Human Fireball in the Mountains of Patagonia

Summary

Real Survival Stories

Episode: "Human Fireball in the Mountains of Patagonia"

Host: John Hopkins
Guest: Jamie Nicol
Release Date: December 18, 2025

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Overview

This gripping episode recounts the harrowing ordeal of Jamie Nicol, a New Zealand mountain bike trail builder, who survived a freak accident while working in a remote ravine in Patagonia, Chile. Engulfed by a ball of flames after a catastrophic machinery malfunction, Jamie endured severe burns and faced an unimaginable fight for survival. Through vivid narration, firsthand recollections, and emotional reflection, the episode explores not only the physical struggle but also the lasting psychological and personal impact of overcoming a brush with death.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Life Before the Incident

• Jamie's background in competitive mountain biking, pursuit of freedom, and eventual transition into trail building.
  • [07:54] Jamie recounts working with New Zealand Trail Solutions, building trails worldwide, and being contracted by an American billionaire for the Patagonia project.
  • [10:23] Shares his lifelong draw to solitary outdoor activities; mountain biking becomes both an escape and a skill.
  • [12:16] Jamie’s struggle with labels and career identity in his late 20s:

    “It was a bit challenging for me in my late 20s being like, oh, what am I?...do I need to do some specific training so that I get some sort of label? But what, what would that be? I don't know.” — Jamie Nicol

2. The Routine Shattered: The Accident

• Describes the work and setting leading up to the incident: suspended from a cliff, using a rock breaker to carve a bike trail.
  • [16:37] Jamie notices petrol on his leg, suspects a leaky fuel cap.
  • [04:05] Crisis hits when Jamie tries to fix the cap:

    “As that undid, it just blew the cap out my hand. And this massive pressurized plume of atomized fuel just went up into the air.” — Jamie Nicol

  • [18:23] The vaporized fuel ignites:

    “I didn't even get the words out...and it was like boom. Just a big sound and all of that atomized fuel just ignited.” — Jamie Nicol

• He is immediately engulfed in flames, hanging in his harness 30 feet off the ground.
  • [06:03]

    “Oh, no, I am the fire.” — Jamie Nicol

3. The Battle for Survival: Seconds and Instinct

• Immediate terror and disassociation:
  • [06:26], [20:52] Calm realization amidst disaster:

    “I remember quite calmly thinking, oh, I can't really see any way out of this. This could be one of those times you die.” — Jamie Nicol

• Rapid problem-solving under dire circumstances:
  • [21:13] Attempts to tear off burning clothing; realizes he can’t due to his harness.
  • [21:29] Desperately protects his face, yells for help:

    “I'm burning. And so I was just lifting my head up and was just smacking at my face to try and protect my airway and keep the flames off it and then I was yelling out to my mate, help. Help. Help.” — Jamie Nicol

• Realizes self-rescue is the only option:
  • [22:15]

    “No one's going to help me in the time that I've got, so I've got to do something about getting out of this situation.” — Jamie Nicol

4. Survival Actions: From Fire to Freezing Water

• Gets free from the harness, swings to a ledge, then jumps into a freezing glacial pool below.
  • [26:17] Jamie describes forcing himself to move and jumping.
  • [27:23] The shock of freezing water brings new pain:

    “There was part of me like this is good. But then the cold hit me and so it's this quite interesting thing of being burnt. But then the next kind of pain was going to chilled.” — Jamie Nicol

5. The Ordeal Continues: Escape to Rescue

• His colleagues arrive; it’s clear that waiting for a helicopter isn't an option—they must get him to the lodge across the lake.
  • [29:07] The daunting plan: running 2km through forest despite severe burns.
  • [29:59]

    “We're just running, running through forest, and it's kind of real consistent jog through there, just with this real pain of burning around the neck and shoulders.” — Jamie Nicol

  • [31:39] Even musters humor at the lakeside:

    “And I even remember joking to some of them, like, oh, yeah, got pretty sunburned. Hey, like this, while I'm sort of standing there on the lakeside...” — Jamie Nicol

• Evacuation efforts
  • [32:09] Dramatic arrival of boat and awareness of his condition through others’ reactions.
  • [33:31] At the lodge, aid and support appear, and arrangements are made for helicopter evacuation, thanks to quick thinking and local connections.

6. Medical Emergency and Recovery

• Airlifted to hospital, induced coma
  • [36:55]

    “We landed right outside the hospital and I stepped out and lay straight onto a wheeled stretcher and I remember being wheeled around the chopper and then going into some doors and then that's all I remember... I don't remember anything after going through those doors.” — Jamie Nicol

• Intensive care, skin grafts, and months of agonizing recovery
  • [38:06] Wakes up surrounded by family, disoriented, unable to recall initial conversations.
  • [39:13] The vulnerability and gratitude that intensive care creates:

    “There's something that came home really heavily in hospital—realizing that you were only alive because someone kept coming into your room and fiddling with your machine or pumping more blood into you. You're only alive because other people are caring for you...”

