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Bear Grylls joins Condé Nast Traveler to share the essential survival skills everyone should know–from finding clean water in the desert to starting fires in Arctic conditions, and avoiding danger in the jungle. Drawing on years of adventure across mountains, deserts, jungles, and remote islands, Grylls breaks down the practical tips, tools, and mindset needed to survive the world’s most extreme environments.
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00:00I'm Bear Grylls and I've got to take some of the biggest celebrities Hollywood stars
00:05from prime ministers to presidents out into the wild into some of the great extremes of planet
00:11earth. I'm going to show you how to survive in some of the toughest places and some top tips
00:15to stay alive from deserts jungles to mountains and above all how to handle things when everything
00:21goes wrong. I've been lucky to take some incredible people into some of the world's great deserts
00:32from Michel Rodriguez in Red Rock country Nevada through to Tiffany Haddish in some of the canyon
00:38lands in Utah. I think often these sort of people arrive as rookies into an environment like the
00:45desert that is notoriously unforgiving, hot, often high so you're dealing with elevation as well
00:51and it can be quite an intimidating environment obviously because you've got all the snakes,
00:56tarantulas. Daddy's a tarantula, look. Daddy's a real tarantula.
01:02Your enemy is the sun and you're not going to win with dehydration or heat stroke. If you get that
01:08you're in trouble. When it comes to finding water it's got to be your top priority. You're looking
01:14for areas of green, areas where water is going to pool and collect in the shade and evaporate slowly,
01:20even patches of darker sand when you can dig down and often find a source of water. It's probably
01:27not going to be clean so you're going to need to filter it. I've done that before with Natalie
01:31Portman filtering through a pair of underpants. We're going to filter sludge water through
01:37underpants. Yeah. Desperate times, cool for desperate measures. Really you want to be boiling though water,
01:44especially if it's standing water in a little pool. In a lot of the canyons you'll find little pools of
01:50protected water but it's obviously going to be stagnant. Animals come to drink from it, animals
01:55die in it. So if you drink it, even if it's clear, it's probably going to be contaminated
01:59with bacteria or parasites. So always boil the water if you can. Gross. Well it's less gross than that.
02:08But that's not like a high threshold to start from. Yeah. It's all degrees isn't it? Okay.
02:20Look at that. Perfect. Is it? Sandstorms can be killers just because it becomes impossible to
02:27navigate and actually very hard to breathe. And once you get disoriented and you don't know which
02:31direction you're traveling and you try and fight the conditions of the wind, you're going to lose. So
02:36really you want to hunker down. You've got to cover your face, your nose and your mouth even if it's
02:41with like rip a bit of a t-shirt, make a bandana and don't try and move. You're better off
02:46waiting
02:46it out. Sandstorms often fast and furious but they move quickly. In extremity, I have had to shelter
02:53before from a sandstorm by cutting into a dead camel, using the carcass then to get out of that sandstorm,
03:02cover myself with the skin from the camel. It was a grim few hours but it did the job and
03:09I'd originally
03:09heard of a Berber tribesman in the Sahara Desert who saved his life by doing exactly that. I've learnt
03:16over the years always listen and learn from the indigenous people. They're the best survivors.
03:22So, in the desert, number one I'll be taking this, especially a metal one because you have metal,
03:28it means you can boil it, fill it up with water, boil it to make sure it's good to drink
03:32and then
03:33you know you're good to go.
03:39On Running Wild, one of the first journeys we ever did was with Will Ferrell.
03:44I think we'll take the edge off. This Twinkie. Yeah, he won't care.
03:52We took him to the tip end of Sweden, right on that arctic circle. I think out of all of
03:57the
03:57places I go to, I think arctic is especially hard, especially if you get the wet sort of arctic.
04:04When it gets really cold, all that moisture is dry, you know, snow. But when you're on the borderline of
04:10that arctic circle, the conditions can go between freezing and just above freezing very quickly.
04:16Therefore, things get wet, clothes get wet, you sweat, you get wet, and then it freezes,
04:21then you're in trouble. In arctic environments, before you start moving, strip down, go lightweight
04:26early. So you might start off a little cold, but it means you've got dry kit to put on later.
04:32Straight out of the tent, I'll take a lot of layers off, just a windproof, maybe one layer underneath
04:37and a windproof, then start moving. And then if you're sweating, a lot of that sweat evaporates
04:42away. And when you stop at the end of the day, you can put dry layers on and get warm.
04:47So the fire steel in the arctic really means life. As long as you're near the tree line,
04:53even if it's damp, you're going to be able to eventually, with a little work, start a fire.
04:57Once you've got the fire going, you can dry out gear, you can boil water, you can melt snow and
05:02ice,
05:03you can survive. Fire in the wild is life. Matthew McConaughey did it like a pro.
