I am Bear Grylls.
I've served with the British Special Forces,
I've climbed to the summit of Everest
and crossed the frozen waters of the Arctic.
Now, my challenge is to survive
one of the world's largest canyon systems,
Copper Canyon, Mexico.
It's a Mecca for hikers and climbers
but hundreds get lost every year.
I am going to show you the skills needed to survive here.
I am entering Mexico's Copper Canyon,
300 miles south of the US border.
There are hundreds of deep twisting canyons
that cut through a desert the size of Massachusetts.
It is four times larger and a 1,000 feet deeper
than the Grand Canyon!
This place is wild!
The landscape has remained untouched for centuries.
That is why people come here.
And it is fast becoming one of Mexico's hiking hotspots.
Last year, half a million people visited.
But parts of the canyons are so remote
that they are still unmapped.
Without a guide, getting lost is almost guaranteed.
I am going to put myself in the position of a lost tourist
to show how to survive in a place like this.
There is little sign of life here,
making starvation and dehydration a big threat to anyone stranded.
There is no way I am going to be able to land
in the valleys down there.
It is just too steep,
the only place they can drop me is right at the top.
We are over nine and a half thousand feet up,
almost at the limit of where this single-engined helicopter
can hover safely.
I am going to use a technique I learnt from the Special Forces
and it is called the Dust Off.
The pilot comes in fast and touches down
just for a second whilst hovering at full power.
(INAUDIBLE) (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
All I have with me is a water bottle,
a flint and my knife.
A film crew will follow me.
Okay, go!
It just feels like, feels like top of the world.
Just breathtaking.
But it is also, just huge
and it makes, makes me feel pretty small here.
And trying to work my way through this landscape,
is going to be a massive challenge.
I can see over 25 miles and there is no sign of human activity.
I do have a plan but first I need to get my bearings.
If you look over here you will see the contrast in the canyons,
where a lot of these faces here have a lot more vegetation
than down here where it is a lot dryer,
looks a lot more parched.
And what it means, it means all of those faces are north facing.
They receive less sun and therefore more moisture.
So north is this way.
Now, I have got my bearings, I can put my plan into action.
What I do know is that the Chihuahua al Pacifico rail line
lies to the west of me
and this runs all the way through the Copper Canyon,
for about 400 miles from the north to the south
and yeah it's a big tourist attraction.
It is used everyday and if I head west I should come across it.
It's 75 degrees right now
but at nine and a half thousand feet as soon as the sun goes down
it will get dramatically colder.
The one thing about this environment here
is that the days are really hot
and that I know from experience at this altitude the nights are
going to get very cold
and it is that contrast that makes this place dangerous.
I need to descend fast.
Up here temperatures will plummet to 15 degrees.
At the bottom, though, it will be 40 degrees warmer
but that's over a vertical mile away.
Even If I found a direct route down it would still take hours to reach.
But finding a route down just looks impossible.
Being this close to the edge is the only way
I am going to be able to find a way down here,
if there is one but it is dangerous.
I am looking for what climbers call a line of weakness,
where the rocks been eroded.
These often give you a route down.
But there is no way down here.
(EAGLE SCREECHING SOUND)
This jagged landscape is unforgiving.
It is hard to imagine anything surviving up here
but amazingly there are signs of life.
Look, see this animal poo?
And look you can see what is in it there,
bit of seed,
lots of hair and even a bit of bone and that tells me
it is an omnivore and actually these tapered ends
also say this is more than likely going to be a coyote poo
and the important thing
about this is that these dogs can reach up here,
they are not going to able to live up here
because there is not enough food or water,
which means they must have easy access up and down
and it is that access down that I want to find.
The problem is it could be a long way away.
Coyotes have a territory of over 10 square miles
and can run at up to 40 miles an hour.
This is really, I think,
the first place I have found
where actually it should be possible to get down here,
there is like this series of one, two, three ledges
and it is high and the risk is just not knowing what's,
you know, further down
but as long as I have got a way out always,
it is a risk that is worth taking to get off here.
But I need to be careful.
A climber recently fell here whilst down climbing a sheer face
just like this one.
He dropped 30 feet on to jagged rocks
and was left with a series of splintered vertebrae.
(GROANS)
But he was lucky. He was rescued and survived.
