Whoo!
I'm Bear Grylls.
I go to some of the most dangerous places on Earth
to show you what it takes to make it out alive.
I've travelled the globe facing challenges
in the sort of places you wouldn't last a day
without the right survival skills.
Now I'm in Norway, one of the most beautiful, extreme
and wettest places on the planet.
Come on!
I'm gonna be taking survival situations to the breaking point...
I can now no longer feel my hands.
..to show you how easy it is to make the wrong decision...
..and what the consequences could be.
Here we go!
The difference between success and failure
often rests on a knife edge.
Get it wrong and you could pay the ultimate price.
To explore the limits of survival,
I'll revisit one of the worst moments of my life,
when a parachute failed...
It's weird putting yourself back into a situation
that you almost paid for with your life.
..make my longest Tyrolean crossing...
And you're not human
if your heart rate doesn't go up when you look down.
..experience the awesome power of fast rivers...
OK.
Very, very close to the edge here!
And you just got to work hard and work fast!
..and go beyond my limits to show you how a simple mistake
can cost you your life.
I'm gonna end up hypothermic.
If that storm doesn't stop...
..you're gonna die.
I've done loads of parachute jumps for this show.
Thank God I've never had a problem.
But once when I was with the Special Forces, jumping in Southern Africa,
I had a parachute fail on me.
It broke my back in three places and very nearly left me paralysed,
and that's why I'm nervous about today.
What I'm gonna do is cut away from a perfectly good canopy
to show you how to survive a major parachute malfunction.
OK, guys, set.
OK. Let's have a look here. This is all ready to go.
Undertaking something this risky,
you need people you trust to make a final check of equipment.
A careless mistake could end in disaster.
Alright? Yeah, good. OK, Bear.
You can do this. Stay focused.
Yeah.
And I'll be with the team on the water.
OK. Good.
Parachuting accidents are rare.
Get into trouble like I did all those years ago
and you'd be lucky to make it.
I could have cut away from my rip chute, but I didn't.
Now I'm gonna show you what I should have done.
As soon I was aware something is wrong,
it's that kind of sense of panic.
You're falling at 130 miles an hour towards the earth.
It gives you very little time to deal with stuff.
It's weird putting yourself back into a situation
that you almost paid for with your life.
This is something I never dreamt I'd be doing.
My team had gone ahead to the drop zone deep in one of Norway's fjords.
Cutting away a canopy can send you off course
and leave no alternative but a water landing.
That's a high-risk manoeuvre, and I'm gonna show you why.
But if your parachute fails, you must cut away fast.
It's something you'd only ever do as a last resort.
OK, main...cutaway handle.
And then the all-important reserve.
And that's what I should have pulled all those years ago.
Instead, at 4,000 feet, when my canopy ripped, I hesitated.
I didn't leave enough time to pull my reserve
and I smashed into the ground.
It was a costly mistake and one that I almost paid for with my life.
I'm jumping from 10,000 feet.
Up here, wind conditions can be very different
from the steep-walled fjord below.
OK. Smoke in the water.
Ground crew trigger smoke to check the wind drift.
Narrow canyons can funnel strong winds.
Get caught in these and I'll be thrown around like a rag doll.
To show the effects of stress, my heart rate's being monitored.
As adrenaline kicks in,
it shoots from 60 beats per minute to over 100.
From this altitude without a parachute,
I'd hit the ground in 60 seconds.
There's no margin for error.
Everything must go like clockwork.
It normally takes three seconds for a parachute to open.
Come on!
This took 11.
Those eight seconds cost me over a thousand feet.
Altitude I haven't got.
With the main chute deployed, I'm falling at 10 miles an hour.
Now to focus on cutting away and pulling that reserve.
Just what I'd have to do if my parachute ripped or malfunctioned.
OK, we're under canopy.
Got my cutaway handle. Look for my reserve.
My heart rate's nearly tripled.
This is part of the fight-or-flight response.
Here we go.
It's crucial I maintain stability.
If I tumble, I could get tangled in my reserve as it deploys.
At this altitude, I don't have time to play with.
Whoa!
