I'm Bear Grylls.
I'm gonna show you what it takes to get out alive
from some of the most dangerous places on earth.
I've gotta 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 Iceland,
in the stark interior of Europe's least-populated country.
The twin dangers here are extreme heat...
Oh, God, that's hot!
..and extreme cold.
It's getting pretty crazy now!
The landscape is unforgiving.
It's a never-ending battle to find enough food.
They suck when it comes to taste.
And the barriers nature throws your way
push you to the limit.
That's a dead end!
This super-truck has been specially adapted
to deal with lava flows, snow and ice,
and it's taking me
to a drop-off point high on an active volcano.
Iceland really is a ticking time bomb.
Sat bang on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge,
it's got over 130 volcanic mountains.
And the weather here is just as explosive.
For the survivor, you're really fighting on two fronts -
not only extreme weather,
but also a mass of earthquake and volcanic activity.
So that makes Iceland one lethal cocktail.
Hundreds of feet below me,
the volcano is gearing up for her next eruption.
But you wouldn't think it from the extreme cold up here.
Well, you can tell we're getting higher -
visibility's right down, the snow's kicked in.
I'm not entirely sure how much further we're gonna get in this.
Anyone can buy a trip into Iceland's rugged interior,
but what do you do if it all goes wrong, leaving you stranded?
My mission is to show you how to survive in the land of fire and ice.
Whoo!
And that car's out of sight.
That's how bad the visibility is and how strong the wind is up here.
And in Iceland, the prevailing wind comes from the coast.
That's where you're most likely to find people.
What we need do is head down, keep that wind into our face.
OK, this one is gonna be a mission.
Within minutes, I'm hit by a biting 50-mile-an-hour gale.
It's below freezing here,
but with the windchill, it feels like 20 degrees colder.
A squall like this can stop you in your tracks.
Apart from a rope for safety, I've nothing more than you would have
if your Icelandic four-wheel-drive trip ended in disaster.
So no goggles and no insulated jacket.
My visibility is reduced to almost nothing.
My body is being drained of precious heat.
This is getting pretty crazy now!
Hardly making any progress into this!
Probably best to try and find somewhere,
a bit of a snow bank,
where you can dig in and get out of this wind.
Iceland's weather is in constant turmoil.
There's no way of knowing when it will improve.
So instead of fighting it,
save your energy for when you really need it.
Doesn't have to be very deep,
just deep enough to get my body out of this wind.
These conditions show how vital it is
to get to lower, less-exposed ground
where it's easier to find food, water and shelter.
Yeah, that'll do. Come on!
And just something as simple as this could save you.
I'm lying on frozen ground,
but now I'm out of the wind and much warmer.
And that's really what survival is about.
It's about thinking smart and choosing your battles.
You try and take on a squall like that,
you're more than likely gonna lose.
Sit it out and let it pass.
As soon the worst of the storm passes,
it's time to pick yourself up, dust yourself down,
and get going on your way again.
I'm travelling with the wind in my face
and it's just got colder.
Iceland's glaciers and ice caps cover more than 4,500 square miles,
and the wind's blowing straight off one.
You've always gotta be careful on glaciers -
lots of hidden crevasses.
It's always made more difficult when you don't have crampons.
In this case, there's a simple, very effective solution.
Put your socks outside your boots
and you'll have much more grip on the ice.
If you can, rope yourself to a climbing partner.
That way, if one of you goes into a crevasse,
the other should be able to hold him.
OK, big fella, you're not going anywhere.
On Everest, my life was saved by one of my best buddies
who was on the end of the rope when I went down a crevasse,
and that's taught me a healthy respect
for glaciers and big, deep crevasses.
OK, keep this line nice and tight.
One of us goes down, we don't want any slack on it.
A crevasse is like an icy tomb.
As you breathe out, you slip further in.
Then as you lose heat,
the ice freezes around you, sealing your fate.
Yeah, all these sort of holes...
You know, if this was covered by snow like that,
you wouldn't see that hole till you stood on it.
This loose snow gives way, and you're gone.
OK, that's where we wanna be heading -
just to the edge of the glacier down there.
