Original subtitles

I'm bear grylls. Whoo!

I'm gonna show you what it takes to get out alive

From some of the most dangerous places on earth.

I've got to make it through a week of challenges...

In the sort of places you wouldn't last a day

Without the right survival skills.

This time, I'm in the wilds of southern utah,

Where I'll be tackling treacherous canyons...

...Climbing down dizzying rock features...

It's getting a little tricky here!

...And pursuing the fastest of prey.

This is gonna be one crazy red rock ride.

Man: Copy that. We're probably about a minute out.

Right side looks good.

This is southern utah, known as red rock country,

After the epic landscape of the colorado plateau.

With an average elevation of over 6,000 feet,

It's one of the highest states in the u.S.

It's on the wire.

Man: [ speaking indistinctly ]

Southern utah's tough terrain --

Endless slot canyons,

Hard-rock pinnacles,

And hundreds of square miles of arid desert.

It's high, dry, and hostile.

Advise on our altitude.

Up here, mountain lions and black bears roam,

And lower down, deadly rattlers,

Like the mojave green,

One of the most venomous snakes in the u.S.

This is really one of the last great u.S. Wildernesses

To be explored and mapped.

It was bandit country

And a hiding place for the likes

Of butch cassidy and the sundance kid.

It was the wild west at its wildest.

Hey, you know what?

These conditions -- we can't go with plan "a."

My plan was to parachute in, but there's a problem --

A powerful crosswind that could blow me off course

And onto hard rock.

But I've come up with a plan "b."

Standby for further instructions.

I'm gonna try something I've never done before.

This is gonna require pinpoint accuracy from the pilot

And split-second timing from me to get it right.

Okay, let's do it, guys.

Let's give it a go. Okay.

We've located a stretch of level ground.

We're going in.

I'll tell you what --

Let's check it out and then take it around.

All right.

The pilot will bring the plane down

As low and slow as it will go,

And then I'm gonna lower myself out.

The plane isn't gonna stop.

As soon as I'm confident, I'm gonna go for it,

But make no mistake -- this is dangerous.

I'm at the mercy of the furious prop wash

From the plane's engines

And terrifyingly close to the thundering rear wheel.

But I'm down and in one piece.

Smoking trousers!

Oh, fair to say that I've got one red-hot backside!

Just got completely shredded.

Okay, let's get going.

I've landed high on the mighty colorado plateau,

Which covers large parts of utah, arizona,

Colorado, and new mexico.

To the south lies the grand canyon

And, in between, some of the wildest terrain in the u.S.

Wow, what a vista.

It's a long way down there.

It's just a crazy landscape.

What you get is this mix of hard and soft rock,

And it creates all these totem-pole-like pinnacles.

These rock hoodoos can be 10 stories high

And dangerously unstable.

See that slope over there with all the snow on it?

Probably gonna be north-facing, sees the least sun,

Which means north is gonna be over here.

I've got my bearings,

And now I'm heading south to lose altitude.

Up here is cold with low oxygen and low humidity.

This can quickly lead to fatigue, thirst,

And, at night, hypothermia.

That's not our way.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Okay, this is a bit more precarious than I thought.

It's tightly packed.

I'm gonna get something just to help me go down this.

Even something like this can help you --

Just gives you some leverage

To push your body out from the slope.

Temptation is -- when it gets steep and you get scared,

You tuck in,

And that's when your feet drop out from under you.

You want to be out from the slope,

Put your weight on it, and descend like this.

It's just an alpine technique they use on steep snow and ice.

To be honest, this is pretty similar.

Okay, come on.

This technique requires confidence

And a little practice,

But ultimately, it's efficient and fast.

Yeah, it's much better on the ridges here.

It's softer.

Down in the gullies, that's all really compacted.

Let's get going down this.

At this speed,

I'm soon down to the next section of the descent.

Now there's loose scree underfoot.

Keep zigzagging across this.

We don't want to be bringing a whole lot of rocks

On top of each other.

Follow my line.

An angled descent reduces the chance of injury

From dislodged rocks.

Look -- that's the last of these spires,

And then we're out of them.

