who is better at surviving out in the wilderness?

[moshquerade]

Cody is pretty crazy. He also seems to be pretty smart. The fact that he never wears shoes ups his game in my opinion.

I think just the opposite of Cody as far as not wearing any leg/foot protection. I think it's a weakness.

 

[Texashiker]

So Les carries his camera stuff. That's not a survival skill - that's cinematic skill.

Its the amount of time and effort it takes to pack the camera, set everything up, film, pack up, move, setup, film, take down, move,,,,,,,,,,,.

Les probably puts out twice the effort then the other people in the list do. Twice the effort means twice the calories and twice the water.

 

[dainthomas]

So Les carries his camera stuff. That's not a survival skill - that's cinematic skill. It doesn't mean that he's better at the critical things - shelter, fire, water, food. It shouldn't give any extra credibility to his survival skills. As far as survival skills, Les would be dead in a month. He screws up left and right (and admits it when he does.) When he puts himself in survival situations, he often has zero idea of what the hell he's doing; he just seems to be winging it a significant portion of the time. i.e. he tried to build an igloo with no clue how to do so. Don't you think that if you were going to be a survivalist in an area where building an igloo might be important for shelter, and you were doing a show on it, that you might actually know how to do it?

Bear has a camera crew. Bear shows how to survive in specific dramatic situations. So what if he stays at a luxury 4 star resort at night. At least he KNOWS what to do. Shelter, fire, water, food. Les seems to suck at #4. Big time. But, knowing that your crew is going to pick you up after 7 days means that you don't have to work hard for 7 days to find enough food to keep going; you suffer from hunger for a few days, boost your ratings, and somehow people on online forums argue that even though you would have starved to death, you're a better survivor.

Maybe Bear sucks at getting food too. We'll never know because he just has his posse run down to Safeway or whatever and get a rabbit whenever one of his traps fails to catch anything (which is always).

Les is motivation for me to never get lost. If an obvious badass like him can't catch anything, my carcass would be getting picked clean by coyotes within a few weeks tops.

 

[Fern]

So Les carries his camera stuff. That's not a survival skill - that's cinematic skill. It doesn't mean that he's better at the critical things - shelter, fire, water, food. It shouldn't give any extra credibility to his survival skills. As far as survival skills, Les would be dead in a month. He screws up left and right (and admits it when he does.) When he puts himself in survival situations, he often has zero idea of what the hell he's doing; he just seems to be winging it a significant portion of the time. i.e. he tried to build an igloo with no clue how to do so. Don't you think that if you were going to be a survivalist in an area where building an igloo might be important for shelter, and you were doing a show on it, that you might actually know how to do it?

Bear has a camera crew. Bear shows how to survive in specific dramatic situations. So what if he stays at a luxury 4 star resort at night. At least he KNOWS what to do. Shelter, fire, water, food. Les seems to suck at #4. Big time. But, knowing that your crew is going to pick you up after 7 days means that you don't have to work hard for 7 days to find enough food to keep going; you suffer from hunger for a few days, boost your ratings, and somehow people on online forums argue that even though you would have starved to death, you're a better survivor.

I realize that Les works harder and takes more risks, but as said above, it doesn't much matter. I've seen Les fail so many times I can't vote for him. I'd give him a A+ for effort, but I think he lacks some training/experience.

Bear has the training (special forces). He's also a fvcking nut. Given that he'll eat anything, I think he'd have a much chance of surviving as anybody else.

Cody and Dave. Having two peeps is a huge advantage - one can get food, the other make a fire. And I've never seen anyone as good at fire starting skills (sticks, friction method etc) as Cody. Dave also has training as Marine sniper or something similar. And Cody has been teaching people how to live off of the desert for many years. I have no doubt these two could survive as well as anybody.

Mikke Hawk (choose your spelling, I've seen it with multiple 'k's or not). He's good and also has special forces training. I think he's the best for jungle survival. He's pretty good in a lot of other enviroments as well. I don't see him having trouble actually surviving either.

Fern

 

[mizzou]

Bear is ridiculous, his advise is horrible.
"Oh, what is this? Negative -10 Calzeeus. Time to strip down to my knick'as and skinny dip of the peak of this glaseeuhh"

I like watching dual survivor for the entertainment and the knowledge


les is just straight up knowledge, and I really like how hes by himself

 

[Jaepheth]

Winner is the first group to do an episode set in Detroit.

 

[Fern]

Bear is ridiculous, his advise is horrible.
"Oh, what is this? Negative -10 Calzeeus. Time to strip down to my knick'as and skinny dip of the peak of this glaseeuhh"
-snip-

The point wasn't to skinny-dip.

It was to demonstrate how you survive if you fall through the ice into freezing water.