Try and work our way down this stuff.
My improvised crampons are working well.
My progress isn't elegant,
but it's getting me where I want to go.
OK, that's where we need to get to - down there.
And look, we'll make an ice bollard round this.
The rope will go over that, we'll cut a channel to rappel off.
If you're stranded without proper equipment,
this is the next best thing.
Wrap both strands of the rope
between the legs and up over the shoulders.
If you don't have a climbing partner to slow your descent,
you can lower yourself using your body as a friction device.
As long as I keep a firm hold on the rope,
I'm in complete control of my descent.
Whoo!
Once down, I simply pull on the rope to retrieve it.
On terrain like this, I know I'm gonna need it again.
Off the glacier.
Got the rope back.
I should be able to make some better progress now.
The food, water and shelter that are crucial to survival
all lie below the snowline.
Try and pick up the pace a bit now.
But getting there brings with it a fresh set of dangers.
Steady here.
It looks significantly warmer where I'm heading,
and not just because it's out of the wind.
OK.
So there, you see all the steam rising off this?
This whole area is geothermic.
You know, the glacier's one set of dangers,
but there's a whole new set of them.
OK, let me go first down this.
OK, it's good.
Beautiful.
That's the stuff you don't wanna be going into.
Iceland sits on a massive fault line
that stretches all the way down to the south Atlantic.
Geologically, it's one of the most unstable places on earth.
The volcano I'm working my way down is one of 130 in the country.
Man, check the steam coming out of this!
Oh!
Basically, what happens is
the rainwater seeps down through the rock,
hits the magma, gets super-heated,
and then shot out as this boiling-hot steam.
That's how Iceland can heat 90% of their homes with geothermal.
Oh, God, that's hot.
OK, follow me, stay close, and watch where you're treading.
God, look, the mud's actually boiling here.
And that would be a nasty way to go.
Never get out of that. It's just too slippery, all this edge.
I've picked my way through a hellish cauldron of sulphurous fumes,
but ahead, even more dangers await me,
places where one slip could be fatal.
I'm in Iceland, where I've faced 50-mile-an-hour storms
and a hair-raising descent from a glacier.
Now I'm in a deadly cauldron of geothermic activity.
And if you're in any doubt whether it's boiling water, check that out.
If you had any food, you could actually cook it in that.
At least it's nice and warm.
Just feel that heat.
The water spewed out here is rich in minerals,
which form a thin and brittle crust,
so I need to pick my way through carefully
to avoid becoming a boil-in-the-bag Bear.
This is no place to hang about.
There's no food, shelter or drinking water.
Your best bet is to get to lower ground and, ultimately, the coast.
Look, you can see a river at the bottom of the valley here.
You know, in Iceland, glacial rivers are gonna lead you to the coast.
Let's get down.
As I approach the valley bottom, the grass becomes visible.
The geothermal heat from the volcano has melted most of the snow.
The earth may be warmer, but the air is still bitingly cold
and hypothermia is a real threat.
As you get colder,
the brain is forced to work below optimum temperature.
There's just this continual cold wind and drizzle.
And it's pretty draining, to be honest.
Your ability to make good decisions suffers.
In extreme cases, hypothermia can lead to coma
and, ultimately, death.
Look, you see the bubbles coming up there?
That's boiling, but this bit is glacial and freezing.
Sounds a bit crazy, but I'm just wondering whether I might be able
to divert some of the cold water into here,
dig it out a bit, and create a natural kinda hot tub, really.
Even the effort of building this hot tub is warming me up.
I love things like this,
just 'cause I can see this is gonna totally work.
All I've gotta do is plug a few of these leaks with some moss,
create a bit of an outflow this end
so I've got water running in and running out,
and that now is a really nice bath temperature.
And show me a man who doesn't like a hot bath when they're cold and wet.
OK, let's do this.
Right, into nature's hot tub.
Start off here where it's cold.
As I edge forward...
..this is actually way too cold.
So, what I can do is dam this back up again,
stop that outflow, and then this is gonna build up.
And... Ooh!
Ooh, I found a bit that's really hot.