Get down to the trees.

That's where we're gonna find food and water.

Pine forest like this is classic bear territory.

I've got to proceed with caution.

But it's also a rich hunting ground,

A place full of resources

With everything you need to survive.

Little bits of pine resin.

Should be more.

Yeah, look -- there's more up higher there.

If the branches are broken off,

Then the tree will ooze that resin.

Try and get up to that.

In winter, this area can see up to 15 feet of snow,

Leading to significant damage

To the lower branches of these pines.

Take a bit of that,

And that's gonna help with fire-lighting.

There's loads of other things you can use pine resin for.

It acts as a glue, even to seal wounds.

Okay, that'll do.

Let's keep going.

Lower down, the pine forest gives way

To parched-earth territory

And, with it, its own animal dangers.

There are mountain lions in this area,

And one of the dangers of them --

They're very bright,

But they're also opportunistic hunters.

Mountain lions, or cougars, are stalk-and-ambush predators.

Almost invariably,

Whenever there have been attacks on humans,

The lions approach from behind

And completely without warning,

Having tracked them.

Even this sort of terrain

Is classic for mountain-lion attack,

Where they can drop down, use that body weight to pin you,

Go for your throat.

And good little tip --

If you've got dark glasses on,

Stick them on the back of your head,

And it looks like then you've got eyes

In the back of your head,

And that's gonna help deter them.

But your most immediate problem here

Is a lack of collectible water.

Yeah, it's all bone-dry, this. Look at it.

It's a mix of clay and sand

That's been made wet by the rain and then dried out,

Expanded, and just cracked.

But if we're gonna find water, it's gonna be down.

There's no time to waste,

And this dry shale makes for a speedy descent.

But on terrain like this,

There's a danger of picking up just too much speed.

Aah!

Whoa!

[ grunts ]

I'm in southern utah,

Suspended 100 feet above a narrow rock canyon.

Got my foot on here.

Little help.

Whoo!

Oh, I hate that feeling.

Man alive.

Okay, let me come back here.

That's the danger of loose sand on hard rock.

Let's find a way down.

I spotted a stream in the canyon below.

Now I've got to find a way down to collect water.

Now, that's all just sheer down there.

Might be able to work our way down this bit.

It is quite committing, though.

It's a long way to the bottom,

Especially when it's all loose like this.

At first, things don't look promising.

That really is a funnel of doom down there.

Look.

The rock is brittle and treacherous underfoot,

Which means there's a real danger

Of slipping clean off this face.

Whoa.

It's an awkward little bit to get around.

Just out of comfortable reach.

Bad consequences of falling here, as well.

It's now or never. Here it goes.

One step closer, and this ledge is exposed,

Lying 100 feet above the canyon floor.

Look at my feet and don't look down.

So I'm actually climbing down.

Don't have to rush it.

Take your time, be confident with each step.

And finally, some reward for my efforts.

Can shimmy down behind this slate.

There's a whole gap down here.

But this descent has still got a way to go.

This rock ramp lies at 45 degrees,

And it's covered in dust, making it as slippery as ice.

[ coughs ]

Chipping away down there.

I've got to push against the rock with all my force

To get any sort of traction.

Jam a foot on each wall

And just push like opposing forces.

Just slowly wedge my way down.

I'm almost doing a split.

I'm making progress,

But this rock face doesn't get any easier.

Pretty vertical, this next bit.

One foot wedged in here, hand wedged in the crack,

And just slowly edge my way down this.

Just a few more feet and one last handhold,

And I'm down.

Whoo! Okay, down.

[ sighs ]

Now to collect what I came for.

Oh, man. A lot of this water is really silty.

Look at the color of that.

Try and drink that straight off.

That silt and sediment can easily make you sick,

And that's just gonna dehydrate you further.

A simple way of getting rid of the sediment

Is just to filter it.

Can use anything for that -- a t-shirt, hat.

If you haven't got that, even your sock.

[ grunts ]

Any water-permeable fabric will act like a sieve

By removing particles from the liquid.

But ideally, even filtered water

Should be boiled before drinking.

That's coming out nice and clear now.

