Man VS Wild

Is the information on this show useful/correct?

In my mind, he shows many really respectable was to kill one's self. Stick with Les Stroud for information and Bear Grills for entertainment. IF television is how you intend to develop information.

Although Edward "Bear" Grylls is entertaining he is a dare-devil and makes for a very poor survival instructor posing wrong and often dangerous solutions to survival scenarios.

It is usually most appropriate to look up a survival expert that teaches in the context of your climate/environment.
Since your profile reads "Canada" you may want to look up some videos/books by Mors Kochanski. Mr. Kochanski is a world renown bushcraft expert and will give you many more helpful/useful tips on survival and bushcraft in your area.

Les "survivorman" Stroud is also a good Canadian survival expert and his videos make for a good brief introduction to survival tips. However remember that his shows are heavily edited for entertainment and may leave out many details that you may want for developing a skill set.

Cheers,
L

L, I'm going to pick up a book by Mors when I go to Chapters.

Also, how does Bear get a fire going so easily? I can't even get a fire working that well/quickly in my fireplace at home.

How does Bear get a fire going so easily? Practice makes perfect. Using a fiesteel and scraper or knife I've can get them going about as fast. The key is easily combustible tinder. And kindling.

You know the old joke where the guy in Manhattan stops someone on the street and says "How do you get the Carnegie Hall?" And the reply is "Practice, practice."

Its been a while since I watched them, but I remember the series Les Stroud did before Survivorman, "Stranded" (or One Week in the wilderness/Winter in the Wilderness; the original episodes, Stranded was a packaged into one hour special version) being edited more towards the education rather than entertainment side. You used to be able to watch them at the exn.ca website, but I can't find them now. You can order stranded from Les Stroud's website.

edit:
here is a brief trailer for the winter episode of Stranded

Nah, it's ok I think. The alarm system is just set a little more sensitive lately.

Vs is a grammatical precursor to adversary. Think aboutMors famous quote 'the bush is nuetral.' If Bear could stage a moose charge with a ramp to tip the moose over in flames he would.

Yes, he practiced firestarting. Technically, he's quite competent.

But he makes me look humble. That's not healthy, it leads to stupid mistakes and chances you don't need. And he's too much of a show man.

What color is the boathouse at Hereford?

The short answer is Yes & Yes.

When reading the responses on this forum you should bear one thing in mind (pardon the pun). Bear is not an American. He is British. So far as certain members of the American contingent on this forum is concerned:

One Brit Survival Expert Is Fine. Two Is Too Many. If anyone care's to disagree, perhaps one should consider the uncritical praise that Les Stroud get's. If one was to do a line by line critique of him, he would not come out of it looking good.

I consider the fact that Bear's audience (of whom I am one) are considered incapable of differentiating between the survival advise and the "showmanship" elements of the program both rude and insulting.

In my judgement, anyone who follows survival advice blindly is a fool who deserves to die.

Who is the second Brit? Stroud is Canadian.

I think he is referring to Ray Mears.

Gasoline .... sorry couldn't resist

I like Bear and I like to watch MvW. I like how IronRaven says that "He makes me look humble." Haha. Great quote.

While you do have to take some if not most of his show with a grain of salt, so must we all when we are camping or in the back country with our peers. I spent a week in Yosemite with more mosquitoes than I have ever seen and two of our party refused DEET and 'roughed it' with multiple bandannas 24/7 around their head. As a (hopefully) right thinking person I choose the DEET and would continue to do that every time.

I tend to watch MvW whenever I happen upon it, but what always turns me off is when he does something that would get a typical survivor killed or put them in a position to be killed for no benefit. Fore front in my mind is the episode in Patagonia where he makes a raft to cross the freezing lake instead of walking around it. Obviously the raft makes better television than just walking around it, but in a survival situation where you are alone don't you want to ensure your safety over everything?

That said, he seems to bring in a wider audience than Survivorman, I would speculate this is due to his charisma and his stunts (and a name like Bear!). So I can applaud his work for making more people aware of being prepared than Les might have reached. That is a sincere compliment, because I think someone with a half correct education is better than someone with none. If a viewing of MvW sparks an interest in survival that leads them to picking up a book on the subject and really educating themselves, well that's a win in my book.