• Burn treatment in Santiago, feverous recovery, profound fatigue, and his family supporting him through everything:
  • [40:32]

    “That was a long and difficult time...My family would come and sit in the room with down jackets on and things, and I was just naked, feeling so hot. So my body was working so hard to survive and to fight the infections that I was dealing with.”

7. The Psychological Struggle and Rebuilding Life

• Recognition that getting out quickly was crucial to his survival (would have only had hours). [41:39]
• Ongoing challenges back in New Zealand—basic functions are difficult:
  • [42:12]

    “You really feel quite alone and you realize how difficult things are to do... I couldn't hold a knife to slice a piece of bread or cut a cucumber, anything. I couldn't open a bottle. Everything felt sharp. All my hands were just so sensitive.”

• Return to competitive mountain biking despite lasting injuries (unable to fully close his hands), achieves top finishes within three years [43:30]
• Insights into trauma, adaptation, and the need for deeper healing:
  • [44:58]

    “My quest of finding myself in myself rather than in that outside world... that's just what has happened. And so dunno, dunno if you would not want it to happen. But this, it's also taken you somewhere and you've had pretty amazing journey since then.” — Jamie Nicol

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• The moment of ignition

  “As that undid, it just blew the cap out my hand. And this massive pressurized plume of atomized fuel just went up into the air.” — Jamie Nicol [04:05]

• Surreal realization of peril

  “Oh, no, I am the fire.” — Jamie Nicol [06:03]

• Acceptance amid chaos

  “I remember quite calmly thinking, oh, I can't really see any way out of this. This could be one of those times you die.” — Jamie Nicol [06:26], [20:52]

• Moments after escaping the fire

  “I was like, man, no one's going to help me in the time that I've got, so I've got to do something about getting out of this situation.” — Jamie Nicol [22:15]

• Humor as a survival tool

  “And I even remember joking to some of them, like, oh, yeah, got pretty sunburned. Hey...” — Jamie Nicol [31:39]

• Physical aftermath

  “I just remember it being like gray and rolled up paper, as if someone had wet some paper and rubbed it for too long and it had just sort of all said, started coming apart and looked at my hands and they were kind of wet looking in a way, I guess because I'd lost a lot of skin.” — Jamie Nicol [24:07]

• Perspective on support in recovery

  “There's something that came home really heavily in hospital, realising that you were only alive because someone kept coming into your room and fiddling with your machine or pumping more blood into you. You're only alive because other people are caring for you and looking after you. And that's quite a strange.” — Jamie Nicol [39:13]

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Important Timestamps (Approximate)

• 01:28 — Opening scene: Describing the Patagonian ravine and Jamie’s work.
• 04:05 — The fuel explosion occurs.
• 06:03 — Jamie realizes he is on fire.
• 18:23 — The fuel ignites; Jamie is engulfed.
• 21:13 — Desperate efforts to douse the flames/break free.
• 26:17 — Jumps into glacial pool to treat burns.
• 29:59 — Begins the 2km run through the forest.
• 32:09 — Boat pickup at lakeside; faces the severity of his injuries.
• 36:55 — Medevac arrival at hospital.
• 38:06 — Wakes from coma, ICU.
• 40:32 — Recovery and family support in Santiago burn unit.
• 41:39 — Retrospective: survival hinged on quick action.
• 42:12 — Recovery challenges at home.
• 43:30 — Return to professional mountain biking.
• 44:58 — Reflections on meaning, trauma, and growth.

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Themes and Tone

• Startling physical and emotional realism: The narrative holds nothing back in describing pain, panic, humor, and self-awareness, blending Jamie’s clear, unvarnished voice with atmospheric narration.
• Resilience and adaptability: Jamie’s capacity to think clearly, act decisively, and maintain perspective—even humor—in dire circumstances is highlighted throughout.
• Transformation through trauma: The episode explores how crises can catalyze profound inner journeys, revealing new sources of strength and changing the trajectory of a life.
• Appreciation for connection and care: Jamie’s recovery underscores the deep dependency we all have on others in moments of true vulnerability.

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Conclusion

This extraordinary survival account is not just a tale of one man fighting against impossible odds in the Patagonian wilds. It’s a meditation on resilience, humor in the face of horror, the essential role of community and care, and how trauma can change the shape of one’s internal and external life forever. The story closes with Jamie’s hard-earned wisdom—accepting the past while seeking meaning and connection beyond adversity.

