Viewing 18 posts - 121 through 138 (of 138 total)
  • Ever felt truly scared for your life?
  • Northwind
    Full Member

    Nearly posted this before but namastebuzz’s post decided me…

    On the motorbike, approaching a right hander I knew well and would usually take fairly quickly… For whatever reason, no idea why, I kind of completely bottled the approach and ended up trundling round it slowly and way more central than usual- still fully in my lane but I came in to the apex instead of making the corner bigger. All fine, just a bit slow and generally noobish.

    A green and white ZX7R going the other way ran wide out of the corner, and passed me on my left, exactly where I’d have put the bike if I’d been on the better line. God knows how he got round the bend, I just pulled up at the side of the road, took my helmet off, and had a bit of a collapse, I almost didn’t get back on the bike.

    I think it wasn’t so much the near miss, it was the fact that the only thing that saved me from a pretty horrendous crash, was my mistake- it wasn’t skill or even luck. That’s not a good feeling. Way, way worse than any actual crash I ever had.

    rkk01
    Free Member

    Grizzly bear(s?) bumping the tent one dark night in the Yukon. So shit scared I would have voluntarily stopped breathing if I thought it would have made me quieter…

    namastebuzz
    Free Member

    Welcome Northwind.

    Well it was kinda lucky – you didn’t do that much wrong but your small mistake actually saved you. If you’d taken the corner perfectly you’d probably have had a nasty one. I wonder if the ZX7 guy learnt anything?

    Personally, I worked really hard on my riding after that. Doing track courses, Track days, IAM, European Superbike School, Training with Police Instructors, rode from Aberdeen to Kathmandu etc. Got to a standard where I was always well within my capabilities but still going reasonably quickly.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    namastebuzz – Member

    I wonder if the ZX7 guy learnt anything?

    How to clean poo stains out of leather, I think

    chiefgrooveguru
    Full Member

    It doesn’t sound terribly exciting but I’m sure the closest I’ve been to death was in the snow, on a Brompton, directly in front of a double decker bus. I was absolutely certain that if I didn’t keep the bike upright there was no way the bus was going to be able to stop in time. 16″ tyres at 100psi in a city not used to snow that’s just had rather a lot of it, are not a great combination…

    samunkim
    Free Member

    Loads but most recently saved by maths.

    Jumping up and down on a big rotten fallen tree (hypotenused across onto another tree) using the momentum of the bounce to break it in half. It finally snaps, but the higher half, scissors back on me so fast it actually brushed my fringe and nose as I jumped back.

    Sat down for a good 10mins before I stopped shaking.

    Didn’t even end up finish building that trail, as it turned really marshy further down the hill.

    TroutWrestler
    Free Member

    I’ve been pinned underwater, splatted across a submerged rock across my deck, unable to pull the deck, or escape. A desperate twisting sit up could get me close enough to the surface to inhale a mix of air and water, but it wasn’t sustainable, and despite desperate fighting I could get free. Very luckily someone saw me go under and was able to effect a swift rescue. This was on easy grade 2 water on the run out of the Spean Gorge.

    Also on the Spean, I swam on the Fersit Gorge on 6 pipes, after getting wrapped up with another boater. I got washed right to the actual lip of Inverlair Falls where I managed to get my feet on the bottom, braced simply leaning upstream into the current. My head was just clear of the water and I shouted very loudly and urgently for “HELP, NOW!”. I was binned a line which I grabbed and held on to for dear life. When I got out the river I could barely stand – my drysuit was full to the waist! Water, not excrement.

    I front flipped off the rock band halfway down Cosmiques Couloir on the Midi. Heel-out on sheet ice put me in a difficult situation where dropping the rocks was the only option. The flip wasn’t in the hastily drawn up plan, neither was the second flip on the landing bounce. My beanie hat came off in the drama, but I caught it before the bottom of the Couloir. All this sounds impressive, but I was massively out with my comfort zone or skill level and a non-negative outcome was pure luck.

