Famous Hikers Who Went Missing
Getting lost is every hiker’s worst fear, even for those who religiously watch Survivorman, Bear Grylls, Dual Survival or any of the millions of lame spinoffs. If you do get lost, the best you can hope for is survival. Second best? To go down in such a horrible way as to be made famous for it. A living lesson to all those who come after you and to all those who are glad that they weren’t you.
Aron Ralston
It wasn’t how long he was lost that got Aron Ralston massively famous, it was the hijinks he got into while he was lost that got him attention. In a sudden accident that seems almost too perfect to be accidental, Ralston had his arm trapped between a rock and a hard place; in this case that hard place was, in fact, another rock. After a few hours of tugging, he did exactly what any normal person would do. He cried. Then he did something almost no one would do, he cut off his arm and walked out to get rescued.
Dyatlov Pass Incident
Half conspiracy theory, half missing hiker case, the Dyatlov Pass Incident goes down as one of the creepier lost adventurer stories. Somewhere in Russia’s Ural mountains, 9 ski hikers were lost and died from unknown forces. In their case, it was the condition of the bodies that raised attention. Several were wearing only underwear, one was missing a tongue and most had suffered injuries, yet showed no sign of struggle. Over the years, rumors of radiation and weird tans began circulating, turning the cause of death from avalanche and hypothermia to the much more exciting, alien sex-probed to death.
George Mallory
As the first man to climb Everest, you’d think that George Mallory would have known to quit while he was ahead. Unfortunately, when Mallory attempted to climb the peak again in 1924, he wasn’t so lucky. For unknown reasons, he never made it down. Seventy-five years later, his body was found at 27,000 feet. As if Everest wasn’t challenging enough, now it’s surely haunted.
Ludwig Leichardt
By the end of the 19th century, exploring Australia was all the rage for young Europeans. Much like college graduates backpack for a summer, bright eyed boys would come to Australia to avoid the teeming, beautiful coastline to explore the vast, oppressive nothingness of the continent’s interior. In an attempt to make a route from the Eastern coast to the Western coast, Leichardt got lost and disappeared. To this day, no trace of his body has been discovered.
