A Thousand Prayers

See James P. Sweeney as the grumpy old man on Nat Geo's Ultimate Survivor Alaska airing Sunday nights. His quotes are hilarious and his actions are strong. Tune in and see this living legend.

His book A Thousand Prayers is the ultimate survival story.

A month after the Exxon Valdez runs aground on Bligh Reef, experienced mountaineer James P. Sweeney Jr. and his buddy Dave Nyman are ascending Alaska's Mount Johnson.

A fall sends Jim hurtling a hundred feet down the mountainside. His femur is fractured, his hip is dislocated, and his head is bleeding. As Dave desperately struggles to lower his friend to safety, the mountain throws one avalanche after another at them.

Barely conscious, Jim is left overnight in a wet sleeping bag perched precariously on a flat spot on the mountainside while Dave skis twelve miles up the Ruth Glacier to the Mountain House, only to discover that the only help available comes from four inexperienced skiers who are ill prepared for a dangerous rescue mission.

On day four, a hard landing by a passing light plane leaves the pilot and his passengers-including his pregnant wife-stranded at the Mountain House without any survival gear.

All told, Jim spends over a week on the mountainside, enduring avalanches and deadly blizzards. A harrowing true tale of courage and endurance, Jim's story has been featured in magazines and newspapers, and even dramatized on the Discovery Channel's "I Shouldn't Be Alive."