Does Bear Grills really cheat at his survival?

Question

I have heard rumors about Bear Grills cheating at his survival by sleeping in a hotel instead of outdoors and that in a episode were he swam across a lake with his pants blown up with air as a life jacket he was really wearing a life jacket.

Answer 1

I have no way to know if that is true or not. However, I do think that he takes risks on his show that one should NEVER take if in a survival situation!
It is entertaining and one can pick up some great tips, but he does not give an acurate account of the importance of laying low, conserving energy and minimizing risks that could get you killed.

Plus, he has a camera crew following him. If he got hurt there is no way they would stand by and let him die or go into shock.

Answer 2

In a recent interview with Bear Grylls in Outdoor magazine, Bear has said that some of the things on his show Man vs. Wild were set up and not naturally presented. He admitted to using the life jacket in the Rockies episode as per the direction of the producers (but he swore never to do so again (and he hasn't)) He also admitted to occasionally sleeping in "It made a good headline: "Bear stays in a motel when filming", but the truth is a bit less exciting. I spend a lot of nights under the stars, and for the times when I am not filming the live stuff out in the wild, or I'm about to illustrate something really physically exhausting, I stay with the crew in a base-camp lodge. As to the question "are things ever staged?", the answer is on occasions, yes. We have to condense so much action into a few days, and that involves good prior planning. But the production team have since edited the previous shows to make this clearer.

We are also making the shows for season 2 two hours long, instead of one, allowing us to go into more detail, and to see more of the role and challenges faced by the crew. I think people will enjoy that, especially since we'll now be working in some of the most extreme environments in the world, including the Sahara and Siberia"

So he didn't stay in a hotel, only a camping lodge; that was only when things got very bad. I still respect the man. He is a great climber. The "stunts" he shows are not normal situations. He purposely "jumps into lakes" to show what to do if ever in a situation like that.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

He has been, and continues to be, investigated by a British TV station that reported he spent the night in motels when he claimed to be outside, and that he was sneaking protein bars when he was allegedly rooting around for nuts and berries.

Bear in mind that everywhere he goes he is accompanied by a team of producers and cameramen who script and capture his "daring feats" for the camera. He strikes me as a huge fraud.

I would also add that most of what he does (dashing around in the woods, running down steep grades at breakneck speed, climbing trees, jumping off waterfalls, diving into cold rivers and streams, etc.) are stunts designed for exciting TV viewing. Doing these things in a true survival situation would make a bad situation worse by unnecessarily jeapordizing a person further.

Answer 5

In addition to everything else thus said so far...he also puts himself into situations that anyone participating in that activity would never get into.

ie...The skiing on a glacier in Alaska episode. Jerkweed Bear didn't bring ANYTHING a backcountry skiier would take. He was "forced" to ditch his ski boots and walk in the liners...what a joke. If he had the right boots (Alpine Touring...not Resort Downhill) to begin with he could have walked in them.

I wouldn't let Bear teach a survival class to my Boy Scout Troop let alone have a TV show.

Answer 6

Yes, he is a complete joke. Just look him up on youtube and get ready for some laughs. I was always taught stay dry, stay alive when it came to survival. The first thing that idiot does is find a river and jump in it.

Answer 7

If you want to watch a real survivor guy with no film crew then watch "Survivorman" on the same TV channel. He films all his own activities so it isn't as exciting to watch but it's still pretty interesting.

Answer 8

Bear Grylls is a fraud, he travels around with his camera crew, Les Stroud, the survivorman,is the real deal.

Answer 9

i dont about the hotel, but they taught us to use your pants as a life preserver in Boy Scouts, but ill still watch when i find it interesting

Answer 10

put it this way: he looks pretty good for only eating maggots and leaves for 5 days or whatever he claims that he does..still fun to watch though...