01x06 - Mountain

[bunniefuu]

This time, on Survivorman, I'm heading
deep into the Rocky Mountains.

I've hired Matt Callahan, an experienced
mountain pilot, to fly me well into the

range where I have to spend the next seven
days alone.

The flight in will give me
a chance to have an aerial

look at some of the
terrain that I'll be up against.

Towering 7,000 feet above
sea level, the mountain

summits are exposed to high
winds, driving rain and snow.

The summit of a mountain is one of the
most extreme environments on Earth.

The weather this time of year,
when you get up onto the tops here,

I mean, how unpredictable is it?

It changes every five minutes.

Say, you'll go through 20
degrees and sunshine, and

the next minute there'll
be a big old thunderstorm.

Rolls over, followed by four days of rain,
powerful systems moving in and out.

But being in the
mountains, you know, you

don't see it until they're
right on top of you.

To bears on a weekly basis, for the most
part, you know, it's a non-event.

There's guys that have
been out in the bush for


r*fle, never had a b*mb.

There's other guys that step out of their
Jeep and get mauled.

Yeah, something to be wary of.

Wow.

Nearly every mountaintop has a
crevice-filled glacier on it.

I have to survive here for the next seven
days without a tent or sleeping bag,

without matches or food, and I have to
film everything myself.

I'm being dropped on the mountain
completely alone, and for one week,

the mountain will test me.

Home sweet home.

And whatever happens, I'm on my own.

This time on Survivorman, I'm heading deep
into the Rocky Mountains.

This vast range is more than 300,000
square miles of barren mountaintops,

cold glacial rivers, and steep valleys.

The mountains test not only your skill
level, but your will to live.

Up here, the combination of
the cold and the altitude sap

your energy and can lull you
into what's called a fatal sleep.

Up here, there's a saying.

Stop thinking, and you'll stop trying.

Stop trying, and you'll die.

Oh boy.

What did I get myself into this time?

Oh my gosh.

Somehow, the word overwhelming just
doesn't do it.

I can see greenery anyway.

It's just a question on if I can get to
it.

There they are.

I guess they're getting their one last
glimpse of the lone man on the mountain.

Man.

I am not getting paid enough for this.

I have to survive here for the next week,
but without any form of shelter,

the first thing I need to do is get off
this wind-swept summit.

As far as I can tell, I've got a cliff,
a cliff, a glacier, and just more cliff.

But the only route I can see is down this
way.

Just beneath the snow there, I can see
green.

I can see trees and greenery.

And one thing's for sure, the only path I
have to safety right now is down.

At this altitude, the thin
air makes hauling more

than 60 pounds of video
camera gear a tough job.

I know that spending a week on the top
would be foolish.

I'm heading down.

A night up here would be brutal.

I gotta slow down.

Let this sweat dry.

Deadliest thing of all
in a survival situation is

to get all sweaty when
you are in cold weather.

The top of a mountain is about as
inhospitable a place as you can get.

Besides being completely exposed, there
is little to nothing in the way of food.

Another reason why I have to get moving.

There is crystal clear water everywhere,
so at least dehydration is not a problem.

I can't even see them.

It's easy getting down, then I gotta go
back up again.

Oh boy.

This could be tricky.

I have to survive alone for seven days.

The first thing I need to do is get off
the summit and down to the valley bottom.

I've looked all around, and
I can't find any other way to

get to that patch of green,
except across this glacier.

Heading out onto a glacier alone any time
of the year is foolhardy.

Going out now right after some fresh
fallen snow.

I have to cross about a mile of this
crevice-filled glacier, and the new snow

can cover and hide most of the dangerous
areas.

Crossing this glacier alone is precarious.

I'd feel a lot safer if I was roped off to
a partner.

It's by far one of the spookiest things
I've ever done.

I think we're in the middle of the
glacier.

That's where I came from.

That's where I'm going.

Oh man, here comes the rain again.

When.

the sun does come out, I start sweating.

It looks like the wind's coming in on me.

I don't like that.

I'm getting bored on here,
and there's a few things

I'd like to tell you about
with these glaciers.

I'm a little freaked out
at the amount of crevices

in my way, so I just want
to get off of this thing.

These glaciers move about 15 meters a
year.

Their movement opens up huge cracks.

These crevices can be five stories deep.

If I fall into one, I'll never be found.

