I'm Bear Grylls. Whoo!
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 one of the least known, least populated regions of America...
..locking horns with deep ravines and hidden chasms...
Bad, bad place.
..on the northern frontier of the mighty Chihuahuan Desert,
western Texas.
They call this Big Country.
(RATTLES) There's nothing on this.
And you take it on only if you dare.
(AEROPLANE ROARS)
Beneath me is the Chihuahuan Desert
and it's one of the largest deserts in North America, just vast.
But it's also empty.
There's hardly any habitation there at all.
It's known simply as El Despoblado, the land of no people.
800 miles long and 250 miles wide,
it stretches from Arizona through Texas and deep into Mexico.
This is frontier country at its wildest.
And every year, people attempt to cross
that desert border between Mexico and the US,
but many don't make it.
If you don't respect this place, it will kill you.
MAN: OK, Bear. We're coming up on 8,000 feet now.
You better get ready to jump.
Good luck down there. You're gonna need it.
Skydiving from a biplane is anything but straightforward.
The fastest and simplest way is for the pilot to invert the plane,
flip it upside down and drop me out.
It might be stomach-churning, but it's an effective deployment.
This is a first for me.
But if I catch the tail on exit, it's game over.
My mission is to show you how to stay alive long enough
to make it back to civilisation.
All I'm taking is a few basic survival tools
and my crew's coming with me.
That's the plane out of here.
I don't know where the hell I'm gonna land.
This is one of the most scorched regions of North America.
Temperatures soar into the hundreds for months on end.
Already from here, I can feel the heat in the desert.
This is just going to be a case of dodge the cacti.
(THUMP)
Whoo!
On the ground...but straight into one of these cactus.
Let's get this parachute stowed and leave it here.
You know, most people who get lost do so with nothing.
OK.
Let's get moving.
The Chihuahuan Desert is brutally hot and bone dry.
Most areas get less than one inch of rain a month.
Out here, staying hydrated is going to be your biggest challenge.
But it's absolutely vital and the key to survival in a place like this.
Bones everywhere.
That's an old coyote.
Harsh place.
Actually, it might be worth taking a couple of these with me.
Old coyote bones like these have a thousand uses
and they're light to carry.
So I'll head for the high ground up there
and then get our bearings,
get a bit of the lie of the land around here.
Getting to higher ground
will give you an understanding of the landscape
and show what you're up against.
You see on the horizon there? Those are the Sierra Rica mountains.
And just short of that is the Rio Grande
that separates Mexico from the US,
one of the most patrolled borders in the world.
If you can reach that, you're going to find someone.
But, yeah, between here and there
is just terrain that says, "Take me on if you dare."
In this environment, covering miles is punishing.
But with the right mindset,
it's possible to get over it quickly and easily.
Parkour is a technique adopted by the French military.
You need to be balanced and momented,
shifting the weight of your body and taking the most direct route.
Get this right and it's an effective way of covering rough terrain fast.
As if the desert wasn't harsh enough,
just beneath the surface lies a lethal reminder
of when all this was ranch land.
You see these stones just in a circle like this,
that's a very, very unnatural shape.
It means, more than likely, this is a hunter's trap of some sort.
Anyhow, I've worked with hunters all around the world
and this is very typical of what they do,
leaving the shape not only so they can find it again
but also as a warning to other people if they're passing this way.
Actually, let's see if we can just trigger this.
OK. Watch out.
What happens, an animal comes along and treads in the middle of this.
Oh, God. That's quite a nasty, big trap as well.
The trap is tethered to a length of rope.
Finding something like this could be a real lifesaver.
It's a little bit of weight to carry,
but I've got threads of string from this.
Good strong rope if we need it.
Good find.
Much of this area is mesa,
flat plateaus shaped over millions of years.
They tower high above the desert floor.
To find water, you must head down, following the canyons.
Let's try up here.
But this isn't easy terrain
and you're faced with a ticking-bomb scenario -
covering enough ground before the need for water reaches critical.
It's never easy, is it?
It must be a good 60 foot straight down, this.
But I do want some way of getting off this high ground.
Faced with a situation like this, you've got two choices -
go back or find a way across.
OK. I've got an idea.
What I have got is this rope...
..and this old trap.
But I know for sure I've not got enough rope
to reach 60-plus foot down there.
But there is probably enough
to reach across to the... just the other side of this gully.
