Rafting down a dangerous river with my buddy in the PNW, raft flipped and I got sucked under a log jam in a river bend (friend managed to crawl onto the log jam). Knew for sure I was a dead man as I struggled underwater against the current. Finally I closed my eyes and let go of a branch I was hanging on to, knowing that my next breath was going to fill my lungs with water and my body would likely never be found under there.
The current battered me around a bit and just as I'm ready to take that life ending breath, my head pops up out of the river, about 50 meters downstream of the log jam. The water was freezing and I had barely enough strength left to fight the current and get to a fallen tree sticking out into the river. I hugged that tree trunk tight while I caught my breath for a minute as the river current beat down on me like a fire hose against my back.
Managed to shimmy along the tree trunk to the edge of the river and climb out onto solid ground. Still took us around 4 hours to find our way through the forest (him barefoot and me w/o my glasses!) to some ATV riders who helped us get to a main road.
Also survived a nasty car wreck (vehicle folded up like an accordian) but not without permanent injuries.
Few other near miss type things, but those two were for sure the closest to death.
The current battered me around a bit and just as I'm ready to take that life ending breath, my head pops up out of the river, about 50 meters downstream of the log jam. The water was freezing and I had barely enough strength left to fight the current and get to a fallen tree sticking out into the river. I hugged that tree trunk tight while I caught my breath for a minute as the river current beat down on me like a fire hose against my back.
Managed to shimmy along the tree trunk to the edge of the river and climb out onto solid ground. Still took us around 4 hours to find our way through the forest (him barefoot and me w/o my glasses!) to some ATV riders who helped us get to a main road.
Also survived a nasty car wreck (vehicle folded up like an accordian) but not without permanent injuries.
Few other near miss type things, but those two were for sure the closest to death.