Probably not gonna make it smell very nice, though.

Okay, sock on, and then we're on our way again.

I'm following the water downstream

To lose altitude and hopefully find a larger watercourse.

I've not only got water down here,

I've also got some shade, which is nice.

Out of that beating sun.

And it's also pretty easygoing.

Make some good progress.

But narrow water-carved canyons like this

Hold potential dangers, too.

Flash floods caused by rainfall upstream

Can occur at any time and without warning.

And there were 12 tourists

Who were caught in a flash flood in one of these slot canyons

In southern utah.

And it hadn't even been raining, and they were down in there.

And the first thing they knew,

They just got hit by this wall of brown water

Full of boulders and logs.

And 11 of the 12 were killed.

The lesson is -- never get complacent.

Just 'cause you haven't seen rain

Doesn't mean you can't be hit by flash flood.

Rain upstream will flow straight down through here,

And that's a concern.

The canyon is narrowing,

And the walls are getting steeper.

Now, this is the sort of place

You wouldn't want to be caught in a flash flood.

You truly have no escape route up these.

Keep moving a bit faster.

Going downstream isn't working.

There are no obvious ways out,

And the canyon's getting deeper.

So I'm changing direction

And heading up a small side canyon.

Now I'm battling gravity and the flow of water,

And it's considerably harder work.

There's no way I'm gonna get up this bit.

Keep moving up.

But I'm gaining height,

And the canyon walls are getting lower.

This is a possible way out.

Just a bit awkward around there.

This wet rock is super-slippery,

And there are no good holds.

And so you use your knees to split them

And use that to pry your way up.

And finally, I'm out of that hole.

That's the exit to the canyons.

Safe to say we found water.

Now I'm moving through mixed forest and high chaparral.

Look -- there's a little plantain.

See this guy?

The plantago herb has antibacterial properties.

This stuff became known by native americans

As "white man's footprints,"

'cause it grows in this compacted, sun-baked ground,

And they'd often find it in the trail

Where the wagons would leave as the pioneers headed west.

But good plant to take with you.

More than 60,000 mormon pioneers

Made the arduous journey west to utah

In the mid-19th century.

The remains of an old cabin.

Some founded large settlements.

Others carved out solitary homesteads

In utah's vast wilderness.

Wow, check this out through here. Look.

Probably an old pioneer's hut.

But it doesn't look like

Anyone's lived here for a long time.

The work that's gone into making this.

And it's all done with hand-tools.

You can tell. Look.

See the ax? Chipping marks.

You come across a place like this,

There's so much here for the survivor.

Even an old bit of barbed wire like that.

Mass of things you can use that for.

With a bit of work,

This will make a good overnight shelter.

But before that, there's food to consider.

This cabin would have been built near a water source,

A priority for any settler.

And that's gonna be a good place

To look for something to eat.

Good little lake here.

And this is gonna be perfect for a bit of fishing.

Probably spring-fed.

More than likely gonna have fish in this.

Trout, bass, and bluegill are native to this area.

Actually, look -- there's lots of willow all along here,

Which gives me an idea of how to make a simple fish trap

That I can leave so I don't have to sit fishing myself for hours.

Okay, let's use this.

Willow is great for fishing.

It's long and very flexible, bendy, like a fishing rod.

And willows are generally found growing close to water.

Now, that's gonna make a really simple trigger mechanism...

For the fishing rod so I can leave it.

It's gonna be under tension until anything takes the bait.

The trigger requires two short wooden arms

With notches carved into them.

It's fiddly work and needs patience.

And that notch, the trigger, fits in like that.

It can go under tension until anything releases it.

For fishing line,

I can use the inner strand from my paracord,

Something I always carry with me.

It'll pull out nice and easy,

And that makes perfect fishing line.

And then for the hook,

I've got this little bit of barbed wire.

I found that by the cabin.

And that'll do the job nicely.

And now for the delicate part of the construction.

That fits under there.

And that's then under tension.

I've attached a fishing wire to that end, cast it out.

Anything catches it, dislodges this.

And that then pulls the hook into the fish's mouth,

And it's caught.

