Mine-- I got lost at 12:00 am running in a hilly area, and couldnt decide which way to go. Eventually I found a path leading downhill towards the nearest road, and then two black rottweilers almost gave me a heart attack when they barked and proceeded to chase me down all the way down the hill. I must have been going 20 miles/hr. Fortunately I escaped though and found my way back home.
Stupidly decided to go out and check things out immediately after a pretty severe tornado touched down. Ended up clearing a street with a group of folks with chainsaws, allowing first responders to get to a school where children were stuck and a few folks had some relatively serious injuries.
After clearing the road, my friends and I continued to survey the destruction, and we decided to climb through a patch of decimated woods. It would've normally taken about 2 minutes to get through the woods, but every tree was down so we were having a lot of trouble, and the woods were obviously rather dangerous. At points, we'd have to figure out how to get from one downed tree to another without falling and getting stuck or breaking bones.
Anyway, about halfway through the woods, warning sirens started going off and a police car in the area told us over his loudspeaker that another tornado was going to touch down. It'd take at least 10 more minutes for us to get out of the woods. The most intense 10 minutes of my life. The second tornado never did come, but I was a bit shaken afterwards.
Got mugged when I was in Casablanca.
Hiked on a closed trail on Mount Washington one day in January. The trail is about 55-60 % at one point, and the snow/ice I kicked steps into avalanched below me.
Once my heart palpitations slowed down after a few minutes, I realized I was able to safely continue upwards, and then find an alternate route down the mountain.
Attacked and beaten by a stranger.
word. wrote:
Mine-- I got lost at 12:00 am running in a hilly area, and couldnt decide which way to go. Eventually I found a path leading downhill towards the nearest road, and then two black rottweilers almost gave me a heart attack when they barked and proceeded to chase me down all the way down the hill. I must have been going 20 miles/hr. Fortunately I escaped though and found my way back home.
Dogs are a f***ing stupid idea for a pet.
For me there are two kinds of scared - when you're scared for a loved one, and when you're scared for yourself.
Loved one: my ex-wife went to pick up my daughter (aged 8) from aftercare and she wasn't there. Longest 15 minutes of life before she was found.
Myself: same story as the poster above! Except it was two pit bulls chasing me. I fell, but managed to fight them off with fists. I didn't get bitten, amazingly.
Loved one: ex's suicide attempt. Firemen saved her.
Myself: Running in a lightning storm in the middle of Ontario Canada. It struck 20 yards from me multiple times.
In a small open boat in a massive lightening storm with driving rain and high wind/waves. Had about ten feet visibility and was among a lot of shoals and about 30 minutes from shelter.
The boat is very seaworthy, and I am decent skipper, but not being able to get to shelter while the lighting bursts around you like flashbulbs is intense.
Wasn't scared, but was 100% focussed on navigating home asap. In retrospect, we were pretty lucky not to get zapped.
I was soloing a 5.7 (so pretty easy) alpine route and broke a decent-sized chunk of rock off with my hand which proceeded to fall down on my ankle, knocking my foot off of its purchase and causing me to barn door. Fortunately I held on with my other hand as there was a big drop below.
Another time, I was limping down a mountain trail after spraining my ankle and came to a little 10 ft. drop and surprised a mother grizzly and cub who were less than 5 meters away from me. She made a startled snort but we both retreated and gave each other space to pass. Since then, I've come across grizzlies numerous times in the back-country without incident but that remains by far my closest encounter.
Possibly scarier than the grizzly was being stalked by an aggressive and enormous bull moose. I was walking along the shoreline of a lake when the moose started towards me. I headed into the trees but it followed me in and purposely blocked me from passing for several minutes.
All of the above occurred while I was alone.
Signing up for Obamacare. Man, I still can't bring myself to talk about it.
drifts wrote:
Attacked and beaten by a stranger.
What was that about?
climber runner wrote:
Fortunately I held on with my other hand as there was a big drop below.
What a pity. You could have received a Darwin award post-mortem.
I hadn't broken 2 yet for the 800m and went out in 56
not impressed by idiots wrote:
... a Darwin award post-mortem.
I'm pretty sure that's redundant. You can't really earn them while still alive.
You're probably looking for a personal experience of fear of death or injury like car wrecks, encounters with animals, etc. - and I've had a few of those - but my worst one involves my daughter when she was 8 years old. Anybody with kids will understand.
She wrecked on her bike near our house and bumped her head pretty good. After a trip to local doc-in-a-box who released her when she couldn't even stand or walk on her own, we did not feel comfortable and ended up taking her 30 minutes away to a larger hospital ER where they did a brain scan. Next think we know she's in a Med Flight helicopter to yet another hospital where a neurosurgeon was waiting.
There was a delay in the helicopter picking her up, so I was able to get the 3rd hospital ER in my car just as the chopper touched down. I watched as they wheeled my unresponsive daughter into a treatment room. I followed them into the room without thinking and no one stopped me. The neuro guy asked one of the flight nurses who I was, but he went back to work and didn't order me out. Guess he didn't have time to waste. I watched from 10 feet away as they intubated her, doctors and nurses scurrying around, looking at CT scans, etc. Within 5 minutes she was off to surgery.
After 3 tense hours in a waiting room, the neurosurgeon came out to tell us she had survived a subdural hematoma larger than a golf ball inside her 8-year-old skull. He said probably 15 minutes more and she would have been brain dead. The pressure on the brain stem was cutting off oxygen.
This is the same type injury that killed Liam Neeson's wife and also I think Formula One driver Michael Schumacher who was hurt skiing recently has a similar injury.
Anyway, she's 21 now and a beautiful, smart and perfectly normal young woman, albeit with titanium plates and screws in her skull. But just recounting that story brings back the fear and dread we felt watching all that unfold with my daughter's life in the balance.
P.S. Yes, after getting scolded by the neurosurgeon, we bought all the kids bike helmets.
When I was in high school, I was staying at my parent's cabin alone. It's quite remote, out in the woods (no running water, that kind of thing). My two good friends got whiff that I was out there alone and they executed a fairly elaborate hoax to scare me into thinking that someone was breaking into the cabin while I was asleep, with the intent to kill me.
I'm in my mid 30s now, and I still remember that night. It still remains the only time I've ever truly feared for my life. Even now, if I visit my parent's cabin at night, I still get creeped out.
repeating repeater wrote:
not impressed by idiots wrote:... a Darwin award post-mortem.
I'm pretty sure that's redundant. You can't really earn them while still alive.
Yes, you can. By (involuntarily) sterilizing yourself.
dasasdasd wrote:
When I was in high school, I was staying at my parent's cabin alone. It's quite remote, out in the woods (no running water, that kind of thing). My two good friends got whiff that I was out there alone and they executed a fairly elaborate hoax to scare me into thinking that someone was breaking into the cabin while I was asleep, with the intent to kill me.
I'm in my mid 30s now, and I still remember that night. It still remains the only time I've ever truly feared for my life. Even now, if I visit my parent's cabin at night, I still get creeped out.
That's horrible and I hope you punched them both in the face
Was running in the dark in a secluded trail one evenening and had a german shepherd come rushing out, barking, teeth flaring and growling at me. People in the woods suddenly started yelling "NO!" and started calling for their dog to come back. Wish I would have been carrying. There would have been two less bad dog owners in the world.