Transcription
In December of 1991, a man set off into the Himalayas on what was supposed to be a week-long hike. When the week was up, however, the man was still missing, and what he would go on to endure in the next few weeks would be one of the most prolonged and grueling ordeals in the history of the area. This is his horrifying story, and as always, viewer discretion is advised.
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In September of 1990, Australian medical student James Scott sat down to write a letter. When he was finished, he folded it up, slipped the paper into an envelope, and sealed it before dropping it off at the post office. The letter was bound for an unusual place—the South Asian country Nepal, which at the time was considered a Third World country and one of the least developed on Earth.
For James, however, the country's plight made it the perfect place for him to fulfill an elective period requirement before he graduated with his medical degree and help those who needed it most. After sending the letter on its way to a Kathmandu hospital, James eagerly awaited a reply that just never came. He was a bit disappointed as the days, weeks, and then months passed without hearing anything back.
But James was too determined to take nothing for an answer. So one full year later, he had a plane ticket to Nepal in hand and had recruited his good friend, Tim Hooper, to join him there. His hope was that he could convince a hospital there to let him come on board temporarily to fulfill his medical school requirement. But as it turned out, he wouldn't need to lobby for a spot after all.
Just before he was set to fly to Nepal, a response finally showed up, and it was a resounding yes. The hospital informed him that he could begin his elective period at the end of December 1991. Receiving this long-awaited reply was the icing on the cake for the then-22-year-old. James felt like he was on top of the world—he was attending a great medical school and earning top grades, and he had met a woman he planned to marry once he returned to Australia after his residency in Nepal.
Everything was just going his way, and while he'd have to leave his family and fiancé behind in Australia for a while, he was excited for the adventure that awaited him in South Asia. James wasn't exactly what you'd call a thrill-seeker, but he very much enjoyed staying active. He worked out, sometimes six times a week, through hiking or bushwalking, as it's sometimes called in Australia.
He also cycled in some of his home country's most challenging natural terrain, but it was karate that was his real passion and something he truly excelled at. James had earned a black belt and competed nationally, and in 1989, he won his weight class at the Queensland Championships, and later that year, he finished third in the Australian Championships.
All this is to say that James was young, fit, strong, and capable of taking care of himself. Now, despite his residency not beginning until December, James flew to Nepal in September along with Tim to settle in. He then visited the hospital a handful of times and met the doctors and nurses he'd soon be working alongside, and they got to know him a bit, too.
And when some of them learned about his passion for staying active, they recommended that he use his downtime before his elective period to begin to trek the nearby Himalayas. For an avid hiker like James, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. The Himalayas obviously aren't just any mountain range, and Kathmandu is like the epicenter of activity as one of the closest settlements to Mount Everest.
Interestingly, though, while James enjoyed hiking, he wasn't much of a climber. In fact, he was terrified of heights, so climbing a peak like Everest was out of the question—but luckily, the Himalayas offer a variety of terrain that was much more suitable for him. After getting settled in Kathmandu, James and Tim immediately started planning a hike up the Jomsom Trail, which is a popular trekking route that takes more than a week to complete and runs through forests, rocky landscapes, and the deepest gorges in the world.
And since this was more than just a leisurely day hike, James and Tim wanted to make sure they were prepared. The Himalayan winter was fast approaching, so they set about securing a list of supplies, and they would also hire two porters to help carry their gear and a guide to lead them. When the day finally came to set out, James and Tim quickly found it to be an enjoyable trek.
As the days passed, they reached as high as 9,800 feet, or 3,000 meters, and were treated to some of the most spectacular views anywhere on Earth. The weather was cold, considering the high altitudes, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as they were prepared for. As they continued on, they even ran into some trekkers who were just wearing ski jackets and sneakers.
And soon, James and Tim felt a bit ridiculous for being so overprepared. So just a few days into the hike, they decided to let the guide and porters return to Kathmandu with much of the gear they had brought with them, while they continued on with just what they had in their backpacks. A few days after that, they arrived back in Kathmandu, riding the high of completing a successful trek through the Himalayas.
The trip went so well, in fact, that they immediately began planning another one they could squeeze in before James started his elective period at the Kathmandu hospital. And after having a taste of the Himalayas, they figured they'd be able to prepare with a little more knowledge of what to expect.
The problem with that assumption, however, was that their next trek would begin in late December, which was a much different animal than a Himalayan September. Their preparation for the Jomsom Trail would have been much more appropriate for their next planned trek, but the ease that they completed the Jomsom Trail gave them a false sense of security.