Yeah, now that's plugged again,
I can just feel this bit getting nice and warm.
Ahh!
As long as you don't sit on the boiling-hot vent.
Oh...
Oh, man.
That is absolute heaven.
People have often died
because they've failed to spot the onset of hypothermia.
It's getting a little hot again now.
It's safe to say now I'm well out of danger.
I love the fact that I can just adjust the temperature
by letting a bit of flow of cold water back in.
And you could just completely sit out a storm like this.
You know, it could be -40 out there,
and the only person who's gonna be alright
is old muggins in here.
I'm rewarmed and rejuvenated.
And that's why most of the battle for survival is won up here.
Think smart and keep your morale up.
I've been dropped high on a glacier in Iceland.
My mission - to show you how to survive and get down to the coast.
I'm on the lookout for food and shelter,
but my morale has been boosted
by an improvised hot tub in a geothermal pool.
That natural bath worked well.
I think if you can get your body warm and then keep moving,
you've got a fighting chance of keeping the cold away.
There's nothing geothermic about this area.
Got snow on the ground.
You know, back up there,
you've got the geothermal heat from the ground to melt the snow.
Definitely colder here.
And the wind down the valley.
Try and keep the pace up, keep moving.
This river is your route out of the high ground.
It also provides a constant supply of drinking water.
You know, just 'cause you're cold and wet
doesn't mean you're not gonna get dehydrated.
You gotta keep the fluids going in whenever you can.
Up here, you can be pretty sure
there are no animals to contaminate it.
About as pure as you're ever gonna find.
OK, let's keep going.
Following the river means your feet are constantly soaked.
Prolonged exposure to the damp can bring on an infection
soldiers in the First World War called trench foot.
Your flesh literally rots.
Look, that's the first trees I've seen in Iceland.
And that means I can start a fire.
Wood is scarce here.
Much of it has been ripped out for fuel
and to make way for grazing, a process started by the Vikings.
Might be able to get up this bit.
That led to erosion of the topsoil, so very little grew back.
It's worth making the most of what you do find.
Look, there's a bit of a cave over the other side.
See that?
Probably get across on the few branches
at the top of the gully there as well.
Look.
For people caught in survival situations,
this is often where accidents happen -
when body and mind are sluggish because they're tired, wet and cold.
Just how much of it is living
and how much of these branches are dead.
However tired you are, never cut corners.
That one is definitely dead.
And look, it's a long way down.
But this one, that looks pretty living.
It's got buds on the end, you know?
This needs every ounce of concentration,
and a bit of luck.
OK. And this is the point that I don't want a branch to break.
OK, good. I'm across.
Watch out on this ledge.
Oh, you're gonna love this. Come on, check this out.
It's really deep, this cave.
There's good natural protection from the weather in here.
About the only dry thing I've seen all day.
OK, let's get some firewood. Come on.
This will be a great source - silver birch.
Get the bark off this.
Literally, just peel it off.
And the great thing about birch bark,
'cause it's got so many oils packed into it,
it'll take a spark even when it's soaking wet.
Try and fluff all this birch bark up as much as you can...
..and then that should take a spark.
Come on, take.
There we go.
There have been so many times I've relied on birch bark,
one of the best things for getting fires going
when it's this wet.
And that's why I can now relax.
It's amazing.
As soon as you see that flame...
..instantly feel better.
Now to sort out my feet.
If left untreated, fungal infections like trench foot
can lead to gangrene and amputation.
Drying them out is a priority.
Look, everything's starting to steam.
It's a good sign.
Nothing beats a good fire.
It's not long before I'm warmed through, dried off,
and got a brew going.
Look.
Having a pee, and saw a worm just coming to the surface.
'Cause I reckon if there's one, there's gonna be more.
Go and find a load of worms, and that is gonna be supper.
OK.
Yes, wet weather and pee
are gonna help bring them to the surface.
Another one.
That'll do.
Let's get them cooked.
Boil those up and that will get rid of any bacteria that's inside them.
That's a good thing to do.
It's kinda one of those ones
you don't know whether to have them one at a time and savour them
or to have them all munched together.
I think we'll go one at a time.
