Yvonne Gordon is an award-winning adventure travel writer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, BBC Travel, National Geographic, Lonely Planet, The Washington Post and Men's Journal. Her global adventures include drift-ice-walking in Japan, igloo-building in Slovakia, packrafting in Italy, snorkelling in Iceland's Silfra fissure, climbing to an ice cave in Alaska and sailing remote archipelagos. Her awards include Adventure Travel Journalist of the Year (2019).
If you’re lost in the mountains, jungle or other terrain, you might be surrounded by potential food sources from plants. But, of course, not everything is safe to consume. Identification is key. But if you don’t know the safe plants around you, Bear recommends doing a multi-step “food safety test.” It must be done methodically [...]
If you’re adventuring in the mountains, you’ll probably descend into a river valley at some stage. In the event that you’ve lost your way, rivers can offer a route to safety, as they often lead to towns, roads, bridges and eventually to a lake or the sea, and they offer an unlimited supply of water. [...]
On his expeditions, Bear Grylls always carries a first aid kit and a survival kit, both sealed in a waterproof bag in his backpack. His is not the type of first-aid kit you would bring on a family day out, though—it’s lightweight yet well-stocked with the type of equipment that might save his or someone [...]
Having been lost and hungry in many different terrains around the world, Bear Grylls knows all about the world’s wildernesses, and he says that trees are one of the wild’s most welcoming and useful inhabitants that you can find. “In an otherwise hostile environment, they often seem like the only real friends you have,” he [...]
You may not realize this, but in addition to his myriad survival skills on foot, Bear Grylls knows a lot about driving. Not only has he navigated all sorts of terrain around the world, from mud and ice to sand and grass, but he even drives his own amphibious RIB boat on land and water. [...]
It’s probably no surprise to learn that over the years, Bear Grylls has occasionally gotten lost in the wild. The fact is, people regularly get lost in the outdoors, and without the right survival skills, they can quickly become hypothermic or dehydrated—or worse. “When that happens, it’s almost always because they’ve made one simple mistake: [...]
Bear Grylls took on a different kind of adventure this week, walking the red carpet at the premiere of the documentary Finding Michael in London. In signing on to the project, the survivalist-turned-executive-producer felt personally connected with the film’s subject matter: In 1999, the titular 22-year-old Michael Matthews became the youngest Briton to climb Everest, [...]
Fish are a fantastic survival food. They’re full of protein, healthy fat and vitamins and—unlike some other stuff that’s safe to eat in the wild—they taste good. Bear Grylls has often had to eat fish for sustenance during his expeditions in the wild, as he writes in How To Stay Alive. Fish can be hard [...]
Bear Grylls has encountered all types of challenging situations during his expeditions, but he says that a forest fire is “one of the most terrifying and deadly phenomena you’ll ever encounter.” Rule #1: Don’t start the fire “Forest fires are often caused by humans. If you’re not careful, they might even be caused by you,” [...]
From Bear Grylls’ vast experience in survival expeditions, he’s pretty well honed his list of what gear you need to bring along. In his book How To Stay Alive, he provides some guidelines for what to pack in a potentially life-saving backpack. His first rule is to keep it light. With less weight, you can [...]