This time, they planned to take the Helambu Trail, which was a much more challenging route, but one with lodges along the way, giving trekkers a chance to eat and rest. When December rolled around and they made their final preparations for the trip, they did so with minimal gear—just enough to fit in their rucksacks.
James also brought 10 pairs of underwear, a handful of T-shirts, a pair of thermal underwear, several pairs of pants, one sweatshirt, and a light jacket. Additionally, he brought one towel, his camera, and four different books to read during nights in the lodges. On December 21st, they got their trek started and made it to the first lodge, where they met a few German hikers who were on their way back along the Helambu Trail.
And according to the Germans, the trek wasn't that difficult, but there also wasn't much in terms of payoff of things to see, so James and Tim started to have second thoughts about their plans. James then pulled out a map of Nepal that he had, and as was often the case in Third World countries, it was old and outdated, but he could at least see some of the other trail options if they wanted to change course.
After looking at the map James was reviewing, the Germans pulled out a much better and newer map and allowed James and Tim to keep it. The pair then set their sights on the Gosainkund Trail, which was an offshoot of the Helambu Trail that wasn't marked on the old map. So the next morning, they got an early start, and along the way, they caught up with a man named Mark Fulton who was trekking solo.
And in one of those small-world scenarios, James and Tim immediately recognized Mark's accent as Australian, and the three made fast friends. As it turned out, Mark was also planning to take the Helambu Trail, but James and Tim were quick to convince him that it wasn't worth it based on what they had heard from the German trekkers.
One of them then suggested they take the Gosainkund Trail together, and it was settled. The three men then continued along the Helambu Trail toward the intersection that would lead them to their new route. Along the way, though, Tim suffered a leg injury, and as much as he tried to push himself through the pain, it just wasn't happening.
Tim then stopped the two and said that he was going to return to Kathmandu. James and Tim then had a quick conversation, and James said he'd return with him, but Tim insisted that he go along with Mark and finish the trek. Tim didn't say it at the time, but it was written all over James' face that he wanted to keep going, so the two friends made plans to meet for dinner at their favorite restaurant on Christmas Eve, before going their separate ways.
As they did, Tim asked James for one of the maps he could follow, and in an absent-minded moment, James accidentally handed him the new map the Germans gave him—the one with Gosainkund. Tim also forgot to hand over the one lighter they had between them in case James and Mark would need to start a fire at some point.
But either way, James and Mark then continued to trek to the Himalayas for the rest of the day before making camp somewhere around 9,800 feet above sea level. The next day, they made it to an area called Therapati where the intersection with Gosainkund was. Once there, they noticed several trekkers coming back down Gosainkund toward them, and the two groups stopped to chat for a moment, namely so James and Mark could gather some info on what might lie ahead.
The returning trekkers said that it was a challenging trail for sure, but there was no snow on it, which made it infinitely easier to traverse. So, satisfied that they were making the right decision, James and Mark thanked the trekkers and continued on to their next lodge. At dawn the next morning, the two men awoke to a surprise.
It had snowed overnight, albeit with a light dusting, but the clouds were concerning. So just to double-check the conditions, they spoke to the lodgekeeper and asked if it was going to snow that day. The lodgekeeper then told them that there was no snow in the forecast and they should be able to make it over the pass with no problems.
So around 7:30 AM, James and Mark departed the lodge and spent about the first hour and a half on a pristine trail, taking in the breathtaking sights of the mountains all around them. As the morning wore on, though, conditions changed rapidly. The temperature fell noticeably, and more dark clouds rolled in. Soon, it also started to snow, but it wasn't anything like what must have fallen overnight.
Instead, these were large flakes that severely limited visibility and started to accumulate beneath their feet faster than the two men expected. Before long, the storm had dumped 5 inches of snow onto the ground, and the once-clearly visible trail was now buried. This caused James to become concerned as they continued on, and he wondered if maybe they should turn back.
Before he could say anything, though, he and Mark somehow ended up on the opposite sides of a creek, and they could no longer see one another. It would take them 15 minutes of shouting back and forth before they were able to reunite, and James immediately voiced his fears about the conditions to Mark. Mark, however, was unconcerned and convinced that he could find the path that would lead them back to Kathmandu.
James wasn't so sure, and in a move that disappointed Mark, decided his best course of action was to retrace their steps to the lodge where they spent the previous night. Mark, on the other hand, decided that he was going to continue on, so after a brief conversation, they went in opposite directions.