The only thing going for them is they're warm and nutritious,
but they suck when it comes to taste.
It's actually worth, just whilst I've got a fire,
doing a bit of preparation,
so if I need a fire later on, its gonna be much easier.
So I've got some grass that's drying out.
That's gonna be good tinder.
One of the things that Icelandic people used to do
to help them with fire is make what's called a char cloth.
And it's basically a bit of natural material
they'd really dry out and cook.
So no moisture in it at all.
And therefore, when they put a spark to it,
it would go into a really good long-lasting ember.
And, you know, you can use anything for that - a bit of cotton.
And all you need to do is stick it in your cup - it's obviously empty -
put it over the fire,
stick something on top of it to starve it of oxygen
so it doesn't burst into flames,
and then just leave it for a bit.
About 20 minutes should do it.
OK, then.
See that bit of cloth that's dark?
That will take a spark very easily.
And there you go.
I've got a long-burning ember that's just gonna keep burning away.
Stick that into dry grass and I'd have fire.
Look, bit of oxygen, it's going on its own.
Keep that nice and dry in an inside pocket.
It means, when I need it, I've got fire.
Now to conserve energy for what lies ahead.
The river gets wilder.
I get wetter.
But is it leading to safety, or away from it?
That's a dead end!
My Icelandic odyssey has pitted me against fire and ice.
The obvious route to the coast and safety
follows the course of a mountain river.
OK, just follow this down.
I don't wanna hang around long in this, though.
See this gorge?
Prime flash flood territory.
That water level, when it's raining like this,
can rise very fast.
Work our way along and down. Come on.
In this narrow, steep-sided gorge, if there were a flood,
the river would rise before you could
climb to safety or anchor yourself.
Keep out of it as much as you can.
The water's flowing straight off a glacier.
It's barely above freezing,
and it's rapidly draining the heat from my body.
Never stops raining in this country!
Here in the mountains, they can get
over 15 feet of snow and rain in a year.
It's all taking the line of least resistance to the coast,
and following it is a quick, but risky, option.
Big waterfall!
OK, we're gonna need to have to rappel off this.
Try and find an anchor point.
Might be able to use this, look.
Should have enough rope, I think, for this.
Starting to get very cold right now.
The technique is the same as I used on the glacier.
Place a loop of rope over a bollard.
That way, once I'm at the bottom, I can pull on one end to retrieve it.
Going to be strong enough, that.
Then both strands wrapped around my body create friction.
This technique works well, but requires nerves of steel.
The glacier rappel I did was dry.
Back there, I could get a good grip on the rope.
Here, the freezing-cold water stings my eyes and numbs my hands.
Keeping any sort of grip on the line is a nightmare
and seeing solid footholds almost impossible.
Gotta get the rope back!
If you're gonna commit yourself like this,
you need to be confident that you can keep moving forward.
There's only just enough of it in that.
It's quite a long old way.
But I'm burning up energy just to keep hypothermia at bay,
and those calories need to be replaced.
The average man burns 2,500 calories a day.
In a situation like this, you can double that.
That's equivalent to fuelling up with over a hundred apples.
If you're putting next to nothing in, you've gotta think about
the most energy-efficient way of making progress.
You need to be a little bit careful
following rivers like this through gorges.
You've gotta weigh up the alternatives.
You know, out there in the high mountains,
it's crazy winds, a lot of snow.
That's gonna burn up valuable energy.
The problem with a cave like this
is knowing whether there's a way out at the other end.
As long as we see a bit of daylight, let's follow this.
At the moment, I've still got that shimmer of light.
Can you see? It's straight down there.
Let's get down to that bit.
Tunnels like this are carved out by glacial melt water.
I'm just following where it leads.
Come river left.
That's a dead end!
Keep going river right.
At this point, with a 30-foot waterfall blocking any retreat,
it's all about steady nerves.
Panic now, and you might never make it out alive.
I'm in Iceland...
..where I've rappelled down a 30-foot waterfall,
but I've reached a dead end.
Now I'm backtracking,
looking to take an alternative route through this cave system.
It's opening right up out there.
You know, that's what I love about the wild -
you never really know what you're gonna encounter.