And this is why down climbing is always more dangerous
just because to see your way you have to lean out
and try and find your foot holes,
which on this face are pretty thin.
From above, it is also much harder to plan your route
and it is easy to get rim rocked,
where you get stuck in a position where you can't go up or down.
The key is to make sure you got an escape route back up,
if you can't descend any further.
I am down off this first ledge
but I am getting quite committed down here now.
That is where I have come from and that is where I am going.
Further down the overhang becomes more extreme.
It is even harder now to see where I am going.
And this is never a nice position as a climber to find yourself
lowering yourself on your stomach of a rock face
when you do not really know what is down below.
Bad place to sit on a cactus on this ledge.
Now, I am on bottom ledge, I can see it is steep, too steep.
Yeah, look at that down there.
There is no way, there is no way I can climb down that one.
There is a 50 foot drop in front of me and there is no way down.
I am nine and a half thousand feet up in Copper Canyon, Mexico.
I am stuck on a ledge and there is no way down.
My only option is to climb back up
and face a freezing night at the top.
Then on my right hand side I spot what could be another route down
but to get to it l'll have to cross a deep gulley.
I am going to see if I can make this leap across there.
Okay.
It is eight foot wide and I have got no run up.
Okay.
Well, I am off the top of that.
I am across this gulley and look all of this now looks quite manageable.
I am now at 7,000 feet.
And for every thousand feet I drop,
the temperature will rise three and a half degrees Fahrenheit.
So it is tempting to go on but I am running out of time.
There is a good tip that I know
from working out just how much daylight is left.
And what you do is you measure the distance
from the sun down to the horizon.
The technique for doing it is if you put your hand up,
you put the sun just above your fingers
and then each finger down to the horizon is 15 minutes.
So a hand, four fingers, one hour.
That down, two hours.
So I have got about two hours of daylight left.
So it is time to get a shelter found.
40 million years ago masses of volcanic ash
and lava were deposited here.
The flowing lava cut deep fissures in the land to form the canyons.
This base of volcanic cliffs are often riddled with caves.
And finding one is my best chance of shelter.
But I need to be careful where I put my hands here.
There is fallen rocks everywhere and this is exactly
where scorpions and tarantulas live.
Here is one, here we go, look at this, see this?
Tiger scorpion and these are, these are quite common around here.
Look he is pretty cheesed off
but he is a predator he will live off like other bugs
and insects and look as soon as I put a stick there,
a strike look he is trying to get it,
but actually these are good protein.
You can eat these.
They are not meant to taste very nice
but what I want to do actually is just cut off his stinger,
which is this bit here that ball like a ball of venom
with a little stinger on the end of it.
Pin him down and then just take that off,
here you go you can see him there
but that's all good to eat.
Tastes like kind of cheese that is been sitting around
for about three weeks.
But worse.
Five species of scorpions live in the canyons
and all of them sting.
The symptoms include numbness, a tightening of the throat
and sharp pains.
Without medication they can be deadly.
Hey!
Yeah! This is what I was hoping for.
Look at this decent size cave and this is going to be perfect
for me to spend the night in.
I feel miles from anywhere
but I can see that someone has been here before me.
Just look at the roof of this covered in all of,
all of this like soot from loads of fires and even a shelf,
look you can see this like hole obviously,
that is obviously man made.
It is no surprise to find signs of human activity here.
The Aztecs once used these caves
but for the last 400 years they have been home to the Raramuri Indians.
They still live here today.
These nomadic people move from cave to cave as they travel the canyons.
Someone has been here recently.
They have moved on but they have left something behind.
Look at that, a bit of wire
and it might not look like much
but actually there are loads of different things I can use that for,
so that is good for me I am going to keep hold of this.
The charcoal on the cave roof shows that many fires
have been lit here before
and that is what I need.
It will keep out the freezing night air.
You might not always be lucky enough to have a flint striker
with you so what I am going to do is use this yucca
to make a fire saw and a fire saw is just a friction fire
and this yucca is really good for this because it is light
and it is really dry wood and all I need to do is break it here.
Then remove the base and start to split the wood into strips.
Cut out two pieces about 12 inches long.
The Sotol plant grows all over these slopes
and the leaves make excellent cordage.