Reserve's open.
That drop away was nice.
My heart is thumping.
That time, it worked sweet.
Now just to land this baby.
If only I'd done that all those years ago.
I can see the team on the fjord.
Now to show you what to do if you have to land in water.
In 1967, 18 parachuters were mistakenly dropped over Lake Erie.
When they realised, they opened their
canopies and tried to make for land,
but it was too far.
They were forced to land in the lake.
2 survived. 16 men drowned.
Landing on water is fraught with danger.
Lack of definition makes judging height near impossible.
Here we go.
As soon as I hit, I need to unclip
my harness and get free of the lines.
The big danger of water jumps...
..is just getting tangled up.
You want your parachute, you want to get this...harness off me,
off my legs, and swim away.
It's so easy just to get snared in that.
What happens initially,
all of this silk of the parachute that you think's very buoyant
starts to fill with water,
and then suddenly it's gonna go down.
If you're not free of the rigging lines, you're gonna go down with it.
If you're in any doubt, just use your hook knife, just one of these,
and then cut through the rigging lines.
OK. Free. Get away from this thing.
Whoo!
Pretty hairy up there but very, very
relieved to survive that one.
Very different feeling to what I experienced
last time a parachute went wrong.
Ah!
OK. Let's get ashore!
Hang on!
I'm out of the water, but I'm not going to be staying dry for long.
Very, very close to the edge here.
I'm in Norway...
Here we go.
..where I'm taking survival situations to the breaking point
to show how easy it is to make wrong decisions...
Whuh!
..and what the consequences can be.
Come on.
Back on solid ground.
And I'm heading inland to face my next challenge.
Water is a key to survival,
but it's also one of the biggest threats you'll face in the wild.
Norway is one of the wettest places on Earth.
Rains regularly hit this land over 80% of the year.
In a survival situation, if you're on your own
and no-one's looking for you, you've gotta keep moving.
But sooner or later,
you're gonna come across some big natural obstacles,
and in this part of the world,
that's more than likely gonna be a river.
I've crossed many rivers making these programs.
And they can be a hugely powerful foe,
one you should only take on if there are no other options.
Whuh!
I'm gonna show you what can happen when you miscalculate
and take on a river that's too powerful to cross.
Temperatures have plummeted, and the first snow of the year is falling.
We're heading up into one of Norway's dam networks
that provide much of the country's power.
I'm gonna place myself in the middle of the main outflow
to demonstrate the destructive power of big rivers.
And I know from experience
one of the most dangerous things in the wild can be fast-moving water.
You start throwing ice and freezing conditions into it,
we have a potentially lethal combination.
Rivers can be so deceptive.
Every year, people die trying to cross them.
In the battle against fast-moving water,
the water is generally always gonna win.
This location allows us to control the flow rate
and make the river run faster and faster.
It'll be easier that way.
As levels rise, we'll replicate flood conditions,
where the flow exerts immense force on the body,
and show what little water is needed
to wash you off your feet and into big trouble.
Monitors will measure the volume and speed of water,
and everyone must be crystal-clear about what they're doing.
In real time, that shelf you can see about 10 yards over the lip
turns into a pretty nasty stopper and a pin.
Which, if you go in, you'd be very unlikely to get out of,
and that's real time - that's not bigging it up at all.
OK, let's get in the zone!
I've got a safety rope, but in a survival situation,
you wouldn't have that backup - you'd be on your own.
Let's open the dam.
OK. Open the dam 20%.
20% will release almost 8,000 gallons of water a second,
and it's heading right for me.
(WATER ROARS)
What I don't know is just what's gonna happen.
This whole shelf of ice upstream of me,
when you suddenly get a deluge of water.
Losing my footing is one thing,
but getting caught under the ice doesn't bear thinking about.
Keep an eye on the river for me.
OK, that's it coming. You can hear it.
OK, we got water coming over there now.
This is always the moment where... it's all about to happen
and there's not much you can do about it.
You're in it now.
You can see all of this water spilling over here now.
The ice is on the move.
Crossing rivers is always an unknown.
You can't tell how deep and fast the flow is until you're well into it.
