[Closed] Ever felt truly scared for your life?

The Champery WC track (the one danny hart destroyed in the wet)

Terrifying

I'm not sure exactly how close to death I was (I'm sure there are statistics for it) but I did a parachute jump a few years ago when it was considered ok to jump out of a plane at 2000 feet. We were told (not sure how true) that from that height we would hit the ground in about 10 seconds. After exiting the plane, we had to count to 3 then check the chute, then in the remaining 7 seconds, work out what was wrong, decide to pull the reserve, and hope it deployed.
I guess I was young and didn't look at the risks but I wouldn't do it again (I'm not sure if this is still an option for a first jump.)

I was sailing when about 15 in a 29'er dinghy. We were doing something as in the picture when we catapulted forwards. A sailing OTB. I was caught in ropes about 2m underwater and my lifejacket was making it impossible to free myself.

This knife saved my life. I was half way through the side of the jacket and about to pass out when someone from a safety boat dived down and finished the job. I had time to think 'this is it - and I'm still a virgin!'

Always kept my sailing knife razor-sharp after that.

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I'm trying to pluck up the courage to tell MrsMC I'm about to buy a new bike.

If someone could keep an eye on my posting history, and contact the Police if I'm not back on here by Wednesday. Ta.

Come on MoreCash, it's not worth dying for! Ditch the wife and buy the bike risk free 😉

Several times in the hills, all my own bloody fault. Abbed off Jammed Boulder Gully in Llanberis pass. Looked won to see that the double rope that should have been Italian hitched through the harness Krab was now just a single strand clipped in once. Dimwit twist lock krab. Managed to shove the axe in and take enough weight to get a prussick on.
"Swimming" in the waterfalls above Llanberis. Going under a submerged boulder was always fun but once I got snagged and couldn't move either way. Was just about sucking water when I was dragged out.
Both axes pulled when seconding the last pitch of Moonlight Flit in the Rivals. I knew there was only my mate with his feet down the proverbial rabbit holes for a belay. Dunno how I didn't lose my balance. Apparently he didn't even know I was off.

I seem to remember that the last was the most scary, perhaps because it was potential death rather than approaching.

Pulmonary edema at 6000 meters in Argentina... It was so bad that I was air lifted off the mountain... I'd been through all the stages and was "happily" coughing up blood when the helicopter arrived....

[quote=Spin ]Some of these stories are situations where the writers life was genuinely at risk. Others are times when they got scared and convinced themselves (often retrospectively) that their life was at risk. It's easy to confuse the two.

well, seeing as the stories were it didn't work out aren't here to tell the tale we are getting a biased view...

Some of these stories are situations where the writers life was genuinely at risk. Others are times when they got scared and convinced themselves (often retrospectively) that their life was at risk. It's easy to confuse the two.

By the same token, every time you get in your car or on your bike and go to the shops, you're potentially only seconds and a change in circumstances away from death. That lorry I overtook on the M25 earlier *could* have pulled out on me and squashed me into the barriers but it didn't.

All perception isn't it, but getting in your car is probably the most dangerous thing most of us will ever do, at least statistically.

Another water one for me, canoeing on the Wharfe in March as a kid.
Ended up in the water, wasn't too bothered so tried to swim for the edge but lost all ability to move as the water was so cold.

Luckily had a life jacket and but even then it was deep and fast moving with odd under currents, so had a worried moment. I'm nervous around water now - cold rivers are a million miles from swimming in nice warm pools.

Also driven in Bradford - the land the DVLA forgot.

Hitting a crashed car on an alpine descent.

Thought i was going to die when i saw it (doing 90 ish kph) slowed enough so i thought it was just going to hurt a lot (maybe 50kph?). Didn't notice the drop until after i'd hit the car, gone over the bonnet, dropped into the gravel on the outside of the bend and slid to a halt. Next to the 200 plus meter cliff face. Pretty much had one leg hanging over the edge. Shit me up a bit.

The next group on the road (maybe 2 minutes behind) got a warning and slowly filtered passed the crashed car. While i inspected for more damage and rinsed gravel out of my arse cheeks. And waited for a new bike (front wheel was next to the seat tube.) Bloke who'd crashed had half a dozen bikes on the roof, and he wouldn't let me take one 😉

getting in your car is probably the most dangerous thing most of us will ever do,

I've mates who'd agree with that statement. I recon it's because they don't want to be seen in my Berlingo.