And now I just get this little bit of tinder
and little bit of dried grass
and put it against one piece of the yucca,
bit of stone on one side and the same on the other
so there can be an air flow
between the two bits of wood
and press that against itself so it is like that
and then just bind that.
Wrap one end tight do the same thing at the other end
and the job is done.
And then that is the bottom bit of the fire saw built
and then all I did with this was again just peel it away
from the main branch and that then acts as a fire saw
that I actually drive with to create the friction.
Now, to put it to the test.
It is really important to do this so the base of this
isn't going to wobble and here we go.
This is pretty solid there now,
now just take the fire saw
and start to move it along it.
The great thing about using yucca,
it has got the lowest ignition temperature
of any of the woods around here,
which makes it ideal for trying to make a bit of an ember
and that is all I need just a little bit of an ember to drop
between these two bits of wood into that timber.
And I better shut up, stop talking and get a sawing.
And yeah look at that and once you've got to this stage,
this ember is actually going to keep burning,
so the time pressure comes off
and now I am just poke it through the bottom there
and tip it into there.
Once the ember is surrounded by a good bundle of dried grass
it literally goes up in flames.
There we go.
Okay, we have got fire.
Now, I can sit back and watch the sun go down,
knowing that tonight I should be warm.
So much of this canyon land here is just so remote
and for me just sitting here with a fire going and a view like this,
really it just feels, just feels like a real privilege.
You know?
I am through my first day
but I know things are going to get much tougher.
I am in Copper Canyon, Mexico,
heading west towards the El Chepe railway line.
I want to get to the canyon bottom as soon as I can.
I should find water there but first
I am going to make a basic compass from a leaf
and the piece of wire I found last night.
And all I need to do is here is fill this up there
with a little bit of water.
Now, to prepare the wire.
And I really want to do is rub it like this on my hair
and the idea of this is it magnetises the bit of wire
and then when I put it in it will swing around and point
towards magnetic north giving me that north-south line.
And that should be enough
and then what I will do is put the leaf in
and drop that on top.
And, yeah look at that, there you go,
it is beginning to swing around.
Freely suspended metal that has been magnetised will always point
to magnetic north.
There we go and that has now come steady
and that is given me a good reliable north-south line.
Now, I know the sun rose some where over there
because I did not see it.
So that is east,
so west is somewhere over there and this north-south line means
I am definitely heading in the right direction for my westward track,
so I am going to keep this little bit of wire get rid of the leaf,
drink the water...
And then I am out of here.
The Raramuri originally fled here to escape the Spanish conquistadors.
The difficult terrain made it the perfect place to hide.
Over centuries they have learnt how to navigate their way through
this twisting maze of canyons, their ancient trails are everywhere.
I don't know if you can see on that scree slope over there,
there is a little trail and it looks like it's snaking it's way round
and then down into this gulley and I reckon if I can follow that,
that might well then take me down to the canyon.
There is no guarantee this will lead anywhere.
Many of these trails have not been used for years.
There was a school group actually out here recently
who were following one of these trails down into the canyons
and some of the girls got separated from the group,
end up following the wrong trail down
and by the time the teacher noticed they were missing,
they were lost
and the girls were dressed just shorts and a t-shirt
and a night out here, you know, can get below freezing
and they mounted a massive search and rescue operation
and eventually a day later they did find them alive.
Those school girls were lucky.
Look.
This trail has brought me down over half a vertical mile
and has led me to a river
but it then comes to an abrupt stop at the top of a sheer cliff.
Let's have a little look down here.
Yeah, I reckon I can get down this.
It is going to be a bit, little bit tight.
There is loose rock everywhere.
It is vital to test every boulder before you go below them.
That is why we have got to watch our footing, guys.
The slope is steep, about 60 degrees.
And it would be easy to slip.
After a hundred foot scramble I am down.
This is perfect,
look at this, it is like a little slice of heaven
and there is no getting away from it.
That terrain up there is just tough.
All that loose volcanic rock, it is also much colder,
this is warm down here and I have got the sun and some water.
And I am going to just take my socks off...
And take five minutes.
I may be at the bottom of the canyon but my journey is far from over.
That is a water fall.
I am in Mexico, heading for the El Chepe railway line.
Which runs through Copper Canyon somewhere to the West.
And now I have reached a river.
