Alone In The Wild TV show?

There's a prior thread on this from a few months ago. I watched a few bits but couldn't take the guy for very long. I've spent quite a bit of time in the Yukon and it was hard to get too excited about his situation.

DancesWithKnives
 
There were only 3 episodes (I think), because he left halfway through. I watched it and it wasn't really worth it.
 
Yea, he goes into the wilderness and loses his mind in 45 days. Paranoid fantasies and fatigue get the best of him.
 
GrinderMcgee said:
Yea, he goes into the wilderness and loses his mind in 45 days. Paranoid fantasies and fatigue get the best of him.
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I could understand how that could happen.

But this guy seemed so unprepared mentally it was just silly. I think he was doing it as a film project on a lark to prove something to himself and found he was completely over matched.

And the equipment... sheesh! I would have made a permanent camp and worked out of there. He had a rifle, a shotgun, a dutch oven ( a dutch oven!! ), a large billy, tarp, hammock, sleeping bag, several pounds of oats and barley, etc. Then he said that he had consulted a regional edible plants guy before the show, so he was at least coached to some extent on the local edibles. He even had a full, normal sized tackle box, and a nice spinning reel. So much gear!

Truthfully, it looked to me like he was on a vacation.

I didn't understand the whole "in tears" part that went on for the last 10 minutes of the show. I think he started feeling sorry for himself, and in the face of extreme malnutrition and the resulting chemical imbalances, his mind went to a bad place and he couldn't quit feeling sorry for himself.

I would hope that with a sporting goods store worth of equipment to go along with me I could do better than he did. One thing for sure though, when I wanted to have a good cry and pity party I would have at least turned off the cameras.

That show was a real waste of time.

Robert
 
The good part is, he may have convinced a few others who were no more prepared than he was that it wasn't as much fun as they might have thought.
 
remmmm said:
It says it's a four part series, but I can only find the first three. I'm downloading them now to check out. Anyone know if it's worth watching?
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Its only 3 parts, i got them myself.

I thought the show was ok, a different take on the survival genre. But i did think there was too much crying and whining, but the guy was obviously not cut out to being alone. And if theres one thing that can break a trip its way too much gear, and this guy had a ton of it. I almost broke into a sweat seeing how heavy his pack was when he was struggling from one camp to another.

This guy wasnt Les Stroud, Dick Proenekke or even Bear Grylls :D, IMO the thing that broke him was the lack of food and a social life. He stated at one pint that whenever he had food enough he was happy being in the beautiful wild, but when he was starting to starve, the wild turned real ugly. Lets not forget he was bound by the rules and regulations, preventing him to shoot the moose and caribou he saw. One of those would have kept him fed for a long time.

It was ok wacthing it for the first time, but its not a series id buy and rewatch again and again.
 
anyone have a link to see the whole debacle unfold??

I love a good train wreck, I had someone break down on me 11 days into a 17 day excursion. Had to be the wimps good time/happy fun/ you can do it cheerleader. Seeing a 6'1 185 pound man crying over blisters/bugbites and a med. degree wrist sprain/bruised knee was funny and annoying at the same time. Kept telling him to slow down and pick up his feet, he would get tired, then push extra hard to "get it done". I swear he would have been one of those cheechakoo's that would have given up if he was alone.
Every morning was an hour whinefest with me packing up everything, took me 4 years after the trip to just go fishing in a boat with him for the day. His face still irks me.........
 
^^That is hilarious. But how many people are there that start bitching and complaining after a simple weekend car camping even? Les only does 7 days at a time, this guy made it nearly 7 times that.

On the "Alone in The Wild" it seemed he started using the camera as a buddy to talk to and confide in, rather than a devise to document his survival. He only seemed to turn it on to vent and cry and whatever else he did without video.
 
I mentioned in the other thread that he looked to me like a guy who was really messed over because of some of the restrictions placed on him about hunting in particular. I'm not saying there aren't other things that he should have done and could have done but that was one element.

It also would not have surprised me at all if his near starvation was responsible for lots of electrolyte/hormone and other issues that may have been directly screwing with his moods and mental state. His heart rate was 28 at one point. He stayed out for 50days? IIRC. That is not an inconsequential feat in my mind.