Gonna find some bait,

And then we'll set that and we're good to go.

Lake and riverbanks are often teeming with life.

[ chuckles ] had to get to his head quickly.

Otherwise, they end up biting you.

But a little garter snake

Just swimming through the water there.

Just spotted him.

So there's snake in here.

There's probably gonna be fish, as well.

But that is gonna be at least some dinner.

The snake guts make perfect fishing bait.

The line's set.

Now to head back to base

And sort up bedding for the night ahead.

Really, I want to make myself some sort of bed

That's off the ground.

One of the dangers of all cabins like this --

It's gonna be a magnet for snakes,

Especially under all of these floorboards.

You know, they're looking for the same thing as me --

Warmth and shelter.

And with a couple of these,

I can get myself off the ground.

The floorboards will make for a solid,

If none-too-comfortable, bed platform.

That's gonna be wide enough there.

You can jam one end into the wall,

And I found just the thing to suspend the other.

Actually, that's got a noose on the end.

It would have been a lasso, that.

Even with the resources close at hand,

This is still a tricky build.

One of those times when you need more than two hands.

Let's get that in.

But this is a quickly assembly.

A little crude, perhaps, but effective.

Okay, so that's a good bed platform off the ground.

Maybe fill in some of these gaps, as well,

Keep any rainwater off me.

Another hitch in that to make sure this bed doesn't collapse.

And with bed and shelter sorted,

It's back to the fish trap I set two hours ago.

It has triggered.

With a line that's quite slack,

It might just have been the wind.

We can reset it, give it another go.

Oh, hang on. Oh, no, we've got something.

I thought it was just slack in the wind,

But actually, it was caught around all those reeds.

And that's a little bass fish.

And that's a great catch.

That means I've got a snake and some fish.

So tonight, I eat.

But first, I need fire.

And then we'll use this old trough as a firebase

But also as a bit of a wind guard.

Break up some of this pine resin into this tinder bundle.

The wood is dry and quickly takes a spark.

There we go.

You want to smother it.

Nice, dry brush on top of it.

Let it build up those three essential ingredients

Of a fire -- oxygen, heat, and fuel.

[ blows ]

We can just put as a frying pan on there.

While the food is cooking,

A chance to put the final touches to my camp.

Get a load of this stuff as bedding.

These grasses will provide warmth and a degree of comfort.

Just gonna give me a couple of inches of insulation

To sleep on.

That will do.

Okay, these are gonna be done now.

Easier said than done getting it off, though.

A roasting-hot pan and nicely cooked fish.

And that just looks incredible.

Good nutrition, good protein,

Lots of good fats and minerals and vitamins in that.

Really good-size meal, this.

I didn't even have to be there to catch it.

Fresh food and the great outdoors --

There's simply nothing better.

You can see why somebody a long time ago

Decided to stay here and try to make a life

In this incredible landscape.

In the wild west days, southern utah --

A lot of it was bandit country,

Which meant outlaws would use these sort of places

To hide away for months, sometimes even years.

But to do that, they needed incredible skills

To be able to live off the land.

But the difference between them and the survivor

Is that their goal is to stay hidden.

The survivor's goal is to stay alive long enough to be found.

I've just spent a night in the wilds of southern utah.

Breakfast is a small garter snake I caught at the lake.

It's a good way of cooking him. Really kills any bacteria.

It's been bubbling away for about 10 minutes.

That's good to eat now.

But snake is an acquired taste at the best of times.

Some people say that snake tastes like chicken.

But I don't know what sort of chicken they're eating.

It's bony, sinewy, and not very like chicken.

Time to get moving.

An isolated cabin is one thing,

But most of the population in this region

Live at lower altitudes,

So the best chance of finding people is to head down.

But that's easier said than done in a place like this.

Careful on this edge.

All of this is horrible.

It breaks up.

I want to find a way off this high, windy ridge,

But I've only got the lasso rope I found at the cabin.

There's a little ledge down here.

See that? About 40 foot down.

I've probably got enough rope, actually,

To reach that ledge with the lasso.