As James started on his journey back the way he came, he did his best to follow the footprints, but the snow was falling so hard that they were filled in more and more the further he went. And before long, he had no idea where he was. There were very few landmarks, if any, to mark the trail, and the snow was falling so hard that it was impossible to see more than 30 feet ahead.
This meant that James had to face the fact that he was now lost. So next, figuring that the creek nearby must lead to some semblance of civilization, he started to follow it; and in checking his old map, he saw that it ran right to the town of Talu. After four more hours of walking, he noticed that the valley he was once in had significantly narrowed, and the high rock walls were rapidly closing in on him.
As far as he could see ahead of him at this point, he saw that several creeks came together to form a small river, so he continued on. After a short walk, though, he saw that the river had come to a complete end, as the rock walls alongside him were now closer than at any point previously. It was a waterfall.
But, still hoping that he could somehow find a way down it, James crept closer to the edge of it and looked down. And immediately, he knew he was in trouble. He estimated its height at around 100 feet, or 30 meters, and he was suddenly without many choices. Going down was out of the question, and going back was no guarantee either. This left going up as the only other option.
Again, James wasn't a climber, but he figured if he'd get high enough, he might be able to get above the clouds and wait out the weather. James figured that the rock wall was about as tall as the waterfall, and so over the course of the next two hours, he went from ledge to slippery ledge, as he somehow made his way to the very top. There were times when he was only hanging on by his fingers.
When he was finished, he crested over the cliff and collapsed into exhaustion. But as dangerous a decision as it was to climb, James did find a rocky overhang that gave him some shelter at the top of the cliff. While he regathered some of his strength, he recalled a few lessons from medical school on hypothermia and just how dangerous a condition it can be.
So it may seem counterintuitive, but as he settled in under the overhang, he stripped down, pulled out his towel, and made sure to dry every part of his body. He had just spent hours cold and wet, and his clothes were soaked, and he figured it was a lot safer being cold and dry instead. Once he was finished, that night, he camped under this rocky ledge with his sleeping bag pulled over his head.
In the morning, James got an early start in his desperate attempt to trek out of his current situation. He then located a different creek that he started to follow, but the snow was so deep that the going was extremely slow. After two hours, he had walked just a single kilometer. The banks of the gully he was walking in on this day weren't nearly as high as the ones he encountered the day before, but they were instead extremely slick with ice and snow.
So anytime he felt like his best move would be to climb again, he'd only get so far up before falling back down to the gully floor. By 4 PM, he had enough, and fortunately, found another overhang to camp under. Just like before, he took off his clothes and dried himself the best he could, and noticed that his feet were completely numb.
He then dressed in a set of dry clothing and laid down for the night, shivering much worse than he was the previous night. In fact, at one point, he was certain there was no way he'd make it through the night. He even got up and reached into his backpack for a pen and a notebook, and started writing a letter to his family. The guilt he felt for getting himself into this situation was overwhelming, and he couldn't apologize enough for the heartbreak this would cause them.
When the letter was finished, he closed his notebook, stored it away, and laid back down, waiting for the end. On December 29th, so five days after James was supposed to meet Tim for dinner in Kathmandu, the phone rang at the Brisbane home of Joanne Robertson—James's older sister. Her husband answered the call, and before long, he came downstairs to talk to her.
Tim had sent a fax message to James's parents, informing them that James was missing. The news obviously rocked Joanne, and she found herself panicked, not sure what to do with this information. Her first thought was that she needed to jump on a plane immediately from Nepal, but by this time, the Australian Foreign Affairs Department had caught wind of James being missing and urged Joanne to stay put.
Instead, they recommended reaching out to a mountaineering expert named Carl Harrison, who lived in Kathmandu, to lead a search for her brother. The next day, Carl and the first search party headed out as James' family waited anxiously. They waited for the phone to ring with the news that James had just been snowed in at one of the trail's lodges, but as the days passed, that call never came.
Joanne reached back out to the Foreign Affairs Department for updates frequently, and on January 2nd, 1992, there was finally something. They told her that the search party received a report of a sighting of a solo trekker from some French-Canadian trekkers, and they were 99 percent sure it was James. This was a huge relief to Joanne as she called her parents and told them about the good news, but sitting around and waiting for information was becoming too much for her to bear.