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For listeners who want to be moved, challenged, and inspired—this episode is essential.

Transcript

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[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

It is October 8, 2010. A crisp spring morning beams down over Lago la Paloma, a lake in Patagonia, Chile. In its mirrored surface, the surrounding peaks are as clear as photographs, their snow capped reflections almost as vivid as the real thing. Overhead, a condor circles riding the air currents at the far end of the lake. Beyond a stretch of evergreen forest, the valley climbs upwards through a series of slopes and ledges, becoming narrower until it's a tall ravine with steep, rocky mountain walls on either. Up here, the serenity is shattered by the din of heavy machinery. Members of a work crew suspended in harnesses are drilling into the walls of the ravine, their power tools gouging out splinters of dark granite. Jamie Nicol can feel the reverberations deep in his bones. The 31 year old New Zealander is using a petrol powered rock breaker to carve a path into the side of the mountain. When it's finished, the path will become part of a spectacular mountain bike trail linking the lake below with the Grassland above. As he works, Jamie feels a drop of liquid fall onto his leg. Frowning, he switches off the tool and touches a finger to the dark splotch on his trousers. He sniffs it and recoils. It's petrol.

[Jamie Nicol]

And I thought, oh, that's a bit strange, and grabbed the fuel cap and sort of gave it a tweak to see if it just was a bit loose or something and carried on.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Jamie continues drilling. Barely a minute has passed, however, before he notices more petrol dripping onto his thigh. He shakes his head. Must be a problem with the fuel cap. He turns off the machine and edges sideways along the cliff to a narrow shelf where he and his colleagues have set up a supply station. He leans his shoulder against the wall, pulls off his ear defenders and bends down to inspect the fuel cap. Maybe the seal's broken. He unscrews the cap, turning the black plastic disc once, twice. And then.

[Jamie Nicol]

As that undid, it just blew the cap out my hand. And this massive pressurized plume of atomized fuel just went up into the air. The boys on the other side of the ravine looked over and they said it was about 7 to 10 metre high plume of atomized fuel. Just a big white cloud went up.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

There is a loud pop as fuel bursts out of the giant drill, sending an enormous diffuse pillar into the air. In an instant, Jamie is swallowed by the shimmering cloud of vaporized petrol.

[Jamie Nicol]

I had my eyes squeezed shut and I was just starting to spit out and just trying to say, give me some water, because it was kind of stinging in my eyes as fuel and I didn't even get the words out, give me some water. And it was like, boo. Just a big sound and all of that atomized fuel just ignited.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes if your life depended on your next decision? Could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet Jamie Nicholl in late 2010. The 31 year old is part of a construction crew building a mountain bike trail through a rugged alpine valley in Patagonia, Chile. With about a month to go until the contract ends, Jamie is looking forward to finishing the job and returning home to New Zealand, where his family and girlfriend are waiting for him. But on the morning of October 8, while operating heavy machinery, a freak accident threatens his hopes of ever seeing his loved ones again.

[Jamie Nicol]

And as I jumped away from this burning cloud or flames and swung through there, because then I was like falling and swinging. I was like, oh, no, I am the fire.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Swinging from a harness above a ravine, burning alive in a ball of flames. Jaime's survival chances appear as remote as the isolated valley he's working in.

[Jamie Nicol]

I remember quite calmly thinking, oh, I can't really see any way out of this. This could be one of those times you die.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is Real Survival Stories. It's the morning of October 8, 2010, near the banks of Lago La Paloma in the Aissen region of southern Chile. A group of mountain bikers are pedaling through an evergreen forest. Loaded with packs full of construction tools, the cyclists bob and weave, riding out of their saddles, thigh muscles burning, lungs aflame. These men are all employees of a trail management company from New Zealand hired to build a bike track through the Patagonian wilderness. At the front of the pack is crew leader Jamie Nicol. The 31 year old has been working for New Zealand Trail Solutions for the past year. In that time, he's built trails in Mexico, Canada, and now here, deep in the backcountry of southern Chile.

[Jamie Nicol]

They had that contract from Kendart, an American billionaire and who discovered mountain biking in his 50s and thought it'd be pretty cool to buy a few properties and get people to build tracks for him.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

For an avid mountain biker like Jamie, this is an ideal gig. A chance to work outdoors with his hands, building infrastructure for a sport he loves, even if it is for the private enjoyment of a billionaire. Above the treeline, the terrain steepens. Granite peaks rise above their heads. Dark walls streaked with ribbons of ice, slowly melting in the spring sunshine. Pockets of avalanche debris rest in the gullies. The crew presses on, riding their bikes along yards of freshly laid trail. After a while, they reach the bottom of a craggy ravine, a deep, narrow scar running through the massif. A series of short waterfalls leads up to the ridgeline, beyond which a stretch of grassland extends towards the next valley. The workers step off their bikes and leave them by the side of the trail. Jamie looks up at the vertical granite sides of the gorge. This is their next challenge, to carve a ledge into the rock face so the bike trail can continue up through the ravine to the grassland above.

