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).
Whether climbing a mountain, moving across ice, navigating a jungle or crossing the desert, conserving your physical energy is important for adventures and expeditions. “Your body is like a machine. If you fuel it, it’ll keep on working. If you don’t, it’ll break down,” writes Bear in How To Stay Alive. Careful conservation of energy [...]
Attitude is everything. It can literally be the difference between life and death. In his books and TV shows, Bear tells stories of people who’ve survived in some of our planet’s most hostile environments. For example, in the series Escape from Hell, Bear reenacts how people survived avalanches, being lost in sand storms in the [...]
While Bear Grylls gives lots of advice about how to survive in rugged terrain, if there’s one thing he is passionate about it’s enjoying the outdoors—not just surviving it, but really experiencing all the benefits of spending time in nature. “Have you experienced the hypnotic patter of rain on your tent, the clear call of [...]
As a survivalist, Bear Grylls has had to find his way out of all types of inhospitable terrain, and sometimes his escape is down a river, as he once had to build a raft in the Borneo Jungle in Man Vs. Wild. If you’re lost, following a river can be a good navigational tool as [...]
If you’re spending time in the outdoors, having a fire is useful for many reasons: for heat, for cooking, for boiling drinking water, for drying off, for drying clothing, for light, for keeping wild animals away and even as a signal if you are lost and need to be rescued. “Nothing will improve your morale [...]
Bear Grylls has had some extreme injuries in the outdoors. At age 21, he broke his back in a parachute accident in Zambia, when the chute failed to open during a 14,000-feet jump. He fractured three vertebrae and spent a year in rehabilitation. He has also broken a shoulder in Antarctica, been bitten by a [...]
Finding water in the mountains sounds like it should be easy, whether from streams formed by melting snow or fast-running rivers meandering through valleys. But in reality, you might find yourself on a high mountain ridge with no obvious source of food or water. Or, at lower elevations, the terrain might be too dry to [...]
The first priority of survival in general is to seek the protection of a shelter, and that goes doubly if you’re in sub-zero temperatures. Often, especially if you’re above the treeline, that shelter must be made from snow. “Snow can save your life and will insulate you far better than the metal of a broken-down [...]
As a survivalist, Bear Grylls has made it his mission to show people how to persevere everywhere from mountains and jungles to deserts and in sub-zero conditions. Bear often talks about his four life-saving priorities if faced with an emergency situation—and a simple way to remember them: “Please Remember What’s First” for Protection, Rescue, Water [...]
Bear Grylls is chief ambassador to the World Scout Organization, a global family of around 31 million Scouts in 216 countries and territories. He is also Chief Scout in the UK. And he’s part of a long line of scouts who have gone on to change the world: And just last week, actor and entrepreneur [...]
