I'm Bear Grylls. Whoo-hoo!
I'm gonna show you what it takes to get out alive
from some of the most dangerous places on earth.
I've got to make it through a week of challenges
in the sort of places you wouldn't last a day
without the right survival skills.
Now I'm in the frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle,
where I'll be battling
some of the most extreme conditions on the planet...
This plan has not gone to plan.
Let's go.
..pitting my wits against nature...
...in a constant struggle with the elements.
I'm over 200 miles inside the Arctic Circle here.
And the temperature can regularly dip below -50 degrees.
That's how cold it can get.
This is gonna be a mission.
The Arctic Circle is a sparsely populated region
of ice, snow and freezing sea,
covering 8 million square miles around the North Pole.
Parachuting into this barren landscape
will be one of my toughest jumps I've ever taken on.
Normally, the terrain is just covered
in steep rocky slopes and boulders.
I've broken my back before in a parachuting accident.
I do not want that to happen again.
My best bet is to aim for frozen water.
Looks like a frozen lake.
What I'm gonna do is throw this smoke
grenade as a marker on the lake.
And as long as I land near this,
I know I'm not gonna hit any boulders.
The army uses smoke grenades
to check the wind before dropping into hostile terrain.
My grenade has hit the lake - that's my target.
Now to position the chopper.
So we've got a frozen lake. Do you see it?
- I see it. Yeah, go ahead. - OK, it's looking good.
Bring us up a bit higher.
Little bit more.
What do you reckon? Here? - 10,000 feet.
10,000 feet. OK. OK, perfect. Let's go for it.
I'm taking a few basic survival tools,
and my film crew will follow me.
Time to pull the cord.
I'm 3,000 feet above the ground. Now I need to find my smoke marker.
There's the smoke!
But I've got to hit that point.
If I miss the smoke and land amongst all of those rocks, imagine
it'd be so easy just to break something.
This is one jump I cannot afford to get wrong.
I've got to keep to the left of the smoke.
Too far to the right and I'll smash into the rocks.
It's gonna be very, very tight, this.
The lake surface is a featureless glare
and it's so hard to judge the impact point.
Whoo!
Man alive! God, it's cold.
Man! I literally cannot feel my fingers now.
This is one wild, desolate place to have landed.
My chute could be useful. I'm gonna keep it.
But I can't wait around long.
I got to get off this exposed mountain top
before frostbite sets in.
Get this thing stowed, get moving, get some blood pumping again.
Let's go.
When in hostile terrain, always be on the lookout
for anything to help you navigate your way out of trouble.
All of this is sastrugi,
and it's formed by the wind, kind of like sand dunes.
You can see on the windward side, builds up this steeper bank,
and then over the top of it, on the leeward side, you get soft snow.
But it's a good indicator of the main wind direction.
Out here, that's from the sea.
Follow the sastrugi and you should get to the coast.
Go the wrong way and you're into Siberia.
Little survives a harsh Arctic winter,
but look carefully and you will find signs of life.
All round here. Crowberries. See these?
These tiny little things.
And at this time of year, this is really about all that grows up here.
Not much, but it's gonna give you a little bit of energy and vitamin C.
Hang on. These aren't crowberries over here. Look.
All the way along. These are reindeer droppings.
They're actually... Look, masses of them.
And these look pretty fresh.
There you go, look. These are reindeer tracks.
Really see the hoof marks all the way along.
There you go, droppings, and here... OK, let's definitely follow this.
Thousands of years ago, Sami tribespeople
moved into this remote wilderness to hunt wild reindeer.
Small groups still hunt these lands.
But the chances of seeing them is close to zero.
Their range is the size of North Carolina.
Come down, come down.
Get on your belly, get on your belly.
Yeah, there are reindeer over here. Bit closer.
Must be about...at least 50 there.
Actually, though, the sun's behind us,
which is gonna work in our favour.
It means they're gonna be blinded looking this way.
But we've also got the wind on our back, which is bad.
It's blowing our scent straight across the valley.
Back away.
The Sami have allowed me to kill an animal from this wild herd.
I need to drop out of sight before they spook.
They've got every survival advantage.
Wide hooves - they're like snowshoes moving on the snow - and very fast.
But what I've got is a bigger brain than them,
and that's why I'm gonna try and use that to set a bit of a snare here.
Finding their trail narrows the odds.
They often use the same tracks, and this one is like a reindeer highway.