As the water rises, the challenge begins.
You always want a good, wide, strong stance.
To fend off whatever's coming towards you.
In this case, it's ice, and that is certainly heightening the senses.
So this has definitely risen already about a foot,
and it's broken up all of this ice - it's now just small bits.
The ice is gone, but the water pressure is building.
From this point, without a stick, I'd be starting to really struggle.
You suddenly realise how small you are in the face of nature's power.
It'd be at this point that I'd be thinking,
"OK. We're not gonna get across this.
"Time to go back in the shallower water."
But too many people ignore their instincts and carry on.
It's often the biggest mistake they ever make.
But I'm gonna stay in here
and find the tipping point between survival and failure.
Feel my breathing go up, my heart rate go up.
I'm starting to lose...
..lose grip.
Just literally on the tips of my toes now.
That's all I've got gripping.
The water flow has increased.
I'm waist-deep, my feet are numb through cold,
and I'm struggling to stand upright.
Trying to cross a river,
I would now no longer be able to move forward or backwards.
I'm stuck.
You lose all the strength in your muscles...
..and the fight gets taken from you.
Oh! OK.
I've lost it.
It's too powerful to remain standing.
Very, very close to the edge here.
The raging current forces me downstream,
and it's a fight to reach the safety of the bank.
Finally, we start hitting the shallows again.
You start to get some strength to get to...
The river was only up to my waist and flowing at seven miles an hour,
but that's enough to wash away a house.
Crossing rivers is a dangerous game with very high stakes.
Ignore the danger signs and you're gonna lose.
Choose your battles when it comes to the wild
and don't mess with big white-water rivers.
I've survived the river,
but this tough land hasn't finished with me yet.
Just getting so, so cold now.
My hands, I can hardly feel them.
You could end up hypothermic. If you can't stop it, you'll die.
I'm in Norway...
Here we go.
..where I've shown you how to survive
a catastrophic parachute failure...
Come on!
Whuh!
..and found the point
at which crossing fast-moving water would be impossible.
Very, very close to the edge here, guys!
Now I'm heading into the Norwegian forest on the hunt for big game.
A third of Norway is covered by forest.
It's home to deer, elk and bears.
Over the years, I've built many traps.
Most have been aimed at catching small animals.
In Norway, there are bigger beasts to go for,
but the traps need to have enough force to bring them down.
A big deadfall trap like this has a huge amount of power.
The less energy you spend hunting, the better,
and the easiest trap to set up is a deadfall.
There's enough weight in this to kill
something like a wolverine or a fox,
yet all of that weight is held just on this little trigger.
And this runs down,
and then a tripwire comes across the killing zone.
I've placed an elk rib cage in the kill zone
to show what damage would be inflicted.
For a survivor, that's a meal, good morale
and a step towards staying alive longer.
If you've got the right materials, though, you can go up a notch
and build the deadliest trap of all - the Malay gate.
And it works on the power and whip of a big, bendy branch,
and you set this up along a game trail like this...
..and any prey coming along here
that triggers this...
..is gonna get hit,
and the power of these spikes drives straight through,
pierce lungs and heart.
You'd bring down a big elk with this.
Traps that can take out an elk will take you out too,
so it's vital you mark them,
otherwise you could fall prey to your own trap.
To show you just how much force, though, this generates,
I'm gonna put myself now into the killing zone,
but, obviously, I don't want it to be a literal killing zone.
Just take these spikes off.
And then prime the killing arm...
..and just secure it...
..with a trigger arm.
And then that's held in place,
and then just put... this ring over that,
and that is then attached
all the way down to the tripwire.
OK, time to go and get set for this.
It's time for the hunter to become the hunted.
Alright, this is what security forces use
for close-quarter combat training, this, Bear.
What I don't want to do is get thwacked in the head.
Right, you're gonna feel some force,
but shouldn't be any permanent damage.
Even with the spikes removed, this is a very strange sensation.
Death on a stick in here.
Definitely quite nervous
about stepping into the killing zone of this.
Just, I know the power and the force that's involved here.
As soon as I move my left leg, though, it's gonna trigger it.
