Wilderness Bonescapes Podcast

Deep in the remote wilderness of northern Quebec, four experienced hunters were dropped into a landscape so vast, so untouched, that much of it had never even been mapped. They came searching for trophy Woodland caribou. They came prepared. They came confident. Don Barnard and Guy Beauregard walked away from camp with nothing but their rifles, a compass, and a couple of chocolate bars in their poc...

On July 3rd, 2020, 15-year-old Jack and his father Ari stopped in California’s isolated Poker Flat region, trying to get their bearings in the vast Tahoe National Forest. But within seconds, their trip turned into a nightmare. A stranger on a blue ATV appeared out of nowhere… and opened fire. As bullets tore through their Jeep, Jack watched his father collapse beside him. Alone and terrified, the...

In Cape Vidal, South Africa, a breathtaking wilderness where the ocean meets the bush, where families camp beneath the stars, and where predators roam just beyond the glow of lantern light. For years, visitors noticed the warning signs. Hyenas prowling through campsites,  tracks circling tents and food mysteriously disappearing in the night. One camper would later call it... "A disaster waiti...

Deep in the tangled mangrove forests of India’s Sundarbans, people live with a predator they rarely see… but always fear. For generations, fishermen have whispered stories of boats drifting back empty… of men dragged screaming into the darkness… of tigers that hunt silently through the swamp. Most believe those stories will never happen to them. Mihir Sardar believed that too. For more than 30 yea...

A hidden cave beneath the mountains of Wyoming. A freezing underground maze of ice cliffs, waterfalls, and pitch-black tunnels stretching for miles beneath the earth. Most people who enter never realize one terrifying truth… Once you go down, there’s no turning back. For Spencer and Jessica Christiansen, the trip was supposed to be an unforgettable birthday adventure. They were experienced climber...

The woods are beautiful during the day.  Families hike the winding trails of Devil's Den State Park believing they’re safe. But on one terrifying summer afternoon, something evil walked out of the forest. This week, we travel deep into the rugged Arkansas wilderness to unravel the horrifying murders of Clinton and Cristen Brink — a husband and wife who had just moved to Arkansas with their thr...

High in the unforgiving mountains of Idaho’s Frank Church Wilderness, a father and his 13-year-old son set out on the climbing adventure of a lifetime. But one crack of rock changes everything. A massive boulder tears loose from a granite wall and suddenly, veteran climber David Finlayson is falling 1,200 feet above the ground. His body shattered, bleeding out on the side of a remote mountain. Dan...

Deep beneath the surface of the Earth, farther down than any human should ever go, lies a place untouched by sunlight, swallowed by silence, and carved by time itself. Veryovkina Cave—one of the deepest caves on the planet. In September, an elite team of explorers descended into that darkness. Among them, world-class Russian cavers and a photographer determined to capture a place no one had ever t...

What if I told you… that a single mistake—just one name, one moment, one step onto the wrong plane—could send someone plummeting from over 30,000 feet… and somehow, against every law of nature, they would survive? This is not fiction. This is not legend. This is the story of Vesna Vulović—a young flight attendant who boarded a routine flight in 1972… never knowing it would explode midair above the...

On a cold December night in 1995, a plane lifted off from Miami carrying families, children, and travelers heading home for the holidays. For most, it was just another flight. Until it wasn’t. High above the Andes Mountains, something went terribly wrong. What began as a routine approach into Cali quickly turned into confusion inside the cockpit. A wrong turn, a missed signal, and a silent drift i...

The night started like any other. A last-minute camping trip. Five friends. One quiet stretch of wilderness deep in the Chippewa National Forest. Laughter around a dying fire. Stories drifting into the early morning hours. And a decision that seemed harmless at the time— To sleep under the open sky. By 4:30 a.m., the world had gone completely still. Just darkness… and the sound of a voice mid-sent...

It starts with a dog barking in the middle of the night… sharp, urgent… wrong. Then headlights creep up a quiet driveway in a small Wisconsin town. Inside the house, a family wakes—confused, uneasy, sensing something they can’t yet explain. At the door, a voice shouts: “Open the door!” Moments later, a gunshot shatters the silence. And in less than four minutes… everything changes. This is the sto...