I have endless supply of water.
The only thing about these canyons is that
I am completely just hemmed in
by these walls on all sides
and you know I just do not like this feeling of being completely
at the mercy of nature
and at the moment which ever way the canyon goes
I have got to go as well.
And at the moment, it's going west.
Things are perfect, for now.
That is a waterfall.
There is no way I am going to be able to down climb,
down climb that.
Looks like it is going to be a long hike around.
Unless actually,
look you see those trees
just there against the cliff,
I might well be able to climb down the edge of those through the tree,
let's have a look.
I reckon this is, this is doable here.
I can see where the tree runs all the way down the cliff.
These Cyprus trees are great to climb in just
because their root systems are really strong they grow out
and they like cling into the rock face.
So I am going to give this a go.
I will tell you what,
there is quite a healthy drop straight down.
It's over 60 foot to the bottom.
A fall here would be serious,
so I must check each and every step
before I put my full weight on the tree.
And what I want to watch out for is dead branches.
Look at this.
Live cypress branches will have a healthy covering of bark
and a glossy sheen to them.
What's happening here is that this cave is like becoming overhanging
and suddenly I am a bit more aware of the exposure beneath me.
The sun can't get in here below the overhang
and this could really help me.
None of the branches are growing at the back against the cliff.
They are all growing out towards the sun,
which means I can climb down much easier.
And as I descend,
the branches become thicker and the tree more stable.
Now, I can move fast.
Well, I am down...
And that was fun
and look at that for a view.
Beyond the waterfall the canyon walls
become sheer and there is no way out.
This is bad news.
Almost 40 inches of rain can fall in a day here.
Within minutes the steep canyon sides channel this mass of water
straight into the rivers.
So flash floods are a real threat.
This bush here shows just how high the water level can reach,
and I do not know if you can see that but all of this is bent over
just by the force of the water.
This must be 10, maybe 15 foot above where it is now.
You can just imagine this canyon.
If you look down there all of these rocks would be under water.
This would just be a raging torrent, cliffs on either side
and literally this place would be a death trap.
Even if it is clear where you are,
30 miles away the rain could be pouring down a 15 foot wall of water
full of boulders and trees will thunder downstream
at 60 miles an hour and will hit with little warning.
And the first you gonna know about it, is you gonna hear
a distant rumble like a jet engine and then it's gonna hit you
and there was actually a guy, a couple of years ago,
who was fishing near by here and he was with his son
and with his niece and he knew this area really well
but a flash flood came and hit and it took them.
And he managed to turn and reach and grab his son and by time
he turned round again, his niece was gone.
And she was never seen again.
And that is how dangerous these sort of canyons can be with flash floods.
If you are travelling downstream
you won't see the wall of water coming.
You have to keep listening all the time
and if you hear feel the earth start to tremble head
for high ground as soon as possible.
So many of these walls here of the canyons have just been completely
sheer and un-climbable
but I have just seen that gap in the ridge up there
and I just want to go and see what is the other side of it.
Just because the river that I have been following here has been great.
It has been heading west
but look it is suddenly now skirted round to the south which is not
where I want to go.
So let's see what's up here.
This is, this is why this place is such a maze,
look it's just suddenly a whole new canyon here
and look you see the river there is actually skirting around
and heading westerly.
So this canyon is much better for me.
Okay, we are going to go on this one.
One of the most important elements of survival is staying alert
and making the most of opportunities.
Spotting that gap in the ridge has saved me days of walking
and kept me on my westerly course.
But there is still a long way to go.
And there are dangers I can never have foreseen.
I am in Copper Canyon, Mexico.
I have dropped over a vertical mile into the canyon bottom.
I have water now and it is warmer
but the ground is strewn with huge boulders this is tough terrain.
Hey, just wait.
Okay, come here, there are a couple of fish. Keep low.
Hey, look see if you can see them.
There are a couple of fish just sitting in the sun,
in the this tributary.
Okay, come over the top you will be able to see
just move nice and slowly.
Okay.
There you go see them, just down there.
Okay, what I am going to do is just see if I can dam this little bit
of stream lower down and that will send them upstream
and see if I can get them.
Okay, just stay here.
The dams will stop the fish escaping
but always build the lower one first.
They will find it harder to spot you.