Sometimes I wonder what I get myself into.

Well, there you have it.

There you have it.

And sunshine, too.

Wow.

Pretty spectacular.

There's no way in the distance.

What's between me and them, I'm really not
quite sure.

I'm still many miles from the tree line,
and it's not all downhill.

It's a constant up and down and over rocks
and ridges.

I can't take the time to go through what
little gear I have.

I need to find shelter before dark.

The rain is relentless, and the sun is
going down quick.

Well, this may not look very comfortable.

That's because it isn't.

I have not been able to make it down off
of these rocks and into the tree line.

And yet, a night is coming in,
and I don't want to get caught.

This big rock here,
at least I'm out of the

wind, and if it rains,
I'm even out of the rain.

This is it.

This is where I've got to do my first
night.

Oh, yeah.

This is going to be fun.

So tonight, survival means sleeping under
a rock while the rain comes down.

It's been blowing and raining for hours.

I didn't sleep much last night,
but when I did, I'd wake up really quick

with that chill running right down my
spine.

It's just right on the edge of
hypothermia.

So I squeeze all the muscles in my body
and relax them.

Squeeze them all and relax them.

It gets the blood flowing through my body.

Try to keep the chill out.

That's a little too close to hypothermia
for my liking.

I don't have a tent.

I don't have a sleeping bag.

No matches.

No food.

Just a pack full of heavy camera gear.

The rain.

The wind.

And six days to go.

Oh, yeah.

Mountain blueberries.

I think it's been about 48 hours now since
I've eaten.

And I'm getting hungry.

This rain is miserable.

I'm freezing out here.

I'm hunkered down under the rock.

Trying to keep away from it, but I've got
to move.

I've got to get off the top of this
mountain.

Get into the mountains.

You know what it's like?

Just imagine turning your garden hose on
full on top of you, standing outside,

spread eagle.

Just see how long
you can stand there with

that kind of cold water
coming down on you.

That's what it's like here, right now.

It's an old wolf den.

There's wolf scat all along the bottom of
this.

So the wolves will come in here and den up
when they need to.

I might even consider
staying in a crack like

this, but it doesn't
look very comfortable.

So I'm gonna keep going.

I'm soaked right through.

There is just no shelter out here.

These are very wet, slippery, and steep
rock faces.

Breaking an ankle here could be a death
sentence.

Yet getting shots like these means
climbing them twice.

This may look like a pretty cool shelter.

And for one night, it'd be all right,
you know.

But you gotta think about things like
earth tremors.

And the fact is, all around me are fallen
pieces of rock.

Down there for a reason.

These things break off all the time.

If you bring in something here like a fire,
the hot and cold can break pieces off.

So, maybe a one night quickie shelter is
fine.

But this rock is really cold on my body.

And I wouldn't want to be in here for a
long time.

You think I'm kidding about these rocks?

This guy here, you can tell it's come off
pretty recently.

You know, I even heard of
a story where a guy was out

on a day hike and a rock
slide trapped him by his arm.

He had to break his arm with a rock and
sever it with his own pen knife.

It's well into day two, and all I've had
to eat is a few berries.

But after a long day of
traveling, the first touch of

forest greenery brings me
a renewed sense of spirit.

I'm slowly descending into more hospitable
terrain.

Looks like a paradise.

I'm hoping that tonight, I'll be able to
build a shelter and stay dry.

All of these meadows that I'm walking
through right now are just riddled with

animal trails like the one down there,
left by woodland caribou, up here they

call them mountain caribou, moose,
and of course, grizzly bear.

All of this moss was easy to pull up from
the ground.

I could use that for the bedding,
try and keep myself up off the ground.

I'm in a bit of a gully, and normally that
would be a no-no in terms of a shelter,

but I'm sort of up on
this knoll here, and that

actually keeps me out
of the wind a bit more.

I shoved in as much of the moss as I could
all along this outer side here,

and then I started gathering boughs and
sticking the boughs in.

It's a pretty sort of standard kind of
bush shelter here, and it's a...

I've got to make it
now, because that over

there is one mean
thunder and lightning storm.

And this is...

Yeah, it's rumbling.

This is the last place
I want to be, on the

top of a mountain,
during a lightning storm.

The rocks and the pebbles
will actually stick to your

boots, with all the magnetics
in the air and electricity.

