Desert

Deserts-the hot, non-polar sort-are among the harshest places on earth. The temperatures there can change from blisteringly hot to freezing cold within a few hours. With sparse plant and animal life, and by definition very little water, a desert can easily become a graveyard. There are a dozen things that can kill you in the desert, from scorpions to hypothermia and dehydration to Tusken raiders. The people in this list took on some of the worst that nature can throw at us and survived, demonstrating what sheer strength of will (and a little luck) can achieve.

Things looked bad for Victoria Grover when she got stranded in the high desert of Utah. It was April 2012 and the 59-year-old had been out hiking, intending to walk around 10 kilometers (6 mi). Things turned very bad very quickly when she broke her leg jumping down a small ledge. She couldn't walk, and instead had to shuffle around from a seated position.Grover had no food, a problem made much worse by her Type 2 diabetes. Night-time temperatures at that time of year can plunge below freezing. She hadn't told anyone where she was going. She was stuck in the Box Death Hollow Wilderness, which isn't a name to inspire confidence. Luckily Grover had been on a survival course in the area-in 1972.Something had stuck from that 40-year-old education, however. Grover used her walking stick and a scarf to brace her leg. She slept during the daytime, and stayed awake all night, huddled under a poncho to break the wind. For the first two days she was able to gather firewood, but her broken leg became too painful and she had to do without on her third night. She was found on her fourth day suffering from hypothermia. Grover came away with not just a survival story, but also a claim to fame. She was flown to hospital by the same pilot that had rescued Aron Ralston, the climber from the movie 127 Hours.