It's gonna go. Here we go.
(COUGHS)
Just a huge amount of force.
But without body armour, you're talking hospital.
Phew!
And with the spikes in place, the morgue.
Norway is lashed by freezing winds from the Arctic and Siberia.
The weather can turn in an instant,
and when it does, it can be a killer.
Exposure is a serious threat here.
You need to be prepared for everything in this wilderness.
I'm gonna show you how your chances of surviving a storm
can hinge on the smallest of decisions
and how quickly wind and rain can leave you fighting for your life.
I've got the crew setting up some kit.
Create some seriously nasty condition.
Also, Jeff's hooking me up so he can monitor what's happening to my body.
I've got a feeling this is gonna be quite full-on.
We're gonna create storm conditions.
Giant fans will generate winds up to 40 miles an hour.
The fire department will provide the rain.
And these are conditions that anyone could get caught in
if the weather changed quickly.
Cameras and lights have been waterproofed.
Getting caught in bad weather during the day is bad enough,
but at night, it's far worse.
MAN: Just double-check everything there, OK?
DAVE: Yeah, absolutely. All over it.
The temperature drops, and visibility is reduced.
For a survivor, this is morale-crushing.
It's a really still, quiet night.
But the one thing you can't take for granted in the wild is the weather.
When that turns nasty, if you don't take decisive action
and if you're ill-prepared, that weather can kill you.
To be like someone caught in the wild unprepared,
I'm gonna take off my waterproofs
to show you how a simple mistake like forgetting your jacket
can cost you your life.
OK! Kick off with just the wind.
I'm in Norway and about to face the storm from hell.
I'm gonna face the elements without waterproofs -
a mistake all too easily made.
In these conditions, survival time can be reduced to hours.
I'm gonna show how long it takes
before I reach the point at which I wouldn't be able to survive.
OK! Just kick off with just the wind. Go.
(ENGINE WHIRRS)
I'll be monitored
to see what happens to my body.
Instantly, you can feel the force of that!
A wind at night-time in the wild with no shelter
is a frightening phenomenon just on its own.
The team's using a thermal imaging camera.
The dark red shows body heat.
As I start to lose heat, the red will turn to blue.
Your first priority in this situation
is to get some protection from that wind,
even if it's just to huddle down low.
The wind is harsh but bearable.
The apparent air temperature felt on exposed skin, though, plummets.
This is known as wind chill.
OK! Give us rain!
Add rain and you're facing one of the most dangerous conditions
you can come up against in the wild.
This wind and rain is more dangerous than wind and snow,
and the wet sucks the heat from you
25 times faster than if you're dry!
I've got to get some sort of shelter up.
OK, we need to break some branches. Come on.
I need to work fast.
Immediately, I feel my body being drained of heat.
In these situations, people make the mistake of pushing on,
thinking they can beat the storm.
Forget it. In a storm like this, you'll never win.
The priority is to find or build shelter.
And you just got to work hard and work fast.
I'm building a simple lean-to shelter.
It should block the majority of the wind and rain
and give me some protection.
Gonna need loads of small sticks now.
OK, let's get this lot in.
You just got to use the adrenaline
from the storm to keep you working!
Once you get a shelter up, you stand a chance,
but without it, you're dead.
I've been in the storm for almost 10 minutes.
I'm soaked through, and my skin temperature is plummeting.
I've covered a small section of the shelter with foliage.
Just the difference in here already is massively noticeable.
You know, if I stick this wind machine up here,
well, it's reading 35, 38 miles an hour.
Down here, though...
..I'm down to seven.
That's gonna make a lifesaving difference.
Getting out of the wind will make you feel 10 degrees warmer.
It's a small victory
but not enough to extend my survival time for long in these conditions.
I need to make the shelter more robust.
Ooh.
I've been in the storm for just over 20 minutes now.
My skin temperature has dropped 16 degrees.
Blood is being pumped from my extremities to my core
to protect my vital organs.
Just getting so, so cold now!
My hands, I can hardly feel them!
They're literally numb!
And that's when it gets dangerous,
'cause you can't use them, the back of my hands.