[Jamie Nicol]

We thought with a bit of work we could probably open that up to being more accessible, where someone could push a mountain bike through to then carry on and access the grassland to go for a bit of a tour that way. So that was really my job, was to try and cut a ledge through this ravine.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

The Men begin unpacking their gear. In total, Jamie is in charge of a crew of 15 men. There is a certain irony to a group of mountain bikers working so closely together in a team. It's a marked change of pace from their highly individualized sport. In fact, this aspect of mountain biking is why it first appealed to Jamie. The state of being alone cycling with just the sound of his own breathing for company. Growing up in the suburbs of Wellington, he was always drawn to activities that allowed him to get lost in his own little world.

[Jamie Nicol]

Dad had really encouraged us to play soccer, and I just always wanted to be subbed, you know, so that I could go climb the trees and play in the stream around the area. So I think for me, mountain biking, that's your own mission a little bit.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Mountain biking ticked all the boxes for this adventurous, outdoorsy kid. It helped that he had a natural talent. For wasn't long before Jamie was competing at a high level, winning international competitions and carving out a name for himself on the junior circuit. One success led to another. Within a few years, he was on course for a career as a professional mountain biker. But as the accolades mounted, so did the pressure to perform. He found himself losing sight of what had attracted him to the sport in the first place.

[Jamie Nicol]

Because I was good, I had people in New Zealand that were supposedly helping to streamline people towards being professional athletes and, you know, telling me that I should wear better clothing and things at prize giving and different stuff, and, you know, it's like the wrong thing to tell an independent, maybe slightly rebellious teenager. So, I don't know, all of that started tainting the picture for me.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Jamie took a step back from mountain biking, leaving him with enough free time to pursue other burgeoning interests. After high school, he took a vocational course in outdoor education, which trained him in a variety of disciplines, from kayaking and caving to rock climbing and mountaineering. After that, he joined a ski patrol team in the mountains of the north island before heading overseas to Europe and Asia, where he traveled and worked odd jobs for a few years, going wherever the mood struck. If freedom is what he was searching for, then surely this was it. But as the years passed, Jamie only found himself with more questions.

[Jamie Nicol]

It was a bit challenging for me in my late 20s being like, oh, what am I? And, you know, do I need to do some specific training so that I get some sort of label? But what, what would that be? I don't know.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

After returning to New Zealand following his years abroad, Jamie found himself stumbling back into something familiar. The very activity in fact, that had made him resist the idea of labels in the first place. While working as a park ranger on the west coast of the south island, he received a call one day from a childhood friend. She presented him with an opportunity.

[Jamie Nicol]

Her current partner had got these contracts of building mountain bike tracks all over the world. She rang me up and she was like, what do you think about this Jamie? And I was like, sounds so good. Gotta go and spend some time with my girlfriend. I've been down here on the west coast for too long. And so yeah, finished that job and went back up to Nelson and sort of got back into that connection with my partner. And then six months later I was like, oh, what do you think? I think I might like to go and do this job. And she's like, yeah, go and do it.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

And so, with his girlfriend's blessing, Jamie set off once again. Building mountain bike trails, it turned out, was the perfect way to bring together his unique set of skills and experience. A job tailor made for him. The first project was in the desert of northern Mexico, followed by a three month stint down in southern Chile.

[Jamie Nicol]

Remember coming into land and just seeing this landscape of tussock and mountains and just sparsely populated and that kind of tickled me. I like places that are kind of remote, so it looked pretty cool.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

After Chile, it was up to Canada for two months. When that project ended, Jamie was offered another contract. A six week stint back down in Patagonia. This time, however, he hesitated. He'd now been working overseas for almost a year and the demands on both his time and his body were starting to get to him. But then it was only a short term contract. One last job.

[Jamie Nicol]

I do remember though being a little bit tired on a deeper level and just wanting to be back in New Zealand and get that recharge of my homeland. But I was like, ah, it's just six weeks. I'll be right go and do this six weeks.

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[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

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[Jamie Nicol]

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[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

It's the morning of October 8th. Jamie sits in his harness suspended 30ft above the ground. He's using a petrol powered rock breaker to chisel away the granite, making a start on what will eventually be a bike trail carved into the side of this ravine. The bright yellow rock breaker is large and heavy, about the size of a chainsaw. It's unwieldy and Jamie has to balance the bulky chassis on his thigh while the drill bit vibrates against the rock.