That's probably only about 30 foot.
I can improvise some sort of throwing device here,
like a...like a grappling hook, out of this, and get it across to that.
That might work.
Grappling hooks were first invented by the Romans.
Their sailors used them during ship-to-ship battles.
Thrown into the enemy's rigging,
they'd drag them closer before boarding.
There we go.
Now I've got these two foot stirrups from the trap.
And then let's put these together.
And then...
..splice them through that.
That will make like a pretty rough and ready,
rudimentary grappling hook.
You gotta splice them like this. Old naval technique.
And the reason it's good is it's not only stronger,
the knots,
it also uses up less rope.
Finally, follow the pattern of the rope back on itself.
OK, let's see if we can get this thing across.
But throwing a rope across a 30-foot canyon is never easy.
Truly terrible, terrible throw.
That's the aimer.
Next time, I'll get it.
The danger here is throwing yourself over the edge along with the rope,
so make sure you've got a strong footing
and keep your feet clear of the coil.
Bullseye.
Feels like it's caught.
Now, that's probably as good as I'm going to get.
Bring this back. OK, watch out.
Facing terrain like this, a rope is too precious to leave behind.
Once I get across, I want this back.
What I've still got, though, is a chain from the trap...
..and then this bit of bone as well.
Let's get this around here.
Threading the rope through the chain
should stop it snagging when I try to retrieve it.
Well, what I do is use this bone
to go straight through the splice of both strands.
Yeah, this is the mindset you need to be in.
You gotta improvise.
Now to make a cord from the leftover rope.
And that's going to be the retrievable trigger.
And then once I'm across and paid all of this stuff out,
once this pulls out, that's going to release and come through.
OK. Let's get this set and give it a go.
The Tyrolean traverse is a method used by climbers and mountain troops
to get from one high point to another.
With your torso above the rope, loop one leg over
and allow the other to hang down and act as balance.
The rope's holding...so far...
..which is good.
It's definitely quite a squeeze on the old meat and two veg.
But there's no doubt it's a long, long way down, this.
(GRUNTS)
Actually, it's working quite nicely.
But... (SNAP)
Whoa!
(GRUNTS)
Bad place for the anchor to slip.
Bad, bad place.
I'm in the high mountains of western Texas,
in the brutal Chihuahuan Desert.
I've thrown a rope across a 30-foot chasm,
but my improvised grappling hook has slipped on the loose rock
at just the wrong time.
(SNAP) Ahh!
(GRUNTS)
Bad place for the anchor to slip.
Bad, bad place.
I want to get off this rope and fast.
(GRUNTS)
(PANTS)
The anchor has held, but only just.
Let's try and get this rope back.
OK.
I should be able to just pull the string and that bone should pop out.
Cool.
Now, this rope, then, should be free.
Good job.
Plan a route down from here.
It looks much more straightforward, actually.
Oh. God.
Bloody, bloody, bloody cactus.
Spend my life picking ruddy things out of my leg.
(GRUNTS)
Actually, this isn't a bad place to try and dig for a bit of water.
You know, often these riverbeds that look dry,
once you get down under the surface a bit, you can often find moisture.
Yeah, look. See that?
Just an inch or so down.
And that, look, that feels cooler and wetter already.
Cooler and wetter but not wet enough to drink.
I mean, that's as good as I'm getting.
Out here, you need at least a gallon of water a day
to stave off dehydration.
Without it, you begin to feel disorientated,
suffering headaches and nausea.
Straight towards us.
Vultures. You pick them out?
These birds are nature's true opportunists
and they can be a real help to the survivor.
They can lead you to a fresh kill.
So often, the most efficient way of surviving
is just to become a scavenger yourself.
Let's go down there.
Look at them all circling above.
And this is what they're after.
This stinking, rotten deer carcass.
Man, that honks.
But, look, this is just way gone.
And really, you know, there's nothing on this for me to eat.
Vultures have a higher stomach-acid content than humans
and can tolerate far more bacteria,
so what's good for them is definitely not good for me.
These arid lands are harsh and unforgiving,
nature at its most brutal.
But with the right knowledge, you can find water here.
Here, look, strawberry pitaya.
See, these very distinct red tops to them.
If you get past the spikes and the spines,
they're good to keep hydrated.
What you got inside is all of this...nice fruit.
And that's truly gorgeous.
(SLURPS)
Cool. Worth keeping an eye out for more of those if you see them.
