Alone in the wild

I couldn't take all the crying when the show was on TV. That's what you get when you stick a Brit in the Canadian northern wilderness. Good scenery though :)
 
I actually just posted a response to a post of the same caliber on BCUSA. It goes something like this:


Iboschi said:
Skog, thanks for posting these! I enjoyed watching them!

To the armchair critics - I disagree that he was unprepared. He just wasn't FULLY prepared. He was a decent fisherman, was prepared to carry what he packed in, and knew how to shoot, field dress an animal, and chop wood. Yes, he over packed but we all could be thus tempted with the thought of a three month stay. I don't think he intended to move about as often as he did. Still, I think the largest challenge was the isolation.

Humans are social animals, and the experiment was two fold: Live in the wild, and do it ALONE. I'm not certain I could fare any better, even though I would consider myself more knowledgeable than him. I would like to believe I would, but then we all would. It's easy to be overly critical from an armchair.

The one outstanding irritant for me was his paranoia about bears. I would far prefer to attract one, then kill and eat the cute and territorial ruffian, rather than worry about it. Otherwise I enjoyed it and learned a few important lessons from his adventure.

I would prefer to have his opportunity, to try and fail, than never try at all. That, in and of itself requires courage. Who among us would like try the same? Sure, 90 percent of us raise our hands, but then the question of who CAN go. Not so many hands up now! Kids, work, wife, girlfriends, houses, bills, and the list goes on. He put aside his life in our world to try his hand in the wild. Grant him that.
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He was over packed, but some of that had to do with his camera gear. One of the problems he had in feeding himself was he could not shoot large game. If he could, he had it made.

The video said he had posted his packing list. Does anyone know where the list can be found?

Geoff
 
it was a very decent but i have to agree he cried a lot. i don't know if it was some type of deficiency or something but just non stop lol it annoyed me
 
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I was wondering "is he really along by himself?"
if so then who's taking the video, I'm sure he's not take a tripod
to shoot himself, cause the camara moves from time to time.
 
richdkao said:
I was wondering "is he really along by himself?"
if so then who's taking the video, I'm sure he's not take a tripod
to shoot himself, cause the camara moves from time to time.
Click to expand...

It's a kind of harness that extends the camera from your body and allows you to move with it. Notice the camera moves as attached, when he steps, the camera dips.
 
G'day Geoff

g123 said:
What are you comments?

http://www.youtube.com/user/hobbexp#p/u/0/z2QHdAoAEz8
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This farce was destined to fail from the start :thumbdn:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they took a person (who lived in London, one of the worlds largest cities), whose only qualification was being a camera man on an Everest expidition and dropped him off alone on another continent and expected him to make the distance?

Did anyone who has spent time in the wilderness seriously think the man was given any chance of going the distance?

If you did, IMO you have either not spent time in genuine wilderness areas for any length of time, or have rocks in your head :jerkit:

What local knowledge do you think a Londoner has of what's required in Alaska? Or anywhere else outside of England?

To be honest rather than bag the guy, he should be congratulated for making it as long as he did. After all, wasn't it approximately 10x longer than the often cited "average length of a survival situation"?

My challenge to all who are prepared to label him a whinger, wuss, pussy etc is this....

How long do you reckon you would last alone in the Australian outback during a drought (which is the norm), carrying the added weight of camera gear made necessary by the requirement to film your adventures?

With regards to his "fear of bears", IMO familiarity with any potential source of a life threatening situation certainly reduces the likelihood of panic. For those who have bagged the guy on a number of internet forums because of his fear of bears (which as far as I know are only in Zoo's in the UK), let me say I've seen plenty of examples over the years on the internet where Nth Hemisphere outdoorsmen literally soil their underware when discussion turns to Australian snakes :D

Does this mean they are pussys?

IMO, leave the guy alone and celebrate the fact he made it as long as he did :thumbup:

BTW Geoff, since you have asked for my comments I have honestly given them :D



Kind regards
Mick
 
richdkao said:
I was wondering "is he really along by himself?"
if so then who's taking the video, I'm sure he's not take a tripod
to shoot himself, cause the camara moves from time to time.
Click to expand...

He brought along a motion-based camera that would follow movement. That's why the camera moves from time to time. It's tracking his movement.

He showed this in a tv special where he stayed out in the wilderness for 7 days to try out his equipment before his "long" stay.
 
Hey Mick,

That's exactly what I thought also after I read the bio on him before posting this. Regardless on how you feel about his crying, the guy gave it his all. Truthfully he was not qualified (But he did have some good skills, a lot more than most people) to go into this situation. But he did make it 50 days in one of the harshest terrains around and he was handicapped by not being able to hunt large game. Depending on where you are at in the Sierra’s out here in California, some areas are very short on small game and larger game would be you best option besides fishing.

So the way I look at this, he got the chance to really practice his skills and probably learned more on this trip than 10 years of internet study on wilderness survival. I bet if he did it again, it would look a lot different. Know one gets to be called an expert until they have been put through the test. I just hope he keeps honing his skills because now he has a great background to build on.

Geoff
 
g123 said:
Hey Guys,

Have you seen this on Hobex Youtube. It's very good and interesting. What are you comments? I have a few I will list later.

http://www.youtube.com/user/hobbexp#p/u/0/z2QHdAoAEz8

Geoff
Click to expand...

You could have told us what was on the video, besides just posting the link. Just a quick description of what show, what happened.

This is a discussion forum, so it's only polite to give us your comments first, and then ask for ours.
 
Esav,

If my post bothered you I apologize, but do not get your point. It just was a question. I liked the show because it helped me to think through what worked and what did not. I did not want to lead anyone in there opinions.

If someone did not want to watch the show they did not have to. Besides, if you watched the first few minutes in the first clip it set the stag for what was going on.

Like I said, it was just a general question.

Thanks,

Geoff
 
The point is, in a polite conversation, you don't toss a magazine on the table and say, Hey, read this! All I ask is that discussions like this lead off with the name of the show, so people who have seen it know if they even want to bother clicking on it, and a quick opinion of the poster, to give some direction to the thread.
 
I watched it last night before they were removed by Hobbexp, it was ok.

He did last 50 days which isn't bad considering his experience but I think he was already breaking down by day 13 or so. Humans are social animals but some are definately more social than others, there are people living alone out in the woods somewhere right now I'm sure, others start to miss human contact over the course of a weekend.

This was a guy who was used to being around people all the time, then he gets thrown into a situation with absolutely no human contact for what was supposed to be 3 months, of course he's going to be lonely! I'm kind of surprised he lasted 50 days.

He was way too scared of bears, not that it's his fault. It's like the reverse of the human contact thing, he went from a place with no large predators to a place with a lot of them and so he of course was scared of them. The story that the bear expert told him before he left was just adding to that fear and that's not a very nice thing to do to the poor guy. I wonder if the electric fence really helped him or not too, it could have made him feel a little more protected and helped calm him down a bit. Or maybe the fact that they gave it to him made him think that bears were definately going to come and try to get him.

He didn't really even seem like he wanted to do it at all, ya he said it was a boyhood dream of his but once he got out there all he wanted to do was come home and the only reason he stayed was because he wanted to live an extraordinary life. I think that people should do what they like to do and if what they enjoy doing seems extraordinary to others so be it, but the purpose of doing it in the first place should be because you want to.

If this was supposed to be a show about what an average guy from a city would go through if being placed into this kind of situation then I guess they showed that pretty well. If this was supposed to show how an experienced person would handle it (because he went up everest) then I think they chose the wrong guy.
 
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