[Jamie Nicol]

I had the machine then and was cutting into this cliff and noticed a bit of fuel had like dripped on my leg and I thought, oh, that's a bit strange. I grabbed the fuel cap and sort of gave it a tweak to see if it just was a bit loose or something and carried on.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

But after a few moments, Jamie notices it again, a steady drip of gasoline leaking from the fuel cap onto his leg.

[Jamie Nicol]

So I turned the machine off, lowered myself down onto the ledge and then just walked back to the other end where we had our bags and a.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Fuel still roped up and strapped into his harness, Jamie sidesteps along the ledge to the flat, narrow shelf where they've based their supply station. He removes his ear defenders and inspects the leaky fuel cap. No obvious issues. Must be something else. So he starts unscrewing the black plastic cap. He gives it a couple of quick twists, two complete turns. Then there's a loud sharp sudden hiss.

[Jamie Nicol]

As that undid it just blew the cap out my hand and this massive pressurized plume of atomized fuel just went up into the air.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Some malfunction inside the machine must have caused the fuel vapors to expand, creating a dangerous buildup of pressure within the tank. When Jamie unscrews the cap, he is engulfed in a pungent haze of vaporized fuel. The rank chemical taste of petroleum coats his tongue. With his stinging eyes squeezed shut, he shouts to his colleagues to get him some water. He needs to wash this stuff off his face.

[Jamie Nicol]

I didn't even get the words out, gave me some water and it was like boom. Just a big sound and all of that Atomized fuel just ignited.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

It doesn't take much, just a spark of static electricity. And the plume of atomized fuel becomes a column of flame reaching 30ft up with Jamie at the heart of it, encased in a straight jacket of blistering heat.

[Jamie Nicol]

I was like, I need to get away from this. And I still tied onto these ropes and harnesses and so I just jumped away from the machine. Cause I knew I could just jump off the cliff below me and I'd be fine because I'm all tied on these ropes. And as I jumped away from this burning cloud or flames and swung through there because then I was like falling and swinging, I was like, oh no, I am the fire.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Drenched in fuel. He's been lit up like an effigy and now he's swinging above the ravine 30ft up, burning alive in midair.

[Jamie Nicol]

I remember quite calmly thinking, oh, I can't really see any way out of this. This could be one of those times you die.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

It's mid morning, high in the mountains of Patagonia, overlooking a pristine alpine lake. A blazing fireball swings from a rope across a deep, narrow ravine. At its white hot center, secured in a harness anchored to the cliffside, is Jamie Niccol.

[Jamie Nicol]

I just couldn't see any way out of it. You're like, there's no rolling on the ground, there's no running into the water. You're like tied on to a rope hanging off a cliff and you're burning.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

The fire sounds like wind rushing in his ears. A low billowing roar. He can feel the intensity of the blaze increasing as the flames feed hungrily on his petrol soaked clothing and skin. And yet, oddly, even now, in the seconds before he surely burns to death, a strange sense of detachment settles over him.

[Jamie Nicol]

I was like, oh, it's just pretty plain, oh, this could be one of those times you die was the thought. And so it was a very calm moment. And then swung, swung through, smacked into the cliff quite hard. And then I think really sort of panic set in.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

The calm of a moment ago go has gone. Replaced by horror and heat. Searing incandescent heat. With his nerve ending screaming, Jamie tries to rip off his T shirt, tearing at the fabric, but it won't budge.

[Jamie Nicol]

As I pulled it, I was like, oh, I've got a full body harness on that's not coming off. There's no way out of this. I'm burning. And so I was just lifting my head up and was just smacking at my face to try and protect my airway and keep the flames off it and then I was yelling out to my mate, help. Help. Help.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

He thrashes wildly, jerking and twisting his harness. Flames flicker up past his chin, singeing the strap of his helmet. When they reach his eyelashes, the air thickens with the acrid stench of burning hair. The nylon waistband of his shorts starts to melt, fusing with his body. Bubbling red blisters form on his skin. He's being cooked alive.

[Jamie Nicol]

I was like, man, no one's going to help me in the time that I've got, so I've got to do something about getting out of this situation.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Direct exposure to open flame can cause life threatening third degree burns in just seconds. Jamie has been engulfed for almost half a minute. However much he beats the fire with his hands and arms, he can't seem to extinguish it. He's got to try something else. Maybe if he can remove his T shirt, he can get the blaze under control. But that will mean removing both his helmet and his harness first.