And it needs to span right across the water flow.
Now, let's go and do the same upstream
and then see if I will get them.
Stay out of sight as you move upstream
and once your next dam is built you are ready to go fishing.
What I want to try and do here is come directly downstream
of where they are which is just there
and they have a blind spot just behind them
and then come up and try and get them with a stick.
And the good thing about doing it like this is that even
if I miss the shock waves of the impact will concuss them.
Here they are.
Okay.
One trout.
Awesome.
Some salt water fish are poisonous
but all freshwater fish are safe to eat.
Anything over three inches should be gutted
because they will spoil the fish and make it taste horrid.
Finally once the head and tail are removed wash the fish
to clean out the stomach cavity.
And that is good to eat, just like this.
Straight out of the river.
Fish contains high levels of protein which helps repair muscle tissue
and it also boosts the immune system.
I love sushi!
I don't like bones.
So far, I have managed to keep heading on my westerly course
along the canyon floor.
I am hoping to reach the El Chepe railway line,
which runs north to south through Copper Canyon
but up to now I haven't seen or heard any sign of it.
There is just another of these caves and look at the roof up here,
you can just see it caked with charcoal
and look over here there is a drawing.
Look see this.
It looks like, looks like probably a railway line,
like a mule or donkey look even a person,
as if they are working on it
and this more likely going to be referring
to the Old Chepe railway line
and hopefully that means I might be getting closer.
To build a railway line through these canyons
was a remarkable feat of engineering.
It runs for 400 miles, crosses 36 bridges and 87 tunnels.
Opened in 1961, it had taken over 100 years to build.
Hey, can you see that drop off?
There is a series of waterfalls ahead.
And a lot of white water.
And really, water falls in the wilds just can be killers
and you want to avoid them really at all costs.
The danger, though, is just hidden rocks.
Not seeing what is in all that white water.
All that turbulence.
And not knowing how deep it is.
I could climb my way around this waterfall
but I am going jump straight off the top to show you
the safest technique.
The drop is over 25 foot high.
I have got to make sure the waters deeper than 12 foot
or I will hit the bottom.
I need a depth gauge.
I do not have string but nature has the answer.
Yucca leaves.
All I do is bite into it.
One.
Two.
Grab thin end to thin end,
right over left,
left over right.
This process is fast.
And in just five minutes I have got almost 50 foot of rope.
The next step is to smooth the edges of the rock
so it does not cut the yucca leaf,
then secure it with a hitch knot.
And that then is ready to go.
I've got the rock and this length of chord.
If I drop this in, when it is on the bottom
I will know how deep it is here.
Okay, it is on the bottom now.
And every arm length I pull back will be about three feet.
It will tell me how deep it is.
When I see the rock I will know that is the depth.
One,
two,
three,
four,
five. Okay, that is five arm lengths,
so about 15 foot, which is fine to jump.
You know, I've made the mistake before doing a big sea cliff jump
and really injuring myself, bruising all the way down my legs.
And it's a mistake I will only make once.
So I want to get this right.
I am going to jump with my feet together
and beyond that white stuff.
So here goes.
This water is close to freezing and the current is raging.
But the way out is to corkscrew.
It is the best technique of getting out of strong currents.
That was quite bracing
but it worked and I didn't hit the bottom!
But I am drenched and I am cold.
I need to find some tinder now and get a fire going.
It's gonna take me hours to dry my clothes completely
but that's going to give me time to set up camp.
When there are no caves around the Raramuri use smoke blankets
to keep warm.
That is what I need.
What I am going to do here is build a second fire over here
from the embers of this one.
And the idea is I'm going to then sleep in between these fires.
These cypress branches will be comfy to lie on.
Dig a trench between the fires to put them in.
This will stop you rolling out into the flames.
And then into that.
(INAUDIBLE) You have to put all of this cypress
and it is going to be nice and insulated to lie on.
Then surround them with stones to stop the cypress catching fire.
Okay, give it a test.
I never thought I would be in that river
and then within 20 minutes be really warm.
This is heaven.
It's my third day in Mexico
and I am now deep into the Copper Canyon.
I feel a bit like I slept on a funeral pyre all night,
you know, wedged between these two fires.
And I can see why the Raramuri call it a smoke blanket.
