In this gripping first-person account, former Olympian Eric LeMarque recounts a harrowing tale of survival--of eight days in the frozen wilderness, of losing his legs to frostbite, and coming face-to-face with death. But Eric's ordeal on the mountain was only part of his struggle for survival--as he reveals, with startling candor, an even more harrowing and inspiring tale of fame and addiction, healing and triumph. On February 6, 2004, Eric, a former professional hockey player and expert snowboarder, set off for the top of ...
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In this gripping first-person account, former Olympian Eric LeMarque recounts a harrowing tale of survival--of eight days in the frozen wilderness, of losing his legs to frostbite, and coming face-to-face with death. But Eric's ordeal on the mountain was only part of his struggle for survival--as he reveals, with startling candor, an even more harrowing and inspiring tale of fame and addiction, healing and triumph. On February 6, 2004, Eric, a former professional hockey player and expert snowboarder, set off for the top of 12,000-foot Mammoth Mountain in California's vast Sierra Nevada mountain range. Wearing only a long-sleeve shirt, a thin wool hat, ski pants, and a lightweight jacket--and with only four pieces of gum for food--he soon found himself chest-high in snow, veering off the snowboard trail, and plunging into the wilderness. By nightfall he knew he was in a fight for his life...Surviving eight days in subfreezing temperatures, he would earn the name "The Miracle Man" by stunned National Guard Black Hawk Chopper rescuers. But Eric's against-all-odds survival was no surprise to those who knew him. A gifted hockey player in his teens, he was later drafted by the Boston Bruins and a 1994 Olympian. But when his playing days were over, Eric felt adrift. Everything changed when he first tasted the rush of hard drugs--the highly addictive crystal meth--which filled a void left by hockey and fame. By the time Eric reached the peak of Mammoth Mountain in 2004, he was already dueling demons that had seized his soul. A riveting adventure, a brutal confessional, here Eric tells his remarkable story--his climb to success, his long and painful fall, and his ordeal in the wilderness. In the end, a man whose life had been based on athleticism would lose both his legs, relearn to walk--even snowboard--with prosthetics, and finally confront the ultimate test of survival: what it takes to find your way out of darkness, and--after so many lies--to tell truth... and begin to live again.
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