I once had to travel up to Fort William very early on a cold and frosty January morning to do an insurance survey and was "making progress" along the long, straight deserted stretch of the A82 through Rannoch Moor.

Without warning, a deer broke cover from a stand of scrubby trees at the right hand side of the road and decided to bolt across the road in front of me.
Not a ickle Bambi one either. A great, big, jaggy, size of a horse one.

In what was likely half a second, but felt like minutes the folowing thoughts flashed through my head.

I'm definitely gonna hit that.
If I hit that, i'm gonna die
I'm driving way too fast for the conditions.
If I try to steer round that, I'm gonna crash and then die.
If i touch the brakes, I'm gonna skid, crash and then die.
Basically, I'm about to die.

The stag shot across the road right in front of me and I clipped it's rump with my passenger side wing mirror. At 85 mph.

My worst was somebody popping their shoulder on the pinnacles of the Aonach Eagach. With just a couple of slings and a 10m cut of rope I had to get the three inexperienced folk I was with to downclimb one of the pinnacles. Now; I used to climb a fair bit, but was 100% terrified.Summer or not, my bottle was going at lowering them down a grassy, wet, horribly steep chute. Then I had to get down after they had ripped up the tussocks out and loosened the rocks. I didn't dare turn in and at one point had to drop/slide a metre and grab a hold as I went with the hope that it would take my weight. I went back a week past Sat for the first time in 15 years and was terrified as I got to the same point. I have never had any bother with vertigo or exposure, but was sweating and shaking as we got to the same point. It was the second last pinnacle for anybody who has been up there.

I once had to travel up to Fort William very early on a cold and frosty January morning to do an insurance survey and was "making progress" along the long, straight deserted stretch of the A82 through Rannoch Moor.

A82 also nearly did me in. Early morning in winter heading to glencoe. Felt the car twitch a bit. Thought it was weird. 2 seconds later I'm suddenly spinning. Must have done at least 5 full rotations before coming to a stop without hitting anything. Quickly jumped out the car and found I was unable to even stand on the road. Sheet black ice. worst I've ever encountered. got the car into the nearest layby and had a bit of a cry!

The most scared I've ever been has overdosing on cocaine. I knew with absolute certainty that I was going to die and it was not a pleasant experience. After a while the feeling subsided and I celebrated by taking an E. God I was a ****.

Other than that I've woken up strapped to a spinal board to be told not to worry, the helicopter is on it's way followed by the question "can you feel your legs?" Those are a couple of scary things to hear but I was too confused to be really scared - and I did ask if my bike was OK!

About a minute after I took this:

[url= https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8459/29390579281_99db8e0c2e_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8459/29390579281_99db8e0c2e_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/LM9pgx ]2016-09-05_10-23-37[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/tootallpaul/ ]Paul Stanley[/url], on Flickr

Hogmanay in Edinburgh before they ticketted Princess Street. In a crush / surge at the bottom of Fredrick Street, legs went one way, top half went the other way. Ended up on the ground with the crownd surging over the top. Utterly helpless, unterly terrifying.

Pinned in my whitewater boat. Even writing that made me sweat !

[i]Another[/i] water / surfing one...

Surfed Boilers (a rocky reef / slab ) in Morocco on a rising swell. You paddle out through a deep water channel in the rocks and back in the same way. The shore is sharp, jagged rocks and you can't just catch a wave back to the beach - especially when the surf is big. The swell built really quickly and went from fun 4-5' to 3-4x overhead within minutes of getting to the line up. I only caught one wave in 2 hours but it was an absolute screamer, fastest I've ever been on a surfboard and rode it miles down the point.

But as I paddled back up to the take off spot this horrible wind picked up and I kept getting blown / washed back down the point. Everyone else was back on dry land and only me an a couple of Spanish guys still in the water - all struggling to paddle back in. I eventually got back up the point far enough to go for the exit channel, but 3 times got swept past it and into the impact zone. Eventually, on the 4th try I made the gap and paddled in through the channel, which was now a cauldron of boiling whitewater, and nowt like the calm, dry-hair paddle it had been earlier. I looked a bit pale that day apparently!

Almost forgot crashing on the Hahnekamm having sneaked on two days after the DH race (skiing not MTB) - it took a long time to hit the netting, or at least seemed to!!

A great, big, jaggy, size of a horse one.

Kayaking for me. Last fall on Dalness falls on the drive back in the days when we all paddled play boats whatever. It's a double drop with a rock ledge protruding from river left at the base just under the water and a big undercut on the wall on river right.

