A real life (Canadian) survivor!

[Nalliah]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rdq6zfIzPo&list=PLdteC6yMLFp0gmUaCnWIq5gYhqoz_bk5_

So,  this just came up in my Youtube suggestions-- a real life Survivor ( and a Canadian to boot). He goes out on his own into wilderness areas to survive. About as close to the game as you might care to get in real life, from the looks of his videos. I am only part way through watching one of them-- intriguing. Also it points out how very realistic parts of the game are. Enjoy!

[ChillPlayer]

You only learned about Les Stroud just now? Guess better late than never, he's a legend but his show started airing around 2004. If you like this show you must watch episode 8 of the first season, plane crash in the canadian woods - sounds familiar?

If you're interested in other "real as it gets" survival shows I highly recommend history channels "Alone", one of my favorite shows ever.

[Nalliah]

Yep--only learned of him just recently. Thank you for the suggestions, I will look into those!

 

[Mistral]

On 12/15/2021 at 11:29 AM, ChillPlayer said:

If you're interested in other "real as it gets" survival shows I highly recommend history channels "Alone", one of my favorite shows ever.

According to Les, "Alone" is very much staged and faked, much like Bear Grylls and most other reality survival shows

[Leeanda]

Have you watched any Life below zero?

[ChillPlayer]

1 hour ago, Mistral said:

According to Les, "Alone" is very much staged and faked, much like Bear Grylls and most other reality survival shows

Yes and he lost a lot of fans because of this because he never substantiated his claims. Check it out, all he said is "it's produced, therefore fake" - what he ment by this is, "it's not made by Les Stroud and therefore fake". And that's coming from the man which is claiming that BigFoot lives...

I really love his earlier work but the older he gets - notably after his divorce - he became a very unpleasant person to be around, as many have contestet who had to work with him. Bitter and old, that's my impression of him right now.

Don't get me wrong, he's dead right when it comes to Grylls or Naked Survival and such but Alone is as real as it gets. Or do you think people are starving themself for fun? Some have lost more than 50 pounds and didn't win any money. I also find it funny how Les describes in one directors commentary how difficult it is being alone from ones family, mentally - but he is only alone for six days in his show. Yes in Alone they have occasional med checks and such but they don't see or hear their loved ones for months. Lastly, you can engage with most of the cast from Alone on social media, they are not hiding under a rock. Non disclosures are not lifelong binding and many have dropped out after a few days - if it'd be fake, some would come forward.

Truth is, Les would probably crumble would he be on Alone - and many are begging History Channel to make that happen. Grylls would probably drop out after a day if he'd agree to it, Les maybe after a month or two. But hundred days in the Arctic? I don't give Les that much credit anymore.

Edited December 17, 2021 by ChillPlayer

[Kranium]

Alone is staged, but that doesn't mean it's fake. Personally I find it to be borderline garbage (essentially a "who can starve the longest" marathon, with forced limitations + free handouts baked in), but that goes for 99.9% of television anyway.

 

Survivorman (outside of those bigfoot episodes) is basically the most "pure" survival "show" out there, to this day. Adn someone already mentioned the plane crash episode, it's so Long Dark: plane crash in the Canadian wilderness, in winter.

[ChillPlayer]

9 hours ago, Kranium said:

 Adn someone already mentioned the plane crash episode, it's so Long Dark: plane crash in the Canadian wilderness, in winter.

Yes I did

Survivorman the show is and probably will always be the most real survival show,  but that went away on his later shows, he even tried some publicity shit which falls in the Grylls category, like "Fight to survive" or the VR game he's working on. The last good thing I saw from Les is his book, which I have and is really useful.

Alone has in each season some very skilled people who thrive and some which only endure through pure will, aka starving. Most of the better ones though give up because they can't handle being alone anymore, despite having a perfect shelter and enough food stocked. I think that tells you the most about how "pure" the experience is.

Besides, you can't really compare Survivorman to Alone, the former is about how to get out of a survival situation into civilization as quickly as possible, the latter is about how to survive and thrive in nature. You could say that Survivorman is Pilgrim and Alone is Interloper, bears, wolves and beach combing included.

Edited December 18, 2021 by ChillPlayer

[Kranium]

I'd call Survivorman early seasons legit survival, and Alone a staged game show based on starving.

[Kranium]

Just realized - Alone can't be Interloper - they start off with a crapload of things, compared to the game & Survivorman. More like using a cheat code, if anything.

https://bushcraftinfo.com/alone-prohibited-items-gear-list/