Bear Grylls has spent much time in the polar regions, having conducted expeditions in both the Arctic and Antarctica. As a survivalist, he knows that snow and ice always makes navigation and movement more hazardous. In polar regions, the basic skills of navigation can be even more challenging, with landscapes that can have few features, [...]

The climbers behind the new documentary Finding Michael say the difficulty in searching above 29,000 feet on Everest is why more bodies of lost climbers are not brought home.  Released earlier this month, Finding Michael tells the story of Michael Matthews, who summited Everest summit 1999 at the age of 22, becoming the youngest Briton [...]

If you’re lost or in a survival situation, being able to read the weather from nature’s signals helps with many things, such as knowing whether to move or stay put and when to prepare to take shelter or collect rainwater. In his years in the UK Special Forces Reserves, as well as a survivalist, Bear [...]

Bear Grylls knows all about exploring the world’s oceans—he’s undertaken many maritime challenges such as a world-record Atlantic crossing in a RIB—and he’s even been made Honorary Colonel of the Royal Marines. He often talks about how safe drinking water is one of the priorities of survival—higher than finding food—and the irony that survivors of [...]

Blisters. We’ve all had them. You’re just enjoying yourself on the mountain or hiking trail when you feel that nagging little hotspot.  Bear Grylls, who has spent most of his life on his feet covering rugged terrain, has come up with some nifty ways of dealing with them—and they must be dealt with. “There’s an [...]

If Bear Grylls finds himself somewhere remote with a dead vehicle battery, he knows he’s not going to be able to call a 24-hour breakdown service for rescue. That’s why he always brings along a set of jumper cables in any vehicle he uses, and knows how to jump-start a vehicle from another one—including the [...]

Bear Grylls isn’t only a landlubber when it comes to adventure: He’s crossed the Atlantic Ocean and navigated the Northwest Passage in a tiny inflatable rib, and on Man vs. Wild, he went island-hopping in a small raft in the Pacific Ocean.  But of course sea exploration isn’t without risk, and occasionally people end up [...]

Flash floods are so-called because they can happen literally in minutes, both out in the wild and also in urban environments. Causes include heavy rain, natural phenomena like earthquakes or from the build-up of water in lakes and rivers, which then overflow. They happen frequently and they kill regularly, so it’s good to know how [...]

Being a castaway at sea might sound like something from an epic novel like Robinson Crusoe, but being surrounded by open ocean is very scary and sometimes people find themselves adrift and lost, even on a short voyage.  “If I had any idea of how frightened all of us would be at stages, I would [...]

While adventuring, preserving food like meat or fish properly is key, both to avoid wasting it and to make sure that you don’t make yourself sick.  “Once a piece of meat or fish has turned rancid, you’ll do yourself more harm than good eating it,” says Bear in How to Stay Alive. “But if you [...]