Arctic explorer frees himself from a snowy grave using … his own feces?
On one of his many expeditions, Freuchen was trapped, after an avalanche buried him alive. His foot had gotten stuck and he couldn’t move it, the cold was becoming more and more unbearable and he was beginning to suffer the first effects of hypothermia.
Freuchen tried every possible way to get out of there, but he couldn’t feel his foot, and he was too tired to keep trying, but just before giving up, he had an idea, so absurd, that maybe worked.
The explorer remembered the time he had seen a dog’s excrement freeze to such an extent that it was solid as a rock. As a result of that thought and as repulsive as it was, he decided to give it a try. From his own excrement he managed to fashion an instrument similar to a knife. Later, Freuchen used his new “tool” to escape.
Simply put, Freuchen frees himself with the help of his improvised tool after about thirty hours of confinement, and crawls three hours back to camp. Crawling, because his feet are completely frozen.
Peter Freuchen was an interesting figure, his biography reveals anecdotes that make you understand the man behind this madness. A person who risks everything for a good adventure and who, in true MacGyver style, manages to escape from a troublesome situation.
