2006

S1.E1 ∙ The Rockies

Thu, Oct 26, 2006

Bear Grylls gets dropped in the middle of the Canadian Rocky Mountains near Canadian Border and must find his way back to civilization. On his way out, he must evade the danger of grizzly bears, jump 70 feet into a river, and abseil down a cliff.

7.9 /10

S1.E2 ∙ Moab Desert

Thu, Nov 09, 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.

7.7 /10

S1.E3 ∙ Costa Rican Rainforest

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.

7.7 /10

S1.E4 ∙ Alaskan Mountain Range

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.

7.9 /10

S1.E5 ∙ Hawaii: Mount Kilauea

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.

7.7 /10

S1.E6 ∙ Sierra Nevada

Thu, Dec 07, 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.

7.7 /10

S1.E7 ∙ African Savannah

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.

8.1 /10

S1.E8 ∙ European Alps

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.

7.9 /10

S1.E9 ∙ Desert Island

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.

8.6 /10

S1.E10 ∙ Everglades

Thu, Jun 14, 2007

This premiere episode finds host Bear Grylls stranded in the swamps of the Florida Everglades, where each year at least 60 tourists need to be rescued. With more than a million alligators, thousands of snakes and even black bears roaming these waterlogged lands, the area has more than its share of hazards. Bear demonstrates how to keep alligators at bay, deal with vicious razor-sharp grass and find stomach-churning food that will keep you alive if you find yourself stranded in this beautiful but dangerous destination.

8 /10

S1.E11 ∙ Iceland

Thu, Jun 21, 2007

While hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Iceland every year to witness freezing glaciers, steaming geothermal areas and huge black sand deserts, more than a thousand visitors find themselves requiring a rescue. Adventurer Bear Grylls demonstrates how to make a snow cave, find water in deep tunnels and avoid frostbite in this Arctic environment. Because finding food is a problem in this climate, Bear is forced to eat a sheep's eyeball and catch a ptarmigan (a wild bird). He also has to deal with blizzards and 50 mph winds as he attempts to reach safety.

8.2 /10

S1.E12 ∙ Mexico

Thu, Jun 28, 2007

After sky-diving down, Bear crosses the vast, scorching-hot Mexican Copper canyon, south of the US border. Bear finds the dehydrating heat by day -and icy nights- his greatest challenge while climbing up and down high, steep, unpredictable cliffs. The arid land, surprisingly varied with volcanic hot springs, waterfalls and a glacier, offers little water and sustenance, so he must filter unpolluted pools or finds steaming water and eat what he can catch, like fat grubs and tail-removed scorpions. Exploring a cave with a self-made torch, Bear braves his animal phobia, bats, and is delighted to find a river section with fish he can catch by hand after building primitive rock dams at both sides.

7.8 /10

S1.E13 ∙ Kimberley, Australia

Thu, Jul 05, 2007

Even by Australian Outback standards, Kimberley is a vast and desolate wasteland, home to an inhospitable wildlife with a record concentration of poisonous species. Bear braves it, paying due tribute to traditional Aboriginal survival skills, showing how stranded tourists may still hope to get out alive. Even he wrestles with the scorching heat, leaving most of the and dry and very hard to find water or food, so you can't be picky, eating anything not dangerous and drinking what you can, even recycling your own filtered fresh urine. After a storm in a hastily improvised shelter, Bear heads for the marshy lands near the coast, with a healthy respect for crocodiles, the sweet water being dangerous enough, but seaworthy 'salties' are believed to bite harder the tyrannosaurus, and aggressive in breeding season like then, yet Bear must prepare to wade or dive croc-infested, murky waters.

8 /10

S1.E14 ∙ Ecuador

Thu, Jul 12, 2007

Bear starts a testing journey trough tropical Ecuador paragliding down in the Andes, then works his way down into the Amazon jungle, trying to follow the course of water gradually swelling into a mighty stream, passing a cave requires getting over his aversion from bats. Wildlife is abundant, yet food not so easy to get, even if you know some local tribal techniques. He eats both a crucifix spider and giant larvae for the protein, making him all the more happy when a self-made bow and arrow allow him to fish-hunt in pools, for piranhas who aren't numerous enough to be dangerous, yet tasty. A bamboo bridge he constructs crashes to useless rubble, for lack of a canoe he braves the rapids on a tree trunk.

8.1 /10

S1.E15 ∙ Scotland

Thu, Jul 19, 2007

Bear is dropped in the Scottish Highlands, the wildest UK region, notably Cairngorm National Park, every year still quite risky for its many tourists. The unforgiving winter elements scourge Bear with icy wind, cold and precipitation, so he must regularly seek shelter in between threading carefully on snow, ice, slippery moss and sliding pebbles or dealing with snowy slopes with avalanche risk, a rotting deer carcass is inedible but can be skinned for a coat, alas too heavy to carry long. Food and potable water are scares, so he purifies with moss and sets rabbit snare traps yielding a glorious meal. Bear strips to his boxers to keep his clothes dry when he must cross water, notably the murky marshes which can act as quicksand.

8.1 /10