Stranded on Ice: Polar Bears Prowling…

Real Survival Stories

NOISER

Society & Culture, Documentary, Sports, Wilderness, History

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Glen Gantz is a biologist from Utah who likes to take a walk, or a row, on the wild side. In August 2000, he embarks on a never-before-attempted challenge: a 12-day rafting trip down northern Canada’s perilous Firth River… alone. It was always going to be tough, but things take a serious turn when Glen finds himself stranded on a narrow spit of land. He soon realises he isn’t as alone as he thought… A Noiser production, written by Nicole Edmunds. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's Siegel in Spanish Granddad?
0:03.0	El... Seagull.
0:06.0	And what's a beach ball?
0:08.0	El Beach Bowl.
0:09.0	What about a sunbed, Dad?
0:11.0	El Sunbed.
0:13.0	Retirement planning with Aviva can help make priceless family holidays possible.
0:17.0	You're really good at Spanish, aren't you, Grandad?
0:20.0	I'm pretty much a local love. From insurance to wealth and retirement, we can help solve
0:25.8	life's financial puzzles. Making a click, it takes a Viva. It's mid-August 2000. At the northern
0:34.9	tip of Canada, the Firth River flows with ferocity.
0:40.1	Its ice-blue waters cascade through granite canyons, slapping against jagged rocks as a freezing
0:46.7	coastal wind from the Beaufort Sea stirs up a wicked current.
0:53.0	As the pale Arctic sun sets, leaving a lilac sky peppered with wispy grey clouds,
0:59.2	a raft appears on the horizon. It travels slowly along the rolling river, cutting a choppy line
1:06.2	as it zigzags from left to right. Inside the raft, trying in vain to keep on course is 41-year-old
1:14.1	Glenn Gantz. His hands are near translucent with cold. He can barely grasp the oars clenched
1:21.2	in his fists, but his face is set in grim determination.
1:31.7	He's been on the river for almost 12 days.
1:38.6	He's witnessed all manner of conditions, freezing temperatures, rain, gale force winds, snowstorms.
1:47.0	But now, as his little raft inches towards a finger of land sticking out at the end of the waterway, it's a sign Glenn's struggles are surely coming to an end.
1:50.0	If you can just make it to the eastern side of Nunaluk Spit, a plane is due to take him home.
	...

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