Ahead of me lies my deadliest challenge.
I come face to face with one of America's most lethal snakes.
There's no way I can just stick a hand in there.
You know, one bite from that can kill a man.
Whoo!
I'm battling the deep ravines and canyons of western Texas.
To the south lies the mighty Rio Grande,
one of the most monitored frontiers on Earth,
and that's your best chance of reaching safety.
(RATTLING NOISE)
Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.
(RATTLE) You hear that?
That's a rattlesnake.
Just follow me. Follow me.
Yeah, look. Under here.
Straight under that rock there.
Yeah, but these guys, really,
they can be real killers if you stumble across these without knowing.
And that's just the sort of place rattlesnakes would like,
tucked under the rock, out of this heat of the sun.
People often think that snakes like the sun but they don't.
If he comes out in the heat of the day,
they can die in just a couple of hours.
But if I can get him out, that will make a good meal.
There's no way I can just stick a hand in there.
Just try and just keep him in there,
and we can go and make some sort of stick to get him out.
OK.
He should be quite happy with that
and just stay there for a few minutes.
OK. Come with me, I know exactly what we need for this.
OK, let's make this quick.
I just need a hook...
..and then something to tie it all together with.
I'll just use this yucca,
gives you a nice long strand of material you can use to bind with.
OK.
I first learnt this technique living with the San Bushmen of Namibia.
Now, it's going to be pretty makeshift...
..but I haven't got long.
OK. This'll do.
Little bit of a hook on that.
Enough length to keep me at distance from the snake.
OK.
Soon as he comes out, he is going to be ----, alright?
So, light on your feet and just watch for them.
Let's get the rucksack out of the way first.
(RATTLES)
That sound tells me the rattler's still in there.
It also says that it's ready to defend itself.
But his best defence is to stay in the crevice.
And this is why these snakes like these sort of places.
Because they're very hard to get at.
If you start putting your hand into it, you're just going to get bit.
OK, look, here we go. Whoa.
And that very distinct diamond head.
And that tells you you're dealing with a killer of a snake.
He gets those fangs into you
and inject you with his haemotoxic venom,
and basically what it does is stop your blood coagulating
and you end up just vomiting and pooing blood.
That's the nastiest sort of death you can imagine.
Alright, let's pull him out and try and get him.
Even with a stick, I've got to remain focused on where I'm standing.
You can't take your eyes off these snakes for a moment.
They can strike up to two thirds of their own body length.
Pinning it down immobilises the snake just enough
for me to risk getting in close.
OK.
And the only way to be really sure is to have his head off.
Even though I know I've decapitated it, I always double-check.
OK.
And even after he's dead, you've gotta be careful -
the head can still inject you.
And that's what you do not want going into your bloodstream.
It doesn't matter how many times you deal with snakes,
you wouldn't be human if your heart wasn't racing
when you're dealing with one that's as lethal as this.
It's good practice to bury the head of a venomous snake before you leave.
On high ground like this, aiming for a distant landmark,
it's pretty straightforward to stay on course
because you got line of sight to follow.
When you start to then dip into this sort of lower ground,
it's much harder to maintain your direction.
And a good technique is just to look at the shadow.
Look at the angle your shadow's causing on your body
and then just maintain that and follow it.
But bear in mind, that's only really good over short distances,
because obviously your shadow's going to move about 15 degrees every hour.
This desert is unrelenting.
Dry, dusty terrain as far as the eye can see.
But even the harshest places can throw up a welcome surprise.
Man, just check this out.
Look, completely hidden in the desert.
Yeah, look at this.
About the most welcome sight you can imagine.
And all of this lush and green is like that
because there's water down there.
That's a good thing to find.
I found water, but the going doesn't get any easier.
I'm deep in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert, western Texas,
and I've reached an arroyo...
Look at this.
..a slash of green vegetation
fed from spring water emerging straight out of the volcanic rock.
It's unbelievable to find water like this in the middle of the desert,
somewhere so hot and so dry.
First thing I'm going to do is just have a dunk.
Ohh.
That is...
..heaven.
And all of this is just volcanic spring water,
which means it's drinkable.
And it's said that a lot of this water
actually takes up to a thousand years to seep through all the rock
and come out of this.
I'm going to get my bottle to fill up.
If you find something like this, man, you got to make use of it.
Kind of a pretty imposing place, eh?