I dropped off the ledge in a good position but the boil surged and pushed me left and sucked the back of my boat down. I put the boat on edge and pumped to get it level but was too close to the edge and ended up cartwheeling over the lip of the 2nd drop. Missed the rocks at the edge by inches, was well out of shape so my roll took too long and came up with my back rubbing the edge of the undercut and my boat being sucked down. When I was able to get out I had to get my mates to carry my boat up as I couldn't walk because my legs were shaking too much.

Tootallpaul tell us the rest of the story 🙂

The only one I have that comes to mind is when I rounded a blind corner on some trail in Canada and startled a bear a few metres away. It just looked at me for a while before walking off into the woods.

I've been in quite a bad car crash where I probably should have been worried I was going to die but wasn't 😕

So the time I put a 2.1 maxxis advantage on the front of my xc race bike a few years ago probably ranks as the only time I've actually feared for my life 😆

Grade 5 white water rafting....

Scariest thing ever..

Ok if you stay in - shite if you end up swimming!

Walking through a gorge in Romania. Tree falls off the cliffs above and tumbles into the gorge. Big tree - trunk as wide as me, no idea what it weighed, more than I did that's for sure and it had about 30 meters of vertical drop to gather some force.

There were four of us walking together somehow the tree managed to miss us all.. I got away with a couple of cuts from flying splinters, the wife ended up with a skint knee from the tree just missing her legs on the way down!. Mother in law not so lucky she must have dived out of the way - suffered a broken collarbone and had to be stretchered back down the trails as there were several ladders we'd negotiated to get into the gorge.

Didn't think I was going to die at the time but reflecting on it later that's definitely the closest I've came to something killing me.

@dashed -another apt username and that sounds like a proper one!

and yet, and yet, surfing's actually a very safe sport in actuarial terms, which is why it tends to be covered by regular holiday insurance, unlike mtb and very much unlike climbing. Whilst on the one hand it's the more serious surfers (inc. me: shite but committed) who find themselves in situations like that bunkers one, it's the folk who try surfing on holiday who are more likely to actually drown.

In contrast I recon that most vaguely into it climbers will know someone who's been killed doing it, or have witnessed life threatening accidents if not actual deaths. I've seen one lad hit the deck hard, at my local crag, lucky to get away with it, breaking many bones and taking more than a year to rehab. Distressing. (The only death I've seen was a heart attack which I guess doesn't count.)

Actually though, that said I know one guy (vv good surfer) broke his pelvis surfing my local (to our weekend place, shoot me, this is stw after all) on an okay head highish day. In fact my only surfing injuries have been on small days - nutted reef at pease, cuts and knocks from board etc. Most recently dislocating my little toe knocked off balance by a tiny wave getting out from the reef where the guy broke his pelvis.

Hurt like absolute ****ity ****ing ****, but trust me, you get zero respect for dislocating a little toe.

anyway, has tootallpall posted his story yet?

I did a parachute jump a few years ago when it was considered ok to jump out of a plane at 2000 feet. We were told (not sure how true) that from that height we would hit the ground in about 10 seconds.

Used to be 2,200ft on round chutes when I did it. By my back-of-an-envelope maths that's probably about 16s freefall. You'd be doing about 120mph by that point, mind.

With squares, static line jumps started at 3,200ft. So that'd give you another five or six seconds to ensure your bowels are fully emptied.

Never panicked or went into shock at all, it just felt like going to sleep. Really weird feeling, if that's what dying feels like I don't fear it.

My niece described her near* drowning experience as going to sleep with her eyes open

* first adult on scene knew to keep doing cpr despite no signs of life & paramedic knew that local hospital weren't well enough equipped so drove straight to nearest major hospital instead.

The message I'm getting from these is to stay out of the water.

That whitewater rafting vid isn't exactly selling it to me!