    A few 100m from the summit of the Aigulle Verte, I was soloing the upper reaches of the Couturier Couloir when rocks started raining down. High speed, spinning, bouncing, slicing through the air like a Beckham free kick rocks. Dodging them was like a very intense game of space invaders. I leapt to the left to avoid a biggie, but it hit mw on the back of the right leg as I kicked off. Some very intense moments followed with worrying amounts of blood added to flying rocks and 50 degree ice. A number of hours later following an incredible helicopter rescue at 4000m the Doctor was convinced I had kick myself with my crampon, until he found a small piece of rock like a prehistoric arrowhead stuck in the bone in the back of my leg. Very lucky on many levels.

    In a William Nealy book I saw the assertion that it is better to be lucky than good. It is.

    Gutterball
    Free Member

    There’s a history of bowel cancer in my dad’s family. A few years ago, a Sunday morning trip to the loo turned nasty when I realised I had spattered the bowl crimson. I immediately foresaw my protracted and premature demise, and had the accompanying cold sweat and roaring of blood in my ears.

    Turns out, I had the hangover jobbies coupled with the effects of three roasted beetroot. Yep, that was a wild night…

    Not my proudest moment.

    McHamish
    Free Member

    I suppose I’ve had a few.

    The closest was when I was about 19 and bought a second hand car. Driving it to work the following day it felt ‘bouncy’…then it started fish tailing on a straight road and I touched the brakes. Then it swerved for the side, bounced off a tree and went down a 10ft bank into a field. It flipped twice length way and rolled a couple of times (as described by a witness).

    The door wouldn’t open and my foot was stuck behind the pedal. I managed to yank my foot out, and ended up climbing out the windscreen that was fortunately gone. Had a fight with the wipers as they were on full.

    I was stood on the bonnet and noticed flames coming out from under it. I went to jump off and put my hand on the a pillar and my arm bent in the middle as I had broken it…that was my only injury.

    The car was in flames a few minutes later.

    I saw the car a few days later at the garage who collected it from the field…it was a burnt out crumpled wreck.

    Blimey…I haven’t thought about that for a while…writing it down and explaining it makes me realise I was very lucky.

    andy8442
    Free Member

    During the war a couple of us chaps had a dash close call with Jerry one night……………

    No …. Sorry.

    Fell on my arse skiing once. Bloody hurt!

    seadog101
    Full Member

    When I was about 14 I was doing a BMC rock climbing course.

    I was doing a technical, but not high climb up to an overhang about 60ft up, learning how to use pitons and ladders. The climb was slow and knackering and I was belayed from the bottom. After I got over the top it was a scramble up a slope about 45°, the guy who was belaying me couldn’t see me at this point.

    At the top of the slope I pulled on a tree root to clamber onto the flat. It broke off in my hand, I fell backwards and back over the overhang. Stopped about 10ft from the ground. I should have filled my pants, but was so knackered I didn’t realise what had happened until about a minute later.

    leftyboy
    Free Member

    At aged 29 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer, had the op and the usual treatments and all seemed OK. By 7 months in I’d had 7 lots of surgery due to cascading complications and lost around 4 stone in weight.

    I was lying in a hospital bed feeling really unwell and overheard the consultant telling the more junior doctors that I had liver and kidney failure and he had know idea why! He also said he thought I had about a week or so if they couldn’t get my liver to function!

    Eventually the junior registrar worked out that I’d been abroad about 3 months before I was diagnosed and that I had a fairly rare but aggressive bug, the correct antibiotics and fluid regime allowed me to recover although it was another 4 months before I was able to ride a bike!

    eskay
    Full Member

    I was rushed into hospital a couple of years ago after collapsing with a suspected heart attack. Angiogram revealed that my heart was not working properly, was transferred to coronary intensive care. During the night my neck started swelling and was told I had suspected necrotising fasciitis (flesh eating bug) in my neck. Prognosis was just a few hours!

    Queue visits from an array of specialists, people taking photos, drawing all over me, 5 antibiotics set-up. Luckily it turned out to be a septic infection that attacked virtually every organ in my body instead!

    Lived to tell the tale but can remember looking out of a window thinking I would never feel the wind on my face again.

