Category: video

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TV – Survivorman vs Man vs Wild

My hiking buddies prefer the TV show Survivorman over Man vs Wild.

200px-lesstroud-survivorman.jpgThe Survivorman — Les Stroud — is believable.

In comparison, the Man vs Wild — Bear Grylls — is untrustworthy. Some of his “feats”, we suspect, are faked. (Aside from the fact he “survives” with a camera crew at the ready.)

Higgins of Mental Floss magazine agrees:

One of my favorite TV shows is coming back for a second season in August, after a long hiatus.

Survivorman is a one-man survival show, hosted by Canadian survival expert/musician/TV producer Les Stroud.

Each episode finds Les completely alone in the wilderness for seven days, carrying his own cameras and recording himself on a seven-day survival trek. Let me emphasize that: this guy is alone, schlepping fifty pounds of camera gear himself, while devising his own food, water, and shelter (he typically brings the most absurdly minimal survival gear with him, like a single match, a candy bar, maybe a rusty tin can).

He’s hardcore. And he’s quite a nice guy, which makes you root for him as he survives the elements.

mental_floss magazine – Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix

Leave a comment if you have an opinion. Check out both TV shows if you’ve not seen both.

UPDATE: Season 2 of Survivor Man Begins August 10th on the Discovery Channel. (via The Adventure Blog)

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hike Carthew-Alderson, Waterton, Canada

waterton.jpgWaterton Lakes National Park is the best kept hiking secret in Canada. YOU can go — but let the non-hiking hordes jam the roadways of Banff and Jasper instead.

Contributors Kelly and Lexi (getting married Aug. 4th in the Yukon, by the way) raved about their 2006 Carthew-Alderson hike in Waterton. Based on their recommendation, we added Carthew-Alderson to our list of the best hikes in North America.

Last Friday the weather was hot and clear so we made a dash to Waterton.

Unfortunately, Saturday morning the weather changed as we approached the summit, high point of the day hike.

To see what happened click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Stuck in the clouds, we missed most of the best vistas. We even got lost crossing the top of the ridge having to ask a marmot for directions.

Click PLAY to see how it looks on a “sunny” day. Or watch it on YouTube.

You might have noticed, the biggest drawback of Waterton is wind.

Carthew-Alderson 20km (12.4mi) from Cameron Lake to Cameron Falls. Highly recommended. Hiker’s shuttle C$10 / person available at Tamarack Mall.

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video – closest black bear ever

Just finishing the Wall Lake hike in Waterton, I commented to George: “We haven’t seen our bear yet today.”

(One time in Waterton National Park my hiking group had seen at least one bear a day. They are easy to spot here. One day we saw 5 bears.)

Right then a bear came strolling directly towards our car. George let the vehicle roll down a hill, quietly pacing the animal. You’ll see it was completely unconcerned by our presence.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

To Identify the mule deer, also in the video, I used the Road Watch in the Pass website.

They are a non-profit organization monitoring animals on the roadways in the Crowsnest region of Alberta. Trying to improve safety for large animals including hikers.

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Road Watch Wildlife Information Primer – Mule Deer

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Road Watch photo contest winner

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hiking Willmore Wilderness in Canada

If you are looking for wilderness, consider hiking the Willmore Wilderness north of Jasper, Alberta.

You can get “into the wild”.

One of our contributors, George Novak, will be there in about 10 days. He plans to cycle as far as possible, then bushwhack further towards the mountains.

There are very few developed hiking trails in Willmore. But it’s gorgeous:

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To get a feel for the region, check an excellent trip report jammed with video clips and photos: Willmore Wilderness Park « the electronic experiment

Willmore Wilderness – Wikipedia

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new movie – Into The Wild

I’m organizing for a trip to Alaska. This post jumped out at me:

… a movie trailer for John Krakauer’s Into The Wild. Apparently the movie is set to be released this September, and is being directed by Sean Penn.

For those that haven’t read the book, and I recommend it highly, it’s about a young man named Christopher McCandless who graduates college, gives away his possessions, and donates his life savings to charity.

Then, he moves to Alaska, where he wandered off into the wilderness to live. Four months later he was found dead.

Several notes and letters, along with a diary, were later discovered at his campsite, and they tell the desperate tale of him trying to survive. Great book. I hope the movie is worthy of the title, but since Krakauer is one of the screen writers, I’m thinking it should be worth watching.

The Adventure Blog: Into The Wild Movie Trailer!

Into the Wild is my favourite Krakauer book (and that’s saying something) and I am very much looking forward to this film.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

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check out BackpackingVideos.com

Jason Klass put up a beta version of a site dedicated to video.

His most recent video is one of great interest to me personally.

A great slide show of the trip Ben2World, Dusty Boots, and Jason Klass took to Canyonlands National Park. Witness Jason’s dirty Jeep and his heroic leap across an eight-foot canyon! This was a great trip and we saw lots of geological and archaeological wonders.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Salt Creek Canyon, Utah – BackpackingVideos.com

(via Two-Heel Drive)

This is a good start. No doubt hiking videos and photo slideshows will become increasingly popular in the future.

But the best site I know is Outdoor Video Magazine out of Canada. I linked to their Mt. Robson / Berg Lake video.

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Berg Lake, Canadian Rockies, early season hike

Outdoor Video Magazine have posted their best video to date. (That’s one nasty avalanche caught on film.)

A stunning trail featuring close-up glacier action, the Canadian Rockies Highest Peak (a staggering 2.5 vertical kilometres above the trail), blue-blue lakes, and more than one fantastic waterfall.

Berg Lake Trail – Mt Robson Provincial Park (with Video) · Outdoor Video Magazine

Though the trail was officially closed in May, these hikers braved a night walk, a glacier creek water ford in Crocs and snow storm. Snowshoes were needed for some sections.

We’d never recommend this to anyone … but I wish I’d been with them.

Our information page details how to organize a hike to this area in summer. Highlights: Valley of a Thousand Falls, Emperor Falls, Snowbird Pass, Toboggan Falls and the mass of Mt. Robson. One of the best hikes in the world.

 

Mount Robson: Berg Lake Trail – flickr photo set – Fotos de Canada

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video – surviving freezing water

This clip is from a show called Man vs Wild.

Bear Grylls is surviving in the French Alps with only a water bottle, flint, and knife. In this excerpt he jumps into a frozen lake and shows how to deal with it. Hopefully this won’t ever come in handy.

This actually happened to Andrew Skurka during his 7700 mile hike across North America. Stuck in the middle of nowhere with no change of clothes, Skurka stripped down and ran to keep his body heat up.

Think or Thwim

Click PLAY or watch Man vs Wild – Episode 3 European Alps Highlights on YouTube.

This is very much like Les Stroud’s Canadian reality TV show Survivorman.