I Have Had a Near Death Experience
*warning: Long story. I don't expect anyone to read all this I just wanted to write it out for the memories*
2 years ago during Christmas break, the day after a blizzard, it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside and 3 of my friends and I decided to go on an adventure at night. I was wearing just jeans, a sweatshirt, and sneakers. We drove out to a desert because my friend thought it would be a good idea to climb to the top of a mountain out there and lay down on blankets and stargaze because it was a clear night. We drove out in the desert around 10 pm in my friend's jeep following a couple tire tracks. The jeep sliding on the tracks which were actually made of ice and had little traction and we kept getting out of the car to push it off of patches that the tires were just spinning on. Eventually the jeep got completely stuck in snow (it was very deep on all sides of the path) and my friend decided it would be a good idea to just walk to the nearest mountain because we had already put in so much effort to make it there we had to just go all the way. By then my feet were already numb from going in the snow in my sneakers just to push the car but I agreed to go with everyone.
As we walked across the snow, at first the top layer was a frozen layer of ice that was strong enough to hold us up completely and with every step you just walked on top of the snow that was actually about 3+ ft deep. For a long time we walked on snow that was like that until all of a sudden it started breaking. With each step we took, our entire leg sunk all the way down through the snow. I remember at first it was so funny and we were all cracking up watching each other quickly sink into the snow with every step. After a while though it became exhausting and at the same time it was FREEZING because I was only wearing jeans and a sweatshirt so the jeans were completely soaked, shoes soaked, feet numb, hands numb, etc.
Shortly after we began sinking into the snow I started shaking, really hard, uncontrollably. After a little while more, my foot pain got so strong that I was crying, and I have a strong pain tolerance so that is very unusual for me. Through my tears I convinced them we should just go back because the hill was still very far and my feet felt like they were going to fall off and I couldn't bend them.
Only problem is we couldn't see the path we came from or see any sign of a direction we came from and none of us had phones. We were entirely lost and by that time it was 1 or 2 am. We started heading in the direction that we thought would bring us back the way we came but every direction looked the same.
On our way back my legs had gone numb, my leg muscles were frozen and I couldn't move them, I had to keep my hands in fists because they were numb, my face was frozen to the point that I couldn't talk because my mouth couldn't move to pronounce the words, I was slurring my speech, my nose that had been running froze onto my upper lip, and the snow STILL didn't have that frozen layer on the top to support our weight....... so we started crawling.
While crawling the pros were that you only sunk down a little bit ( so it was less tiring) but the cons were the fact that I had no gloves so I was using my fists to drag my frozen legs across the snow. My fists started bleeding, my knees started bleeding, I still couldn't move my feet at all or flex my leg muscles,
ANYWAY there were a few points during that were I thought about giving up, just laying down, I was tired, I figured I could just lay down and die and they'd find me in the morning after my friend's parents realized we had snuck out. I thought about which way to lay down so that when they found me they would know I was dead. THEN I realized how stupid it would be to survive all the craziness that is my life and all the hardships I had been through to freeze to death on a dumb little teenage adventure. I realized I couldn't die this way and I had to use everything I had to get out. I started dragging myself faster than everyone in my group. I stopped trying to pronounce words, stopped looking back at them, stopped helping carry stuff, I had a surge of energy that was like GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT and I thought to myself I should at least save myself first and then I can get them help.
I crawled faster than I thought I had energy for, still unable to think of anything else except making it out. Suddenly the land in front of me dropped own and I realized what was before me...... tire tracks. I screamed with my mouth sounding like it just got Novocaine injections all over it "GUYS I FOUND THE ROAD" I started sobbing with my stupid cracky voice. It was tears of joy though. I waited on the tracks for my friends to catch up but I still couldn't stand because my feet and legs were frozen stiff. I thawed out a little while waiting for them and it got to the point where I could stand and walk but I still couldn't properly bend or feel my feet at all. We followed the road until we got to her jeep and then we sat in the jeep and tried to talk about everything that just happened but our mouths were numb and we were almost delirious so we just sat there basically crying.
After a while my friend drove us to a 24 hour dunkin donuts that happened to have a fire place in it and I took my sneakers off and put my feet near the fire. The feeling of my feet and legs thawing was so painful, like an extreme burning feeling, so I was writhing around on the floor. It was embarrassing because the employees were looking at us like we were crazy. I also got a hot chocolate but my whole body was shaking still, so violently that every time I picked the cup up to sip it I shook it around everywhere and spilled it all over myself and the table, so I never really got a taste.
Then we went home and I had a very low body temperature so I changed my clothes and put on a lot of blankets and my whole body continued shaking hard for the rest of the night and for the next 12 hours with my leg and foot muscles cramping and uncramping
ANYWAY needless to say, I thought I was going to die and we very well could have in my opinion and I never want to do something like that again. It was one of the most idiotic things I've ever taken part in, in my life. It sure was an experience though.