Fern

 

[mizzou]

The point wasn't to skinny-dip.

It was to demonstrate how you survive if you fall through the ice into freezing water.

Fern

he's known to do it multiple times, the one I'm referencing is when he decides to jump in to get across an easy (mean shorter) path between two peaks on a coastline

But yeah you sure as hell don't want to just jump in with your clothes on as it = insta death when you get out.

He just has a habit of utilizing SEAL style training in situations where your average joe just can't do it. There was a episode of survivalman where LEs basically ripped on Bear for drinking his own pee, almost at the drop of a hat. Les said it's probably not sanitary, probably little to nutritional/hydration value as chances are you aren't pissing clear, and you will vomit.


I "WILL" Give props to Bear though for wearing a seal-skin jacket. That was hilarious and it seemed like a great idea

 

[FoBoT]

i'll take Les ANY day over the hippie or tv boy for a real world situation

 

[bradley]

So Les carries his camera stuff. That's not a survival skill - that's cinematic skill.

Alternatively, seen in a more pragmatic way, having producers and camera operators in such close proximity makes it easier to engineer reality and pull shens.



GRYLLS' THRILLS BOGUS: EXPERT SURVIVALIST CHARGED WITH CUSHY SHORTCUTS
By DON KAPLAN
New York Post
Updated: Tue., Jul. 24, 2007, 5:00 AM

Discovery Channel he-man Bear Grylls, the host of the survival-skills show "Man vs. Wild," is barely the man he seems to be on TV.

On the program, Grylls appears to camp out in quickly-built shelters deep in the wilderness while battling hypothermia and dehydration. But when the cameras stop rolling, Grylls has actually moved to luxurious hotels.

In the last two seasons, he and producers have contrived other scenes to make it appear as if Grylls is more skilled than he really is, a consultant for the show told The Times of London.

"If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive," said Mark Weinert, an Oregon-based survival consultant, who said producers hired him as an adviser for the show.

Discovery Channel officials declined to comment, but in the U.K., where the show airs with the title "Born Survivor," stunned network officials at Channel 4 said they are conducting an internal investigation.

"Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the 'Man vs. Wild' show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field," a spokeswoman for the network said.

"Moving forward the program will be 100 percent transparent and all elements of the filming will be explained up-front to our viewers. In addition, shows that are to be repeated will be edited appropriately."

According to Weinert, while filming in California's Sierra Nevada mountains - an episode in which Grylls, 33, is seen biting off the head of a snake for breakfast - Grylls actually spent some nights with the show's crew in a lodge outfitted with television, stone fireplaces, hot tubs and Internet access.

The Pines Resort at Bass Lake is advertised as "a cozy getaway for families" and is a luxurious hotel with its own spa on a lake.

In another instance, where Grylls was supposed to be surviving on a desert island, he was actually in Hawaii and spent nights at a motel, Weinert said.

The same episode had Grylls building a Polynesian-style raft using only materials around him, including bamboo, hibiscus twine and palm leaves for a sail. Weinert said he actually led a team of builders to construct the raft.

It was then taken apart so that Grylls could be shown building it on camera.

In another episode, viewers watched as Grylls tried to coax what seemed like a wild mustang into a lasso in the Sierra Nevada.

"I'm in luck," he told viewers, apparently coming across four wild horses grazing in a meadow. "A chance to use an old Native American mode of transport comes my way. This is one of the few places in the whole of the U.S. where horses still roam wild."

In fact, Weinert said, the horses were not wild but were brought in by trailer.

don.kaplan@nypost.com

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/item_sK5S85neNKD0T52mMeRqEK#ixzz1Pre9nDTm



Latest TV fake scenes: 'Grizzly attack' on survival show was man in fancy-dress bear costume
By JAMES TAPPER
Last updated at 15:18 30 July 2007
Daily Mail

To the viewers, it was the moment TV adventurer Bear Grylls narrowly escaped the attentions of a hungry wild bear.

Yet it seems he was not in quite as much danger as those watching might have thought.
Grylls was menaced by nothing more threatening than a colleague in a fancy-dress bear costume, according to a survival expert present at the filming.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to watch the bogus bear on the prowl...

Grylls, whose daredevil antics have entranced viewers of his Channel 4 series Born Survivor, had filmed a sequence for another show in which his makeshift camp seemed to be invaded by a grizzly bear in the middle of the night.....

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...n-fancy-dress-bear-costume.html#ixzz1PrfK5wE9

 

[pcgeek11]

Bear Grylls is a pussy.

Les is the man.

The other two fruits ... well they don't matter.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I'd give him a A+ for effort, but I think he lacks some training/experience

Wasn't he a survivalist training instructor for years, specifically for remote Northern Canadian wilderness areas? I'm pretty sure that guy is as genuine as it gets, and most other peoples' chances at success, including the other poll options, would be even lower.