But you've gotta keep that pioneer spirit,
be prepared to take a few risks,
but also be adaptable if it doesn't work out.
But this is good. It's taken us right through the rock.
Rivers can present a real threat to the survivor,
but they can also be your best resource -
a great source of water and food.
There are trout in these rivers all year round.
If you can spot one under the banks, they can be caught,
even if you don't have a rod and line.
I'm tickling trout.
You know, it's not a black art that people often think it is.
You don't actually tickle them at all.
You just bring your hand in very gently
and you're just slowly shifting the fish in towards the bank.
And then when you get him close enough,
you just push him against the bank, hold him and pull him out.
As the trout works the stream looking for food,
it will hide from its own predators under overhanging banks like this.
And then I should be able to bring him out nice and slowly.
Look.
You just need patience.
And in a river like this, that's gonna be fine
just to bite the head off that and eat it raw.
Take the guts out, give it a rinse...
..and that's fine to eat.
That is just what I wanted.
There are only about 130 calories in this trout,
but every little helps.
Good. OK.
Keep nibbling that on the way down.
Iceland is constantly being reshaped.
If it's not volcanoes and earthquakes,
it's erosion and the effects of the weather
that keep tearing the earth apart.
Looks like a huge rockfall.
Half the canyon's just collapsed in there.
And the river seems to be running straight under it.
Look.
Yeah, that is not the way to go.
The problem is the side of the canyon is looking very steep.
Look.
This huge scar shows where the land just collapsed.
There's no vegetation on it,
which means there's nothing to bind the soil together
and create handholds.
Look, this is what I mean. Look, try grabbing hold of that.
I can use this, though.
Make a couple of little mini axes
that I can just drive into this soft moss.
Couple of those in, pull myself up.
OK.
Sometimes, survival throws up limited options,
but if you do have to take a risk,
make sure you do all you can to minimise the dangers.
Just use these like ice axes -
kicking in with my toes, driving in with my hands.
Working my way up and out of this canyon.
Things I've really learnt in the wild -
just give yourself that extra 10% margin for error.
You know, you never know when something you grab
is just gonna give way, like all of this stuff.
OK, it's good.
Abandoning the river means needing a new way of direction finding.
But that might be easier said than done.
Nightmare terrain this stuff.
There's high ground ahead.
It should offer a vantage point to get your bearings.
There's no terrain in Iceland that's easy.
You're either on glaciers or canyons
or these short birch forests like this.
But this is about as high as anything grows
just 'cause it all gets battered by the wind.
Right now, it's an ill wind that blows.
There's a bad smell in the air.
Smell something round here, though.
Definitely something rotten.
Oh, look, carcass here.
But you've got to examine every opportunity for food.
Oh, yeah, that's an arctic fox.
Pretty stinky, though.
These guys were actually here long before the Vikings.
The arctic fox originally came from Greenland on drift ice.
Look, there's a bit of blood there. You know, but that's the thing.
You get injured out here,
the environment and the elements are gonna have you.
Yeah, there's nothing on there for us.
Come on.
Now the final push to high ground, and at last, a view.
Look, you can see the terrain massively levels off now.
Here on the plains, the river meanders to the sea.
Following every twist and turn would take you miles out of your way.
Instead, take a bearing on the coast and move in a straight line.
Trying to find a good point to get across the river.
This water is gonna be freezing-cold.
Probably as good a point as any here - under the rapids.
But you can get swept off your feet
in as little as just six inches of water.
OK, once I'm stripped off, we need to move, right?
We need to go fast for this.
So I'm putting my clothes into my pack to keep them dry
no matter what happens.
Time to face the music.
I'm in Iceland to show you how to survive
and how to get to the coast.
Following a glacial river is a good method,
but now on the plains,
it becomes a meandering barrier that would take you miles off course.
This calls for the direct approach
I'm putting my clothes into my pack to stay dry
in case I fall over midstream.
OK, let's go.
You wanna face upstream so you can see what's coming towards you,
face the full force of that flow.
And shuffle your feet.
You wanna avoid crossing your feet over.
That's when the force of the water hits you and trips you.
