The Crux True Survival Stories

On February 17, 2024, five experienced cyclists set out on a familiar gravel-bike route through Washington's Cascade foothills. Nineteen miles into their ride, two cougars appeared on the trail. Seconds later, 60-year-old Keri Bergere was on the ground with a cougar's jaws clamped around her face.Her four friends rushed toward the attack. Armed with little more than rocks, sticks, and the equipment they carried on their bicycles, they faced a predator that refused to let go. With unreliable cell service and another cougar somewhere in the surrounding forest, the women were running out of options.In this episode of The Crux: True Survival Stories, Kaycee and Julie reconstruct the terrifying encounter, examine the medical dangers of a cougar attack, and explore the survival decisions that followed.A true story of wilderness survival, extraordinary friendship, and a fight that lasted far longer than anyone could have imagined.Episode Chapters 00:00– Introduction00:28 – A Cougar Encounter in Washington01:54 – Meet the Five Cyclists03:23 – The Magic Carpet Gravel Route05:30 – Two Cougars Appear06:16 – The Fight to Save Keri11:19 – The Medical Dangers of a Cougar Attack13:35 – A Multitool and a Chance to Escape16:00 – Trapping the Cougar With a Bicycle19:12 – Calling 911 and Finding GPS Coordinates21:57 – Wildlife Officer Arrives24:07 – Keri's Injuries and Recovery26:17 – Why Did the Cougar Attack?27:36 – Cougar Safety and the Fatal 2018 Attack32:00 – Life After the Attack35:29 – Survival Lessons and ClosingDan Becker Podcast. (2025, December 9). The BRUTAL Cougar Attack That Lasted 55 Minutes. Interview with Keri Bergere and fellow survivors.Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qYp058PJe8UxMIK83wTf7Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-brutal-cougar-attack-that-lasted-55-minutes/id1867315096?i=1000744190052REFERENCES & FURTHER LISTENINGWashington Department of Fish and Wildlife. (2024). WDFW Statement on Cougar Incident in King County.https://wdfw.wa.gov/newsroom/wdfw-statement/wdfw-statement-cougar-incident-king-countyCarnegie Hero Fund Commission. (2024). 18 Will Receive Carnegie Medal for Extraordinary Acts of Heroism.https://www.carnegiehero.org/awardee_pr/18-will-receive-carnegie-medal-for-extraordinary-acts-of-heroism/Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. (2024). Carnegie Medal Presentation to Annie Bilotta, Tisch Schmidt-Williams, Aune Tietz, and Erica Wolf.https://www.carnegiehero.org/carnegie-medal-presentation-to-annie-bilotta-tisch-schmidt-williams-aune-tietz-and-erica-wolf/King, A., & Newcomb, N. A. (2024). A Cougar Attacked Them. They Fought Back for 45 Harrowing Minutes. KUOW.https://thankyou.kuow.org/stories/cougar-attack-washington-state-cyclistsThe Seattle Times. (2024). What Life Has Been Like for the 5 WA Cyclists Who Survived a Cougar Attack.https://replica.seattletimes.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?appcode=SEATTL&artguid=fc562bab-2913-4872-aecc-4e00f32a1b88&eguid=898dacfc-ca94-4db7-9458-9e581ee289e2&pnum=138The Guardian. (2024). Women Rescue Friend Being Mauled by Cougar in Washington State.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/18/washington-state-cougar-attackWroe, S., McHenry, C., & Thomason, J. (2005). Bite Club: Comparative Bite Force in Big Biting Mammals and the Prediction of Predatory Behaviour in Fossil Taxa. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 272(1563), 619–625.https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.2986Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-crux-true-survival-stories--7265181/support.Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcastEmail us! [email protected] https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/Get schooled by Julie in wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/This episode includes AI-generated content.