It's so cold, I can hardly open my eyes!
I need to get out of this wind and rain and get a fire lit
while I still have the energy.
Without a fire in these temperatures,
I wouldn't last the night.
Once I got some sort of protection from that wind and rain,
I'm going to need fire,
and for that,
I need some dead...pine...
..and birch branches.
OK, got a bit of kindling here.
Try and tuck that under the driest part of the shelter,
and this dead wood.
Rrr-oww!
I need to get right into the centre of that, where it's gonna be dry.
It's definitely gonna be the hardest fire
that I'm ever gonna try to light.
Problem is, my hands are shaking so much,
can hardly even... hardly even hold the fire steel.
Come on!
I'm losing this battle and fast.
In a survival situation with no waterproofs, means big trouble.
(BABBLES)
I can now no longer feel my hands.
That fire is never gonna go,
with the best will in the world.
I need to direct my energy
just to try to...
..warm my hands while I start a fire.
Anything, just...
Stuffing heather...up my shirt is gonna insulate me a bit.
I've been in the elements just under an hour,
and a frightening reality has just hit me.
Unless I stop this, I'm gonna end up hypothermic.
I've got to stop this.
When the elements are stacked against
you, you haven't got a chance.
It's a hard and humbling lesson to learn -
no matter who you are, nature will always get the upper hand.
Fans and water off.
(BLOWS)
You got to stop it.
Sorry, I can't... I can't get that fire going.
And I'm so cold.
It just shows, if you're in that situation...
..where you can't call an end to it...
..you're dead.
Sorry.
That's frightening.
Ohh!
That was weird, just a big flood of emotions.
It's like...
..we're very powerless.
You know, normally, you'd get a shelter up, get a fire going,
get out of it.
With the best will in the world... never gonna get a fire going,
and with no waterproofs, that driving wind...
..it's a feeling of you know you're gonna die if that doesn't stop.
You're gonna end up hypothermic, and if you can't stop it, you'll die.
I'm in Norway, one of the wettest countries on the planet...
..taking survival situations to the breaking point.
Whuh!
I've demonstrated a parachute malfunction...
Come on!
..been swept away by a torrent of water...
OK.
..and been pushed to my limits in a freezing man-made storm.
I'm so cold.
Now to take on my next challenge
as I continue to face the worst that this rugged country can throw at me.
Norway's landscape is a result of millions of years under ice,
glaciers carved through the earth,
leaving deep fjords and steep canyons.
It's a tough place to travel through.
At every turn, the landscape literally stops you in your tracks.
Yeah, Norway's just full of these sort of gorges.
The reason they're a nightmare
is they're often flanked by these sort of just sheer cliffs,
and then at the bottom, you get this pounding white water.
Crossing something like this is a challenge for any survivor.
A Tyrolean traverse is the only real option.
It's a tried and tested method that mountaineers and the military use
to get from one high point to another,
but it leaves little room for error, as I've discovered in the past.
Tyrolean's all about having good solid anchors.
If one of them goes...
..it's a long drop down to your death
either on the rocks or in the white water.
I mean, look. Push out.
OK, that's not where we're ending up, alright?
I've never done such a long Tyrolean crossing before.
Normally, I've thrown my rope across,
but this time, the distance is too far.
I need another way to secure it.
And this is a grappling gun.
It's a prototype of what Special Forces have used
for boarding big ships from the water.
Part of the anti-piracy.
Well, I reckon I can use this to get a line across this gorge.
The gun's got a range of 150 feet.
It fires a 2-pound titanium hook powered by compressed air.
Right amongst all those rocks.
Keep the tension on this.
Tyroleans need to be done on as tight a rope as possible.
To get the tension, I'm gonna use a 3-in-1 pulley system.
The only thing is, we start putting knots into the system,
it does weaken it, you know, about up to 25%.
My line in. Now for the team's.
My heart rate's gonna be monitored to show how hard I'm working.
Tyroleans are brutally hard.
Get too exhausted and the only way is down.
God, I hate this moment. Just...
Always just before you go, you just kind of want to just get into it.
