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Man vs. Wild or Man vs. Reality - How to be a real Survivorman |
Discovery's two survival offerings, Man vs. Wild with Edward "Bear" Grylls and Survivorman with Les Stroud, have been the topic of material here in the past. You can read my previous article comparing the show styles and defending (somewhat) Grylls after it was revealed he was lounging in hotel rooms when it was implied he was actually roughing it in the wild in Bear Grylls Scandal. In that previous article I explained that Grylls' show was primarily geared towards (and catered to) entertainment while Survivorman was better suited as a realistic instructional medium. Both, however, had positive merits. I find myself, occasionally, wanting to retract that opinion. Man vs. Wild has enjoyed a greater level of success owing mostly to the fact that it caters to viewer's ever shortening attention spans and insatiable lust for excitement and entertainment. That's all well and good, but the show purports to teach survival techniques and there's a big problem with ramping up the adrenaline level and catering to entertainment when there's a chance, albeit a slim one, that somebody, somewhere, someday might find themselves in a survival situation with only their memories of a few television shows to pull them through. |
Every time Grylls down climbs something, I cringe. As an experienced climber, I can assure you that down climbing is a vastly more difficult and dangerous endeavor than is ascending. Going up, you can actually span distances greater than your reach by jumping up to your next handhold (a dynamic motion known as a dyno in the climbing world). It also helps that you can usually see what you're reaching for. The reverse, while down climbing, would require letting go of a handhold and praying the footing below is solid, wide enough and provides enough traction that you won't go tripping off into the abyss. |
Bear gives ample warning about the dangers and complexity of down climbing, mentioning that it's isn't uncommon to down climb to a spot from which you are neither capable of going up or continuing down, thereby leaving you stranded. In one episode filmed, I believe, in Copper Canyon, he actually finds himself in such a jam, realizing the position he's reached has led to a vertical drop too difficult to continue down. Without showing how he makes it back up, the scene changes to Bear moving on and looking for a new descent. No explanation or footage reveals if he made it back up from his dead end perch on his own or if his camera crew lent a hand (an option not available to a lone survivor stranded in the wilderness). |
Just as bad as down climbing is Bear's unending effort to find things to climb up. That a situation may arise in which no option exists but to climb isn't in dispute. My complaint is that he rarely (if ever) stresses the importance of trying to find a more hospitable route up. Nope… here's a mostly dead tree leading 70 feet up to God knows what. Now watch monkey-boy scramble! He mentions nothing about trying to find a sloping ascent first. Also omitted (unless it appears in the fine print appearing for a few fleeting seconds at the start of the show) is Bear's frequent use of a safety line during many of these ascents. That he uses one is fine. Protecting the star of the show makes sense. But to imply that we should all just have at it when faced with a real survival situation is entirely reckless and ill-conceived. |
Then there's the scene in which Bear back flips into completely muddied waters from six or so feet up in a tree. That kind of recklessness in a real survival situation could leave you impaled on the end of a submerged limb. There was no warning to check for submerged danger preceding the act. No, he wasn't recommending back flips as a survival tool, but including it in a survival show seems like a bit of an endorsement. Hey, you're alone in the wild… have fun! Go nuts, bros! Simply for being decidedly more mature, restrained and realistic, I'd love to give Stroud and his show, Survivorman, a free pass but I can't, in good faith, do so. Stroud doesn't engage in the same reckless antics as Grylls, but even his comparatively well made show with far more realistic interpretations of survival scenarios warrants a bit of common sense analysis before you decide to apply the lessons in the wild. |
Just one example is his explanation of removing the husk from a coconut. In the process of doing so, Stroud spears the husk on the exposed and sharpened root of a toppled tree and shows how to leverage away the husk. In doing so, he leans his body into the coconut and pries. What nobody mentions is that, should his hands slip or the root punch through unexpectedly, the next thing to be pried open will be Les' internal organs. While the tip for husking the coconut was completely accurate and valid, the execution was as reckless as sharpening a stick or slicing a vine by cutting towards your own hands (something Les does in another episode, resulting in a neatly sliced knuckle). Surviving in the wild can and often does entail taking calculated risks. With the exception of an occasional oversight such as the one mentioned above, Survivorman does a much better job of hitting that point home. But at the end of the day, the best message we can take away from both these shows is that they are geared towards drawing in ratings and that, sometimes, means doing things you should only do in a real survival situation when all other options have been exhausted. I'll wager this, though… you'll never find yourself in a situation in which a back flip off just about anything will, in any way, improve your odds of surviving. |
Many of the adventures covered by BAA are inherently dangerous and carry the risk of injury or death. The articles on this and all other site pages are meant to inform and inspire but are not recommendations to partake in specific activities without judging their safety for yourself, seeking professional instruction and ensuring you are healthy enough to participate. Should you choose to engage in any of the activities covered by our site, you do so at your own risk. By clicking any link to activity covered by this site, you and/or your representatives agree to absolve BreakAwayAdventure.com staff, contributors and affiliates of any and all liability for damages, loss, injury or death that may result from participating in such activity. As always, think safety first. |
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