The next day, she went and got a travel visa for Nepal, and on January 7th, she boarded a flight bound for South Asia. By the time she arrived in Kathmandu, James had been missing for 16 days. On many occasions, James tried trekking out of the Himalayas, only to be turned back to his lonely rock overhang by the depth of the snow, or the intensity of the snowstorms that continued to roll through.
Having brought only two chocolate bars that were now long gone, he had no choice but to eat snow to survive, and before long, it became clear that walking out of there wasn't going to be an option. And when it came down to it, he knew that his best chance of surviving the ordeal came down to being spotted by a helicopter or waiting until the snow had thawed enough in the spring, which was still months away.
From that point onward, the rocky overhang became his new home. He had no food, no fire, and nothing but the clothes on his back and a sleeping bag to keep him warm, so he did the only thing he could do, which was sleep and read. Obviously, though, little could distract him from the raging hunger he felt.
He thought about food when he was awake and dreamt about it when he slept, but after the first two weeks or so with nothing but snow to eat, the hunger eventually dissipated as he leaned on the discipline he learned as a karate student. Almost like he was meditating, he'd do his best to think about particular movements, techniques, and sequences, consuming his mind with every tiny detail.
Soon, about the only thing that could break that train of thought was the condition of his feet. He hadn't been able to feel them for some time, and it didn't matter what he did to try to warm them up; nothing worked. Then, one day, he removed his shoes and socks and saw that his feet were completely blue. He then reached into the medical kit and pulled out a pair of dissection scissors.
Then, he jabbed them into the side of his foot. The wound quickly bled, but James felt absolutely no pain. He was now terrified that if he did survive the ordeal, he'd lose his feet. But as if this wasn't enough to worry about, he was suddenly reminded one day that he was not at the top of the food chain in the Himalayas.
James was awoken one afternoon by horrifying animal screams. He then ripped the sleeping bag over his head and jumped up, looking over the rocky ledge that sloped above him. About 100 feet, or 30 meters away, he saw a bush that was violently shaking, but he couldn't immediately make out what was causing it until a large black figure moved into the clearing.
It was a Himalayan black bear; and now, James was in its sights. James then grabbed the dissection scissors and held them tightly in his hand as he shouted at the bear to come down the slope to him. This was a moment of insanity on James' part, as the only thing he thought was that the bear could give him a quick end.
But instead of coming toward him, the bear got spooked and darted up the slope and out of sight. But either way, for the next five nights, he heard the bear near his overhang and waited to be attacked. Meanwhile, as James was fighting for his life, the rescue effort was hitting problem after problem.
Several different rescue teams entered the Himalayas and were turned back by the terrain, conditions, or weather, and some even got lost themselves. Now, in Nepal as well, Joanne was much closer to the search for her brother, but she still felt helpless to do anything, so she did only what she could.
She then sought out the French-Canadian trekkers that had apparently seen James, and when she met with them, most of the group were certain that it was her brother they spotted. One of the women in the group, however, wasn't so sure. She remembered talking to a solo trekker from Germany in the days before the sighting and thought she recognized him as the man mistaken for James.
And sure enough, search leaders received a letter from a German man who said he was trekking alone on the Helambu Trail. This all but crushed Joanne's hopes that her brother was still alive somewhere. By then, James had been lost for 21 days, and Joanne was growing more and more desperate.
She suddenly recalled a conversation she had with a local woman when she arrived at the Kathmandu airport. The two women spoke about James' situation, and Joanne asked her what she'd recommend. And in response, the local woman said she'd go to consult a Buddhist lama, which is a spiritual leader.
To an Australian, this came off as an odd suggestion, but the local woman assured Joanne that lamas could see what others can't. To that point, Joanne hadn't given the suggestion much consideration at all, but as things became more desperate, she figured it couldn't hurt to do as the local woman recommended.
Joanne then scheduled a time with a Buddhist lama and explained the situation to him, showing him a map of the region where James was believed to be lost. After hearing Joanne out, the lama prayed on it for a few seconds and then looked down at the map. He then dropped his finger on a specific area—a triangle formed by the towns of Phedi, Ghopte, and Talu—and told her that the searchers should look there.
The area the lama pointed to, however, was an unlikely place for James to end up. For one thing, mountain experts doubted there was even a route that would lead them to where the lama pointed, but he insisted that this is where they'd find James. Before she left, she asked the lama if they'd find James alive, to which he replied that she would meet her brother again.