Logs and debris are left piled high,
evidence of the power of storms that hit this region.
It makes progress down this arroyo slow work.
Man!
See, all of this is the remains of flash floods.
When it rains here in this valley, in this gully,
all that water just gets rammed through here.
And all too soon, there's another obstacle in my path.
Just take it easy on this step.
I don't know what this is.
Completely overhanging.
Let's try and find another way, another way around.
(ROCK CLATTERS)
See if we can somehow reach this tree.
Hang on. Actually, we can use the grappling hook again.
See if I can run a hook over to one of those top branches there.
OK. That's going to be good.
Let's give this a quick check.
OK. That's caught.
Yeah. Been a good friend to me, this grappling hook.
Let's use it one last time to get us down to the water.
OK.
I guess let's try and get down to this lower bit.
(GRUNTS)
Let's kick these off.
OK.
There's only one way to find out if this is gonna work,
and that's to try it.
Ohh!
Got it!
Trunk.
OK, I'll try and get this across to you.
Oh, God. Hang on.
Not quite as strong as I hoped, these branches.
OK, you ready to catch?
One, two, three.
Nice. OK.
Go for it.
(GRUNTS) Alright?
Get your foot on here.
(GRUNTS) That's it.
Against the tree.
OK. Let's get down this thing.
(GRUNTS)
The thing is, all of these branches are...are just giving way like that.
You gotta grip right around this trunk like a koala bear.
(BRANCHES SNAP)
Oh, ----.
Try and grip and just have a quick breather.
Definitely works the inner thighs.
(GRUNTS)
So often these things turn into much more of a mission
than you reckon when you start.
It's vital to keep moving,
but it means leaving this desert oasis behind.
It's not long before the river's dried up
and it's back into the furnace heat of the desert again.
Look. It's all just parched dry.
Desert survival guides dictate
that the best way to avoid heat and dehydration is to travel by night.
But this rough terrain is scarred by deep, unpredictable chasms.
It's not a risk I'm willing to take.
I'm going to find somewhere to make camp.
Look, there's a whole cave up here.
Check this out.
This sort of place is going to be perfect.
Still a few bones around.
But by the look of these,
yeah, these are brittle and way old.
This hasn't been used for a long time.
The only place I'm vulnerable from is the front.
Actually might be worth trying to...
..trying to build some sort of defence here.
This part of Texas is home to a large and very active cougar population,
known locally as mountain lion.
Not a predator you'd want to bump into at night-time.
Now, this stuff is going to act as a kick-ass barricade.
Look at this. It's called devil's walking stick.
See the spines along that?
It's going to go straight through your fingers.
But if you look down at the bottom of it, there are no spines down here,
which means I can make my defence out of loads of these.
OK.
I'm going to collect a few of these to place across the cave entrance.
OK. That will do for this bit.
Now, if I make a fire in this corner,
that's going to protect me here as well.
My plan is to make a fire
using a method that's been around for as long as man has been making fire,
the hand drill.
No matches, no flints, just two bits of wood.
Even smoother, once you got the bigger bits off...
..is just to use some of this gravel...
..put it in your shirt...
..lay this in it...
..and it works like sandpaper.
OK. That's then the spindle made nice and smooth.
And then for the base, I'll just use the end of this.
Make a small well in the base, called the hearth,
then carve a notch in the side to allow the embers to fall out.
I'm just going to use this bit of bone as well
as an ember pan to put underneath this hearth.
And so much of fire is about just good preparation.
Plan it well...
..and, hopefully, it'll work first time.
OK. That's the rough shape of it.
Then what you want is just a tiny, little pinch of sand.
And that's going to add a little bit more friction...
..when you're spinning this spindle.
The key with this is not tiring yourself out too quickly.
Slowly build up that heat
and then as the smoke starts to appear,
you can start to speed it all up a bit.
And the smoke is such an enticing sight,
and you know you're near to fire.
You've also got to watch out you don't drip sweat off your nose
into your ember pan.
Especially important if you've got a big nose like mine.
(GRUNTS)
And what you want
is a continuous plume of smoke... coming from the ember pan,
and then you know you've got the potential to make fire.
Yeah.
Come on.
OK. And then super gently with this, just tip that in.
And what you want to do is tip it like this so it stays as one ember.
This old bird's nest makes perfect tinder.
And then protect it.
And sort of imagine you're trying to...