[Jamie Nicol]

I just went down into the flames, put my head into the flames, bent over, bent my head over and started undoing the helmet.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

With his head tilted down towards the flames, Jamie fiddles furiously with a clasp of his chinstrap. Pulsing waves of heat radiate into his face as he pours his focus into this one small task. Once the chin strap is undone, he can start to remove his harness, then his clothes. But before he can finish taking off his helmet, everything stops. The flames abruptly disappear, flickering out with barely a whisper. The echo of their roar fades to silence, as if they were never there at all. Dazed, Jamie looks down. His shirt has disintegrated completely. That'll be why the fire vanished. It had already devoured its main source of fuel, burned itself out. It's a monumental relief. But then Jamie looks at the damage the fire has caused my arms.

[Jamie Nicol]

I just remember it being like gray and rolled up paper, as if someone had wet some paper and rubbed it for too long and it had just sort of all said, started coming apart and looked at my hands and they were kind of wet looking in a way, I guess because I'd lost a lot of skin.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

His body hangs in the harness, slumped against the rock. The burns on his torso glisten like fresh paint, the outer layer of skin seared away to reveal the seeping red tissue underneath. He can just about hear dim voices bouncing off the walls of the ravine, his colleagues presumably telling him to sit tight, that help is on its way. But Jaime isn't in the mood to hang about.

[Jamie Nicol]

I was like, man, I do not want to wait around. You have that window when the body's pumped you with adrenaline and things, and that's the time to act.

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[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

He points his gaze down beyond his dangling gumboots. A stream of snowmelt trickles down through the gorge, collecting in divots and crags along the ravines staggered sloping floor. About 30ft below him is a sparkling glacial pool. Before the adrenaline subsides and the pain becomes unbearable, Jamie resolves to move. He grabs hold of the rope with his raw, weeping fingers and starts shifting his weight from side to side, eventually generating enough momentum to swing himself across to the ledge. He lands unsteadily on the rocky shelf. Quickly he unclips the carabiners, untethering himself from the cliff face. Then he peers down at the water below, separated from him by a series of small drops 3 or 4 meters high. Without pausing to second guess himself, Jaime jumps, hurling himself down the center of the ravine, all the way down to the water.

[Jamie Nicol]

I just jumped underneath that in this pool and was just hit by the freezing, freezing water that had been chilled by this ice. And there was part of me like this is good. But then the cold hit me and so it's this quite interesting thing of being burnt. But then the next kind of pain was going to chilled.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

So extremely extreme heat and extreme cold. To a human body under stress, the two sensations aren't so different to panicked pain receptors. Both burn, as if a million sharp needles are being driven into the skin. Jamie gasps, writhing beneath the onslaught. He scrambles to his feet, unable to bear being submerged. Instead, he takes off his helmet and uses it like a bucket, scooping water from the pool and dumping it all over his blistered face, neck, arms and torso. The cold shock is still agonizing, but it's more tolerable like this. Less intense. He keeps going, dowsing his burns over and over. Meanwhile, two of his colleagues make their way down to him. They tell him that somebody's already radioed for an air ambulance. That's the good news. Then comes the bad. They can't just wait here for help to arrive. They need to get to the lodge, all the way over on the other side of the lake, where the helipad is located. Jamie tries to pay attention. But as the adrenaline wears off, the pain intensifies.

[Jamie Nicol]

We pulled off my gunboats. I'm shirtless. My skin's all, like, peeling off. The tops of my shorts are all melted.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

The idea that Jamie can go anywhere right now is crazy. But there is no other choice. His colleagues explain the outrageous plan. They need to run to travel the 2km on foot through the woods back to the lake, where a boat will take them across to the lodge. It may only be just over a mile, but Jamie is half naked and half burned to death right now. It's an almost inconceivable distance. Still, the guys wrestle his feet into a pair of shoes he can run in. Then, flanked by his two co workers, he sets off down the trail.

[Jamie Nicol]

We're just running, running through forest, and it's kind of real consistent jog through there, just with this real pain of burning around the neck and shoulders.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

The forest floor is carpeted with fallen pine needles. Sunlight streams down through the branches, dappling the ground beneath Jamie's stumbling feet. Through the canopy, the tops of the mountains are occasionally visible. Huge granite pyramids enclosing the valley. Now the world darkens at the edges as Jaime's vision contracts to a pinhole.

[Jamie Nicol]

Always carried that capacity to focus and push through adversity and pain and things like that. So that was just what had to happen.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Everything else falls away. The mountains, the sky, the forest. All that's left is the trail snaking through the trees and the lake, a pale blue band glimmering just beyond the curve of the forest floor. Step by step, they wind through the towering trunks until the forest thins out and they reach the water's edge. The rest of the work crew has already congregated on the shingle beach, their mountain bikes lying beside them, tires coated in fresh mud. They greet Jaime with words of encouragement, assuring him that everything will be okay, though their fearful faces tell a different story. For his part, Jaime fights to remain upbeat.

