In 1987, I had this idea that a great way to teach wilderness survival would be to head out into the woods and do exactly that.

Survive.

Now I need the skills because I'd be filming myself alone.

And you, the viewer, would be made aware of that.

And I thought, what a great way to make these skills more relatable to you.

Problem was, the technology was not available for me to film myself beyond the old grainy camcorders as we used to call them.

Well, fast forward to the year 2000, 13 years and indeed the technology became available.

the take home information.

And the skills that you would learn from this series would make you more confident in nature.

You'd stay warm, dry and safe, and therefore you'd be able to reconnect to the natural world.

What you're about to watch is raw and real, and not to be confused with reality television.

These are my journeys into the world of survival and around the planet.

These are the skills that can keep you alive and open the doors to nature.

The only reality that matters.

- This season for "Survivorman," we shot nine episodes in nine separate locations.

(heavy breathing) And since then, the response has been nothing short of fantastic.

But there's been a ton of questions.

How do I get the shots?

Am I really alone?

And what kind of backup do I have if I get into serious trouble?

(grunting) This is a look at how we plan "Survivorman."

(grunting) How we take care of logistics, how I film it, and how I keep myself out of trouble, (laughs) which isn't always the case.

This is a look at behind the scenes of "Survivorman".

of "Survivorman".

(adventurous jungle music) ("Survivorman" theme music) a lot of the TV series that are produced, have plentiful behind the scenes footage, and that's because there are so many people working on them.

But for Survivorman, I had just me and the behind the scenes footage was, well, there wasn't any actually.

But what is not known so much is there was a crew for survivor man.

Now they were not with me while I was out in the world surviving.

They were anywhere from 5 to 50 miles away.

Set up camp eating well, staying comfortable and getting what we call the beauty B-roll footage.

These would be shots of the clouds passing overhead.

The birds, the bees.

Anything that show the ecosystem of the area.

I could use that in the edit suite later for transitional shots, getting from one scene to another.

And in fact, one of the most important things to capture for using my good buddy Max Atwood was the weather, whatever weather was going on, and that would help to tell the story.

Once I started editing together my story of being alone out there.

Eventually the behind the scenes crew would include a paramedic.

Thank you lawyers and insurance agents.

And they would often have their own story to tell.

"Survivorman" has a simple concept; I get dropped alone in secluded wilderness areas and left to survive usually without food, water, matches or shelter.

Okay, once they gave me a wrecked airplane to sleep in.

I have to make do with whatever I go in with and film it all myself.

Seven days later, I either walk out on my own, or the crew will come in to rescue me, if they can find me.

From the muddy swamps of Georgia to the shifting Arctic ice, I've been to some pretty wild places.

For now, that's only North and Central America.

(swooshing) (intense eerie music) Dangerously hot.

I can see I'm not gonna sleep tonight.

A lot of people are bitten by the little palm vipers.

(intense eerie music) Hey, if this was just about survival, I'd light a fire and sit and wait for help, but it's TV and I wanna show 'em many ways to survive in the deserts, the jungles, and the Canadian forests.

A lot of what I do is film so we can learn together; what I do right and what I do wrong, where I choose to stay, and where I choose to leave.

I'm not the world's best survival guy, but I've got a film to make and I'm taking you along for the ride.

That said, once you get good at this survival stuff, you can do a lot more than sit and wait for rescue.

The production team is constantly dreaming up more challenging and exciting locations and survival ordeals, and that's how it all starts.

(swooshing) (person speaking on loudspeaker in background) Let me lay some on ya.

I'd like to consider Australia.

- [Mike] I think, um- (conversation continues) - [Les] David Brady and I, along with my survival consultant, Mike Kiraly, pour over the maps and endlessly debate the possibilities for my survival ordeals.

(background conversation) How I get in, whether by Jeep, mountain bike, or camel, is hashed out in scenarios for survival in depth.

- It's about a day and a half drive.

- [Les] Each separate location that's decided upon during these meetings, will define the terms for survival and even the items I can have in there with me, always going for as much variety as possible.

- In in the area of Sembilan.

- It would be - How difficult is it to get to New Zealand?

- That's the bottom.

You can't even get down from the mountains there.

Oh, and here, oh, this would be very cool.

I mean, it would be a major expedition though.

