Books and beyond

If you love true adventure survival stories like Into Thin Air, then check out this handful of books. We have plenty more like these and are sure to have something to keep you on the edge of your seat.

 

Adrift: seventy-six days lost at sea  by Steven Callahan

 

When the author’s sloop sank west of the Canary Islands, he was adrift alone in a small raft for 76 days with only three pounds of food and eight pints of water. He drifted 1,000 miles to the Caribbean. His story is exciting, devastating, courageous and historic, for he is the only man to have survived more than a month alone at sea in an inflatable raft. 

 

 

 The Darkest Jungle: the true story of the Darién expedition and America's ill-fated race to connect the seas by Todd Balf

 

The building of the Panama Canal: The U.S. Darien Exploring Expedition and their ninety-seven-day ordeal of starvation, exhaustion, and madness -- a tragedy turned largely to triumph due to the courage and self-sacrifice of their leader and the seamen who followed him devotedly is one of the great untold tales of human survival and exploration in the tropics.

 

 

The Long Walk: the true story of a trek to freedom by Slavomir Rawicz

 

 

Skeletons on the Zahara: a true story of survival by Dean King

 

In 1815, twelve American sailors washed up on the shore of North Africa. Captured and sold into slavery, they were then dragged along on an insane journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara-a region no Westerners had ever explored. From the cold waters of the Atlantic to the searing Saharan sands, from the heart of the desert to the heart of man, Skeletons on the Zahara is a spectacular odyssey through the extremes. 

 

Touching the Void: the true story of one man’s miraculous survival by Joe Simpson

 

Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge and seemed to be lost. How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival, and a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.