And the idea is, is the reindeer comes along,
puts its foot in that, steps up - it's gonna get caught in it.
The more traps you set, the better your chance of catching something.
I've pretty well scattergunned that area with nooses,
and we'll see what happens.
What I need you to do, back down the track we came,
go up on that hillside, camouflage yourself, no movement, stay low.
And I'm gonna grab this camera and go round,
try and sneak all the way round the back here.
OK, let's go for it.
The crew are out of the way on the hill,
and I'm going in alone to outflank the herd.
These deer have highly tuned eyesight.
A stealthy approach is vital.
What's difficult is these reindeer, really, up here
are on a pretty flat plateau.
Once you're out of that gully, there's not a huge amount of cover.
I need to stay low and hope that the herd doesn't see me.
OK, they're starting to move.
Whether that's me or whether something else has spooked them,
I don't know.
But at the moment, they're moving the wrong way.
They're agitated. They don't know what to do.
They're looking for a way to run.
Here's a chance. You go. Go, go, go!
I have the element of surprise,
but the reindeer can run 10 times faster than me.
My advantage will be over in a few short seconds.
The herd is panicking. They're splitting up.
Well, half of them have broken off there.
The other half have gone down to that gully.
Let's go and find out whether I've had any luck with that.
Reindeer have kept men alive up here since the Ice Age.
But in this terrain, dragging a carcass that's heavier than me
is a mission.
This plan has not gone to plan.
I'm 200 miles inside the Arctic Circle
in the sacred ancestral lands of the Sami reindeer hunters.
Here's a chance. You go. Go, go, go.
My trap failed, but they've allowed me one animal from their wild herd
And this is just gonna be really rough and ready and makeshift.
Just a frame to carry this carcass on.
It's a typical North American way they used to carry their teepees.
Birch branches lashed together with the cord from my traps
form the frame.
A section of fur will act as a yoke.
No doubt, this is gonna be quite hard work.
But when you got a kill like this, you know,
you really don't want to leave much of it behind.
The frame is taking the weight of the carcass,
but dragging it through this deep snow is a real effort.
Right, so, I'm actually moving through the mountains.
It's about going steady. Got to pace yourself.
As I reach the tree line, the terrain gets steeper.
It's getting even harder for my sledge.
I think I can stand it here.
There, you see - there's a big drop-off down here.
No way I'm gonna get me and the sledge down that.
Well, actually, look. Hang on.
Now, you see that frozen waterfall the other side.
I might be able to worm my way down that if we can get round.
Now, you see, this is the river
that's feeding that frozen waterfall.
In summertime, this'll be a gushing torrent.
But because most of it's frozen,
it's that that I'm gonna use to climb down.
Hang on, this is a...
The reindeer is a guaranteed source of food,
but dragging it through this sort of terrain is not easy.
OK, give us a hand. Just kick that bit free inside.
It's landed in the freezing river and stuck under the ice.
Well, we're down at the river. Wah!
It's in the river.
This plan has not gone to plan.
That was a bad move.
Survival in icy water is measured in minutes.
I'm soaked and freezing.
And that water is very, very cold.
OK, we need to get this sledge out and get moving, get warm.
But it's trapped under the lip of the icefloe.
Wedged in there.
And it's not gonna budge.
I need a plan B fast.
I've worked hard for this meat, and there's no way I'm leaving that.
See if I can just get at least the hindquarters off it.
My body is starting to shut down,
but by going in again, I can at least salvage some of my kill.
Survival time in water like
this is not long.
I can't feel my hands now.
My body is pulling blood away from my fingers and feet
to protect my vital organs.
I know my body pretty well.
I know that I'm starting to get really cold.
As I ask my body to do stuff and it doesn't do it so well.
Getting out of cold water, it's always harder work.
Everything slows down.
OK, got my meat, but that is well and truly a goner.
It's the top of the waterfall,
and that's the way we're gonna be going down.
Man, am I cold now.
The danger being wet and cold
is losing the sensation of your hands and then your feet.
And when you can't use them, you're in real trouble.
So I need to just wring these gloves out.
I need to get down this before my fingers stop working altogether.
I'm looking for the fastest way.
Oh, this stuff is brittle.
And, actually, look.
See the waterfall running behind the ice there.
(ICE CREAKS) Oh, man, you hear that?
All the ice just went "Rrt!"
Oh, hang on, look. I can get my whole hand through this.