You go from high Andes alpine, you just start walking this way and you are in the deepest, darkest Amazon that's like you go through four seasons, you know, just going straight down- - [Les] Mmhm.

- In here.

- [Les] These two guys are quite happy to suggest the most remote and dangerous areas they can think of to send me.

- I think it would be really good for that because I know with the apertures of going up separate river, that is cool, y'know?

- [Mike] That could kill.

- No, it should be okay.

There's a lot of missionaries in there.

We could make contacts with some missionaries and go in with them.

(rocky guitar music) - Once we've picked the countries and areas to send me, the flights are booked and I've got already my gear, three, four, sometimes even five cameras, will fill my pack along with heavy batteries and nearly 40 hours of tape stock.

The load often comes in around 50 to 60 pounds.

Often I'm asked if I train my stomach to go without food, but the truth is, if I eat big before I go in, then I just feel hungrier quicker.

And if I fast ahead of time, well that just prolongs the punishment.

So I eat just as if all were normal.

I do, however, try to train my body for the endurance and strength I'll need to haul around the camera gear on little to no reserved food energy.

(swooshing) It's not hard to choose locations.

The world is full of beautiful and remote, albeit potentially dangerous and challenging wild areas.

My mandate was to pick a location that offered up the most variety of survival possibilities.

(airplane engine whirring) (adventurous rock music) - [Les] The magnificent, vast whiteness of the High Arctic is juxtaposed brilliantly against the murky, muddy textures of the Georgian Swamp.

The spiny and dry harshness of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, was a precursor to the crawling jungle floor of the most remote part of Costa Rica.

But even in Costa Rica, the wildness was split between the jungle and the magnificent Pacific Ocean.

From the far north to Central America, there are still many great wild areas, just waiting to test my ability to survive.

(sophisticated electronic music) I've been fortunate on some of my survival ordeals to have been joined by a killer crew of camera personnel and survival safety experts.

Their job, other than shooting the opening scenes and dropping me off for seven days alone, is to head out and get some great beauty shots.

- So this (indecipherable) has sick audio that cuts with this mini TV camera, up here.

(adventurous jungle music) (didgeridoo plays) - If you want to come aboard and have one more drink or something to eat, you can, but otherwise we'll start the experiment.

(Les talking inaudibly) - [Person on boat] Okay?

(Les talking inaudibly) - Okay, great - Do you know what we're doing here, Les?

- [Les] I do.

- I'm gonna- I know you're, you know, I know you want to go, but I'm not confident that we have enough stuff figured out.

- [Les] Even though we tried to set up emergency radio contact, the radios proved useless once down on the humid ocean of Central America.

They're not even all that far from me and they can't read the radio.

This is weird.

A little discomforting.

(continues talking on radio) With the crew many miles away, there were plenty of times when I felt the chances I was taking to film these Survival Odysseys were a little too risky.

And look how close they are.

What's gonna happen when they get farther away?

More important than anything else, the crew was to be my emergency rescue.

Out in the ocean off the coast of Belize, they would finally earn that title.

- Les felt the full blast of that squall that just came through, but it's bad enough that it could have driven us apart and made him almost impossible to find in the dark.

The red light on his raft and even the strobe was not easy to see with the rain coming down.

So, I think we both feel better that we're not actually gonna lose him.

- You can do it.

- I'm a vegetarian.

- I know.

- For years.

- You had fish the other night though.

You had catfish.

Same thing.

Just think of it like it's a piece of catfish.

At the end of each ordeal, I would finally have the last laugh on some of my crew members.

And you'll be able to say you ate rattlesnake.

There you go.

Down the hatch.

Down the hatch.

(grunting in disgust) (laughs) The concepts of wilderness survival do translate across the globe, but when I get into the jungles of Costa Rica, I don't know what I can eat or what I can't eat.

I don't know what's slightly poisonous, or what's gonna kill me.

For that, I need to turn to the local experts.

Like 'Three-Rivers Charlie' in the swamps of Georgia, Charlie's passion is the waterways of the Altamaha River Basin.

Eleven people have been attacked by alligators in the last seven years, and Charlie related the dangers to me like it was a walk in the park on a lazy Southern Sunday.

(Boat engine revs) - What's the likelihood of gators coming up into these?

