Hi all, just wanted to give a heads up to our UK members (and anyone abroad who can get this), theres a new series on Channel 4 starting on September 10th at 9pm called "Alone in the wild".

One guy, basic gear and a camera, he tries to survive for 3 months.

Heres a little about the series...

In this opening episode, Ed is flown into the Canadian wilderness. As the plane disappears, he's instantly overwhelmed by the realisation that he is completely alone. He finds it hard to make decisions, but manages to set up camp.

He's frightened and nervous of every sound and movement around him. As the days go by, it dawns on Ed that the escapist dream is a lot harder than he ever imagined.

Heres a biography of the guy doing it....

Ed (38) was chosen for his professional and technical abilities as a cameraman/producer, his proven physical ability in the world's most hostile locations and his passion for the idea of living wild for three months.

He is not a survival expert like Ray Mears or Bear Grylls but a very competent outdoorsman who, while growing up in rural Scotland, developed an affinity with nature.

Before breaking into TV as a cameraman/sound recordist on a series of ballooning adventure films, he trained as an architect. Since then, he has worked on numerous high profile shows for C4, ITV, BBC and Discovery.

His early years in rural Scotland where introduced Ed to mountaineering and in 2007 he summited Everest as series producer of the hit Discovery show "Everest: Beyond the Limit". Following this he filmed an expedition to the North Pole and he has recently summited Everest for a second time. He is an accomplished ice climber, Ed also holds advanced diving qualifications and is a qualified AIDA 3* freediver.

Ed is essentially a normal bloke who lives in London with his long-term girlfriend Amanda and relishes the challenges being in nature can bring.

I going to follow this series, i like the fact that he's not an expert like Ray Mears and the likes. Hopefully that will bring a little more realism to the romantic idea some people have of surviving in the wilderness.

CX.



[edit on 29/8/09 by CX]

For camera equipment alone for 3 months he'd need a rucksack weighing the same in his weight (batteries, spare parts etc) otherwise there'd be no point in the show.
I think this is another Bear Grylls type show where it *seems* the guy is struggling but in actual fact the hotel and helicopter is just around the corner. It'd be intresting to see when he comes across any obstacles just how many things he suddenly starts to have in his possesion that appear out of nowhere (safety harnesses, crampons, matches etc.)

Originally posted by ROBL240
For camera equipment alone for 3 months he'd need a rucksack weighing the same in his weight (batteries, spare parts etc) otherwise there'd be no point in the show.
I think this is another Bear Grylls type show where it *seems* the guy is struggling but in actual fact the hotel and helicopter is just around the corner. It'd be intresting to see when he comes across any obstacles just how many things he suddenly starts to have in his possesion that appear out of nowhere (safety harnesses, crampons, matches etc.)

Good point.

I'll still watch it, i'm hoping it will be a bit less dramatic than Bear Grylls.

CX.

This will air on the National Geographic channel in the US as well. They had a preview episode in July showing how he prepared. He also spent 2 weeks alone (last summer) to prepare and they showed the film. He was ok at first but the lonliness really took a toll on him and he was crying/freaking out. This show is similar to Survivorman (Les Stroud), a man alone with his own camera equipment, no help. Bear Grylls on the other hand has a crew with him, the running joke "Im here all by myself.................with my crew".

Very interesting indeed! There might be more to learn from this
bloke than Bear Grylls or Les Stroud. Mistakes have much to
teach us all.

I'm wondering if he might have eaten some of the
same plant that the kid in "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer did. It
was a plant listed as edible but he ate the wrong part which
somehow messed up his digestion and he couldn't properly process
his food.

I find his efforts commendable and I don't see this as a failure at
all. It shows the limitations most of us will have when faced with
a similar situation. I hope they do air it, I will be watching if
I can. Cheers CX

Thanks for the update on this, much appreciated.

Well if that doesn't give you an idea of what a real life survival situation can do to a guy, i don't know what will.

Looking at his biography, i'd have said he was better equipped for this than half the members on this forum, yet he still struggled.

I am curious as to how much preparation this guy did before hand? It's all well and good having a packed CV of activities you're involved in, but will that help in a survival scenario?

This brings me back to something i mentioned a while ago on the forum. about actually getting out there and testing yourself and your skills, before you need them for real.

I know a couple of days in your local woods is no comparison to 3 months in the Canadian wilderness, but it's a good start to test youself.

Some people may struggle with just one night on their own in the cold outdoors.

Just out of interest, how was this guy keeping a blog if he was out there alone? Would he have had a solar powered laptop or tons of batteries? Would you even get an internet connection out there?

CX.

my blackberry can last a good week with decent signal and minimal usage, so if i used like twitter or a mobile blog site, i could just bring extra batteries with me....they have accessories to charge your phone with solar power, batteries, and i'm sure you could rig it to work on a crank or generator of some kind...

i've been looking at finding a way to use hydroelectricity to create a small charge...

if you have fire, steam would work, would require more work though...


as posted in the "B.0.B" or "go bags" i'm planning on practicing some things, maybe bringing some macgyver type materials with me, see what i can create, etc...

Despite my reservations about the series I believe theres only 3 episodes to this anyhow. It may show me things I havent seen and learnt first-hand from Ray Mears and its no harm if anything I learn from it comes in beneficiary one day.

I just saw this show on Nat Geo. Makes you realize just how tough it would be if suddenly thrown into a survival situation. This guy had time to prepare, had food, gun, fishing gear etc. He also had a life line with the emergency phone and he did not make it. If this was for real with no life line and winter coming on. If you plan on surviving if the SHTF, you can learn from this.