High on the icy slopes of Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand’s largest active volcano, two young climbers set out on what should have been the adventure of a lifetime. At more than 2,500 meters above sea level, the mountain feels completely theirs. As night falls, they settle into a small wooden shelter near the crater lake. Exhausted, satisfied, and unaware that beneath them, the volcano is waking up. Th...

High in the rugged Pioneer Mountains of Idaho, a young conservation biologist set out for what was supposed to be a simple solo hike. At twenty-five years old, Avery Shawler was experienced, prepared, and deeply familiar with the backcountry. She had climbed countless peaks before. She carried the right gear. She told friends exactly where she was going. But on Labor Day morning in 2016, one small...

 It was a quiet summer afternoon in South Carolina. The kind of day that feels completely ordinary until a single moment changes everything. A 15-year-old stood in the front yard, watering plants. Nothing seemed unusual. Then a man pulled up into the driveway. He smiled, he spoke calmly and within seconds, a gun was pressed against her neck. What followed would become one of the most extraordinary...

Out in the far reaches of Australia’s Northern Territory, there’s a place where the land feels untouched, unforgiving and very, very alive. A place where the heat presses in, the bush closes around you, and every sound could mean something is watching. This is where seasoned bow hunter Chris McSherry steps in—confident, experienced, and no stranger to danger. For twenty years, he’s tracked some of...

The mountains of Big Sky are beautiful, vast, and unforgiving. A place where silence stretches for miles. A place where, if something goes wrong… no one can hear you scream. In the summer of 1984, Kari Swenson was exactly where she was meant to be. A rising star in Biathlon, an Olympic hopeful, and one of the toughest endurance athletes in the country. The wilderness wasn’t dangerous to her—it was...

What happens when a rescued chimpanzee becomes a national hero… and then vanishes into the wild? This week, we’re taking you deep into the forests of Sierra Leone — where gunshots once echoed through the trees, where civil war raged, and where one orphaned chimpanzee rose to become king. His name was Bruno. Torn from his mother by poachers. Sold for $30. Raised in a human home. He would grow into...

At nine years old, most kids are collecting football cards or dreaming about what they want to be when they grow up. Kieran was studying a poster from the World Wide Fund for Nature — staring into the ancient, armored face of a black rhino and quietly deciding that his life would mean something. Fast forward a decade. Now he’s standing in the South African bush, nearly two miles from the nearest r...

On a cold December morning in the red rock wilderness of Moab, a world-class endurance athlete heads out for what should be a routine training run. She’s conquered the world’s toughest races, pushing through jungles, deserts, and mountains on almost no sleep. Pain is familiar. Risk is calculated. But this time, the desert doesn’t play fair. One invisible patch of ice. One misstep. A sixty-foot fal...

It was supposed to be a normal day. A fishing rod, a quiet creek, and two steps into the water. That’s all it took. An eleven-foot saltwater crocodile— striking from behind. Jaws clamp down. Water surges. And the fight for survival begins. For more than thirty minutes, Todd Bairstow fought one of the most powerful predators on Earth, bare-handed and waist-deep in water… with a crocodile trying to...

On a warm summer afternoon, a family set out on a peaceful float trip down a Missouri river. Only one man would come back. By nightfall, a wife and her fifteen-year-old daughter had vanished—leaving behind a quiet campsite, a burning fire and a story that didn’t quite add up. No signs of a struggle. No footprints in the gravel.  And swimsuits left behind like a question no one could answer. What r...

It started as a perfect fall day in the mountains—four college wrestlers, fresh air, and a side adventure meant to make a little extra cash. No crowds. No warnings. Just miles of rugged trail on the edge of Yellowstone and the confidence that comes with youth, strength, and friendship. But in the wild, strength doesn’t always matter. In a matter of seconds, laughter turned into chaos, and a casual...

On a flawless spring day in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains, three young climbers chased the kind of freedom only high places can offer. They believed they understood risk—and that the mountain would give them time to react. They were wrong. What began as a routine ascent up Eagle Peak would unravel in seconds, when the mountain itself came crashing down. An avalanche, a violent fall, a best friend los...

The Sahara doesn’t chase you. It waits. He was an Olympian, A professional athlete. A man trained to endure pain longer than most people can stand. And still… the desert erased him. Lost during one of the world’s most brutal ultramarathons, Mauro Prosperi watched rescue fly straight past him. No signal. No water. No witnesses. For nine and a half days, he wandered deeper into the Sahara—drinking h...