Otherwise, it's gonna be probably about 150 foot

To the bottom of this,

Which I definitely don't have enough for.

So I can retrieve my lasso rope from the bottom,

A bit of simple ingenuity.

Short little bit of wood like that.

Around the noose of the lasso.

And as long as there's tension on the rope running down...

That's gonna stay there.

Time to put this to the test.

Here's the awkward bit.

It's a very exposed part and a very long way down.

First, there's a difficult overhang to negotiate.

And this makes getting into position very awkward.

Gonna need my right hand to hold on to the rock

And the left hand on this rope.

Maybe just wrap my leg...

A couple of times around that.

Just gonna give it that bit more friction.

I'm starting to make some progress,

But this is a challenge in descent.

To make matters worse, there's a powerful crosswind.

It's getting a little tricky here,

Just 'cause it's steeper!

You don't want to even contemplate a fall here.

I'm almost there, but there's one final challenge --

My rope's running out.

And it reaches -- just.

I'm on the ledge.

Just need to get this lasso back,

Try and flick this thing so it pops up.

The rope is jammed.

But with a final whipcrack, it's away.

[ grunts ]

That worked nicely.

But I only just reached.

Should be able to shuffle along this now.

Off the rope, this ledge feels so precarious,

And it's over 100 feet to the bottom.

This brittle layered rock face is still steep

And requires great caution.

Gonna keep really low center of gravity,

Use all of your palms of your hand,

Soles of your feet as grip.

This technique is all about

Keeping the maximum points of contact for maximum friction.

It doesn't look elegant,

But it can guarantee a safe descent,

And in a situation like this, that's all that counts.

It's a good climb down --

Committing but good.

Now the hard rock gives way to soft sand.

This is much easier going,

And I can make some fast progress.

Temperatures in this high-altitude desert

Can break 100 degrees.

Right now, it's cooler,

But in this territory, water is always an issue,

And a few miles of this will burn through supplies.

So I'm on the lookout for places

Where rainwater might collect.

And this red slot canyon is ideal.

It's been formed by the wear of sediment-filled water

Rushing through the soft southern utah sandstone.

Around here, it's the highest concentration of slot canyons

Anywhere in the world.

Wow!

These boulders have obviously come down and got lodged there.

Just absolutely wedged!

But actually, this is a classic sort of terrain.

There was a climber a few years back going through,

And a boulder fell, dislodged as he was rappelling

And actually trapped his arm -- bam -- pinned it.

He was stuck in this canyon like this for five days.

And that must have been a truly horrendous situation

To have been faced with.

Aron ralston had to decide whether to die of dehydration

Or take drastic action to free himself.

But eventually...

He proved himself a survivor,

Got his blunt penknife,

Hacked all the way through his arm,

Through his bone, through the nerves,

And made it out alive.

And that's called the spirit of survival.

I'm in southern utah

Making my way through a narrow slot canyon.

Look -- there's water on the rock here.

Moisture coming down, a seep.

[ slurping ]

This is rainwater dripping through the rock from above.

That's nice.

Collecting it would take hours.

Instead, I take a useful hydration boost,

Then get on my way again.

Ooh, I've got a rabbit!

I spotted a rabbit ahead. This is worth a chase.

He's faster than me and quickly out of sight,

But there's only one direction he can go,

And if he hits an obstacle, I'll have him cornered.

But no joy.

The canyon's opened up, and he's escaped.

He's gone.

At least he showed me a way out of that slot canyon.

[ breathing deeply ]

Now I've entered arid scrub desert.

This is a harsh landscape,

But even here, there are some useful natural resources.

There are lots of these bushes around here,

And this is mormon tea.

And what native americans and mormon settlers would do

Is collect this and then boil it up to make tea,

And that would help with respiratory problems

Such as hay fever, asthma.

Just take some of this.

Early settlers in southern utah

Arrived in an unmapped territory with few trails.

In this wilderness,

The best geographical signposts were often the rivers.

Always guarantee if you follow this,

You will eventually find people.

Okay, we just need to get down to it.

Let's go this way.

What a feeling.

And almost all of the rivers here

Are gonna run down and meet the mighty colorado,

And that just cuts its way across the wild west.