Thanks for the links, some of the information there is pretty amusing.

One of the true steps into adulthood, is knowing what you don't know, and being able to admit it.

If someone has no survival training, they know they don't know. If someone mistakes MvW as survival training and thinks they are ready, they are twice as dangerous as before.

If MvW get someone to buy a survival book, I hope Griles didn't write it.

As I've said, he is technically competent. Now that I've watched a few more shows, I've even seen a couple things that I hadn't thought of before, like wrapping your shirt around your legs then go wading through high grass to gather dew.

That being said, he never saw a cliff that he didn't want to climb (most survival situations, incresing your risk profile is dumb), a hole in rocks he didn't want to crawl into (dumb at the best of times, you don't know what is in there), or a ball of elephant poo he didn't want to get fresh squeezed juice out of. He also routinely misportrayed his activities as authentic, like when he rode the "wild" horse with the very shiny shoes. Sorry, don't lie to your customers.

If you are doing something that you are describing as adventure television, or reality TV, that's fine. I think Survivor is tripe, but I accept it for what it is. Now that he admits he has his baggage train with the tent and the cot and caterers, I can accept him for what it is. But when you tell me you are sleeping in the dirt, no insulation under you, you aren't going to be neat and clean first thing in the morning. Even if you wash your face before turning on the cams, as I think Les sometimes has done, your clothing is still going to have some dirt on it.

And I'll be critical of Les. I think the destroying of the headlamp to get a fire was very questionable- he had other ways open to him, and a headlamp is just too useful to trash the first night. I'd have tried another method first. I think he's done some silly stuff trying to get out, becuase he's dingy from not having eaten much for a few days, dehydration and exhaustion. But I've done some pretty dingy stuff to, and I'm just as critical of myself. And I would love to have seen him go back to one or two of the places he'd been, with a pocket kit like an off the shelf AMK or BCB item, or a basic pocket kit of his own design and DOES NOT change (yes, you tailor your kit to the location, but a PSK is pretty standard, all terrain/climate stuff folks), a water bottle and a ferro rod, along with his SAK or multi. Heck, I don't take the trash out without most of that in my jacket pockets. *laughs*

That Bear at least takes the basics with him during each episode of Backwoods Bonehead is where I will give him credit. Then he goes and crawls into a small cave in cougar country. Yes, that is so brilliant. That is a good way to get your face torn off.

ironraven, right on about both Bear showing some useful things and taking some pretty dumb risks: the raft across and icy Andean lake; using a limestone cave to get through a rain forest; scaling almost every wall of rock or waterfall he sees; or deciding to descend inside a glacier. But he also provids some useful information.

Les, does some of the same things, like letting the sled dogs while crossing the Canadian north in winter, to really strand himself. He's got his own times when his info is not so good, like not knowing what to do for his foot rot in the episode when he runs back to the village because he thinks a jaguar is stalking him. He's got his own backup team too, although he seems to get less support than Bear.

There is some good info in both, but all of it should not simply be accepted as right.

And I'll admit both do a lot better than I would in most such situations.

Well, whether you think either of these superstars are right or wrong, I hope you test their advice before betting your lives on it.

Amen!

Echo that.

And Les' crew is a couple miles away. Bear's is a couple feet. *shrugs*

Les has a Satellite phone with him and is in contact with his crew at least once a day.

It's called viewers folks, the number of viewers affects the advertising revenue. A show where nothing goes wrong and there is no risk would be boring to most. There are reasons Bear Strips down, eats what he eats, and does what he does, they are people want to see it. Excitement sells the show. Good technique or bad, it sells the show.

Leigh
+100 on your post.