I have breathed in an unhealthy amount of smoke
but it did work and did keep me warm at least.
Today I am going to continue west towards the El Chepe railway line.
But first I want to get my bearings.
One way of working out your direction in these canyons
is just to use the sun and its shadow.
And in the vast majority of the Northern hemisphere the sun
will always travel across the Southern sky
which means that shadows will never face south.
So if I look at that face, over there,
you see all of that is in shade,
which means that the north must be somewhere in this sky here,
which means also the west must be somewhere in this direction.
And that's the way I am heading.
I am on my westerly course towards the El Chepe railway line
but gradually the canyon bends to the north, the wrong way.
To keep going west I'll have to get out of this canyon
and to do that I've got to get up there.
But those walls are vertical.
A family recently got stuck in a canyon.
And on their second day,
they spotted a small village just over the canyon rim.
But they couldn't reach it because none of them could climb.
Eventually they stumbled across an animal trail and got out.
They had been in there for five days.
That could well be my way out of this canyon.
I don't know if you can see that,
there is like a crack in the rock where the shadow is.
If I can get inside that and work my way up that might well lead me out.
It's kinda hard to tell to tell from down here.
But my dad always used to say, when we were climbing,
you can never tell how steep something is until
you actually rub noses with it.
So that's what I am going to do.
This deep cut is the result of thousands of years of water erosion.
It's a weak point in the rock.
Climbers often look for these,
as they can be a way up in otherwise impenetrable face.
Yeah, it looks like a little bit of a chimney climb up.
I just need to get past this first big boulder here.
Chimney climbs are where a rock face has two opposing walls.
And to climb them takes a lot of practise.
Wedge yourself in and then place one foot on each wall
and use those to push yourself up.
Climbing like this is all about balance
and just using opposing forces.
So...
One foot on one wall and one on the other.
And then use my leg strength to lift me up
and my arms just to balance.
I am getting quite higher with...
From about three quarters of the way.
And I am just going to take a second to rest.
But I am in a good position here.
I have got my legs taking all of my weight and actually,
I do not even needs my hands.
It just gives me a chance to get the blood back,
get my breath back and then do this last little bit.
And also up here it is now getting really wet and slippy.
So I just need to watch where I am putting my feet.
I can see daylight at the top.
There is a small gap.
It's my only way out, but it's gonna be a tight squeeze.
I am through.
I am out of that hole
and out of this canyon.
And look at that, that is just spectacular.
I am just going to take two minutes
to get my breath back and enjoy this.
I have come down steep mountains and through treacherous canyons
and now I find myself in the middle of lush pine forest.
I can really start to move fast now
but even my pace is nothing compared to the Raramuri.
They are known as the running people
and they can travel over 100 miles
without stopping and journeys
that take them hours will take anybody else days.
One of the ways that the Raramuri hunt is just
to chase animals over vast distances.
And this even works with deer.
They just run and they run until eventually
the animal would tire and would slow down
and the Raramuri would be close enough to be able to stone it
and kill it.
And just imagine the sort of stamina involved to do that.
I stand no chance of outrunning a deer,
so if I want to eat I will need to find something
that may not be as tasty but is easier to catch.
I found this little beetle larva,
around here and this is just the sort of place that they like,
underneath these little oak scrubs.
And what happens, all the leaves fall off
and this provides good insulation for these larva.
But I can tell this is a beetle larva,
just because the shape of its head.
It will have the same head when it is an adult.
And also its pincers you can see there
and that's what it will use to eat the leaves.
But you can see here all this brown gunk as well
and this is what it has been eating.
But this is absolutely edible, good protein.
Looks pretty horrible will probably tastes pretty horrible
but it is worth having.
God, like an explosion of goo in my mouth.
But actually tastes of like dirt and also a bit oaky,
which is no surprise from what it has been feeding off.
It's getting dark now.
And it's looking like I might be here for another night.
Then up ahead I see movement!
The side of the hill there.
Some people.
And those are Raramuri.
I can tell that from their brightly coloured clothing.
And it might not be a railway track but it is good enough for me.
Copper Canyon is a vast
and intimidating wilderness to be lost in.
And it leaves me with a sense of awe of the people
who have learnt to live and survive here and call it their home.
Subtitle Caption by ZestCorp