Wilderness Bonescapes Podcast

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...

They went to the mountains to celebrate love. They came back with a body at the bottom of a cliff. In 2012, Toni Henthorn vanished during a remote hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. Her husband said it was a tragic accident—a slip, a fall, a moment of bad luck. And at first, authorities believed him. But the mountains don’t keep secrets forever. As investigators retraced their steps, the story...

It was just after ten in the morning. A quiet field, a familiar path, and a routine that had never felt dangerous, until it was. From the brush, a shadow moved. Silent. Spotted. Watching. What followed was not a hunt… it was a fight for survival. One woman, one sickle, and one of the world’s most elusive predators. For nearly half an hour, courage clashed with claws in a battle no one was meant to...

In war, heroes are usually measured by the weight of the rifle they carry… and the blood they leave behind. But in the mountains of Korea, during the Korean War, one Marine carried war on four hooves. She hauled ammunition through gun fire. Learned to run to bunkers when someone yelled “Incoming!” And when men couldn’t move fast enough— she went alone. Fifty-one supply runs in a single day. Shrapn...

The forest is quiet… until it isn’t. One step. One sharp pain. And in an instant, the wilderness turns lethal. Deep in Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest—where waterfalls hide ancient stone carvings and trails vanish into shadow—a rattlesnake strike sets off a race against time. With no cell service, venom spreading fast, and night closing in, survival depends on split-second decisions and a rescu...

Two friends set out for a simple three-day hike in New Zealand’s Arthur’s Pass their adventure turned into a nightmare. Stranded on a ledge no bigger than a table for Ten days. No shelter. No food. No way down. And no guarantee anyone was still searching. As storms raged, their bodies began to fail; trench foot, hypothermia, exhaustion. Their only mission: Stay awake or die. Survival wasn’t a mira...

In the dead of an Alaskan winter… one man’s dream of living off the grid turned into a nightmare of fire, ice, and isolation. Tyson Steele woke to flames chewing through the roof above him — a spark, a mistake, a moment that would cost him everything he owned… and the one companion who never left his side. With his cabin collapsing in a storm of explosions, temperatures plummeting below -40, Tyson...

On a quiet North Carolina farm, Christmas Day should’ve been filled with warmth… laughter… and the scent of Fannie Lawson’s fresh-baked cake. But in 1929, something else was stirring inside the Lawson home— something cold…something twisted…something waiting. Neighbors would later swear they heard the screams. By sundown, eight members of the Lawson family lay dead. All except one. Sixteen-year-old...

In the heart of Botswana’s Okavango Delta—where beauty and danger live side by side—two lives were changed forever in two separate hippo attacks in the same month. First, former Miss South Africa Diana Tilden-Davis was guiding her canoe through a shallow narrow channel when the Delta struck. A stressed, starving hippo surged upward, its jaws clamping around her leg, dragging her into a desperate f...

Long before Thanksgiving became a day of parades, football, and picture-perfect feasts, it was something far more unsettling. Buried beneath the legend of harmony and shared tables is a truth few dare to look at directly—a truth written in smoke, gunpowder, and the cries of a people whose story was nearly erased. In this episode, we peel back the polished myth and step into the shadows of the 1600...

In November of 1989, twenty-two-year-old Eloise Lindsay disappeared into the wilderness of South Carolina’s Table Rock State Park. She went in alone… to think about her future, her purpose, her next step in life. What she found instead… was terror. Two men began following her through the trees. She could hear them whispering… talking about her. When rescue teams were finally sent in, Eloise didn’t...

They used to say bear attacks were rare. That if you stayed on the trails, respected the woods, you’d be safe. But not anymore. Across Japan, bears are currently showing up in towns—supermarkets, homes, schools, even train stations. 13 people dead, and counting. Over a hundred injured. The government is calling in the military. Join us as we dig into Japan’s current escalating bear crisis—what’s r...

In the deep woods of Northern California, two brothers thought they were alone while out hunting for antler sheds. But something was watching. When the mountain lion struck, the forest erupted into chaos — a fight for survival between 2 brothers… and nature’s most silent predator. It was California’s first fatal mountain lion attack in twenty years. Join us as we delve deep into a mountain lion at...