I wasn't aware the british islands extended primogeniture to 'survival experts.'Were this true, I would expect the peerage to recognise Lofty Wiseman, whose credentials are without debate and who books, and to an extent the very english Grey Owl's writings, and OH! this vedy bwitish guy named Baden-Powell who started in the UK a small boy's group, are the foundation Bear and Stroud and Mears all stand on.
So lets stop the Lord of the Flies tribalism about who's guru can beat up your guru.
This 'industry, or lifestyle, or whatever particular label it's many,many 'camps' come up with has one very poignant , seldom survived flaw: It you want to make a million dollars in survial, it's often best to start out with two million.
The survival industry 'pie' can only be cut up into so many wedges, regardless if it's a Mora or a TRACKER doing the cutting.
This is why everybody sells THE KNIFE and writes a book with endorsement from somebody famous for doing something utterly unrelated proclaiming them 'The world's greatest expert' and containing the same illustration of a brush shelter, the infamous solar still and runs around growling at any other popular 'experts' mere mention while scent marking the potential income producing customer base who sieze on personae or good P.R. with the same rational people buy toasters.
So, just like we all ultimately sleep in our own chosen sleeping bag; cold or warm- We all choose our gurus.
I'm going to bed. According to Carlos Castaneda, I should seek out my personal power spot for maximum energy. My animal spirit guide likes the spot by the furnace and far from his litter box,curled up by my left shoulder.
Everybody here DOES HAVE AN ANIMAL GUIDE? I have a booklet on the subject. just send $ 9.99 to ETS foundation + postage.
I even reproduced that brush shelter illustration.

Chris. +200

I am not knocking either one. To produce a show takes a crew. That is a pure fact, so them having a crew around is not an issue to me.
The big issue for me whether what they show works, or if it would help kill you.

As always, personal testing is required in a safe manner in a safe place.
There is no sense becoming a statistic because you were trying out a survival method.

I believe Man vs. Wild is only for entertainment and has very little to no survival information at all. Bear Grylls makes un necessary risks.

Survivorman has a lot more information.

Muleskinner

I emphasize to my Scouts and private clients that a lot of the things Bear Grylls does on his show are excellent examples of what NOT to do. In that, he is an excellent teacher.

I wish John Wiseman had a show! His book I have had, all these years, and STILL browse through it occasionally.
Me, I still think Bear is an idiot. Although, as others have mentioned; if it gets people outdoors, doing research, etc, then I am all for it. His new commercials, though, suck. although, he does poke fun at himself with them, and, for that I give him kudos.
I have nothing personal against the guy at all. Even his accomplishments, whether true, exagerrated, or downright wrong, dont really mean much to me. The recklessness of him does though; we here can distinguish what is valid and what is not; your average watcher cannot, BUT, may be intrigued enough to research further, and may even end up here .
If someone were to come to me & say "I did such-and-such, like Bear did on TV..." I would likely give them a medal for beating the odds....

Just add some PPPPPP to Man Vs Wild 'unreality survival show' and you just have in reality a holiday (vacation) travel TV show.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gNF7Vosujws

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QCfup5k34XA

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mO9Mcl2nvKU

Bear is purely entertainment, I stopped viewing that as anything more after he jumped from the cliff into the white water from a rather significant height...or crawled around in an ice gap under a glacier...or was it when he self induced hypothermia by rafting in a river on a couple logs lashed together, that was just above freezing... so many things I just couldn't imagine doing in a survival situation, but, great entertainment.

I still think Doug R. needs to write a book... I trust his opinion on more things than those other two.

That said, I prefer to watch Les. He does put himself into a survival situation, but typically doesn't go jumping off a cliff just to do it. Bear takes way too many chances in his "surviving". He often gives advice that you should never never do in a true survival situation.

Do I watch the show for entertainment? Sure. Does he give some good advice from time to time? Yes. Should you check his advice before even thinking about using it? You betcha!

I am going to have to add Carlos to my Lofty, Stroud collection of survival handbooks.

Of course there are contradictions about the general rule of not eating mushrooms and Castaneda, but I am only going to eat them if Juan Matus is around.

Speaking of which, my wife saw someone selling "Sugar Gliders", which to me is a fancy name for flying chipmunk at the Sportsman's Show this weekend. She asked me if she could have one for her birthday. I said no. Gotta put the kye-bosh on those impulses. She knew I was right thank God. Last thing we need is to bring home another chew toy for the puppy.

Hmmm, Ben its kind of hard to follow up that comment, at least not without hijacking the thread from "Beat up Bear and Les" to "Strange Pets I Have Known."

What a tempting thought!