By looping the paracord through this ice hole,
I can slide down my chute like a fireman's pole.
It's a quick way down, but it's risky.
I have to hope that the ice holds my weight. There's a big drop below me.
It is pretty sheer on this bit.
(GRUNTS)
There's a ledge of sorts.
I want to take the parachute with me,
so when I release the end, the rest will just pull through.
Pull it through and bring it back.
Freezing-cold hands, but I'm down that waterfall.
And, look, I've got the meat as well.
With the reindeer meat and my parachute packed away,
I head straight for the trees, where I can make a fire.
All this deep snow is a serious workout.
It's always blowing straight off the high mountains up there.
With all this exercise, the blood is pumping,
and I can feel my hands again.
But the clock is ticking.
In these wet clothes, my body is losing heat fast.
See that? Down the bottom of the valley.
Come on, let's get down there.
It's some kind of old hunting lodge, but it looks abandoned.
Doesn't look like anyone has been here for a very long time.
Get down and have a look in.
Got to clear some of this snow out. I can't even open the door.
OK, come on.
Good firewood at least.
Hang on.
A really very, very ancient ski.
And these don't look like they've been used in a very long time.
OK, first thing, I need to get a fire. I need to get warm again.
People used to hunt wolverine in this area.
Now they are protected and these lodges are redundant.
But it's a welcome place to take stock before I get on my way.
This reindeer meat is absolutely frozen solid.
But I'll get some shavings off this and the fat and the meat...
..and put that into this boiling water
and make a nice, nutritious, warming stew.
In such extreme temperatures, your body needs
double the amount of daily calories.
For a man, that's 6,000 a day.
Oh, man, that's better.
Often, all it takes is a warm fire to dry you out,
raise your spirits and get you back on track.
Most of it's kind of rubbish, really,
but one man's rubbish is another man's survival.
Look. There's a bit of old wire.
He's obviously used that to hold the window open. Look.
Keep that. That's gonna be useful.
And they are pretty knackered, these old skis.
You know, probably haven't been used for 50 years.
But this old curtain material in here...
Or it will be when... improvised some sort of bindings.
Skis have been found in Arctic Russia that are 4,000 years old.
I'm hoping these old things will work for me.
I'm deep in the Arctic north, fighting a losing battle
with the freezing cold and the deep snow.
I've fixed up a pair of ancient skis
with some cloth I found in an old cabin.
And I'm going to try and squeeze a bit more life out of them.
Now I've got to improvise ski poles
just from straight bit of willow,
a couple of twigs pressed in the end.
And, you know, this is all pretty makeshift.
And I'm not expecting ski Olympics.
But it's gonna help me make better progress through this deep snow
than if I was on foot.
These old cross-country skis are good on the flat
but not ideal for downhill.
Steering them through this deep snow is almost impossible.
Impossible.
But, you know, in many ways, I can
do more damage than good, doing this.
It's actually quite dangerous skiing amongst trees
when you've got no control or skis like this.
And on these steep slopes, things are going from bad to worse.
Steady here.
Must be 50, 60 foot down that.
There's no way I'm skiing off that.
Hang on. There's a birch tree over there. I've got an idea.
The skis are taking the quick way down,
and I'm hoping a flexible birch tree will get me down just as fast.
The plan is tenuous -
grab the top of the tree and use my weight to bend it over.
So far, so good.
(SPITS)
Sort of.
Hoo!
Birch trees are meant to be bendy!
But I'm alright. Snow took most of that. Whoo!
I'm back on my skis again,
but getting through this undulating terrain is tough,
and I'm going nowhere fast.
This isn't working.
No, these are good on the flat, but they are no good uphill.
Cross-country skis usually have a special kick wax
applied to their base.
It's rough and grips the snow.
I don't have any of that, but I do have an idea.
The best way I can think of
of improvising some grip on the bottom of these skis
is just, actually, to pee on it.
And what I'm hoping is when that pee then freezes,
snow will stick to that ice and give me a bit of traction.
OK, turn this over and it should start to freeze
and stick pretty quickly.
And, look, this should have snow -
yeah, look, there you go - stuck to the bottom of it.
OK, let's get going.
Actually, look, these are climbing quite nicely.
Urine skins. That's what they are.
I'm always inspired by the legend of a Polish Second World War prisoner
who escaped a Russian Gulag deep in the Arctic.
It's said he hiked for three years across terrain like this
before finding rescue.