At the same time, though, arguably, the more practical approach to the search was still underway, which included tracking down Mark. Rescuers still hadn't been able to find him either, and there was some concern that he might be lost in the mountains, too. It was known through Tim that Mark had a flight to Thailand after Christmas, and he was scheduled to arrive back in Australia sometime before January 21st.
A message was then left for Mark at the airport by the Australian embassy, and on January 15th he called Joanne. Mark had made it out of the Himalayas by following another path he had located which led him to a local village. He then explained to her that he and James separated somewhere between Phedi and Ghopte, which was a striking revelation.
This meant James had turned back to the southwest, which was not an area where rescuers were looking for him. If he continued on that path, it would put him right in the middle of the triangle the lama had pointed out on the map. After 30 days stranded in the Himalayas, James finally heard the first signs of any attempt to find him.
There was a distinct chopping sound in the distance, which he initially wrote off as the wind, but as it drew closer, it became clear that it was the sound of a helicopter. He then rushed out of his sleeping bag before grabbing it and trudging into a clearing. He then waved the sleeping bag over his head after he dropped his pants to reveal his bright red long johns, which he hoped would make it easier to spot him.
He estimated that the chopper was about 6 miles, or 10 kilometers away from him, and he watched it circle for a few moments before it eventually turned back and disappeared into the distance. This was one of the most disheartening moments of his time in the Himalayas to that point. By this point, James looked like a shell of himself, and his once-muscular body was now more than a skinny skeleton.
He also had little strength and felt ill, and he developed mouth ulcers and a bad throat infection. All in all, he was completely miserable and hopeless. This was when he was seriously considering ending things, but the only thing keeping him from going through with it was the realization that his body would one day be found, and his family would learn just how much he suffered before death.
So, despite the slim chance of surviving or being rescued, James did his best to carry on. On his 42nd day in the Himalayas, he once again heard the sound of a helicopter drawing close to him. With every ounce of strength he had remaining, he pulled himself out of his sleeping bag and once again waved it in the air.
For 20 minutes, the helicopter circled James, who waved until he completely collapsed in the snow from exhaustion. Moments later, the chopper darted down the valley and disappeared. This time, though, James knew he had been seen, but he also knew that it would take up to four days for them to reach him by foot. By then, he was sure he'd be dead.
Back at the rescue headquarters, Joanne sat by the radio like she had every day to that point, waiting for any information from searchers in the mountains. The radio then suddenly crackled, and a voice came over, saying they had found James and that he was alive. The rescuer made sure to repeat the message twice, knowing that it was such an improbable development that it might not be believed unless it was said multiple times.
In that moment, Joanne was so overcome that she couldn't even respond to the message. Sometime later, when the helicopter returned, Carl and a team of rescuers set out on foot. Under the rock ledge high above the mountain valleys, James lay in a sleeping bag, listening to only the sounds of silence and wind that he had heard for more than 40 days.
Suddenly, a third sound interrupted the other two as he swore he heard voices in the distance. To James, this was it. He had reached the point of hypothermia, where he was starting to hallucinate, and he was sure death would soon follow. But then, the voices came closer.
So next, taking a deep breath just to be sure, James whistled loudly through his teeth, not expecting any response. As he waited in silence, though, a whistle returned, and upon hearing this, James sat up in his sleeping bag and shouted. As he looked out from beneath his rock overhang, he heard the crunching of boots and soon saw two men, who crouched down to look beneath the ledge.
One of them then asked if he was James Scott from Australia, and James said yes. The two men then leapt beneath the overhang and started hugging and kissing him. The rescuers had been so invested in finding him that they were overjoyed. One of them then looked at James and said that he was a god.
When James asked why he said that, the rescuer told James that no one had ever lived in this part of the Himalayas for more than 10 days. James, however, had survived 43. The next morning, a helicopter flew in, and James was attached to a harness and pulled aboard.
Back at the landing pad, Joanne anxiously awaited the arrival of her brother, and when the helicopter landed, several rescuers exited first and helped James out. He immediately started walking toward Joanne as she ran to him, and the two embraced for what felt like an eternity. She hardly even recognized him—he was dangerously thin, dirty, and bearded—and this would be the last time James would walk for some time as he was taken to the hospital.
But he would eventually make a full recovery. The spot where James was found was exactly where the lama said he would be. If you made it this far, thanks so much for watching. If you want to listen to the audio-only version of these videos, you can listen wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Anyways, thanks again, and hopefully, I will see you in the next one.