What's the hardest to endure?

[Rebecca]

Tough one - I would have to say dying in the desert sun, as in Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aaron Ralston. This one hits close to home of course, as I live in the same area. Consider cutting your own arm off to save your life, and then having to navigate the slickrock squeezes and big drop rappel after days of dehydration and shock - not to mention the obvious one-arm issue. This one gets my vote!

[Marcie]

Zahara. Touching the Void. Shackleton. The human will to survive in those odds is amazing. In all of these stories the adventurer survives some huge catastrophe only to have to deal with the next seemingly insurmountable problem and on and on.

[William]

I think anything that involves a long, slow, hungry, waiting for the end to come or a rescue (whichever comes first). I read a couple of books on shipwrecks in the Arctic in which sailors were stuck in the ice either on the ship or on ice floes for the long haul to spring.
Waiting it out would really get to me.