A tributary like this should eventually lead to a town.

The majority of settlements in this desert

Had to be built close to watercourses

If they were to stand any chance

Of surviving and prospering.

Rivers provided food,

Water for humans and livestock, and irrigation,

And were used as an important route of communication

Through hostile territory.

You see the river's running much faster here.

All this white water

And, like, flood debris, as well,

In the middle of the river.

The good part of that

Is it means we're losing altitude and making progress.

But progress is never guaranteed

Down tight canyons like this.

A nightmare, this.

This canyon wall juts out into the river,

And it doesn't look like

There's a way over it or around it.

And this is gonna be a hard one to get around.

Terrible pace of water coming down this.

It's a no-go.

Getting around the canyon wall looks seriously dangerous.

I'm gonna head back upstream

And try to locate a safer crossing point.

Gonna be able to use these series of boulders here,

Get across.

Let's try this one.

There's a fallen tree across to a large rock.

It looks promising.

Yeah, this could work.

As long as the deadfall stays in place,

I can get across to the middle one.

I'm gonna give this a try

And hope that this tree will hold firm.

It's a precarious spot with no protection.

Fall in here and I'll be dragged downstream fast.

Well, we've done the first stone.

Try and get to this one now and then across.

There's no safe jump across to the center rock,

So I'm taking the long way around.

Little bit precarious, this bit.

Progress is slow, but inch by inch, I'm getting there.

Okay.

That's the second one.

Now to see if there's a route to cross to the far bank.

I was kind of hoping there would be a few little boulders

So I could hop across.

Got so close, but I can't do it here.

There's no-go, no-go.

Strike two. No way across.

Back to the drawing board.

My plan now is to head back to the spot

Where the cliff blocks my path,

Then attempt to get around it

Through the water and continue downstream on the bank.

But now there's an added obstruction.

And the first thing is to get rid of this.

Before braving white water like this,

I want to shift this driftwood out of the way.

The last thing I want

Is to get snagged or pinned against it.

The amazing force of the water rips the tree away

And under the overhanging rock.

Might be a bit of

Hold-your-breath time around there.

To make sure I'm not swept away,

I'm gonna use my trusty lasso

And tie it off to a solid anchor point.

Put a constrictor knot around this.

This is one knot I do not want to come undone.

The constrictor knot is an effective binding knot

That's simple and secure.

Absolutely locked on itself.

That won't come undone.

I'd trust my life to that one every time.

Now to put it to the test in this very fast-flowing water.

Okay, once I'm around, I'm gonna give two strong tugs.

That means it's good and you follow.

The lasso here is a lifeline.

An uncontrolled descent through waters like these

Risks serious injury or death.

I'm holding myself out of the main stream

For as long as possible.

Powerful flow in here.

Because when the full force of the water catches me, I'm gone.

That's the signal.

Now it's the cameraman's turn.

Pretty horrible feeling when you're under the water,

Waiting to pop up.

We're around that canyon corner.

And we'll get moving again.

Good job, though, really committing.

It's much easier going now, and the canyon is widening out.

Look -- that's horse poop.

Horses are a valuable resource in this part of the world,

So they're rarely left to run wild.

Where there are horses,

There's a good chance of finding people.

Look -- all of these are hoofprints, horses.

Really distinct, and they're all the way along here.

But because the sand is churned up, it's darker.

That means there's still moisture in it,

Which means these are quite fresh prints.

I'm gonna follow these tracks.

So I want to try and keep the hoof marks

Between me and the sun.

That way, they cast a shadow and they're easy to follow.

Tracking is one of the great traditional arts

Of the wild west.

Pick up the pace a bit.

Using these skills,

Native americans cross great wildernesses...

Tell me that isn't fresh.

It smells fresh.

...Law-enforcement agents tracked down fleeing outlaws,

And the odd lone survivor has made it back to civilization.

Look up on the cliff-top.

Looks like we got ourselves a real cowboy.

Come on.

It's the end of my utah adventure.

I survived the challenges of the canyonlands

And red rock country, and now I'm heading home.