Wow, that is cold!
I'm just hoping it doesn't get up to the Queensberries!
Stinging cold on the legs, though.
Cold legs.
But they're gonna dry.
I'll have warm kit on.
In a few minutes, I'll be good to go again.
I'm out of the river, and facing a new obstacle.
Just crazy, this place.
Beneath the moss is a lava field formed by an ancient eruption,
and it presents a whole new set of dangers.
Just very, very easy to lose your bearings on this.
It just all looks the same.
You need to be a bit careful walking on this.
But if you're cold, as you would be after a river crossing,
that can dull your instincts and make matters way worse.
You need to get warm.
Actually, what we might be able to do with this
is use this as an insulation.
If you look at it, it's bone-dry, really light.
It's exactly how a down jacket works.
Lots of light natural fibres, trapped pockets of air.
It's that insulated air that keeps you warm.
And this is really what I love about survival.
You know, you don't need to have all of the gear,
you just need the will and the determination to improvise,
be a genius,
and come up with cool ways of using what nature's already given you.
It might not be raining, but it is still very cold.
There's that cold wind coming off the glacier in the background.
Near the glacier itself, katabatic winds occur.
The ice cools the air,
then the denser cold air flows downhill
under the force of gravity.
It's amazing. I can really feel that working.
Can't do up my waist belt, though.
Let's go.
And when you're warm, you can make clear decisions.
If you can't see your destination, in this case the coast,
keep your starting point, in this case the glacier,
directly behind you.
Eventually, the lava field comes to an end.
In its place, bare volcanic sand.
Well, that's the sea.
Pretty wild-looking as well.
And we can't go any further south than this.
There's no sign of habitation.
Towns are few and far between,
so your final choice is which way to go.
Most of the population of Iceland is in the south-west.
So we need to go this way. Come on.
And once you've made your decision, don't dwell on whether it was right.
Look, there's some birds feeding off something.
If there's food for them, there might be food for me.
Whatever it is, it looks big enough for all of us.
I smell it from here!
Huge rotting carcass of a whale!
But absolutely massive!
Once, a sperm whale carcass like this
would've been a massive bounty for local people.
In fact, the Icelandic word 'hvalreki'
means both 'beached whale' and 'jackpot'.
As you see, it's started to putrefy.
Kinda sunk into the sand.
It would've provided lantern oil, bones for tools,
skin for clothing and boat hulls, as well as food.
Check out the size of this tail.
God.
We're in the worst place here, downwind of it. Just the stench!
Look at this place.
Kinda no wonder I'm the only person around here.
The likelihood of anyone finding you is pretty remote.
Faced with over 3,000 miles of coastline,
you just have to trust your instincts
are taking you the right way,
but you should be ready to seize any opportunity.
See that?
That's a plane wreck.
This plane wreck would be a godsend,
a place where you could get in out of the wind and light a fire,
both for warmth and as a signal that others might see
long before you see them.
Forward planning could save your life.
There's nothing here to take a spark,
but I did make that char cloth just for a situation like this.
Tuck this out of the wind
and, hopefully, this should go with a spark.
Now for the tinder -
the dried grass I collected at the cave.
(SIGHS) OK.
A fire like this might attract people to you,
but you should always keep an eye out
and be ready to give a clear signal if you see signs of life.
There's the last of the setting sun over Iceland,
so at least that confirms going in the right direction - west.
(SIGHS)
Crazy day. (SNIFFS)
So nice to have shelter from that wind.
I'm definitely not gonna be leaving Iceland with a suntan,
that's for sure.
As the sun sets, my fire will become
more and more visible to the outside world.
Keep this fire stoked up.
And the gathering darkness reveals a welcome sight.
Suddenly, I can see the beam of a lighthouse.
Come on. Go.
Civilisation is right there on the horizon.
Whoo!
Iceland's lethal cocktail
of volcanic heat and glacial cold
has tested me.
Its terrain has been unforgiving,
the weather unrelenting,
and the stark environment
has presented little food.
But by sticking to the most basic of techniques,
I've shown you it is possible to survive here.
To share my favourite moments from the show,