Lie on the rope with one leg hooked over the line
while the other hangs below like a pendulum, for balance.
OK, come on. Let's go.
The gorge is about 130 feet across and 120 foot deep.
As I get further out, the rope will stretch and bow.
Starting off backwards is the only way to control myself.
Problem is...
..at some point,
I'm gonna have to turn around when I start going uphill.
The key with this - just focus on the rope and on the balance
and trying to conserve your energy and not look down.
I said NOT look down, Bear.
This is the easy part. I'm going downhill. Gravity is on my side.
Just need to take your time and not rush it.
You rush and that's when you make mistakes.
This is very, very...
..uncomfortable.
Whuh!
But I'm what you'd call committed now.
But it's a long crossing,
and I'm hoping I haven't miscalculated my own abilities.
I'm only halfway through. Now to turn around.
This turning around balanced on a thin rope 120 foot up...
..is easier said than done.
I'm in Norway, one of the wettest places on the planet,
to show you what a fine line it is
between survival and death in the wild.
I'm so cold.
I'm halfway across a Tyrolean traverse.
I was forced to go backwards to control my descent,
but now I've got to turn around.
This turning around balanced on a thin rope 120 foot up...
..is easier...
..said than done.
This is a tricky manoeuvre known as a regain.
And, basically, you go...to a hang.
It's what the commandos do as part of their basic training.
It's something I have to nail first time.
If I don't have enough strength to get back up,
I'll be stuck here dangling high above the river.
Lift your legs up.
Get one armpit over.
He's working hard now. The heart rate's just shot up.
Shot up even further.
Halfway across and the uphill leg now to go.
This is taking more effort than I thought.
I'm getting to the end,
but it's always the last bit that's the hardest.
God!
Well, come on.
Just eight feet.
(BEEPING)
142 beats a minutes. Definitely working hard.
This is the toughest Tyrolean I've ever attempted.
Technique is everything, and at this height, failure is not an option.
Phew!
Very, very hard work.
And very painful on the Queensberries and the hands.
I'm very relieved to see solid rock under me.
And what do you know? That anchor held well.
OK, good.
Steep gorges and deep fjords are iconic to the Norwegian landscape,
carved out after millions of years under ice.
For a survivor, they can be an obstacle or a quick way to get down.
Get down to this ledge here.
It's quite steep over here.
Jumping from height into water
can put a huge amount of stress on the body.
I've done a lot of high jumps.
But they can be dangerous.
Land badly and the impact can be like hitting concrete.
Well, I reckon this is about 50 foot down to there.
Using accelerometers, I'm gonna find out what forces I experience
when I hit the water.
You know, sometimes you can look at something
and think that's way deep enough,
but what you're not seeing is submerged hidden rocks.
You jump, break your legs,
and then you're gonna drown 'cause you can't swim.
I'm 50 foot up and I'll hit the water at about 40 miles an hour.
But I reckon for 50 foot, you need about 25 foot of water.
Always work on that half ratio.
The important thing is to get the technique right.
Keep your feet and your hands together.
Hands by your side.
In the Second World War, many soldiers died
jumping from sinking ships.
As they leapt for their lives, they kept their helmets done up tightly,
but the helmets broke their streamline entry,
killing many men by snapping their necks.
The final thing is, often you get water
that's millpond-calm, like glass,
and, really, you want to do something
to break that surface tension.
You can do that by throwing a stone.
It breaks the water and softens the impact.
Oh!
It's quite high, isn't it?
Here we go!
As I hit the water, I experience 9 G of deceleration.
That's three times the force
that the crew of a space shuttle would experience on launch.
Land badly and it's gonna hurt.
Yep!
It's quite high!
Phew!
Jumping into water shouldn't be taken lightly.
Get it wrong and it's an unforgiving place to end up.
Phew!
This adventure began wet and cold, and it's ending wet and cold.
But that is Norway for you.
Norway has been a humbling adventure.
It's pushed me to MY limits
and shown me that no-one
is bigger than nature.
No matter how strong you are,
if you're not prepared
or you make the wrong decisions,
you don't stand a chance.
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