[Jamie Nicol]

And I even remember joking to some of them, like, oh, yeah, got pretty sunburned. Hey, like this, while I'm sort Of standing there on the lakeside. I think that's part of my sense of humor, too. It's like when things are bad, you can still see some funny things in those situations, too.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Humor can only carry him so far, though. After a few minutes, he hears the roar of an approaching motorboat.

[Jamie Nicol]

This guy Javier, one of the Chilean people workers, and that he came screaming in and the jet boat really hard on the beach, like he knew it was serious. And I jumped in and the look on his face and his inhalation of his breath Was kind of the first time I'd really had a reflection of my situation Because I think, you know, I could look down a little bit, but you're not really seeing what's happened as such, you know. And so that kind of hit me as being like, oh, I mustn't look that good.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

There'll be time to assess the extent of his burns later. For now, Jamie just needs to stay focused on the mission. Get to the lodge, wait for the helicopter, get to hospital.

[Jamie Nicol]

There.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Hopefully he'll be given something to dull the pain. Right now, the wind whipping off the surface of the lake Feels like acid against his skin.

[Jamie Nicol]

At that point, I just couldn't stand still. I was like, just kind of dancing around because just dealing with the pain of the burns. They bought me a wet sheet to put over me about. I was really cold, you know, Even though I'd run through the mountains, I hadn't really warmed up.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Finally, the boat pulls up to the wooden dock. With the assistance of others, Jamie hobbles up the long gravel drive that leads to the lodge, an impressive timber building perched on a bluff above the lake. Jamie is led to an outdoor deck area where a small crowd has gathered. Dozens of faces turned toward him, eyes widening in alarm. Apparently there were no rescue helicopters available, but as luck would have it, A guest staying here at the lodge happened to know someone stationed at the nearby military base. They were able to call in a few favors. The chopper is on its way. Jamie is at once stung by burns and bitten by cold as he trembles and shivers and his teeth chatter together. Then, amid all the commotion, a stranger steps forward and speaks softly to him, Offering words of comfort.

[Jamie Nicol]

And then this woman. I don't know what she did, but she was just there in my vision, in my space. And yeah, she was like a little bit of an angel in that moment of calmness, that feminine quality, I guess. The care.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Heat related injuries are among the most complex and devastating the human body can sustain. There is the risk of infection, Septic Shock, respiratory failure, organ shutdown. The list goes on. Jamie doesn't know this yet, but he has suffered third degree burns to 35% of his body. Anything over 30% carries a high risk of death. Even with rapid and expert treatment, severe burn victims are given a narrow window of time in which to receive life saving intervention. Outside that window, survival chances plummet. For Jamie, the clock is rapidly ticking down.

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[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

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[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Jamie squints up at the sky as the chopper comes in to land, the rotor wash blasting aside debris from the surface of the helipad. A doctor in a white coat jumps out and runs over. He asks a couple of questions, but Jamie struggles to hear over the roar of the craft. There's no more time to waste. The doctor hurries Jamie on board and the helicopter whisks him to the nearest hospital in the town of Koiha, about 20 miles north.

[Jamie Nicol]

We landed right outside the hospital and I stepped out and lay straight onto a wheeled stretcher and I remember being wheeled around the chopper and then going into some doors and then that's all I remember. Hadn't been given any drugs or anything at this point, but obviously something, some memory loss that's been wiped from there because I would have been conscious and present past those doors up until they put me into an induced coma. But I don't remember anything after going through those doors.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

From this point on, Jamie's recollections end while he's in his medically induced coma. The doctors and nurses work around the clock to keep him alive for a while. It's touch and go. His body is in a state of turmoil as his system tries to fight off the cascade of infection and shock threatening to shut it down. But eventually he stabilizes and two weeks later.

[Jamie Nicol]

I woke up. And just like the movies, the beeping machines and the heart rates and all that going in your room and you're plugged in with tubes all over you, and some tube coming out of my chest and all these bandages on me.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Jamie blinks around at the overlit ward in the icu. The faces of the blurry figures around his bed slowly sharpen into focus.

[Jamie Nicol]

And then my girlfriend and I think my mother were. Yeah, both of them were standing around me when I came, lucid. And I don't remember what anyone said, actually, that's not something that sits with me at the moment. I think I was not awake for very long.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Although he's stable for now, his condition remains extremely serious. Swaddled in thick bandages, he spends days drifting in and out of consciousness, dosed up on morphine, while medical staff busy themselves around him.