Add to that tonight now, I'm in sub-alpine
territory, home of the grizzly bear,

home of the cougar.

Les is going to be pretty ragged.

I mean, he's lugging, I don't know how
many pounds of camera gear.

When you're doing that,
you're burning up twice,

three times the energy that
you normally would have.

He should be conserving fat, and what he's
doing is actually burning calories.

Shoulda check my supplies sooner.

Got one of these emergency blankets.

They say that... kind of like
how... you roast a baked potato.

We'll see just how warm it keeps me.

On the top of a mountain, in the fall.

Huh.

This is my view.

Looks like that storm's staying over
there.

That's a long, hard day.

And a wet one.

I guess my biggest concern now is...

cougars hunt at night.

The black bears and the grizzly bears will
be out sniffing around.

These blankets are supposed to work great
if you can get them next to your skin.

But the last thing I
want to do is get naked

in the wind and rain
on the top of a mountain.

It's day three of my week-long challenge
to survive in the Rocky Mountains.

No food.

No matches.

No tent.

This was miserable.

Absolutely miserable night.

You know, I've been three days now on this
mountain top.

And it has rained, drizzled, or misted
almost non-stop.

I've got to get down to some lower
elevations and affect my survival.

Because up here, I'm not surviving at all.

I'm just enduring.

Even while I search for
food, a constant challenge

is keeping my cameras
running in this non-stop rain.

Yeah.

Camera problems often get the better of
me.

Testing.

Testing.

Let's try it again with the better sound
now.

Okay, sorry for the swearing.

Can you tell the rain's getting the better
of me?

Yeah.

Huckleberries.

Mmm, and lots of them.

Check out the little bounty I got here.

Mmm.

Paintbrush.

Just eat the little colored flowery parts.

Rain or no rain, I've got to get off the
top of this mountain.

I'm just getting soaked constantly.

That's my only way down.

My only hope is that it's not so bad down
in the valley.

I'll see you on the bottom.

Making my way off the mountain, I'm heading
down into the shelter of the forest.

But the crew, whose job it will be to pick
me up at the end of the week, will have a

tough time tracking me in this vast
wilderness.

It'll be easy for them to lose sight of
me.

Sun's coming out a bit.

That's a surprise.

But I've got to stick with that waterfall
to find my way down.

The only way is to go up and around in
some bad spots.

Every little step I take could be one
where I snap an ankle.

I have to be so diligent at watching where
I'm walking.

So I'll tell you one thing.

They'd never, ever find me if I was
trapped here.

Look at this.

That's what I don't want to see.

That's bear crap.

Okay, that's bear dropping.

Oh, great.

Okay, so it doesn't look like much to you.

Trust me.

It's about 20 feet.

Back to the waterfall.

I figure the best route down is to follow
a mountain stream.

It should lead me to a river.

Just up from the river there, this big,
huge, massive spruce tree.

And it's very dry right here.

Now, it was raining for a good week solid
before I stepped foot on the mountain.

And it's been raining ever since I have
been on the mountain.

And look at this.

It's bone dry.

It's not going to be comfortable at all.

But this is as good a place as any to hold
up for the night anyway.

It's night number three.

I tell you, it's a heck of a climb down
from the top of a mountain.

Five or six thousand feet.

And I don't think it's going to rain
again.

Actually, it is starting to rain again.

But this is pretty cool.

One little spot under this tree.

And it's just so dry.

So I'm just going to huddle beside the
tree tonight.

And see what I get tomorrow.

It must be at least 10
degrees warmer down

here than it was up on
the top of the mountain.

What I've got to do now is just come up
with a quickie shelter.

Get through tonight.

This is going to be better though.

More chance for gathering food.

More chance for maybe hunting food.

Now that I've made it to the bottom of the
valley and the rain is breaking,

I can finally go through my gear.

Look at that glorious sunshine.

I was beginning to doubt its existence.

The circumstances that
put me on the top of the

mountain basically simulate
heli-hiking gone wrong.

I figured since it's centered around
heli-hiking, this kind of survival,

I can at least have a few items that I
might be able to make use of for survival.

Something indicative of being up there on
the mountain.

Ice axe makes perfect sense for crossing
the glaciers.

Walking stick.

Just an old ski pole.

Crampons with a couple of carabiners on
them.

And just the remnants of an old pack.

You know, just who knows what I can make
use of with that stuff.