KR
 
GrinderMcgee said:
^^That is hilarious. But how many people are there that start bitching and complaining after a simple weekend car camping even? Les only does 7 days at a time, this guy made it nearly 7 times that.

On the "Alone in The Wild" it seemed he started using the camera as a buddy to talk to and confide in, rather than a devise to document his survival. He only seemed to turn it on to vent and cry and whatever else he did without video.
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Yep well said, Your also forgetting about his friend Bruce the Moose:D

It's not all that bad though, he could have been well off if it weren't for hunting regulations because of the season he was in.

as mentionned its constant highs and lows from when he's got a full stomach to starving. He has lost a considerable amount of weight, and I'm sure the lack of food takes quick toll on your mood.
as from a direct quote from the 3rd episode:

"When I got food, this place is just... Mind blowing, it's wonderful! When I haven't got food, it's UGLY! and it's hard and it's hard to deal with."

so to sum it up he wakes up mornings after a full meal or a nice sun rise with a nice view with a real high. but as the day unfolds he breaks down, beating himself up more then he should instead of keeping his cool about things. Ranting about how hes so miserable and just wants to give up, he hopes to break his leg so he can call it in and be transported out.

The show isn't all that bad to tell you the truth, there are just more then the usual type of breakdowns I'm use to.
 
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kr1 said:
It also would not have surprised me at all if his near starvation was responsible for lots of electrolyte/hormone and other issues that may have been directly screwing with his moods and mental state. His heart rate was 28 at one point. He stayed out for 50days? IIRC. That is not an inconsequential feat in my mind.
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Not to mention the effects of isolation. I read some material a few years ago that studied the effects of isolation on human beings, and the effects were profound on some folks. It was a study commissioned by the military, and they found that isolation from other human beings was harder on almost all participants than any other aspect of solo survival.

Although I know most here picture themselves as perfect rugged isolationists, I wonder how any of us would actually do if we were separated from friends and family (especially if you like your family!) while your body was slowly being eaten alive from within.

Still though, I think the bottom line is that this guy just wasn't prepared mentally. As noted, he did have more gear than the settlers that trekked across the nation two and a half centuries ago. He only got the easy part of the equation right.

He is the absolute perfect example of an issue that has been beaten to death here, and that's the fact that the best piece of survival gear you have is your brain. He should have built up to this, and he would have had a better idea of what to expect under those conditions.

Robert
 
midnight flyer said:
Not to mention the effects of isolation. I read some material a few years ago that studied the effects of isolation on human beings, and the effects were profound on some folks. It was a study commissioned by the military, and they found that isolation from other human beings was harder on almost all participants than any other aspect of solo survival.

Although I know most here picture themselves as perfect rugged isolationists, I wonder how any of us would actually do if we were separated from friends and family (especially if you like your family!) while your body was slowly being eaten alive from within.

Still though, I think the bottom line is that this guy just wasn't prepared mentally. As noted, he did have more gear than the settlers that trekked across the nation two and a half centuries ago. He only got the easy part of the equation right.

He is the absolute perfect example of an issue that has been beaten to death here, and that's the fact that the best piece of survival gear you have is your brain. He should have built up to this, and he would have had a better idea of what to expect under those conditions.

Robert
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Don't forget that isolation is/was the punishment used by prisons all over the world and short of physical torture or death is considered the worst of them all. When your body is feeding on itself 24/7 and all you have to think about day after day is that your starving, I suspect that more than one of us might have some serious psychological issues with that just as many prisoners have had. And yes I understand that there are other aspects to the prisioners that he didn't need to deal with.

I do agree that he might not have considered what he was getting himself into and taken it seriously enough but there was also criticism of the show that they didn't prepare him enough for what to expect. Now I consider that he was a big boy and should have known but the criticism was made.

KR
 
And the bears! Good God, I have never seen someone freak out about bears so damn much in my life. He should have read Hatchet before he went on this trek, Don't worry about the bears, they do what bears do, eat and stay away from people,(except on occassion, when they eat them). He had a shotgun, whats to worry about. :-)
 
I really almost had to turn it off when I saw his electric fence. If he's that freaked out he should just rig an anchor and sleep in the damn canoe out on the water.
 
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