The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a UNESCO heritage site due to its biodiversity, and it’s the most popular national park in the world. However, the elusive 900 Miler Club currently has just over 800 members. The club is reserved for those who have completed every trail within the park, and they must have hiked at least 900 miles in the process. Founded in 1995 by “Louisiana” Lou Murray, those who wish to enter the club have to apply.

The brother/sister duo joins what appears to be a trend of “toddler treks”—children heading out on long and difficult expeditions with their parents, like 10-year-old Sawyer Howard, who is hiking multiple mountains at 4,000 feet, and five-year-old Bellamy Korn, who is attempting 100 hikes during her leukemia treatment.

Brought up in the outdoors, the two siblings have enjoyed exploration from a young age—as young as 18 months, in Landon’s case. The kids’ mother, Jennifer Stoneking-Stewart, hikes alongside the kids, enthusiastically supporting their thirst for adventure. Hiking 900 miles is no small feat for grown-ups, and these two have spent months pushing themselves to complete their 900 miles across North Carolina and East Tennessee. 

The two young hikers completed a distance of 1,165 miles by the time they were done with their expedition and hiked around 150 trails, including every trail in the park, some of which are quite difficult and/or extensive. The two were not deterred and spent countless hours on the trail to reach their goal. Now, they’ve got their 900 Miler Club medals to commemorate their wonderful experience.

The post 8 and 10 Year Olds Join Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s 900 Miler Club  appeared first on Outdoors with Bear Grylls.

Throughout the season, Gebrewold’s game plan has been to emit “golden retriever energy” to disarm other players and make them easier to attack. And in the first five episodes, he’s done exactly that. However, with Survivor being a game show and all, the other players singled him out as the biggest threat because of his schmoozing, alliance-building, and vocal strategizing. 

So who actually went home if not Gebrewold and why? The answer is one of the more innocuous players of the season, and the reason was she was an easy target. 

Survivor 45 Episode 6 Recap

By the end of episode 6, the teams began merging but before they could complete the merger, they were separated into two random teams for a competition. The winners of the said competition received a meal and immunity while the losers went hungry and had their names added to the ballot for that night’s vote. 

The names that came up throughout most of the conversations were Gebrewold and Janani “Jay” Krishnan-Jha, a 24-year-old singer from Los Angeles. Although she did struggle through the physical part of the competition, the reasons Jay came were mostly petty. 

Former teammate Sifu Alsup wanted revenge because he believed Jay voted for him in a past episode. Another former teammate, Julie Alley, who revealed in secret that it wasn’t actually Jay who voted for Sifu, didn’t think Jay was totally trustworthy. And Austin Li Coon was still sour at Jay because, during a contest, she opted to accept an ineffective idol rather than a sandwich. 

At the tribal council, though, Gebrewold made a more compelling argument, calling Jay the “most dangerous” player because of her alliance with two of her former teammates. He argued that they would vote as a group in the future. 

“There’s an opportunity for you guys to let go of Jay and lower your guys’ threat level a lot,” he told the two players. He added that although he was a threat that night, he wouldn’t be in the future because his strategy had been exposed. 

To counter his logic, Jay said: “I just want to remind everyone that this is now an individual game and this is a player (Kaleb) that was losing and losing and losing and is still sitting here.” She added, “He will be a threat to your game.”

While they seemingly agreed with her — hence the 11 to zero vote to send him home — we got the twist ending. Gebrewold played his shot-in-the-dark, a sacrifice of a vote to be declared safe or unsafe from votes, and forced the players to revote. In the end, a majority voted Jay out. 

In her exit interview, Jay called herself “collateral damage” and described the event as “upsetting” but also “pretty freaking wild.”

“This was the greatest adventure of my entire life,” Jay said. “I have no regrets here. Just smiles, so I’m just happy I got to come out here and play a great freaking game.”

Watch Survivor on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. on CBS.

