Surviving: The Decisions Made to Get Off the Mountain Alive - Mark Jenkins

When some of the world's most experienced wall climbers, mountaineers and expedition leaders refer to a particular trip as a "death march," it's best not to dismiss the epithet as mere hyperbole. Those were the words Mark Jenkins chose to describe a recent summit attempt of the 19,140 foot Hkakabo Rasi on Myanmar's border with Tibet. Cory Richards, Hilaree O'Neill, Renan Ozturk and Emily Harrington marched with Jenkins for two weeks hiking through the jungle, "with leeches, spiders, and all sorts of bug bites," before they even reached base camp. Bad weather reduced the team size for the expedition push, but the threat of spending a night exposed on a wall in freezing temperatures without food, water, or shelter stopped even the smaller expedition team short of the target. Jenkins explains that ultimately, the decision to turn around was easy: "We were fairly convinced that if we even lived through the night, we would have frost bite in our feet so severe that... it would probably require amputations." More detailed expedition reports can be found on National Geographic's Adventure Blog.