[Jamie Nicol]

These bandages were crazy, like, you're just like a Michelin man. Your body's just leaking, leaking white blood cells, plasma. So in the days after that, you just would go through these times of getting very sleepy and weak. I think that's the part that's quite impactful about the whole event, is kind of realising your fragility. There's something that came home really heavily in hospital, realising that you were only alive because someone kept coming into your room and fiddling with your machine or pumping more blood into you. You're only alive because other people are caring for you and looking after you. And that's quite a strange.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Jamie is soon transferred to a larger hospital in the capital, Santiago. Here, specialist burn doctors begin the process of preserving his damaged skin. They perform extensive grafts, taking healthy skin from elsewhere on his body and transplanting it to the burned areas. The procedure's complex, drawn out and agonizing. Afterwards, Jamie spends two months recovering in the burns unit.

[Jamie Nicol]

That was a long and difficult time. You know, a lot of very sleepless nights and feeling incredibly hot. I was fevered for that time. Basically the whole time I was running a temperature. My family would come and sit in the room with down jackets on and things, and I was just naked, feeling so hot. So my body was working so hard to survive and to fight the infections that I was dealing with.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Slowly but surely, Jamie makes positive strides towards recovery. The skin grafts take successfully. The antibiotics help stave off infection. His vital signs steady and his organs begin to function without support. For all the countless hours that Jamie has spent in hospital, it was the steps taken in the minutes after the accident that made all the difference. His quick thinking to get down off the cliff and into the water, his ability to run through the pain and reach the boat, every second counting towards his Survival.

[Jamie Nicol]

Later on, talking to experts and things in this field, it's that I actually didn't have much time to get to hospital and that the actions that we all took, how I got out of there, were pretty important. Apparently I would have only had hours.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

After two grueling months spent recovering in hospital, Jamie at last flies home to New Zealand. There he begins coming to terms with the longer lasting effects of his injuries.

[Jamie Nicol]

You really feel quite alone and you realize how difficult things are to do because you're starting to try and do more things like go to the toilet or open a door handle. But you know, I couldn't hold a knife to slice a piece of bread or cut a cucumber, anything. I couldn't open a bottle. Everything felt sharp. All my hands were just so sensitive.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Despite these ongoing physical challenges, Jamie works tirelessly to rebuild his strength and fitness. Within weeks of arriving back in New Zealand, he returns to the sport he excelled at as a teenager. Soon he's entering himself into competitive mountain bike races and pushing himself harder than ever. He returns to the professional circuit and within three years, he achieves podium finishes in two international events. He also completes the Enduro World Series, the pinnacle of off road endurance racing. All this in spite of the fact that scar tissue on his fingers makes it impossible to fully close his hands. He attributes his success in part to a state of mind he entered during those terrifying moments. Suspended ablaze in that ravine.

[Jamie Nicol]

You've been hyper stimulated into the survival and there's part of that almost becomes then a natural state. It's also quite helpful for racing mountain bikes. It's incredible the energy that's in that space at that point. The skin was so angry and red, whether it was swollen in your face and when you put the helmet on, put goggles on, you've got full length clothing, you've got gloves, people don't stare at you anymore. You felt like everyone else and you were all in that mountain bike gear. No one could see that you looked different.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

About five years after his accident, the emotional strains begin to show. Jamie feels tired, irritable. Little things set him off and so he does something that doesn't come naturally. He slows down. He goes to see a counselor who helps him work through his various challenges. Turns out he is likely suffering from adrenal fatigue, a symptom of chronic stress and a possible side effect of ptsd. Having a confirmed diagnosis is the first step of the next stage of his recovery journey. One that leads hopefully to, to a deeper kind of healing.

[Jamie Nicol]

My quest of finding myself in myself rather than in that outside world that I'm not going to be made happy by what's around me in the physical world. That it's this journey inside. I think that was there before the accident, but it's the importance of that has just been reinforced so much more. And as the years have gone on, I think that's just slowly opened up into more and more understanding and knowledge of anything from nature to our interconnectedness with the world and with people and all of that. It's so hard eh, to even daydream about would I want to not have had the accident, you know, and that's, that's just what has happened. And so dunno, dunno if you would not want it to happen. But this, it's also taken you somewhere and you've had pretty amazing journey since then.

[Narrator (John Hopkins)]

Next time, while the production team take a short festive break, we'll delve into the real Survival Stories archive. We meet marine turned yachtsman Pete Goss as he takes on the most draining and dangerous sailing event on Earth. A 24,000 mile single handed race around the globe. Most don't make it to the finish. Some don't survive two months in hundreds of miles from land, he is beset by the worst storm he's ever faced. And then a distress call comes in. A fellow racer is sinking and needs urgent help. Suddenly, Pete's battle to stay alive also becomes an epic Christmas time rescue mission. That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen right now by joining noiser.

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