A lot of people when
they're heli-hiking have a

camera or a video camera
of some sorts with them.

So in this case, yeah, that's what I've
got.

Tripod and a video camera.

Lastly, just a little cassette tape that
would go with the video camera, of course.

And then lastly, always with me is my
multi-tool.

And this time...

My harmonica.

That's my happy song because the sun's
out.

Oh, one last thing.

My emergency blanket.

Let's just see what I can do with this
guy.

Keeping myself up off the cold, damp
sand is vital to keeping the chills away.

I have to admit it, my main reason for
building here was for ease of filming.

We'll see if being so close to the water's
edge is a mistake or not.

And the tape.

A little button rock.

A little rock in.

I should have known this was a real
possibility.

There were certainly lots of bear signs up
on the mountaintop.

But it's more likely that right now,
this time of year, they're down low.

They're down in these valleys.

These tracks aren't all that old
considering the rain we've had.

You can see that it's a
small bear, possibly grizzly

because the claws are
poked up at the top here.

And hopefully it's just a small black bear
wandering around on its own.

Hopefully it's not a little one with a
mama close by.

One of the biggest problems I've had going
through this forest.

It's all because of this fella right here.

It's called Devil's Club.

And it is just covered with thorns.

Stuff gets into your skin and it just
hurts very much.

After a day full of sunshine, I just had a
huge downpour of rain.

Half hour just came teeming down.

Anyway, shelter worked great, so I'm going
to crawl inside.

Dark's coming in and try and get a night's
rest.

Home sweet home.

So, we'll see how I do tonight.

Feels okay though, you know?

Feels a little bit protected.

Not from bears, but from the wind and
rain.

Oh, it's just nice not to be freezing.

Although I try to sleep
while thinking about grizzly

bears, I'll be waking
up to a different problem.

It's been raining all night long.

Non-stop.

I can't believe it.

But I'm dry in here.

That's the good thing.

That's what I just discovered.

The river has come up.

That puts my shelter only about six feet
from the water's edge now.

This is not a good thing.

In this brief moment, without
any rain, I can point out

to you that the water's
come up another eight inches.

So, I don't know.

I might be in for some trouble here.

But it's coming up pretty fast.

You've got to think, way up high in the
mountains, the glacier's melting,

the rain's hitting it,
and everything, all those

creeks are all funneling
down into this one valley.

This water just keeps coming up fast.

There's nothing I can really do except wait
it out to see how high the water might get.

I've had enough of sitting and watching
the flood come in.

I've got to get some food in my stomach.

These are highbush Cranberries.

Normally, when you eat these this time of
year, they're better after a frost,

then they get a little bit sweeter.

Right now, they're pretty better tasting.

I'm actually not all that good with
mushrooms and knowing which one is which.

You see, the thing is, with mushrooms,
if you're wrong, you're dead.

Many of them are deadly, deadly poisonous.

This is called shaggy mane, I hope.

Do not do this at home, kids.

If you don't know, do not even touch it.

I hope that was a shaggy mane,
or I'm in big trouble.

Take a look at this.

If that's on the river, across from where
I'm camped, that's clear-cut logging.

That means there must be a road that leads
to that.

If it wasn't for a
swollen river, I could

probably find that road
and walk out of here.

There's no real way across to the old
logging stand, so while the sun comes out,

maybe I can try for a fire.

I've got to find some dry old man's beard.

This stuff, uh...

pretty damp.

Doesn't feel super
dry, but... let's see.

The ice act is great for getting to some
dry wood.

They wouldn't have seen me no matter what.

Unless I had a fire going.

I've traveled so far from
the mountain peak, I'm

pretty sure that the crew
has no idea where I am.

There's two days of survival left,
and a fire will make a big difference.

First things first, though.

Pulling dry tinder out of a soaking wet
forest.

Stage one.

Stage two.

Get rid of the damp stuff.

Remember, all this wood around me is
soaking wet.

If you can get to the inside of Cedar,
good and dry still.

My possibility of having a flood seems to
be past now.

The water has receded.

That's good.

Well, like I said, you
might very well be the hiker

that gets lost with a
video camera or a camera.

And sometimes you've got to do what you've
got to do.

Huh.

Okay.

Now I'm getting closer to the meat of the
issue.

Whew.

And angle it.

There we go.

How about like that?

