thankfully, hasn't happened.



    The situations themselves don't make for much of a story unless you're also a climber. One involved getting my ropes stuck while rappelling several hundred feet in the dark, the other involved unintentionally climbing without any protection. Generally, I don't enjoy being scared of dying, so I do my best to stay out of situations where it's do or die. Some people invite that shit into their lives and I'm not convinced it's all that healthy to be courting death so regularly...



    I've seen people almost kill themselves climbing and that's almost as bad as experiencing it yourself.

  • BaptBapt 2,503 Posts
    I'm like DOC

  • BsidesBsides 4,244 Posts
    Last season I was hiking in Stowe's Backcountry. I thought I knew where I was.

    I ended up picking this line that I was sure about. I ended up getting sucked into this sheer ice ravine that hung over this 80 foot cliff. I was hanging over this cliff by some roots and small shrubs for a few minutes trying to figure out my next move. I was sure I was dead.

    Some how I was able to sideslip diagnally to a lower section that was maybe only 30 feet. At that point I just let go and slid down this rocky cliff. I fucked my tailbone but that was about it. I've never had the feeling I had that day.
    Man this one time I was ice climbing and I slipped and my leg bone came through my knee. Then my friend had to cut the rope connecting us and I landed in a glacier. Then I had to use my ice axe as a crutch while my friend ditched me. Then I actually lived to write a book about it.


    Just kidding. But I just finished watching Touching The Void ( ) and your post reminded me of that. Movie was unsane.


    Yeah, touching the void was nuts!

  • I can't really compete with any of these stories--thank you, God--but I had a scare on my motorcycle about 5 months ago. [Knewjack--READ THIS!][/b]

    I was riding home from my last job, headed north on US-101 towards SF. Right around SFO, I took the 380 to 280 crossover like I always did. High, two-lane overpass, and traffic was stopped in the right lane. It was kinda dumb, but I decided to zip past everyone in the left lane.

    Right as I'm about to pass a HUGE pickup truck (I think it was a new F-250 or something), the truck starts to pull a quick move into my lane. Rather, into me. My eyes must've been huge. Luckily, he saw me in his rear view at the very last second and stopped. He could've very easily knocked me over the railing of the overpass.

    The rest of my 10 miles or so on the way home was not the most pleasant riding I've ever done.

    I've had a couple of other fairly close calls on my bike (including a 15-foot skid), but nothing like that. Keep an eye out for bikers, plaese. Most of us are responsible and don't want to get killed.

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts





  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts


    Keep an eye out for bikers, plaese. Most of us are willing to squeeze int the tightest spaces between traffic with complete disregard for safety or others and don't care about getting killed until it's possible.

  • BamboucheBambouche 1,484 Posts
    Years ago.

    Bumping into a convicted murderer in the street. Just so happens I slept with his wife. He looked very, very, very angry to see me.

    (File Under: Living in Consequence)







    Make a noise, crack a glass
    I'll hold his arms, you fuck him
    Fuck him with something
    The fuck - he deserves it

  • What an asshole.

  • SwayzeSwayze 14,705 Posts




    Keep an eye out for bikers, plaese. Most of us are willing to squeeze int the tightest spaces between traffic with complete disregard for safety or others and don't care about getting killed until it's possible.

    i wouldn't agree with this at all... but when i see those guys doing wheelie's on the freeway, it not only scares the shit out of me, but i secretly wish they'd spill out right in front of one of those tanker trucks. (just the freeway wheelie guys). same goes for cellphone drivers, that are too busy text messaging to check before they merge.



  • Keep an eye out for bikers, plaese. Most of us are willing to squeeze int the tightest spaces between traffic with complete disregard for safety or others and don't care about getting killed until it's possible.
    i wouldn't agree with this at all... but when i see those guys doing wheelie's on the freeway, it not only scares the shit out of me, but i secretly wish they'd spill out right in front of one of those tanker trucks. (just the freeway wheelie guys). same goes for cellphone drivers, that are too busy text messaging to check before they merge.

    Co-sign on all of the above.

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    R*ss,
    My quote was to state that while I'm not doubting you are trying to abide by traffic rules, dudes on crotch rockets (not motorcycles, but crotch rockets) often are weaving in and out of traffic ALL THE TIME where I'm from (NY state). It is human nature to only be concerned/appreciate how dangerous something is only when it is occurring to you. Am I wrong?
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