Building a Snow Cave – Ray Mears Extreme Survival

Ray Mears also has an excellent set of documentaries called Wild Food, where he examines how currant natives prepare food and then applies it to information about tribal life in ancient Britain to get an idea of how people ate back then.

I’m wondering why they dug it soooo deep. The insulation is greater down there, but wouldn’t the collapse danger be much greater too? Its very easy to get disoriented when buried in snow (people die in inches of snow in an avalanche), so it would be hard to remember where the door is. Seems like keeping the roof near the surface would provide the same protection against convective losses.

Paperboy people take “cheap shots” at bear grylls for a variety of reasons.

First off his show is scandal ridden with Falsehoods. Just one example when he was in the Rockies “floating down the river with his “self made floating backpack” he in fact had to use a life preserver as well. You can even see the gray life preserver strapped to his chest at certain points.

Second, his advise is often times just plain wrong or even dangerous! This is what bothers me the most about the show because at least half the purpose of it is to teach people how to survive in the wild. But if you follow his advice to the letter you will just end up in a worse situation than where you started. He often takes unnecessary and ridiculous risks that if he makes one false move he would break his leg. Without a camera crew constantly around him this would almost certainly lead to his death in a survival situation.

I’m warning you guys now, if you are ever caught in a survival situation, you are probably better off doing exactly the opposite of what he tells people to do on TV. So don’t jump into an ice cold raging river thinking your backpack full of plastic bags you puffed up will save you. And when given the choice to drink your own urine, there are ways to actually separate the water from the urine so you don’t drink the stuff that’s actually quite bad for you in a survival situation.

Talk to any survival expert and they will have nothing but scorn for this guy and his show.

was it disabled before? i’m sure it worked when i submitted. still you should be able to watch it on the youtube site

@ Justin,

Great, so he makes an entertainment show, we should always pay attention to that rather then his other accomplishments. Climbing Everest or being a British SAS Reserve doesn’t matter.

Please, those criticisms are such a reach and misrepresented it’s a joke. I’d take Bears advise over some anonymous internet poster any day.

You’re right paperboy it’s so entertaining when bear grylls says he’s repelling off a cliff with vines and instead is uses a harness and gear. It’s so entertaining when bear grylls says you can float down a rushing river with only a backpack and a couple of plastic bags, but instead has to use a life vest just to stay afloat.

I know that entertainment is part of the reason people watch it, but another big part is the show claims he will “show you” how to survive in the wild. He and his production team try to make it something it’s not.

Look I don’t need the internet to tell me the show is ridiculous when he comes in with a script where they pretend a bear is coming after him while he sleeps. His advice? Run through the woods in the dead of night and leap off a cliff into a river even though you have no idea how deep it is. If a grizzly bear (or black bear) is looking to attack you that is probably the worst thing you could do. Not only is it faster, but anybody who knows anything about bears knows turning tail and running is the wrong move.

So yeah call it entertaining if you want, but in no way are criticisms of him “misrepresented”. Man vs Wild tries to come off as realistic and educational as well as entertaining. Sure they may have the entertainment part down, but it’s not very realistic or educational.

You don’t have to take my word for it though, ask anyone who knows anything about survival situations and their advice will often vary greatly from what he gives.

Having built and slept in both igloos and snow caves myself, I’d say this video is a great example of what to do. Only thing I do different is having the trench deeper compared to the bunk level, so you can stand instead of sitting/kneeling in the snow while you dig.

Also, an important thing he didn’t explicitly mention, is that when you place the “door” blocks, they need to extend lower than the bunk level.

Do they have footage of the camera crew getting mauled by the bear as bear grylls cuts loose down stream? Now that’s entertainment!

I think Grylls is bogus and will probably get you killed in the real world. Survivorman is much more realistic in my opinion – he’s alone for a week and has to shoot the film as well…and never drink your own urine.

Eton graduate dropped in a remote part of Central Park. Can he get to Wall Street to make a stock transaction while wearing only a $3000 designer fleece outfit and with only two assistants two carry his mineral water and the camera?