05:10The buzz is that you're just a little closer to the food chain and where you are in the food
05:15chain.
05:16And that's a natural high. I've always thought if I die, if I go as part of the food chain,
05:22I just feel there's an elegance to that, man. But you know what? So did also Uma Thurman. We were
05:28in
05:29the Welsh mountains in really wet, cold conditions. I just remember her hands shaking,
05:35trying to operate this and it was like it wasn't working and then boom, and that tinder goes and
05:41fire comes into life and you start getting the kindling on it and you suddenly realise now this
05:46is a game changer. Okay, just leave that there. We'll leave it, we'll build our flow around it.
05:51Okay, let's get some more. Oh, that is nice though. Maybe things have improved. It's cost me a little
05:57bit of my dignity and my underpants. That's a big sacrifice. It's a small price to pay, bro.
06:03Well, well done, well done. Once you have fire, you're then on the front foot again.
06:14Jungles are probably the most unforgiving of all of the terrains for the survivor. It's like sensory
06:20overload, whether it's the noise of the monkeys, then you've got all of the intensity of the rain,
06:25you've got the heat, you've got the humidity and then you've got a zillion things in the jungle that
06:31is out to sting you, bite you, prick you, cut you, scratch you, scrape you and kill you. I remember
06:37the
06:37first time I went to the jungle and reaching out for this tree and just needing to take a moment
06:42and just kind of rest for a second and reaching out and didn't look at the branch before I grabbed
06:47it. It's what soldiers always call the bastard tree because when you grab it, it's these tiny
06:52little thorns that are like that long, but you can hardly see them. They're so thin. And unless you're
06:56really looking for it, it just looks like a normal branch. You grab it and I've known it to go
07:01straight
07:02through people's hands. And then of course, you shout out loudly, bastard. But it kind of feels
07:08like often everything in the jungle is like that. It's out to get you. So I've operated in jungles
07:14all over the world from Belize to Borneo, you name it, Guatemala, Costa Rica. I think one of the things
07:22you've got to be especially mindful of is snakes. You get bitten by a highly venomous snake, you're not
07:27just in trouble, you're dead. Number one, good snake proof boots and move very considered. You
07:34know, it's why just charging through the jungle, you're not going to win. You're going to get snared
07:39up. You're going to get lost. You're probably going to get bit. So take your time, make your presence
07:43known. Heavy footfall is actually good. Snakes want to move out of your way. They'll often bite when you
07:49surprise them and they don't know you're coming. I'll often use a stick. If I'm worried about snakes in an
07:54area, I just make lots of noise in front of where I'm moving, clear snakes away. And I've been bitten
07:58by a snake before and luckily it was a dry bite from venomous snake. But even a dry bite, they
08:04always
08:04say, soldiers say, snakes don't brush their teeth. You know, there's going to be a ton of bacteria in
08:09a snake bite. So really you want to get it washed. You want to get antibiotics. Consider yourself lucky.
08:14If it's a dry bite with no venom, you're lucky. And the final top tip for the jungles is to
08:19keep a dry
08:20set of clothing, waterproofed in your backpack. And then when you go to make shelter in the evening
08:26and you get your poncho up and it might be raining all night, but you're under that in your hammock,
08:30you're going to take your wet gear off. You can put dry gear on. You can powder your feet. You
08:35can
08:35give you any scratches or anything a chance to heal. But when everything is damp and humid,
08:41wounds fester, bacteria grows, things get infected. And you want to spend the whole night if you can
08:47in that dry set of clothes. And then in the morning, you have to do the wet dry routine again.
08:53You have to take that off. You've got to do the horrible thing of putting wet clothes on
08:56and then get out, get into the day. But the mistake people make, they go, oh, I'm so nice in
09:03this dry
09:03clothes. I'll just start in the dry clothes. Invariably they're wet. And then you've got two
09:08sets of wet clothes. Then you're in trouble. If I was to take one tool into the jungle, it would
09:13actually be
09:14a machete because with the machete, then you can start to make these things. You can make tools.
09:20You can make weapons. You can make shelters. You can make even little rafts to navigate down streams
09:26and rivers. You can cut bamboo. You can create friction fire. So now you've got tools, weapons,
09:32travel, transport and fire. Now you're well resourced to get yourself out of there.
09:42If I had to pick one environment over the years that I've taken a running wild guess to the most,
09:48it's probably the mountains. There's something magical about mountains that draws all of us,
09:53I feel, as humans. There's that kind of innate appeal and intrigue about the mountains that is
10:00magnetic for me. But mountains are also dangerous, unforgiving places. Gravity is always going to win.
