Alone in the Wild

[Jeapesy]

Just a heads up about this programme which starts Thursday 10th at 9pm on channel 4.

The programme synopsis states:

"In this remarkable documentary, Ed Wardle is dropped into the unforgiving Yukon wilderness with just basic provisions and cameras to film himself as he attempts to survive completely alone in the wild".

Sounds quite good and i will be watching it.

[sunnydale]

Yes, I'm quite looking forward to this! It's gotta be better than Bear Grylls, that's for sure.

[Stinky Bob]

Is this the one where he had to be airlifted out due to starvation

[BloomingMarvellous]

Can't wait for this to start, just an hour away now.

[BloomingMarvellous]

Mmmmmmm, so far so good. I'd be dead scared myself mind you.

[Gill Catton]

I have kept watching this and I seem to move from feeling frustrated with the guy and sadness in his pain at being so hungry.
However, did he have any training? did he doesn't seem to be using any field skills such as stalking or tracking to find food - a man who has run from the sound of an animal in the woodland that is as likely to be food (a deer) as it is a bear, his snares aren't exactly hidden and any animal worth its salt would see them I'd have thought.

He seemed to think he'd pick it up as he went along which seems very odd.... and wasting so much energy moving and building new shelter (and is it just me or did the shelter look a bit too verticle? or is it supposed to be verticle?) just on guesswork that another place would be better - that seems odd too. Did he imagine that rivers are always as you see in film of the peak of the salmon run?

I suppose its a good example of how its not as easy and Ray Mears or Bear Grylls make it look - but I'd have thought he'd been better prepared - I would have wanted to be!

[tcvarlh]

Having been a member of Mountain Rescue Services, I still cannot believe how some people approach the 'Wilderness'. Preparation = none, thought-aforethought = none, kit=almost nothing, research=don't make me laugh! We once lifted-out a group of 5 Dutch guys after two days of them wandering around lost, cold, and hungry. No major accident thankfully, but I could have happily strangled the fellahs. They had set off at 7 am on the 12th September (my Lass’s birthday) before breakfast to see if they could catch “fish, or something” and ‘live’ in the wild. By 8 at night they were totally lost and utterly ravenous too. And as it always does, it rained. Not even a Packa-mac, no knife, no lighters (all non-smokers). Absolutely no kit and wearing ruddy trainers!!!! They had mobile phones with them, but on a Dutch provider in the Austrian Alps where the Austrian signal is also poor. They had no idea as to what could be edible, where to look, how to test for toxicity or even how to find out, etc. There was a plethora of foodstuffs around them but they did not know the basics, and thereby had doomed themselves.
I just had a look at my call-out logbook and found nine such cases for year 2002-03, my last year. Ok, these guys were all around 17-19 and youth KNOWS itself as invulnerable, but I have also been on S&R’s for middle-aged folk too.
These TV shows are a danger in one sense; they make it seem so easy. People forget that the ‘Alone in the Wilderness’, “Actor” is NOT alone, Camera-man, Sound-man, radio and therefore in constant link, etc. I’m sure you see my point, the programs are just that, TV programs, not reality, not even close. They are interesting to be certain but oh-so dangerous!
h

[BloomingMarvellous]

He's all Alone with just his phone and his Twitter followers.

[Goatboy]

Originally Posted by Gill Catton

I have kept watching this and I seem to move from feeling frustrated with the guy and sadness in his pain at being so hungry.
However, did he have any training? did he doesn't seem to be using any field skills such as stalking or tracking to find food - a man who has run from the sound of an animal in the woodland that is as likely to be food (a deer) as it is a bear, his snares aren't exactly hidden and any animal worth its salt would see them I'd have thought.

He seemed to think he'd pick it up as he went along which seems very odd.... and wasting so much energy moving and building new shelter (and is it just me or did the shelter look a bit too verticle? or is it supposed to be verticle?) just on guesswork that another place would be better - that seems odd too. Did he imagine that rivers are always as you see in film of the peak of the salmon run?

I suppose its a good example of how its not as easy and Ray Mears or Bear Grylls make it look - but I'd have thought he'd been better prepared - I would have wanted to be!

For me that's been the charm of the series. He is just an ordinary guy, not the Bowie-style super heroes in other 'survival' shows. So often the real-life stories you hear from Mears or Grylls involve ordinary people with no survival knowledge. Just normal people, maybe on holiday, maybe on a plane journey who are thrown into life or death situations.

It could happen to any of us. Seeing how Wardle copes is like seeing how most of us would cope, not very well.

It isn't a case of can you live in the wild, more how long you can delay the inevitable.

I thought the final episode tonight was very powerful. My eyes were moist on a couple of occasions. lol

I'm sure when they developed the idea for the series it was intended to document the struggle of man against nature. By the end it was man against man. His biggest battle was to keep his own sanity.

I did wonder at times in the series if he was being over-dramatic. For the sake of the camera if you know what I mean. When I saw him in the hotel room at the end I realised just how much the expedition had taken out of him.
He wasn't faking that.

A great example of why we should all respect the wilderness.

(As an aside I wish I had the gear he had. His clothing alone probably cost more than my car lol)

[BloomingMarvellous]

Doh! Missed It due to poor reception DAMMIT. Is It worth using my Dongle allowance I wonder.