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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Apr 19, 2012 - 11:11pm PT
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I like him. Climber, trying to make a buck in the entertainment industry.
I don't care much for the show. Overdramatized wilderness survival. Someone bought me a whole 13 episode DVD set including his Sierra Nevada episode. I should mail them to Tami so she can catch up.
I'd climb with him.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 19, 2012 - 11:25pm PT
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Social, if he did see combat as SAS we wouldn't know it and he wouldn't be
spewing about it.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Apr 20, 2012 - 01:41am PT
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"Masters of (Hand) Movement"
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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Apr 20, 2012 - 03:55am PT
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'Social, if he did see combat as SAS we wouldn't know it and he wouldn't be
spewing about it.'
Hey Reilly,
He may well have been in 21 SAS, back in the early 90s, back then 'selection' for the Territorial SAS was not that big a challenge.
In the early 90s, through to post 2002, The 'TA' SAS had no operational deployments. His bio used to claim an 'operational deployment' to North Africa. That claim has dissapeared. It is highly possible, if not probable that he would have done a training exercise out there.
Most people who know anything about the stuff he does on TV conclude he's a chump, and watching the stuff he's in can make you wince. He is though, a very successful chump, and as I said earlier he does a lot for charity, for which he should be congratulated.
Also there's a minor industry that surrounds former SAS 'spewing' about their past, largely because of events that took place in and after the first Gulf War. The Official Secrets Act was found inadequate to stem this flow of material and was supplemented in the mid 90s by a 'Disclosure Contract'. This has proved more effective and is the principle reason that 'Andy McNab' and 'Chris Ryan' dominate that particular 'SAS revelations'/groupie market.
Regards,
Steve
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kc
Trad climber
the cats
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Apr 20, 2012 - 08:13am PT
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The question for me, is, along with the other questions already asked here, is who the heck is belaying him?
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Apr 20, 2012 - 08:48am PT
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Bear has climbing skills and other credentials fer sure but I totally hate his show. Massive overhype and the high degree of staging and off-screen aid from "invisible magic wilderness helpers" when he can't make some survival plan work makes the show just... lame. Guess you can't blame a guy for making a living though.
Survivorman Les Stroud could disembowel Bear with a sharpened stick, sprinkle him with pine nuts and eat him raw for breakfast.
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Apr 20, 2012 - 08:57am PT
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For some reason, we keep getting his catalog. All that jungle sweatiness and dirt smeared on his face and climbing up through waterfalls. I look for venomous serpents snapping at his heels in the pictures, but no see yet.
I suppose us Yanks had the Whittaker twins, esp Big Lou, so we can't get on the Brits too hard for Bear Grylls.
At least his somewhat weak chin profile and strangely bent nose keep me from feeling totally lacking in the manliness department.
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Ado
Trad climber
Dalmeny, Australia
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Apr 20, 2012 - 06:25pm PT
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How many of you that are panning the guy have read his biography? Feel free to hate his show (but you must watch it to hate it). There's little in the show to allow you to draw conclusions about the man or his life. Yes the show is staged and a melodrama. But that is one tough dude and his climbing skills under poor or wet rock conditions make my palms sweat. He was in the French Foreign Legion as well as the SAS. Skydivers will tell you his parachute skills are not great, yet he jumps into landnings that few of them would risk. It's too easy to sit behind a computer and criticise, much harder to get out there and do. He's had a big life.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 20, 2012 - 11:25pm PT
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Riley, why the hatin'? You don't get into the SAS by being a poseur.
Don't know about using O2 on the Big E but maybe he values his brain?
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Apr 20, 2012 - 11:32pm PT
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I worked with SAS guy's back in the 60's- super professional. A lot of guys bullshit about being in SAS, Special Forces etc.
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Morgan
Trad climber
East Coast
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Apr 21, 2012 - 11:25am PT
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This clip should be rated GT, for gratuitous trundling.
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NigelSSI
Trad climber
B.C.
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Apr 21, 2012 - 05:14pm PT
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I actually watched an episode of 'man vs wild' this morning, and here are a few of the things I witnessed that stood out...
The 'setup' was landing way out in the rockies while paragliding.
Finds leaky canoe... Uses 'chute as a sail held by both hands to get 1/2 way across the lake before swimming the rest of the way. Occupying both hands in a canoe which will require bailing?
Finds a waterfall... Insists on building a rope ladder out of parachute chord to get down the REST of the way after down climbing a soaked old dead tree leaning into the waterfall. All the while there's a clear and easy path to walk down beside the falling water.
Comes to a ravine... Builds deer antler grappling hook to make a zip line from the top of the 150' rim to a tree. Proceeds to traversing on TOP of the wire to the tree. The cameramen are filming him from the more obvious paths down.
Stumbles into a nice valley, and sees a big rail bridge across it. Decides climbing one of the 100'+ steel supports is a better option than walking up to the ends of the bridge. So after climbing way the heck up this steel tower, he can't get over the lip because it's capped by big cement blocks which overhang at the lip. Like any sane person, he decides to tie a knot in some chain he found, and throw the end up onto the top of the bridge until it catches... then swing out, and climb up a chain dangling 100 something feet in the air.
I have to say it was pretty enjoyable TV... Not many shows are funnier. XD
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Apr 21, 2012 - 06:10pm PT
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did he,,,yu know,,,DRINK HIS PISS LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!
He cheated, he drank the camera man's piss
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mitchy
Trad climber
new england
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Apr 21, 2012 - 06:23pm PT
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the cat is crazy. we were walkin' across death valley and he says to me, I'm so damn thirsty, i would lick a set of balls just to wet my whistle. Nek minnit, shorts around my ankles and he's goin' to town. How's that for a damn story.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Apr 21, 2012 - 07:30pm PT
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Don't mince words Riley. All this sugar-coating is giving me cavites ;)
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Apr 21, 2012 - 07:46pm PT
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His skydiving skills are not evident on his show. Any fluffer can land in the stuff he does.
Having a malfunction at 16,000 feet and not cutting it away must have taken an awful long time. That is pretty stupid. Coming from a guy who has had a dozen reserve rides.
Modern gear is just so good. Yeah, the military guys jump with a lot of weight and gear, but you should try being a tandem master with a couple of hundred pounds of squirming flesh hooked to ya.
Tandem training is pretty fun. You more or less try to kill each other...
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go-B
climber
Habakkuk 3:19 Sozo
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Apr 21, 2012 - 08:46pm PT
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Bad dude, he climbs cracks without his feet!
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zBrown
Ice climber
Chula Vista, CA
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Apr 21, 2012 - 09:41pm PT
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How does he expect to get down with 14ft of rope and no cams?
Uh, via the helicopter where the filming is being done (@1:55)
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