- Um, pretty fair, especially at night since they're nocturnal hunters and the turtles like to lay up on the limbs and gators will come in and try and find them dinner for the evening.

- Oh, they'll eat turtles?

- Oh, yeah.

- I didn't know that.

- Yeah, they'll crunch a turtle shell in a heartbeat.

(laughs) (speaking foreign language) - Closer to the North Pole than anywhere else, it was Inuit Elder, Sam Umich, who gave me my crash chorus in Arctic survival.

This guy was born in an igloo and spent his first 12 winters living in one.

For Sam and his family, seal hunting was akin to running out to the store for a loaf of bread.

(dogs howling) He gave me no breaks on learning the necessary lessons of survival in the Arctic.

His rule was, "Watch me once, now you do it."

(dogs howling) This man hasn't written books or produced films on survival, but ask anyone who you turn to to learn desert survival, and there is only one answer; if you want the best, it's David Halladay.

- So you're just going on the outside bends.

- He was also consultant for the movie, 'Castaway'.

- Tropical lilies, so you are rich man.

- My three days on the land with David were spent in a master-student relationship.

Now, I've chopped some film out and sped this up, but watch how long I spend working on the hand drill.

- You're close but I'm gonna go ahead.

- Right?

- Yeah.

- And now watch again, as David turns my dust into a red hot coal.

Is that spark already?

I think.

All the while, he's reassuring me that I'm the one who got the spark.

Yeah, right.

- Yeah, you had the spark.

(fire sparks crackle) - We even took the time to learn a little desert musicianship.

Without gaining local knowledge from these experts, I'd survive all right, but it wouldn't be pretty.

(melody played using cactus spines) After a week with the experts, I leave for my solo survival.

You know, each episode is based on a realistic situation gone wrong; canoeing, sea kayaking, climbing.

I'm sure sooner or later, someone's gonna suggest parachuting.

(adventurous jungle music) (splash) (underwater bubbling sounds) Alright, here we go.

(upbeat adventurous music) - To make an entrance into the world of survival, it only makes sense to head into each area in a manner fitting to the challenge, like whitewater canoeing in the waters of Northern Ontario, and since I know the Canadian Shield country well, the producers felt I should have the extra challenge of making it back out on my own.

Even the most experienced paddlers can be hit with the "It Can't Happen to Me" syndrome.

They knew where they dropped me off, and which way I would need to travel, but apart from that, I'd be on my own.

- [Les] In most cases, on a river like this, a canoe can be gone for days downstream.

The camera crew leaves me alone now, completely alone.

I'm soaked to the bone, it looks like it's gonna rain and sun's about to set.

Seven more days.

(helicopter blades whirring) I hate this part.

No water, predatory mountain lions nighttime- The canyon lands of Utah are world famous for their for their lone rock, mountain biking, and putting that scenario to the test meant I would have the added advantage of 30 pounds of usable rubber, metal and cables.

In this big open area, the crew would have no problem keeping track of me.

(talking in archive footage) I do carry an emergency radio for backup, but here in the canyons, they were useless, being impeded by the high rock walls.

The team has to capture my opening scenes, and then leave me to fend for myself.

For the next seven days alone.

(splashing) The only way to simulate survival in a life raft, was to jump in.

For this survival odyssey, I would need a 24 hour watch of a rescue boat, but like the canyon lands, our radios were useless, and far too many times I was left with no contact to my only link to safety.

(splashing) The best way to document survival, I think, is to actually do it.

You gotta pay attention to detail.

You can't just design a scene and film it.

You've gotta live it, or it's not authentic.

(splashing) (waves lapping) For ten straight hours, I'll push this snowmobile farther and farther into the barren Arctic, where I'll be left alone to survive.

(snowmobile engine whirring) This is the Arctic at the top of our world.

It's a changing landscape of barren land, snow covered mountains and vast expanses of constantly shifting ocean ice.

In the winter- (archival footage continues playing) With dog teams unfortunately relegated to mostly tourism needs, the snowmobile is the vehicle of choice in the Arctic now, and they break down a lot.

Here, my challenge was simply to walk back to town, a daunting task given the challenges of the Arctic landscape.

It is one of the lowest population densities in the world.

To go out on the land, you ride the knife edge of trouble.

You can get disoriented by whiteouts and get lost, you can fall through the ice in to freezing water.