Riding home from the girlfriends late at night, had just been through a set of lights as they changed to amber and accelerated onto the dual carriageway section in the outside lane, doing 60-70 by now and a car pulls out of a closed unlit petrol station heading for the gap in the central reservation to go in the opposite direction. Big handful of front brake and the wheel locks up (early Dumlopad sintered pads - a bit grabby!), in that split second I thought I'd rather go straight into him than underneath him so let go of the brake and braced myself. Remember seeing the sodium lights going round and round until I landed in the road some distance up the dual carriageway.
Once I realised I was still alive I managed to stagger back to the carnage and then someone took me into their house to wait for the ambulance who, when they came, thought I had 2 broken arms. It turned out I had nothing more seriuos than two very sore wrists from where I had broken off the mirrors pivoting round the bars and fluid on the hip for months afterwards as that was the bit I initially landed on.
Worst thing about it was seeing my parents faces as they walked into whatever bit of the hospital I was in. I guess I must have asked the person who took me into their house to phone my parents and when they arrived at the accident scene I had already been taken away in the ambulance. Upon asking one of the Policemen how I was they had been told 'no idea but probably dead by the look of that motorbike'!
The handlebars were still straight ahead but the front wheel had been turned the best part of 90 degrees and smashed into the engine. The car and bike were a write-off, even the back mudguard had folded up from trying to resist the weight of the back light during the deceleration.
I still ride motorcycles 30-odd years later!

2 for me, both water related...

Canoeing, on the River Severn in Worcester, at school at 15. The river was 'high' but deemed safe to go out. I'd canoed loads of times so, as there was only the instructors racing canoe left, I ended up in that one. Light, fast but not too stable. Was doing OK but then got dragged towards a steel barge the council used to clear the banks. Front went under and as it did I managed to get my arm over a low safety rail. The canoe was pulled off me by the current and ended up , under the barge upside down, just spinning around. I'd have been a goner if I hadn't grabbed the rail..

Jumping into Gullet Quarry on the Malverns at about 17. There was a small ledge where you could scramble down to do a standing jump, quite safely. No, not me...I'm gonna take a running (2 or 3 steps) jump off the ledge higher up where you needed to clear about 8ft of rock to be safe. 3rd step, slipped on the gravel but somehow had enough speed to clear the rocks. I can still hear the silence from the gathered crowds on the banks...(who tended to get a bit vocal when there were jumpers up there). I thought I was a goner then too..

Like the OP, been held down and caught in rips a few times while surfing. Tough trying to calm down while tumbling on a salty spin cycle and simultaneously figuring out which way is up.

Also walked out of this.

[url= https://c7.staticflickr.com/5/4101/4776904670_87073788cf_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://c7.staticflickr.com/5/4101/4776904670_87073788cf_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/8h7Tkm ]Bye bye Focus[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimpmasterjazz/ ]Neil Cain[/url], on Flickr

I thought I had actually died and passed on to the other side on a 'gas and air' trip. I was pretty angry until I realised that the doctor setting my ankle wasn't in fact Jesus or St Peter.

Pimpmaster Jazz - Member

Like the OP, been held down and caught in rips a few times while surfing. Tough trying to calm down while tumbling on a salty spin cycle and simultaneously figuring out which way is up.

Also walked out of this.

That whitewater rafting vid isn't exactly selling it to me!

It's a bloody good adrenaline rush/bowel opener (see my post on page 1, also with shearwater). Despite my near brush with drowning i did the same run a few months later - and i can't even swim.

As a fairly novice biker riding a bike far too quick for my own minimal abilities and attempting (unwisely) to catch up with some more skilled, quicker riders in the South of France.

Ran wide on a right hand curve at 120mph whilst overtaking a Peugeot 406 and drifted across the centre-line to be greeted by a white Renault Master van coming the other way.

My only thought was "If I even touch this van - I'm dead - so I need to turn the bike.". Fortunately I had just enough knowledge to counter-steer as hard as possible and I'm still here 15yrs later. Actually had it on an on board cam but it gave me the creeps looking at it.

Dodgy moment in the Italian Alps when I skied off a cliff in a total white-out but landed in a huge snowdrift at the bottom.

Several other what-if moments over the years but maybe training as a pilot at an early age taught me to rationalise things and calmly look for solutions whilst ignoring the imminent threat?

Ran wide on a right hand curve at 120mph whilst overtaking a Peugeot 406 and drifted across the centre-line to be greeted by a white Renault Master van coming the other way.

I once had one of those, me in the car and an oncoming biker coming far far too fast and completely overcooking the bend. I thought, there's no way out of this, and I don't want to watch someone die, so I actually closed my eyes.(*)

Then I heard him whizz by. He'd avoided an almost surely fatal head-on crash by straightening up and going so far across the wrong side of the road that he passed me on my nearside, between the passenger door and the kerb.

Maybe we need a "ever felt truly scared that you were going to kill someone else" thread? (-:

(* - in my defence, I'd only recently passed my test.)

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, [i]exactly[/i] 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.

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...

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.

namastebuzz - Member

I wonder if the ZX7 guy learnt anything?

How to clean poo stains out of leather, I think

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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!