Philip Kreycik was 37, a Harvard graduate, an ultramarathoner, and an experienced outdoorsman. On July 10, 2021, he left for a training run at Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park in California, telling his wife he'd be back in an hour. He never returned. The search that followed became one of the West Coast's largest rescue operations, involving nearly 300 volunteers, multiple agencies, helicopters, and thermal imaging. But GPS data from his smartwatch revealed something investigators initially missed: he likely died within 75 minutes of going missing, before rescue teams could even fully mobilize. Julie and Kaycee walk through the timeline, the medical reality of heat illness, and the margins of error that collapse faster than experience can account for.Timestamps: 00:00 Welcome to Disaster Strikes00:42 Heatwave Run Begins02:26 Who Was Philip Kreycik03:35 GPS Shows Trouble05:25 Wrong Turn Off Trail06:17 Heat Illness Explained09:06 Minutes to Heatstroke10:56 Smartwatch Timeline13:06 Massive Search Effort15:14 Found After Four Weeks17:13 Family Reflections17:51 Lessons and Takeaways18:57 Why Heat Sneaks Up20:48 Closing and TributeKEY REFERENCESPleasanton Police Department Missing Person Investigation Files (2021)Alameda County Sheriff's Office Autopsy and Investigation Report (2021)Dapcevich, Madison. "The Fastest Heat Death: Investigation into Philip Kreycik's Disappearance," Outside Online (2021)Silacci, Erik. Official Statement and Timeline Analysis, Pleasanton Police Department (2021)"Philip Kreycik '06, Who Died at 37 After Going Missing on Run," The Harvard Crimson (August 2021)Kelly, Ray. Investigation Summary, Alameda County Sheriff's Department (2021)Pleasanton Weekly: "Authorities: Philip Kreycik Likely Died Before Search Even Got Off the Ground" (2021)NBC News Dateline: "Family Holding Hope of Finding Philip Kreycik" (August 2021)ABC News: "California Dad Found Dead Weeks After Vanishing on Run" (August 2021)First-Year Outdoors Program, Harvard University — Remembrance Documentation (2021)Yao, Jen. Family Press Conference Statement (August 2021)East Bay Regional Park District — Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park Records (2021)Smartwatch GPS Data Analysis — Alameda County Investigation (2021)Search and Rescue Volunteer Accounts — San Francisco Bay Area News Archives (2021)Heat-Related Illness Medical Analysis — Emergency Medicine Literature (2021)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-crux-true-survival-stories--7265181/support.Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcastEmail us! [email protected] https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/Get schooled by Julie in wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/This episode includes AI-generated content.

A 15-year-old hiker set out on an ambitious three-day backpacking trip through Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, planning to summit four 14ers. He successfully climbed Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak. Then his route took him into terrain he apparently did not realize was a technical mountaineering route.Halfway down the steep, snow-covered Outward Bound Couloir, his backpack began sliding away. He went after it—and fell roughly 200 feet.In this episode of The Crux: True Survival Stories, Kaycee and Julie retrace what brought the teenager into the couloir, the limitations of relying on Google Maps in the backcountry, and the search-and-rescue operation that followed. It’s a story about route finding, steep-snow travel, a split-second decision, and what happens when an ambitious wilderness trip suddenly becomes a survival situation.Timestamps00:00 — A Teenager, a 14er and a Snow Couloir.00:27 — Trouble in the Outward Bound Couloir02:47 — The 15-Year-Old Behind the Rescue05:21 — Climbing Toward Challenger Point09:10 — Route Finding on Kit Carson Peak11:44 — Crossing the Mountains Without a Trail13:39 — When Google Maps Meets the Backcountry15:01 — Inside the Outward Bound Couloir18:03 — The Backpack Slides—and He Goes After It22:16 — Injured at 13,000 Feet: Calling 91123:22 — Search and Rescue Heads Into the Mountains26:00 — The 200-Foot Technical Lower28:02 — What He Did Right—and What We Can Learn34:35 — Closing ThoughtsPrimary incident reportingAlamosa News — “Alamosa SAR aid in rescue of teen” — July 29, 2026. Reports the July 20 rescue, the 15-year-old hiker, approximately 200-foot slide, injuries, transfer of incident command to Alamosa Volunteer Search and Rescue, and helicopter/SAR response. Alamosa News reportOutThere Colorado / Denver Gazette — “Teen slides 200 feet down couloir snowfield while attempting to retrieve dropped gear” — July 27, 2026. Covers the three-day backpacking trip, dropped backpack, Outward Bound Couloir location and rescue. OutThere Colorado reportRoute / mountain references14ers.com — Kit Carson Peak: Outward Bound Couloir — Detailed route description and technical information for the snow-only Class 3 route, including approach and terrain. Outward Bound Couloir route description14ers.com — Kit Carson Peak via Challenger Point — Standard-route information, including Kit Carson Avenue, elevation, route-finding difficulty and the approach from Challenger Point. Kit Carson via Challenger Point14ers.com — Kit Carson Peak Conditions — July 2026 condition reporting for the standard route, useful for contemporaneous mountain conditions around the time of the incident. Kit Carson Peak condition reportsColorado Mountain Club — Kit Carson Peak and Challenger Point — Route overview for Kit Carson, Challenger Point and the Outward Bound Couloir in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. Colorado Mountain Club route informationBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-crux-true-survival-stories--7265181/support.Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcastEmail us! [email protected] https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/Get schooled by Julie in wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/This episode includes AI-generated content.