 

[dougp]

So Les carries his camera stuff. That's not a survival skill - that's cinematic skill. It doesn't mean that he's better at the critical things - shelter, fire, water, food. It shouldn't give any extra credibility to his survival skills. As far as survival skills, Les would be dead in a month. He screws up left and right (and admits it when he does.) When he puts himself in survival situations, he often has zero idea of what the hell he's doing; he just seems to be winging it a significant portion of the time. i.e. he tried to build an igloo with no clue how to do so. Don't you think that if you were going to be a survivalist in an area where building an igloo might be important for shelter, and you were doing a show on it, that you might actually know how to do it?

Bear has a camera crew. Bear shows how to survive in specific dramatic situations. So what if he stays at a luxury 4 star resort at night. At least he KNOWS what to do. Shelter, fire, water, food. Les seems to suck at #4. Big time. But, knowing that your crew is going to pick you up after 7 days means that you don't have to work hard for 7 days to find enough food to keep going; you suffer from hunger for a few days, boost your ratings, and somehow people on online forums argue that even though you would have starved to death, you're a better survivor.

Let me understand this - when you go on vacation, you routinely learn what it will take to survive there?

Oh wait, you don't. Which is what Les was trying to show - how YOU would survive. Les fails, because nothing ever works exactly how you're instructed. If it did, car accidents would be minimal in bad weather because we'd know how to exactly get out of a hydroplane or icy situation!

Les doesn't eat if he doesn't catch or kill something, because you can't just eat random berries or leaves, etc. But he generalizes or learns from locals before he goes out - he admits this when he goes to more extreme places, like Africa or Alaska.

Unless you're carrying the SAS Survival Guide with you wherever you go, you'll never be prepared for what happens to you in a survival situation.

 

[dougp]

Wasn't he a survivalist training instructor for years, specifically for remote Northern Canadian wilderness areas? I'm pretty sure that guy is as genuine as it gets, and most other peoples' chances at success, including the other poll options, would be even lower.

Yes, he is a survival trainer. So are the two from Dual Survivor, who don't do any of the extremes that Bear does.

 

[DrPizza]

Let me understand this - when you go on vacation, you routinely learn what it will take to survive there?

Oh wait, you don't. Which is what Les was trying to show - how YOU would survive. Les fails, because nothing ever works exactly how you're instructed. If it did, car accidents would be minimal in bad weather because we'd know how to exactly get out of a hydroplane or icy situation!

Les doesn't eat if he doesn't catch or kill something, because you can't just eat random berries or leaves, etc. But he generalizes or learns from locals before he goes out - he admits this when he goes to more extreme places, like Africa or Alaska.

Unless you're carrying the SAS Survival Guide with you wherever you go, you'll never be prepared for what happens to you in a survival situation.

Why did Les retire? Because he couldn't hack it any more. He was finding it harder and harder to recover from starving himself for a week at a time. All he has EVER done is endure a week at a time. In many of the situations, he wouldn't have lasted a whole lot longer. Take a look at the things that Grylls has done that haven't been filmed for television. I'll take a Navy seal over some guy who manages not to kill himself a week at a time.

 

[DrPizza]

Let me understand this - when you go on vacation, you routinely learn what it will take to survive there?

Oh wait, you don't. Which is what Les was trying to show - how YOU would survive. Les fails, because nothing ever works exactly how you're instructed.

Oh wait, yes I *do*. Where I vacation, I know how to survive. It wouldn't be barely sustaining enough water to keep me going for 7 days - I'd be thriving with plenty to eat, and would make a much more comfortable shelter than half of the things that Les has thrown together.

 

[shortylickens]

Chuck Norris.

/thread

 

[TheSlamma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4NiPPzAB-4

 

[SP33Demon]

I think just the opposite of Cody as far as not wearing any leg/foot protection. I think it's a weakness.

Not if you've been living in the desert for 20 years on your own like tribesman, and your heel has developed a much much thicker skin as a result. Who will burn more calories, a person going barefoot or someone wearing 8lbs of footwear (boots)? Also, Cody doesn't *always* go barefoot in extreme areas.

Traveling to certain places across the globe including South Africa, Thailand and Mexico, with Dual Survival partner Dave Canterbury, Cody notes there are certain conditions where his barefoot lifestyle just isn’t feasible.