There's a big lake ahead.
Man, just look at this place -
absolutely vast and pretty featureless.
But, you know, that's the way I want to be heading,
but, really, I don't want to hang around long
on a lake as big as this.
The lake is five miles across,
but there's only one hour of daylight left.
I'll never cross it before dark.
With no shelter, this exposed stretch of ice
is no place to get stuck for the night.
Actually, the wind's picked up now quite a lot.
But I reckon I can actually use my reserve parachute as like a kite
to pull me across the ice here.
And that will get me across much quicker.
If I get this thing inflated, the wind should do the rest.
Right. Here...we go.
The great thing about being on an open lake like this
is the wind is nice and steady and constant.
This is much easier at the moment
than trying to drag myself across this just walking on skis.
When the sun drops, temperatures can plummet to -50.
And out here, just surviving the night is an achievement.
Back into the snow coffin.
I'm deep inside the Arctic Circle, halfway across a frozen lake.
Soon the sun will drop, and with it, the temperature.
I'm using my parachute like a kite to pull me along.
It was a long shot, but it seems to be working.
Good survival is actually about thinking smart, being ingenious,
coming up with clever ways to use nature and not fight it.
That's how people really survive.
Maintain this speed and I'll be across in 20 minutes
and reach the other side before it goes dark.
OK, getting quite close towards the shoreline now.
And that has worked much nicer than I ever imagined it would.
You know, really nice, steady breeze.
But there's no brake on this thing.
The only way to stop is to take a dive.
(GROANS)
OK, it's getting darker now.
This wouldn't be a bad place to make a bit of a camp
down amongst the trees.
So I've got firewood.
I'm also a little bit higher than the actual lake,
where all the cold air is gonna sink down to.
Get this down. OK, time to start digging.
And what I want to do is just dig a snow trench.
It's really more like a coffin.
When the sun drops, temperatures can plummet and dramatically.
Branches of snow on top will insulate
you against the worst of that
and help you survive the night.
The last thing I need. You see this?
It's like a gutter,
where all the cold air in the shelter will run down here.
It actually makes a massive difference.
OK.
Eskimos supplement their diet with fish.
I'm gonna try my luck in this lake, if I can get to it.
Most of the ice on this lake is gonna be super-thick -
you know, at least a metre.
But because I'm quite near this outflow,
the ice is gonna be thinner - I should be able to get through.
Fish contain omega-3 oils.
These thin the blood,
which improves your circulation and keeps you warmer.
Getting pretty dark to see this, but what I've got,
it's just a bit of stick
with some line on the end from the middle of the paracord.
And on the end of that,
I've got this little bit of wire from the cabin.
And then onto the end of that
I need to make a throat gorge and just break off...bit of twig.
A fish takes the bait
and then this bit of stick gets stuck in its throat.
I just put a little bit of the reindeer meat onto that,
and that, then, is good to drop into the hole.
Then kick snow over the hole to insulate it from the wind
and stop it refreezing.
One last thing, I was gonna make a torch.
Fish are most active at night,
and it's an old Inuit trick to make small fires around the hole
to attract them to the line.
I've just got these two branches, and then in between this wedge,
lots of this birch bark,
which should attract, hopefully, some fish.
It's the same principle as lantern fishing in the Far East.
Hopefully, the fish will see the glow through the cleared ice
and come to the bait while I try and get some sleep.
Well, this reindeer fur is giving me a bit of insulation below.
But there's no getting away from it it is still cold.
Less cold than if I didn't have a shelter, but still cold.
Might actually just go and set that other torch burning,
see how the fishing's going,
give me a chance to get my feet moving again.
OK. Come on.
But I'll need to be quick.
It's midnight, and right now, the temperature is -30 degrees.
Well, at least I've got some blood moving again.
Back into the snow coffin.
It's been a long, cold night.
It's such a relief when the sun rises and with it, the temperature.
Well, I was freezing cold last night,
ended up wrapping myself in all this parachute trying to keep me warm.
Anyway, get down and check this ice fishing hole.
And, look, the snow stopped the hole from freezing.
Let's see if we've got anything on here.
Yeah, well, that's a no, isn't it?
Maybe they just weren't biting.
Anyway, you can't win 'em all.
Get on my way.
Time to get moving.
But in this frozen landscape, nature blocks you at every turn.
I can't say enough just how careful you gotta be with water this cold.
