Man survives 3 days in sub zero weather after falling throuh ice..

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A human’s will to survive can reach unbelievable limits but what happened to Barrow’s Craig Johnson last week can only be described as a miracle.

Johnson, 38, crashed through the sea ice on his snowmachine last Monday during a trip from Wainwright to Barrow and managed to survive outside for three days before being rescued.

Along with being in wet, then frozen, clothes and enduring subzero temperatures with a wind chill estimated at 35 below zero, Johnson was being stalked by a wolverine, which he tried to shoot but ultimately ended up keeping at bay by stabbing at it with a stick. Johnson suffered severe frostbite, hypothermia, dehydration and internal injuries from the snowmachine crash but he is alive and recovering at an Anchorage hospital.

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How he survived is a mystery.

“We have repeatedly asked that question amongst ourselves,” said April Brower, the director of the North Slope Borough Search and Rescue Department. “I think it had a lot to do with his will to live.”

On Dec. 15, Johnson left Wainwright and headed for Barrow, about 80 miles away. About halfway, his snowmachine broke through the ice and Johnson was submerged in water up to his chest, Brower said on Monday.

He managed to get out of the ocean and, after spending an indeterminate amount of time on the sea ice, made his way in frozen clothes about 1.5 miles inland to the closest thing to shelter he could find, a platform that is used in the spring, summer and fall to erect wall tents that house hunters, Brower said. There was no heat source and Johnson did not have the tools to start a fire, nor did he have any survival gear with him, she added.

Johnson crawled inside, or under, the platform and stayed there for three days. During that time, he was stalked by a wolverine. He emptied his gun trying to shoot the animal and wound up jabbing at it whenever it came close, Brower said

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