Les Stroud - Will to Live: Dispatches from the Edge of Survival

For my dad, Ron Stroud, whose last few words were
This is my son. Hes a bushman.

Those of us who study the kinds of survival ordeals related so powerfully and intelligently in this book would heartily agree with Les Strouds central thesis: sometimes the only explanation for why some people survive a hell beyond hell is their steely will to live. Survival often goes so far beyond the capacity of psychologists to explain it that there is simply nothing else left to say, and experts themselves can only standlike everyone elsein awe of the power of the human will. I have read hundreds of real-life survival stories and interviewed dozens of survivors since I began studying the subject over thirty years ago, and the resiliency, ingenuity, and toughness of these people still confounds and moves me. Sometimes survival is more poetry and mysticism than it is psychology and physiology. Les Stroud conveys this brilliantly, all while remaining true to the practical survivorman that he is.

The more I have studied survival, the more I have come to admire Les for his courage to do what precious few (including me) have ever willingly done: go to the edge of survival to see what he can learn and if he has what it takes, using himself as a guinea pig. Since he has been there and done it, Les Strouds credibility is peerless. Les has not only mastered the practical science of survival (as this book and his previous one, Survive! , show), he is also a master of the creative art. This book shows he is a master teacher as well, drawing lessons from peoples ordeals.

In this book, Les has chosen well from the vast array of survival literature. He recounts a range of stories, from the heroic to the foolhardy, the inspiring to the informative. Very few people set out on solitary ordeals. At most, they set out to have adventures or are on journeys of exploration when things go terribly wrong. Some are merely living their lives and stumble, or are wrenched, from everyday life into living hell. Les blends accounts of these ordeals with his observations, criticisms where appropriate, and recommendations, then inserts his signature lists of practical pointers and survival kits. He adds the counterpoint of some of his own experiences, which gives further perspective to the reader as well as the opportunity to reflect.

I applaud Les for including the stories of two of my own personal heroes, who are among the most inspirational survivors ever: Nando Parrado and Douglas Mawson. In the exclusive survival fraternity where so many merit the label hero, very few deserve it more than these men. Nando Parrados courageous journey (with fellow trekker and hero Roberto Canessa) out of the High Andes for the entirely selfless reason of rescuing their stranded, starving, and freezing friends is not only one of the greatest survival treks of all time, but also an act of epic humanity, ranking up there with Shackletons journey over violent Antarctic seas and then icy mountains to save his stranded men. Secondly, the survival story of Douglas Mawson, whose tale is told by Lennard Bickel in the very fittingly titled Mawsons Will (2000), is equally powerful. Mawsons long, cold slog out of the Antarctic while frozen, starving, and severely ill is surely one of mankinds greatest examples of surviving against all odds. If Parrado (or Canessa) is the essence of the selfless hero, then Mawson is the icon of the epic hero. Thank you, Les, for including these powerful stories.

Even though Les draws lessons from hardscrabble wilderness survival, it is clearwhether we realize it or notthat we read these accounts because, in the end, survival stories are about having what it takes to cope with life. Sure, Les gives us practical advice about making it in the real wilderness, but what we learn, too, are lessons about coping with the wilderness of Life: Plan ahead. Get your stuff together. Think things through before you act. If you get your *** in a crack, remember that you are tough, not fragile. Remember, too, that you are smart; be creativewhatever stuff you have you can use in a helpful way.

Les focuses on the pragmatics of surviving extreme ordeals, but he also captures the universal humanity of those who suffer. In doing so, he finds the poetry that causes our eyes to well up as we consider what others have endured... and somehow managed to overcome. Ultimately, we all have to find our own wayand what it takes to make it in the world. Survivors are pure inspiration, role models, examples to emulate. (If Parrado and Mawson can make it through life-and-death struggles, we should be downright embarrassed by the puny stuff we complain about.) Survivors are also reassuring figures in a world of uncertainty. And the Les Strouds of the world (there are too few of them) are our reassuring guides. They know what to do and how to do it, and they remind us that inside each of us is the hard-to-encompass, mysterious, and powerful will to live.

Richard D. Logan

RICHARD D. LOGAN is a psychologist with many years experience studying the psychology of solitary survival. He has written several articles on the topic, some of which focused on the ordeals of Charles Lindbergh, Sir Francis Chichester, and Admiral Richard Byrd. He also wrote the book Alone: A Study of Those Who Have Survived Long Solitary Ordeals (Stackpole, 1993), which used survivors first-person accounts to illustrate both the psychological effects of ordeals as well as the means of coping with them. More recently, he is the primary author of Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean (Titletown, 2010), the story of the four-day ordeal at sea and improbable survival of eleven-year-old Terry Jo Duperrault, who escaped the sinking yacht Bluebelle on which her family had been murdered.

As long as there is an adventurous spirit living in the hearts of everyday people...

As long the weather proves bigger than mans best-laid plans...

As long as there are people more interested in getting somewhere quickly than considering the journey...

And as long as our species defines itself by exploring the remote regions of the world...

There will be survival stories to tell.

Welcome to Will to Live, a collection of what I feel are some of the most compelling survival stories the world has ever known. These tales run the gamut from world-famous, well-funded extravaganzas to the rarely told (yet equally fascinating) narratives of quiet determination. Yet they share a common thread: every one of them has sent my mind soaring with thoughts of how I would fare under similar circumstances, when life and death hang in uncomfortable balance. I may have watched Tarzan on TV, but Douglas Mawson was real. I may have practiced my shelters in a survival class, but Yossi Ghinsberg did it for real.

Therein lies one of the greatest problems I and other survival instructors have always faced. We rarely get the opportunity to really do the one thing we are best at: getting caught and subsequently tested in a true survival situation. We know too much, prepare too well, rarely get lost. Yet beneath it all, our hidden desire, our secret guilty pleasure, is to one day put our skills to the test when life hangs in the balance.

So, over the years, through countless books and stories, I have filled my head with the experiences of others caught in surreal, sometimes horrific, and always life-altering situations. I did my best to put myself in their shoes. In my television series Survivorman, I stranded myself with minimal supplies and no camera crew (I shot all the footage myself) in some of the most remote regions on earth, usually for a period of seven days. Seven days alone to put my survival skills to the test... it was as close as I could get to the real thing. When I first started Survivorman, I expected I would acquire some new knowledge in the field. But I never imagined just how much I would learn. At each location, before setting out on my own I spent a week training with local survival experts. After several years, my expertise had grown substantially. No longer would I focus only on a microcosm of North America; the world became my survival arena.