When tourists found an abandoned bicycle on a remote track in Australia's Great Sandy Desert, it triggered one of the strangest missing person searches in outback history — police, aircraft, and Aboriginal trackers combing the Kimberley for a man who had vanished without telling anyone where he was going. Twelve days in, the search was called off and his family was told he was almost certainly dead, so they hired a private American wilderness rescue team led by a man who insisted on being called Gunslinger. What none of them knew was that he had walked into the desert deliberately, on a spiritual quest, and had no idea anyone was searching for him at all. Forty-three days of starvation, dehydration and roughly 250 miles on foot later, a helicopter found him alive — and set off a fight that reached the Premier of Western Australia, while the man who led the rescue turned out to have invented his entire past. Twenty-five years on, one of the trackers who searched for him asked him for a single word, and what he said instead is still an uncomfortable part of this story.Timestamps: 00:00 Podcast Intro Setup00:30 Mud Water In The Desert02:22 Abandoned Bike Mystery03:18 No One Knew The Plan06:36 Spiritual Quest Revealed07:34 Search Begins With Trackers09:27 Media Frenzy And Survival Math10:28 Search Called Off Parents React11:57 Gunslinger Arrives Private Team15:06 Fresh Tracks And Desert Ordeal18:52 Help Sign And Found Alive21:49 News Crew Rescue Controversy25:10 Hospital Risks Refeeding27:22 Costs Rumors And Apology30:04 Gunslinger Exposed As Fraud33:27 The Tracker Story And Apology35:26 Final Reflections And OutroREFERENCESParke, Erin. Expanse: Nowhere Man. ABC listen, 2025.Parke, Erin. "Finding Robert Bogucki, the man who disappeared on purpose." ABC News, 6 July 2025. Sweeney, Lucy, and Erin Parke. "The strange story of Garrison 'Gunslinger' St Clair, the American sent to find Robert Bogucki." ABC News, 23 August 2025. Lowth, Adrienne. "Channel Nine under fire over Bogucki actions." ABC Radio PM, 24 August 1999.Media Watch. ABC Television, 30 August 1999."American found after outback odyssey." BBC News, 23 August 1999. Associated Press. "Wanderer May Have To Foot Bill." CBS News, 26 August 1999. Morgan, Curtis. "Daring rescuer dogged by a questionable past." Miami Herald, 21 May 2000.Orr, Stephen. The Fierce Country. Wakefield Press, 2018.Adshead, Gary. "Finding Bogucki: The fallout, the stuff-ups and a tinderbox of tension." The Age, 3 September 2023."Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition (1896)." Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-crux-true-survival-stories--7265181/support.Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcastEmail us! [email protected] https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/Get schooled by Julie in wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/This episode includes AI-generated content.

In July 1967, only 213 people had ever stood on the summit of Denali. When an inexperienced climbing team was denied a permit, the National Park Service made an unusual decision: merge them with a stronger team of strangers and send all twelve climbers up the mountain together. At first, everything goes according to plan. But as two powerful weather systems begin converging over Alaska, a series of decisions—some debated to this day—leave climbers high on North America's tallest peak just as one of the most violent mountain storms ever recorded arrives.Were the climbers warned? Why did they continue toward the summit after spending a night exposed above 19,000 feet? And could anyone have survived what happened next?In this Disaster Strikes episode, we examine the 1967 Denali Disaster, the controversy that followed, and the lessons that forever changed mountaineering on North America's highest mountain.00:00 Disaster Strikes Intro00:48 Lost Above 19,000 Feet02:12 A Team That Was Never Supposed to Exist05:02 The Long Approach to Denali08:04 A Storm Begins to Form10:05 Two Summit Teams12:07 A Dangerous Decision14:35 The Last Radio Call17:08 Waiting Out the Storm20:18 The Search Begins22:05 What Really Happened?25:40 Lessons That Changed Denali Forever28:20 Legacy of the SevenReferences — The 1967 Denali DisasterPrimary & Contemporary SourcesAmerican Alpine Journal. “Mount McKinley Tragedy and Resulting Expedition.” American Alpine Journal, 1968.https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12196811702/North-America-United-States-Alaska-Mount-McKinley-Tragedy-and-Resulting-ExpeditionAccidents in North American Mountaineering. “Alaska, Mt. McKinley.” American Alpine Club, 1968.http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13196802200/Alaska-Mt-McKinleyBooks & Firsthand AccountsSnyder, Howard H. The Hall of the Mountain King: The True Story of a Tragic Climb. 1973.Wilcox, Joe. White Winds: America’s Most Tragic Climb.Tabor, James M. Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind One of Mountaineering’s Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters.Hall, Andy. Denali’s Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America’s Wildest Peak. 2014.Babcock, Jeffery. Should I Not Return. 2012.Additional Articles & SourcesNational Geographic. Interview with Andy Hall about the 1967 Mount McKinley disaster.https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/140720-mountain-climbing-denali-mount-mckinley-alaska-national-parksOutside. “Life and Death on America’s Highest Peak.”https://www.outsideonline.com/culture/books-media/life-and-death-americas-highest-peak/Anchorage Daily News. “A Poetic Turn on Denali Tragedy.” 2017.https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/we-alaskans/2017/07/22/a-poetic-turn-on-denali-tragedy/ExplorersWeb. “McKinley 1967: Triumph and Tragedy, Part II.”https://explorersweb.com/mckinley-1967-triumph-and-tragedy-part-ii/American Alpine Journal. “White Winds.” Book review.http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12198230200/White-WindsAmerican Alpine Journal. “Forever on the Mountain.” Book review.http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12200845600/Forever-on-the-MountainBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-crux-true-survival-stories--7265181/support.Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcastEmail us! [email protected] https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/Get schooled by Julie in wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/This episode includes AI-generated content.