Thu, Nov 9, 2006
The Moab Desert in Utah is one of the top extreme sports destinations in the United States, with more than a million visitors each year. But sweltering temperatures and deadly predators can make it very dangerous. Bear is dropped into the desert to demonstrate how a lost hiker can make it back to civilization, with merely a bottle of water, a knife and a flint. On his journey, he travels down a maze of narrow canyons, stumbles upon rattlesnakes, and escapes quicksand, showing viewers how to survive in one of the harshest environments on the planet.
Thu, Nov 16, 2006
Each year, 500,000 Americans visit Costa Rica to explore some of the world's most amazing and environmentally significant wilderness preserves. Last year alone, more than 50 visitors had to be rescued by the Red Cross. Bear sets out on an incredible jungle adventure as he parachutes into the rain forest of Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula to demonstrate how someone lost in the jungle can make it out alive. His journey takes him up 100-foot trees and down waterfalls that descend more than 120 feet. He encounters snakes, mosquitoes and dangerous river currents, while searching for food and water and setting up camp.
Thu, Nov 23, 2006
Thousands of skiers, snowboarders and mountain climbers visit Alaska each year in search of virgin snow, and hundreds of people end up lost in the wilderness. Armed with only a bottle of water, a knife and a flint, Bear's challenge is to make it to the coast from where he hopes to find signs of civilization. During his journey, he travels down extreme mountain slopes, over glaciers and through bear-infested forests, and navigates a small boat through treacherous ice floes. Bear shows viewers what it takes to survive in one of the coldest environments on earth.
Thu, Nov 30, 2006
Bear abseils from a helicopter onto Mount Kilauea, an active Hawaiian volcano, so he must tread with unusual caution, given the barren, brittle soil of molted lava, at places even breaking over hot magma, which makes his shoes catch fire, and use his t-shirt as 'gas mask' for sulfuric fumes. Descending into a crater is perilous, sharp-edged and yields very little. After descending the mountain slope, Bear heads into the pristine surrounding jungle. Grylls makes a traditional kukui nut torch to explore a lava tube and finds water, then uses smoke to placate a bee hive to get honey. Ultimately, he follows seabirds to find the coast and people.
Thu, Dec 7, 2006
Bear enjoys a risky parachute jump into California's largest, rough and varied mountain range, landing in a lake and hastily stripping to his boxers and improvising fire to avoid hypothermia as the nights are freezing. Using techniques of local Indian tribe, he climbs a tree for orientation, works his way down a peek and crosses changing terrain, through dizzying cliffs, satisfies his hungry self with the little food he can catch, like small snakes and a stick-stunned rabbit, always racing the clock for food and shelter by daylight. Having crossed the forest and nasty shrubs of the 'chaparral', he reaches the mighty river Colorado, builds a raft and finds it a poor match for the rapids, yet perseveres.
Thu, Dec 14, 2006
A parachute from hot air balloon brings team Bear to Masai country in northern Kenya, a savanna favorite with safari tourists. Bear shows how dangerous getting behind there can be, say as your vehicle breaks down, and how to survive and seek rescue. Starting on the arid plain, Bear treats his graze wounds with medicinal aloe vera, navigates by the sky and shows healthy respect for both elements, notably the scorching heath and a volcano, and the mighty wildlife, especially big cats, elephants, rhinoceros, and when he must cross a river the crocodiles and hippopotamuses which infest it. After sleepless -wild sounds haunted- night barricaded by thorny branches in a cave, he eats whatever he can find, and out of potable water, as even the river bed is utterly dry apart from stinking pools, drinks even the brown drip from elephant dung.
Thu, Dec 21, 2006
Every year, 120 million people ski and climb the 80,000 square miles of the Alps, Europe's greatest mountain range. Unfortunately, every year hundreds of people die enjoying this beautiful wilderness because they're unable to survive the potentially fatal conditions at heights sometimes reaching 15,000 feet. Armed with a knife, a water bottle, a cup and a flint, Bear parachutes into the Alps to demonstrate vital survival skills. From a radical new technique to save lives in crevasse zones to building a snow shelter and showing viewers how to escape from a fall into a frozen lake, Bear puts his own skills to the test in this ultimate survival challenge.
Top-rated
Thu, Dec 28, 2006
Bear shows the challenges of stranding on an uninhabited minor Hawaiian island, as after shipwreck, albeit parachuted. He explores it for food, other resources, a suitable shelter, a signal fire, rain collection. Spear fishing and diving are very hard, the yield modest. So he builds a raft and sets out in high sea, despite the risks including thirst, hunger, sunburn -despite self-made skin protection- and a hungry tiger shark.