I'm in the Arctic Circle, battling through deep forest.
The temperature's currently a biting -26,
and if that's not enough, there's now a river in my path.
You know, I can't say enough
just how careful you've got to be with water this cold.
You know, it can be such a killer.
Got to be prepared for something like this.
I'm actually gonna get some materials
for making a fire this side
and take it across with me.
'Cause once I'm in that cold water and out,
we're talking kind of minutes before everything starts to shut down.
So let's get some tinder up here.
Birch bark is full of flammable sap.
It'll help me start a fire as soon as I'm out.
OK. Good preparation is rarely wasted.
If you get your clothes wet, they'll freeze on you
and be useless for insulation.
So they're going in my pack with my portable fire.
Funny - as soon as you start to get at this stage,
you just feel your heart rate already increase.
Oh! Man, that is nice.
Sometimes my boys watch these sort of programs,
and they go, "Was it really that cold?"
When you can show them a shoelace
out horizontal, then you know it's cold.
Reach a coast and you can signal a passing ship.
But first you got to make it out to the shipping lanes.
Dead seal in the water over there.
I'm deep in the Arctic north... This is a serious workout.
..heading across mountains, frozen waterfalls, thick forest...
..and now I'm at the coast.
Pretty big, forbidding Arctic landscape, that.
Look, you can see the sea mist rolling in as well.
OK, let's get down there.
The coast is your best chance of finding signs of civilisation.
And here, there's no shortage.
Seen quite a lot of all of this sort of stuff.
And, really, it's from all the fishing vessels
that use these very northerly shipping lanes out there.
80% of the world's whitefish comes from Arctic waters.
It's the superhighway of fishing, if you can get out to it.
There's probably enough of all of this sort of thing
to improvise some sort of raft.
You can make one that's gonna float.
You can then get out to some of these
outer islands, make a signal fire,
that's probably your best chance of being spotted
from the shipping lanes.
All this has been dumped off ships out at sea.
It's buoyant and tough.
You know, even something as simple as...
..just this, lashed to the top of the raft...
..and then attached to these balls,
is gonna give us some stability.
That sea out in the Arctic is freezing.
I do not want to be getting wet if I can avoid it.
I only have an hour before the tide turns,
which would pull me back to shore.
Well, I'm afloat, but the problem is, this end barrel
has got a crack or something in it,
'cause that's now filled up with water,
means this whole raft is leaning at quite...dodgy angle.
It's also a bit rougher out here, which isn't kind of helping me.
The current's doing a lot of the work.
The tide's taking me through these inner islands
to where I should be able to see the shipping lanes.
Salt water won't freeze until it's -2 degrees.
I'm wet, and I can't feel my fingers now,
but I am making good progress with the outgoing tide.
Dead seal in the water over there.
Try and paddle over a bit. Hang on. Stick that there.
There are large grey seal colonies on the more remote islands.
They used to be hunted for their fat to fuel oil lamps.
I've got an idea.
I've got this thing.
Pretty stinky. What I want is a bit of this blubber.
And that will help me keep the signal fire burning a bit longer.
And look how much fat it's got on it.
That's how this guy keeps warm in these icy, icy waters.
The sea's getting rougher now,
which could be a sign that the tide's changing.
Then onshore currents would drag me back to the mainland.
But I'm almost there.
Well, these are the outer islands here.
Just about in time as well. This raft is on its last legs now.
The raft's had it, but I've made it to the island.
Now I need to find a good place for a signal fire.
Let's get up to high ground.
And this is the tip of the outer islands.
And out there are all the northerly shipping lanes.
This is the place to make a signal fire, right up here.
A Danish fisherman survived 15 days
on an island like this off Greenland.
There was no food and he ate only snow.
He was finally rescued 45 pounds lighter with extreme frostbite.
When a ship comes near you, you need to be ready with your fire.
You don't know when or if you'll get another chance.
What I want is some seaweed. That's gonna make it smoke.
Some polystyrene found off the beach shore as well -
that's gonna make smoke.
OK, bit more tinder.
There you go. There's a fishing vessel.
OK, I've got to move.
The ship is at least two miles offshore.
If you want to be seen, you got to move fast.
Blubber on.
And a simple signal fire like this
that lights first time and when you need it
has saved so many lives over the years.
OK.
There are places in the world untouched and unchanged
by the march of time and technology.
But basic survival techniques are timeless.
And by making nature work for you, you can make it out alive.