..hold a butterfly.
Not too tightly or you're going to smother it.
But not too loose that it's going to get away.
OK. Here we go.
Whoa.
Fire. Whoo-hoo.
And that's such a good feeling...
..getting fire going just from a hand drill...
..with no matches or anything.
And, you know, the answer to so much of survival is all around us.
People have been doing this sort of thing for thousands of years
and we survive if we listen to them.
With my fire going, I can skin this snake and get it cooked.
Take the rattle off. Give that as a present to my little boy.
And then the meat of this I'll just roast on...
..a bit of this devil's walking stick.
Good thing about this, because all the spikes...
..it's gonna grip to it really nicely,
and then the green wood won't burn,
the snake will cook.
That's supper.
There's still light to collect some creosote bush for a mattress.
They say that in survival terms,
a good night's sleep is as good as a meal.
Now I've got both.
Now, this is good stuff to sleep on, not only because the bugs hate it -
it keeps them away from me -
but also, it masks my smell,
which is going to help me keep the mountain lions away from this cave.
Oww.
Why is it that everything around here
is either spiky, sharp or out to kill you?
OK.
People often say that snakes taste like chicken.
But you know what?
They just don't.
It's more like...flame-grilled sinewy bone and skin.
Oh, it's a beautiful, still night.
It's amazing, the silence out here.
But I do need to pee.
I think I might try and aim it through the devil's walking stick.
OK.
(URINATES)
That's better.
I mean, we say survival isn't pretty.
I guess I know what they mean.
Oh, I'll just try and get some sleep.
BEAR: I spent the night in a cave
deep in the Chihuahuan Desert, western Texas.
With little or no rainfall for months on end,
staying hydrated is the most critical element to survival
in this parched region in North America.
A lizard resting on the rocks
will provide a quick burst of protein, if you can catch it.
Whoo.
Fast little fella.
But, actually, if you just take the head off that...
..and then squeeze the guts out,
that's going to be a good little munch on the way.
There's a river.
See that?
The Rio Grande and the border with Mexico.
And the border control guys are going to be all over this.
You know, they have cameras and unmanned balloons,
patrols going up and down the river.
If you reach that, you're going to get found.
The river is several hundred feet below,
but by pushing my back and feet against either side,
I can use these narrow fissures to chimney-climb my way down.
My feet are wedged on about one toe's worth
of this loose, crumbly, horrible stuff.
I don't like this feeling very much.
"Bear, stop complaining, get down it."
It's vital to keep your movements nice and slow
and always keep body pressure against the rockface.
What I don't like is that I just can't see
how big a drop it is under me,
whether it's 20 foot or 200 foot down that shaft.
It's definitely beginning to widen out, though.
Oh, man. That's bad. That's bad.
That's just a...sheer overhang drop down there.
And that is not climbable.
We got to use this rope somehow and work out some way of attaching this.
(GRUNTS) Yeah.
I need to try and improvise some way of making like a nut,
which is a climbing tool that jams into a rock
and you can attach a rope to.
The number of times I've found myself in a sticky jam,
and you just feel your mind racing and loads of mad ideas come into it.
And eventually, one of them, you think,
"Hang on, with a little bit of a tweak,
"something along those lines could work."
OK. Look.
That's going to be the actual climbing nut itself
and all of that should take my weight.
(ROCKS TUMBLE)
Bit of a precarious position, this one.
I'm trying to get this nut into this crack.
OK, that's...relatively solid.
And then all I gotta do is thread the rope through this,
climb down on the rope and retrieve it.
Alright, let's get that rucksack.
OK, thread that through.
What at first seems like an easy scramble down
could quickly turn into something much bigger and much more dangerous.
You always need a way back up,
otherwise you get rimrocked - trapped with no way up or down -
and you're literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Shhh... (PANTS)
Alright. Try and get this back.
Whoa!
Oh, man. Alive.
Get this stowed and get moving.
Down the shaft of doom.
Look at that.
OK.
This is going to be just heaven.
Whoo!
I'm going to work my way along the river.
You may not know it, but you're almost certainly being monitored.
You have to hope that you trigger the system
and the border patrol come to investigate.
(SIREN WAILS)
That's the sound of a sheriff's patrol car,
which means my way out of here.
This desert has sucked me in, chewed me up and spat me out.
And if I've learned one thing, it's this - don't mess with Texas.