2 years ago during Christmas break, the day after a blizzard, it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside and 3 of my friends and I decided to go on an adventure at night. I was wearing just jeans, a sweatshirt, and sneakers. We drove out to a desert because my friend thought it would be a good idea to climb to the top of a mountain out there and lay down on blankets and stargaze because it was a clear night. We drove out in the desert around 10 pm in my friend's jeep following a couple tire tracks. The jeep sliding on the tracks which were actually made of ice and had little traction and we kept getting out of the car to push it off of patches that the tires were just spinning on. Eventually the jeep got completely stuck in snow (it was very deep on all sides of the path) and my friend decided it would be a good idea to just walk to the nearest mountain because we had already put in so much effort to make it there we had to just go all the way. By then my feet were already numb from going in the snow in my sneakers just to push the car but I agreed to go with everyone.
As we walked across the snow, at first the top layer was a frozen layer of ice that was strong enough to hold us up completely and with every step you just walked on top of the snow that was actually about 3+ ft deep. For a long time we walked on snow that was like that until all of a sudden it started breaking. With each step we took, our entire leg sunk all the way down through the snow. I remember at first it was so funny and we were all cracking up watching each other quickly sink into the snow with every step. After a while though it became exhausting and at the same time it was FREEZING because I was only wearing jeans and a sweatshirt so the jeans were completely soaked, shoes soaked, feet numb, hands numb, etc.
Shortly after we began sinking into the snow I started shaking, really hard, uncontrollably. After a little while more, my foot pain got so strong that I was crying, and I have a strong pain tolerance so that is very unusual for me. Through my tears I convinced them we should just go back because the hill was still very far and my feet felt like they were going to fall off and I couldn't bend them.
Only problem is we couldn't see the path we came from or see any sign of a direction we came from and none of us had phones. We were entirely lost and by that time it was 1 or 2 am. We started heading in the direction that we thought would bring us back the way we came but every direction looked the same.
On our way back my legs had gone numb, my leg muscles were frozen and I couldn't move them, I had to keep my hands in fists because they were numb, my face was frozen to the point that I couldn't talk because my mouth couldn't move to pronounce the words, I was slurring my speech, my nose that had been running froze onto my upper lip, and the snow STILL didn't have that frozen layer on the top to support our weight....... so we started crawling.
While crawling the pros were that you only sunk down a little bit ( so it was less tiring) but the cons were the fact that I had no gloves so I was using my fists to drag my frozen legs across the snow. My fists started bleeding, my knees started bleeding, I still couldn't move my feet at all or flex my leg muscles,
ANYWAY there were a few points during that were I thought about giving up, just laying down, I was tired, I figured I could just lay down and die and they'd find me in the morning after my friend's parents realized we had snuck out. I thought about which way to lay down so that when they found me they would know I was dead. THEN I realized how stupid it would be to survive all the craziness that is my life and all the hardships I had been through to freeze to death on a dumb little teenage adventure. I realized I couldn't die this way and I had to use everything I had to get out. I started dragging myself faster than everyone in my group. I stopped trying to pronounce words, stopped looking back at them, stopped helping carry stuff, I had a surge of energy that was like GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT and I thought to myself I should at least save myself first and then I can get them help.
I crawled faster than I thought I had energy for, still unable to think of anything else except making it out. Suddenly the land in front of me dropped own and I realized what was before me...... tire tracks. I screamed with my mouth sounding like it just got Novocaine injections all over it "GUYS I FOUND THE ROAD" I started sobbing with my stupid cracky voice. It was tears of joy though. I waited on the tracks for my friends to catch up but I still couldn't stand because my feet and legs were frozen stiff. I thawed out a little while waiting for them and it got to the point where I could stand and walk but I still couldn't properly bend or feel my feet at all. We followed the road until we got to her jeep and then we sat in the jeep and tried to talk about everything that just happened but our mouths were numb and we were almost delirious so we just sat there basically crying.
After a while my friend drove us to a 24 hour dunkin donuts that happened to have a fire place in it and I took my sneakers off and put my feet near the fire. The feeling of my feet and legs thawing was so painful, like an extreme burning feeling, so I was writhing around on the floor. It was embarrassing because the employees were looking at us like we were crazy. I also got a hot chocolate but my whole body was shaking still, so violently that every time I picked the cup up to sip it I shook it around everywhere and spilled it all over myself and the table, so I never really got a taste.
Then we went home and I had a very low body temperature so I changed my clothes and put on a lot of blankets and my whole body continued shaking hard for the rest of the night and for the next 12 hours with my leg and foot muscles cramping and uncramping
ANYWAY needless to say, I thought I was going to die and we very well could have in my opinion and I never want to do something like that again. It was one of the most idiotic things I've ever taken part in, in my life. It sure was an experience though.
26-30, F
