How TV actually helps in survival situations...

[MA-Caver]

TV show helps Utah boy survive night solo in woods

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090623/ap_on_en_tv/us_utah_boy_found

By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer Elizabeth White, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 23, 6:00 am ET
SALT LAKE CITY – When he realized he'd been separated from his family on a weekend hike in a northern Utah forest, 9-year-old Grayson Wynne's thoughts turned to television.
Grayson watches "Man vs. Wild" on the Discovery Channel every week with his brothers and his dad. On the show, host and adventurer Bear Grylls strands himself in the wilderness and then shows viewers how to survive the sticky situations.
That's where Grayson says he learned to leave clues behind to help searchers find him.
On Saturday, when he was scared and alone in the Ashley National Forest, Grayson started tearing up his yellow rain slicker, despite the intermittent downpours, and tying pieces to trees.
"I just used my hands," said Grayson, who was found safe Sunday after spending 18 hours lost in the forest. "I don't know how many times I tore the thing but quite a lot."
Grayson was among a party of about 15 family members that left Saturday from the Spirit Lake trailhead in Daggett County. The group stopped to tighten a saddle on a horse at some point, said Grayson's dad, Kynan Wynne. But Grayson didn't realize it and went ahead of the pack before diverting onto a smaller trail in the thick forest.

Happy ending to what could've been a tragic story.
It's nice that the show given by the (faker) Bear Grillis helped a young boy stay alive until searchers could find him. BUT! What the boy (and anyone else) should've done was move to a clearing and STAYED PUT!
Having been on SAR teams and actual SAR searches, what I've learned is that it's awfully hard to find someone who is moving around a lot trying to find their own way back.
Granted Grillis shows how to and all that, but only because he's been trained to find his way back in sticky situations and had actual survival training... granted he's not in actual survival conditions while doing his show... (camera/sound crews all around him and emergency back-ups in case something goes wrong), he still has the skills/experience to do it should he really find himself in that situation.
A 9 yr. old does not and so the wisest course of action is to stay put, stay visable and protect yourself from the elements as best as possible. If you're being stalked or something like that (animal or human) then yeah get out of there and get to a place of safety; a thicket or cave or something.
If you're going to try to strike out on your own after being out there for a few days then yeah... head downhill if you're in the mountains, and if/when you find a water source FOLLOW IT downstream. Water will almost always lead to civilization sooner or later. But that is ... if you have some survival skills and the common sense to use them.

I'm glad the kid was found, I'm glad that he was smart enough to leave clues for the searchers to at least have a narrow field to search in. Some search areas can extend for miles and miles away from the actual site of the lost person. It's a terrible waste of manpower, resources and more importantly valuable time in finding/lending aid to the one lost.
I'm glad that he was empowered by the knowledge that he gained from watching a survivalist show, because that knowledge help lessen his fear and gave him the confidence to remain calm in a desperate situation.
The Utah high mountains are no place for the inexperience.

 

[Tensei85]

Wow! That's a great story, I also enjoy the tv series as well.

 

[AnglingBoi]

Yea man awesome story, I guess tv really isnt all that bad for you.

 

[terryl965]

There is some great shows on the TV if you have the time to watch and learn.

 

[jks9199]

I'd rather people watched Survivor Man; he's less telegenic and more real about survival. And he makes a point that staying put, not wasting energy is generally better -- before he moves out! (It is still TV...) He's also on his own much more than Grylls.

One caution on following water... Sometimes, it can be MANY miles before it finds civilization... Even in the US, there are plenty of places where that watercourse will eventually make it to a road or whatever -- but it'll take several days of hard travel.

Leave a route plan, make sure folks know when to look for you to return, have a map... and stick to the trails.

 

[Tez3]

Bear Grylls is an ex public school boy (Eton) who thinks he's hard but is a complete fake, as has been proved in a series of embarrassing, for him, stories in the press of him staying hotels when he's supposed to alone in the wild, of having horses brought to him that were supposed to have just been found etc etc.

 

[yorkshirelad]

Bear Grylls is an ex public school boy (Eton) who thinks he's hard but is a complete fake, as has been proved in a series of embarrassing, for him, stories in the press of him staying hotels when he's supposed to alone in the wild, of having horses brought to him that were supposed to have just been found etc etc.

I thought that he was a trooper in the SASR, probably 21 SAS in the south. I could be wrong.

Tez, I know this is OT, but I saw somewhere on MT that Bob Spour had been spoofin' his SAS service. I can't find the thread. I thught that you might be able to shed some light on this.

 

[Sukerkin]

What you want for those kind of situations is Ray Mears - proper wilderness survival chap.

 

[Tez3]

I thought that he was a trooper in the SASR, probably 21 SAS in the south. I could be wrong.

Tez, I know this is OT, but I saw somewhere on MT that Bob Spour had been spoofin' his SAS service. I can't find the thread. I thught that you might be able to shed some light on this.

he was in the TA, Saturday and Sunday soldiers.
Field Discipline is the chap you want for info on Bob Spour, he put a thread up on here recently about him.