I have no matches, but the camera lens
will do the trick.

Listen, folks.

I may have a very small window of
opportunity here.

The sun is breaking through a little bit
stronger now.

Over there in the pebbles behind me,
the part that was actually flooded a

little while ago, is the only place where
I've got some sort of hot sun right now.

And look what I found.

Okay.

This was one of the pieces inside the
camera.

And in messing around with it,
break this open here.

Okay.

And this is just a little bit of dry
paper.

Okay.

So I don't know if it's used for
insulation or something.

I have no idea.

Not an electrician.

Okay.

Here's the tinder bundle.

All the cedar that I gathered.

The old man's beard.

There's the paper inside.

If I get this, I'm going to run back.

I've got my pile of shavings ready to go
to catch flame.

I have to go above the water to start a
fire.

Probably silly.

Okay, where to put my lens?

Where's the lens?

But this isn't funny.

Ah.

This is not funny.

Okay.

I see it.

Darn thing.

Sitting right there.

Ay-yi-yi.

Make this happen.

With the camera as well.

It might be too bright for you to see.

But there's a little spot I can make
there.

Okay.

Where are you there?

Let's see what I'm doing.

Ah.

Forget it.

All right.

Clouds are back out.

It's just not strong enough.

Look at all that beautiful sun out there.

I'm trapped in behind these trees.

And I've lost my sun over on the pebbles
as well in the stream.

And in that clearing where
I was a hundred yards out

there, that of course
it's getting hit by the sun.

So I'm going to give it another shot.

It's worth a try.

One last thing.

Camera's set up now on that.

So when I come running back, I'll run over
and push the on.

And if it's any luck, you'll see me back
here in a bit.

There's some flame in my hand.

Big patch of blue.

Come on, baby.

It's got to be getting hot there.

I hope the camera's running.

I hope there's enough tape in that camera.

I can't move.

I've seen the most smoke I've seen.

All right.

All right, go.

Okay.

The first fire.

And the first real warmth I've had in five
days.

Oh.

Oh, man.

It rained last night.

But not as much as before.

Mostly this morning.

Early.

Clouds look different today.

I hear a helicopter.

I've been hauling huge pieces of wood to
keep the fire going in this rain.

And it's been six days with only a few
berries and a mushroom to eat.

I need something more substantial.

This is one of the...

From the leftover parts of a pack,
I can make a tool for hunting.

Go inside.

There is grouse around here.

Now, let's go see if it works.

Seems to work not too bad.

Making a slingshot is one thing, but finding
something to hunt with it is another.

I can use the moose trails to push through
the forest and look for grouse.

You know, trail or no
trail, I've still got to Mark my

way to make sure that I
don't get lost as I go through.

That's the only way I'm going to remember.

Breaking some branches over.

Sorry about all the raindrops on the lens
all the time.

It's pretty much impossible to keep wiping
the lens and keep it dry.

This feels more like moose territory than
it does grouse or ptarmica.

Lots of fresh moose tracks here.

Catching the moose is a little unrealistic
for me, though.

That's pretty much the area I came down
from.

This is spectacular here.

This is getting too mucky for my liking.

Like I'm walking deeper into a swamp here.

Let me get out of here.

Yeah, I'm just in a big bog.

I'm going to circle around and get out of
this mess before it gets deeper on me.

All I really accomplished with this
hunting trek was to get more muddy,

wet, and exhausted.

That ought to keep the bears away.

Stop raining!

It's morning, the final morning,
and of course, it's raining.

I don't know if the helicopter is going to
be able to find me down here or not,

but I'm going to be ready with a bit of a
signal fire, if he is.

If not, I'm not sure what I'll do.

I might see if I can make my way out to
one of those logging roads.

I don't know.

When am I going to stay here?

Fire is still going though.

That's all that matters right now.

The helicopter is flying around trying to
spot me.

Bit of a mad rush.

I'm counting on the
crew who have figured out

that I would have made
my way down to the river.

Whether or not they can spot my fire is
another story.

Wet spruce boughs on a hot fire will give
me the most amount of smoke.

Let's see if they can spot that.

I've been drenched for seven days.

I've eaten nothing more than a few berries
and a couple of mushrooms.

If there was ever a time
when I looked forward to

dry, warm clothes and a
hot plate of food, it's now.

Mountain survival has turned out to be one
of my greatest challenges.