Traditionally, they use dog sleds to get around, but for the most part, this is the modern, slightly noisier way to get from one place to another.

Of course, dogs don't break down.

Swamps, deserts, jungles and mountains.

The High Arctic.

Each ecosystem has its own special challenges and dangers.

In the far north, you've gotta have a fire.

In the desert, well, it's all about water.

(exciting adventure music) Wilderness survival is about dealing with adversity, and even though I would have preferred perfect weather for the sake of filming and all, Mother Nature is not part of the production team.

(shivering) It's too cold.

Too cold.

Oh, my hands are just frozen.

Hang on.

I think the toughest weather to deal with for running cameras is the cold.

Oh, Oh, that's cold.

Okay.

You just don't feel like touching your fingers to frozen camera switches or putting a frozen battery next to your skin to warm it up.

- Oh, it's all about the cold.

Another frigid night.

Clouds came in, they brought with them a storm.

Wind's blowing, piercing through the south.

I didn't sleep much last night, when I did, I'd wake up really quick, like that chill, running right down my spine.

Always making things more difficult, were the surprise storms.

Freezing rain, blizzards, downpours.

Whiteouts.

As you can see, the white did get whiter.

I can't even see the mountains in behind me now.

The wind has picked up as well.

And my feet are cold and my body's starting to get chilled, even though I'm protected down in here with fur and oh, wind break doesn't seem to matter.

(wind howling) You know, I've been three days now on this mountaintop and it has rained, drizzled, or misted almost nonstop.

Well it, it was freezing rain or snow all night long.

It's been raining all night long.

Nonstop.

Just imagine turning your garden hose on full on top of you standing outside, spread eagle.

Just see how long you can stand there with that kind of cold water coming down on you.

That's what it's like here right now.

It's a downpour.

In fact, just a few moments ago, it was also thick snow as well.

At the other end of the scale was the real threat of heatstroke and dehydration, and often, just plain exhaustion.

Alright, well sharks or no sharks, my biggest concern right now is heat stroke.

It's really starting to beat down on me.

I'm gonna go in the water, back up into that raft and try to get into the shade.

Try to stay a little cooler, 'cause this is getting, this is getting steamy and dangerously hot.

This is heat stroke, hot.

(yawning) What most people seem to fear, are the creepy crawlies.

Those that bite, those, that sting and those that will attack.

Even those little guys hurt.

Out here, everything sticks you with something.

If it's not biting you or stinging you, it's just plain stabbing you.

Ow.

All that there?

That's the favorite spot of palm vipers.

They just sleep in there, they make their little nests, so, you gotta hit 'em as you go by and a lot of people are bitten by the little palm vipers, so the- They love to come in and just wait at the bottom of the trees, and I'm just hoping for a young one to fall down.

Ready for a war against the bugs.

My most worrisome time was spent in the middle of polar bear territory.

I'm in probably the thickest polar bear area around here, I'm beside an ice crack.

They like to hunt the ice cracks, looking for seals.

I'm beside an iceberg.

They like to circle the icebergs, looking for seals, and I'm sitting here (laughs) with a big hunk of raw seal meat.

(chewing) You know, this is not the most intelligent thing I've ever done.

(licks fingers) His head would've been about here, and his back end way back here.

This is a big bear.

What's important about these tracks is that they're only 30 feet from where I've been sleeping, and you thought I was kidding about polar bears.

Yeesh.

Look at the size of these things.

Well, right here you can even see the impression of them.

Wow.

Well, next to the will to live, I think fire is the single most important survival skill.

Let's see.

So I've got my fire bow.

The itsy bitsy spider move.

Sacrifice one of these pieces of tissue.

I don't like playing with gasoline.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Yeah baby Hunger will make you do a lot of things.

But you've gotta get over plate fright.

Looks like I got me dinner.

Pull off the head.

(chewing) Just him.

Not gonna eat the head.

Don't ask me why.

Just don't wanna eat the head.

Directly inspired by his own survival expeditions, journeys and challenges.

World renowned survival instructor Les Stroud brings you survive, essential skills and tactics to get you out of anywhere alive.

Available for 19.99.

In addition, the book will to live Dispatches from the Edge of Survival is available, featuring Les Stroud's own top ten survival stories of all time.

21.99.

To order, please go to lesstroud.ca, and click on shop