Hello, survivalists.

This is the Crux True Survival Story podcast.

I'm Casey McIntosh.

And I'm Julie Hennyson.

And we are medical professionals with a passion for wilderness survival.

Join us as we explore real-life survival stories and the critical

moments that determine their outcomes. Buckle up. Adventure awaits. Let's dive into this week's story.

March 18th, 1944, Lapland, Finland, negative 20 degrees Celsius, negative 4 degrees Fahrenheit. The forest is black.

The birch trees rise out of the snow like white bones, stripped bare, skeletal against the sky,

and there's no wind. Just the hiss and crunch of skis cutting through the frozen crust,

and the sound of your own breath, raggedged and close inside the wool pulled over your face.

Your Corporal Imo Coyvounen, 26 years old.

You are the lead skier in a seven-man reconnaissance patrol, which means you're doing the most

punishing job on the ice, breaking trail through knee-deep unbroken snow so the men behind you

can move faster. You've been doing it for hours, maybe longer. Time does strange things in the dark.

Your thighs are burning, not soreness, burning. Every push of the pulse sends fire up through your

arms and into your shoulders.

Your lungs are pulling in air so cold it feels like inhaling broken glass.

You know you're slowing down, you can feel it.

And that's not something that you can afford right now.

Because behind you, somewhere in those black trees, the Red Army is coming. The ambush happened fast.

Gunfire split the silence as the patrol stopped to brew tea and warm their hands.

...