    LimboJimbo
    Full Member

    A couple of years ago I went out for Sunday morning road ride. It was February and it had been raining heavily overnight which, combined with a very bright, but low sun, meant forgetting my sun glasses was definitely a bad idea. I was pressing on down a narrow lane I’d ridden dozens of times before and I must have zoned out as well as having my head down to avoid the sun in my eyes. Suddenly I heard a distant lorry but couldn’t place where it was coming from until I suddenly realised where I was. I slammed on the anchors, locking both wheels, coming up just short of the crossroads where the narrow lane crosses a busy A road just in time to see the aforementioned lorry thunder past my face at 50 mph.

    freeagent
    Free Member

    Having read most of the above my story is pretty tame..

    2001, I drove in a rally from London to Sarajevo.
    We stopped for a night in Northern Bosnia, and camped inside the confines/safety of a NATO base.
    We were told by the squaddies not to go out into the local town – it was a no-go area controlled by local gangs.
    If we really had to go out, keep a very low profile and be back before dark.

    Obviously we ignored this advice and a group of about 6 of us sat outside a bar in the town square drinking beers into the evening.
    As dusk fell the place emptied, and we were the only people left at the bar.
    The barman then got a phone call – he looked very worried then disappeared, not to be seen again.
    At this point we noticed a car driving very slowly past the bar for the 3rd of 4th time, with 2-3 tough looking guys staring straight at us.
    One of my companions turned to me ands said ‘do you get the feeling we’re about to be victims of a drive-by’
    We were absolutely terrified – especially as we’d been warned by a bunch of British Army soldiers not to go out.
    As the car turned the corner, and was briefly out of sight we legged it back toward the base, I’ve never run so fast, or been so scarred in all my life.

    However a couple of days later we proved that we’d not learned anything from this experience as we asked a cab driver in Sarajevo to take us to a ‘good’ strip club.
    We ended up in a club under a motorway flyover with doormen packing machine guns.
    Again – pretty scary but not a patch on the evening a few days earlier.

    (Note – at the time we travelled – Sarajevo was classified by the UN as the 4th most dangerous place on earth)

    Tom_W1987
    Free Member

    Never been scared during an actual event, I tend to stay completely calm, afterwards I might get the shakes – but you have to push it to the back of your mind, no point in dwelling on the fact that you might’ve died. You didn’t, life goes on and if you had, well you’d know nothing about it now. Loosing your head during the middle of the situation just makes it worse, the trick is to distract yourself with small immediate goals, don’t give yourself time to panic.

    Thinking about dying is one of the few things that is best bottled away in the deepest recesses of your mind, otherwise you forget to enjoy life.

    DJTC
    Free Member

    Surprised at the lack of snow based terror. the only time iv ever truly thought that it was the end was feb this year. had been skiing the best powder day of my life in austria where i work as a ski tech. way off in the back country, good times.

    Back in the resort in the afternoon the temperature had risen. traversing along the top of a gully full of wind blown snow. before i even know whats happening the whole slab had broken off and i was cartwheeling down what i can only describe as very heavy polystyrene balls. the feeling of helplessness will stick with me forever, your just in for the ride at that stage. it still gives me chills.

    Anyway it all stops moving and im buried, not sure how deep at the time but i couldnt move. its very quiet down there. i just had to lay there hoping that my mates would find me in time. thank the heavens above i and my mates were wearing pieps and they knew there stuff. had me out after a few of the longest minutes of my whole life. i still love to ski but it has totally destroyed my nerve off piste and i just dont see it as worth the, lets face it, very high risk. the next day two highly experienced ski guides died in the same resort in separate avalanches. be safe out there and always take your transceivers, probes and shovels.

    greatbeardedone
    Free Member

    At 21, I had never been on a roller coaster.

    So, after walking a fair few miles to Alton towers, I hopped aboard one which started to accelerate backwards.
    There was a loud rumble from the rails as it got up to speed and then the rumbling stopped!
    With the sudden lack of vibration, I figured that the carriages had gone right off the rails and i braced myself to land heavily from 200 feet up.

    And then it started to go back down. along with rumbling sensations, through the loop and up again.

    Bit pathetic, but I was on all fours as I got out the carriage!

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