10:06You're only going to fall once. You can never get complacent. Do not take your eye off the ball
10:11and be prepared. I think one of the things that people often underestimate about the mountains
10:17is actually how hard it is coming down. If you think about it, going up is always feels more natural.
10:23It feels easier. Your direction of travel, you can see where you're putting hands and feet. And also
10:28the adrenaline is also pumping for going up. But coming down is often at the end of the day. You've
10:34done
10:34that summit. You're tired. The adrenaline is gone. The concentration lapses come in. And it's why so
10:40many of the accidents actually happen on the descent. And also when you're moving down, it's hard to see
10:47where you're putting your feet. And then the final danger of the descent is where you can't actually
10:52see over what's ahead. And people often find themselves getting what they call rim rocked,
10:58where they're descending. And they then reach an area that is too steep or vertical. They realize
11:04they can't go on. And they turn around, try and go back. Now it's too steep to go up. I
11:09remember
11:09actually one of our first ever Running Wild guests, Dion Sanders, prime time. Thought he was going to be
11:16okay with heights, but was just terrified. And we found ourselves in a situation where he just couldn't
11:21go on. But we also couldn't go down because of the kind of type of terrain. It was easier to
11:26climb up
11:27than to go down. And what should have been just like an hour turned into an absolute epic of a
11:32day
11:32to get him off this mountain. But credit to him. He kept going. He never gave up, overcame his fears,
11:38and we eventually made it out. I just rappelled down a 60 foot clip. Might have been more. By the
11:45time
11:45I finished telling the story, it's going to be 200 feet. In terms of safety in the mountains, obviously,
11:50a rope is always going to be king. But a rope is for much more than just climbing. Rope also
11:56allows
11:56you to build shelters. It allows you to set traps if you need to catch food. It allows you to
12:02get out
12:02of tricky situations like maybe you've got a little bit rim rocked, you know, where you can't go down or
12:07can't go up without something to help you. And that something is often that rope. Ropes in the mountains
12:13saves lives. Everyone always thinks desert islands are wonderful, going to be full of resources and
12:23coconuts and nice sunbathing on the beach. They are often deserted islands for a reason. They're
12:29deserted because there's very little that can sustain human life on the majority of desert islands.
12:35Boiling hot conditions, very abrasive, very corrosive, salt water conditions to try and survive in.
12:42Limited food and no running water. And without water, in terms of survival, you're in trouble.
12:48If you are stranded on a desert islands, you have to create water from the sea. You can do that
12:53with
12:53solar still where you dig a pit. You cover it and seal it with some plastic. Maybe it's a jacket
12:59or tarpaulin or some bits of plastic you scavenge. And then you put a little pot or water bottle or
13:07something to collect the water underneath. And then you can pee into that and overnight that will heat
13:11up and create a humid environment. And then that condenses on the underside of that plastic and drips
13:17into that little container. It's small amounts, labor-intensive, hard work. In terms of food on
13:24a desert island, you might be lucky and have a few coconuts if you're fortunate. If not, you've got to
13:30go to the sea. And that's where you're fishing, you're using dragnets, maybe even spearfishing. Make
13:36a spear out of a bit of wood and go try and hunt in the shallows for crabs or octopus
13:41or squid or fish.
13:42And it's little things often on desert islands. Like I've come ashore without shoes on a desert
13:48island before and realized that all the sand is like razor sharp coral. Now you're trying to survive,
13:54but you can't move anywhere apart from like hobbling around. Now you're trying to make some
13:57improvised shoes out of some banana leaves strapped around you. But everything is hard and difficult.
14:03If I was to take one thing to a desert island, it would be a good blade. Because again, with
14:08the blade,
14:08you can make spears for fishing. You can make little hooks for fishing out of bones. Fishing line
14:15from just the fibers from trees. But you need a good blade for a lot of this. Also with a
14:21blade,
14:21you can then create tools to make fire like friction fires or bow drills. You can make shelter. And
14:27maybe most importantly, you can collect catchment systems for rain. And ultimately, you're looking for
14:34rescue on a desert island. And a blade like this can reflect strong sunlight. And you can use as a
14:43mirror to angle that at a plane or passing boat. So yeah, like as always with survival, so much of
14:50it
14:50is about being resourceful and using everyday items in different ways. You know, your brain is your
14:58greatest tool. Being resourceful, improvising, adapting is so key. So there you go, a whole bunch
15:04of little tips and tricks to help you stay alive, whether you're in a desert island, on the jungle,
15:10in the mountains, in the Arctic, or in the desert. Remember, ultimately, it's about having that never
15:16give up spirit. Thinking smart, being resourceful, but ultimately, being tenacious, never say die,
15:23never give up.
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