“In Peru, for example, for Dual Survival season one, I had to make a pair of sandals out of a Volkswagen tire because the desert was so nasty and it wasn’t nasty heat, it was very sharp volcanic rock and these little bastard cactuses that were literally everywhere…Here’s where I would put on something to cover my feet probably like a sandal or a flip flop and that’s very, very hot ground temperatures, that’s extreme cactus or just acres and acres and acres of lava or in the case of a few shows on Duval Survival, I’ll put on three pairs of non-threadbare wool socks for snow and ice and they really work well.”

http://www.cyinterview.com/2011/05/...stone-shoeless-ness-survival-skills-and-more/

He will adapt to his environment and isn't set in his ways (i.e. always go barefoot). He is probably the most humble and pragmatic out of the four which goes a long way to surviving. For example, the Marine (Dave) is kind of a princess. He was complaining about not having meat to eat and wouldn't wear the piss towel over his head in the desert (and ended up drinking all their water as a result). You can't have pride in the wilderness if you want to live long enough to be rescued.

 

[Zargon]

LOL at the fools calling bear a pussy.

SAS paratroopers are not pussies

also the youngest briton to scale everest

sensationalizing his show != him being a pussy

 

[SP33Demon]

LOL at the fools calling bear a pussy.

SAS paratroopers are not pussies

also the youngest briton to scale everest

sensationalizing his show != him being a pussy

Nah he's not a pussy, just a fraud.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I bet this guy would make them all look like amateurs:

he's dead in two days in arctic conditions, unlike Les Stroud.

Les Stroud is legit, he's done it real and on his own suffering the elements and in just about every environment that would be tough to survive in, not just the jungle or desert

 

[Zargon]

Nah he's not a pussy, just a fraud.

heh no argument here

he's dead in two days in arctic conditions, unlike Les Stroud.

Les Stroud is legit, he's done it real and on his own suffering the elements and in just about every environment that would be tough to survive in, not just the jungle or desert

bear is pretty legit outside the TV show. hes climbed some serious mountains, including a few no one had done before,

 

[bunnyfubbles]

bear is pretty legit outside the TV show. hes climbed some serious mountains, including a few no one had done before,

I never said he wasn't, he'd rape that tribal dude in arctic conditions as well

but as far as the survival shows go Les Stroud's Survivorman really was the only legit show because he didn't have a camera crew right there to bail him out in a moments notice or keep him mentally encouraged.

He'd actually be able to fail his own self imposed survival tests, whereas the other shows have sequences that are obviously staged to make things more dramatic or highlight some sort of technique or survival trick and give the illusion of infallibility.

I'll give Bear props for doing absolutely crazy shit, but then we don't get to see the video of him throwing up in his hotel room the night after he eats a goat brain.

 

[DrPizza]

Survivorman, episode xx

Cliffnotes:
"Hi, I'm Les, I'm in the middle of nowhere."
"I've gotta build a shelter."
"Ohhh woe is me, I have to carry my camera gear."
"Ohhh woe is me, I have to carry my camera gear."
"Here's a tiny bit to drink."
"Ohhh woe is me, I have to carry my camera gear."
:whiste: <harmonica> :whiste:
"There are big scary animals out here in the dark. I'm too worried to sleep well."
"Ohhh woe is me, I have to carry my camera gear again."


DrPizza's survival tips 101: (applies to my neck of the woods.)
Okay, so you find that you're lost. Stay the fuck where you're at. (This means that if you have a bunch of camera gear, set it up. You won't have to lug it around for miles.) Someone will come looking for you, unless you were too stupid to let anyone know roughly where you went.

Build a shelter. You have a lot of time to do this. As you're bringing back materials for the shelter, bring back firewood. Get a fire started while you're taking a break. Not a tiny little boy scout fire, but a big ass fire. Daytime: Throw a lot of green branches on the fire every once in a while. Smoke makes a great signal to get help. Plus, as you wander about looking for food, you can find your way back to the fire easily.

Food/other
Let's see... cattails. The inside of the brown part, when somewhat mature is great for tinder. If there are a ton of them, you can also use the insides to stuff a shirt or something to make a nice fluffy comfortable pillow. Pillow. Did you hear that Les? I'm going to turn my t-shirt into a pillow. What's that? Do I hear a collective voice of Les Stroud fans saying "but, you'll get cold without your t-shirt!" You can also stuff it in your clothes to act as a natural down like material. The roots are edible, as well as small shoots.
Just off the top of my head - dandelions, staghorn sumac, mints, wild carrots, stinging nettles (be careful picking them!) Plus, there's birch (inner) bark - the twigs are yummy, acorns (grind, soak in water to get out the tanins), sassafras, ... (not to mention all the berries, wild apples, etc.)

Need better food? This time of year, if I tried, I could probably catch at least a dozen snakes in an hour. Snakes are edible. Porcupines are relatively easy to catch up to... make sure you have a nice long stick to whack them over the head. Their needles also make a nice fire starter (or so I've heard.)