Well I managed to catch the show, and you definitely nailed it, Bladerunner. Good Call.

It seemed more like "Ultimate Survivor" was a show about this guys bravado than making one's way through a survival situation.

Jumping in an icy river with rapids to save time... What was on this guy's mind? Sure he may have covered a decent amount of distance faster than if he had walked, but that water probably sucked a lot of body heat out of him and he mentioned the pounding he took. "Slow and steady" seems to be a rule of thumb for most survival experts and this guy is jumping off cliffs, running through the forest at night, shooting rapids and running down loose fire breaks...

He made a comment that "More than a million people visit the Rocky Mountains yearly and two thousand never return..." (paraphrased). He should have added, "Lets see if we can't cull the herd even more." LOL

For folks interested in Les Stroud, they are currently in talks about a second season of "Survivorman" at OLN. The popularity of the show almost ensures it will happen if Les can clear up his nutty schedule. The show was highest rated show on The Science Channel, is the most popular show on OLN, and has started a run on The Discovery Channel and beat Mythbusters in nightly ratings despite the fact it has been cropped to a half an hour.

From his latest journal entry:
"So……as a result of all that I have been busy for the past month or more:

A) guest hosting on a series for Discovery US called ‘I Shouldn’t Be Alive – part 2 – The Science of Survival) – (shot in Colorado and England where they put me in a chamber and did hypothermia and frostbite testing on me).

B) Hosting a series of vignettes for Discovery US/Disney about surviving Mount Everest for a documentary they produced about Disney’s new ride Expedition Everest. This is what I am returning from right now.

C) Preparing to shoot a one-hour special I created called Urban Disaster Survival about what to do in a situation like New Orleans (shooting mid-March)

D) Preparing to secure a second run of Survivorman (OLN is already happily on board for a second season)

E) Developing a new series called ‘Stroud’s Legends’

F) Trying hard to get back to finishing a new CD I am recording with Canadian hit makers ‘The Northern Pikes’.

G) Negotiating with a major publishing company for a book series on Survivorman, Off The Grid and more.

H) oh yeah – did I mention building our cabin in the woods??"

I guess you can tell I'm a fan of Stroud. LOL

Anyway... Back to the topic at hand...

Uh, Brad, I think a lot of us here could make him look like the redheaded stepchild of survival.

It's on then, a "Survival Off"

<img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

As I watched that program, I wondered if/when the folks on this board would comment.

I also found myself thinking "What the....?" at much of his advise. The "action" footage of him hauling a.. through the woods made me wonder when he was going to sprain/twist/break his ankle(s) or worse.

I also wondered what was up with his penchant for getting wet, when the circumstances for doing so seemed pretty unnessesary....especially when he commented on the 40 degree water.

Harley

It WAS entertaining, though. And Bear is photogenic. The camera likes him.

-- Craig

It was a pretty good lesson in what to NOT do from everything I've read.

Let's see

• Don't eat anything unless absolutely sure you know what it is and how it should be prepared.
• Don't go into the water unless it's absolutely necessary. Certainly not 40deg F. water.
• Don't DIVE into any unkown waters. Certainly not from any serious height.
• Don't move in the dark - although if there really was a bear (seems like it was all contrived) maybe booking out of there was the right thing to do. I think he was running because he had the camera lights.
• Don't run period (sweat!).
• Don't heat water-laden rocks over a fire.
• Don't go anywhere without a good knife!.
• Free-floating white-water rapids? Maybe in the military, but this is probably a fast ticket to deadsville, or maybe the scenic route to deadsville by way of broken-bone hypothermia town.
• Belaying down a cliff with suspect rope.
• Running down a crumbling hill-side

Those were the things I remembered. I'm not sure how smart it was to eat dirty worms, either.

In general, some of the things he did might be arguably smart (like the debris shelter and lining the ground with needles for insulation) but it seemed like it wasn't geared toward either the enthusiast or the neophyte. It looked largely like an exercise in "see what I can do" and how good I look doing it.

This guy may look good on camera but the whole show was so contrived that I couldn't wait till it was over to see what the members of this forum would say. I just got lucky in being the first to post, anyone who has spent even ten minutes reading this forum would have caught most if not all of his mistakes. As someone who has made a fire by friction and knows how hard it is I was really bothered by the fact that he obviously had help getting that fire going. He was using a hand drill (not a bow and drill) just a hand drill and when they showed a closeup just as he got fire he had a pile of embers bigger than my webber grill could hold (thinly veiled sarcasam)
I think we can all feel pretty good knowing that we are all better prepared than this so called expert.

You know, Brad, I didn't know this watch existed until you mentioned it. Though a buddy of mine just dropped $3500+ in the Carribean for a Breitling (with US Warranty), it's still out of my reach. :-)

Anyway, I got interested and happened up on this post and thought others might want a look:
Signaling - includes Breitling Emergency <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

When I got my Breitling, the salesman was showing me the PLB model. To be honest, I almost did it but it was almost twice what I was paying to begin with...just couldn't justify it right then.

He told them that they originally marketed them toward millionaire playboy pilot types and just recently started selling them to the general public. Also said they have they have 27 recorded saves so far too.

Pretty neat but not $4500 neat.

Agreed. I'd much rather get a full service Suunto with GPS and what have you, and spend the extra $3500 on one of D.R.'s new Air kits. That still leaves me with a grand, so I'd sink that into a nice PLB, some 14 mile 2-ways, a backpack solar charger and a few other items..

Ah... I could get a lot more neat out of $4500. :-) It's definitely cool, but I'll save it for when I hit that first million.