The post Survivor 45 Episode 6 Recap: Did Kaleb Delay the Inevitable? appeared first on Outdoors with Bear Grylls.

Tanja has documented the unlikely BFFs for over a year. Whether they are playing chess or taking naps together, it’s amazing to see the contrast between the sizes of the two animals and how well they tolerate each other. Tanja is always close by, ready to take a photo and share it with her 500k followers.

Ingo is a magnificent Belgian Malinois, a sheep-herding dog breed. According to the American Kennel Club’s website, they are “smart, confident and versatile” and are likely to grow to 22-26 inches tall (55-66 cm). These dogs love to spend time outdoors, getting plenty of exercise with their owners. Ingo is no exception.

Ingo and Poldi are just two of Tanja’s many photography subjects. She also captures other wildlife using a Nikon D4 camera and several lenses. “Seeing things through the camera fascinates me. That’s the reason I take photographs,” Tanja shares in one of her Instagram posts. “Being alone with the animals is the most beautiful part of the process.”

The post This Unlikely Friendship Between a Dog and an Owl Will Melt Your Heart appeared first on Outdoors with Bear Grylls.

Just this summer, I watched nervously from behind my car as two tourists sat in camp chairs outside their van and a bison made its way across the campground in their general direction. You could almost hear them giggling in delight at how close the animal was getting. Until it deftly broke into a trot, head down, and plowed toward them.

I’ve never seen people dive headfirst into the grass as fast as those two did. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the charge was a bluff—the bison peacefully continued on its way toward a better grazing spot once the irritating bipeds had vacated the vicinity—but the scene could have ended in disaster, and it often does.

Indeed, every year people are injured by bison in the U.S., including at ever-popular Yellowstone National Park, where thousands of the animals roam free. And these unwelcome encounters are largely because visitors mistake them for docile, domesticated creatures, when the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. 

We connected with Linda Veress, park spokesperson at Yellowstone, home to the nation’s largest bison population on public land, to bust bison myths and keep you safe when you cross paths with them in the wild.

MYTH 1: Bison are essentially no more than large fluffy cows.

First things first: let’s set the record straight about the difference between cows and bison, because they may share a scientific family (Bovidae), but they are otherwise two very different animals. For starters, bison are much larger. In fact, they’re the largest land-dwelling mammal in all of North America. Males weigh about 2,000 pounds and females around 1,100 pounds.

Most importantly, “unlike cows, bison are wild animals,” says Veress. And just like other wild animals, bison will defend their territory if they feel threatened. In fact, bison have injured more people than any other animal at Yellowstone, usually because tourists got too close when snapping photos.

MYTH 2: Bison and buffalo are the same thing.

While the term “bison” and “buffalo” are often used interchangeably in North America, the scientifically correct term for the furry brown creatures that roam the plains is bison. Buffalo are technically native to South Asia and Africa (think water buffalo and cape buffalo). Though they are in the same family (Bovidae), they don’t occupy the same regions of the globe, and buffalo have larger horns and lack the pronounced shoulder hump that bison are known for.

MYTH 3: Bison are slow.

If you’re under the impression that bison are little more than larger versions of domestic cows, you might also believe that they are docile and slow, but bison can be aggressive and territorial, protective of their young, and they can run. Fast. Up to 30 mph, in fact, which is much faster than a human can run. That means if a bison takes chase and you’re too close, you’ll be within goring or trampling distance in a matter of seconds.

What’s more, bison can jump up to 6 feet high to clear fences or other obstacles and are incredibly agile, which many don’t expect, considering their heft.

MYTH 4: It’s OK to approach a bison if it’s resting.

No matter a bison’s posture—standing, lying down, back turned, you name it—you should never get within 25 yards of a bison. Even when they appear to be resting or calmly feeding—as they often do—their reactions can be quick and defensive; all it takes is a visitor turning his or her back for a moment and the bison could be on its feet and ready to address the nearby threat.

So whether you’re on a trail, boardwalk, road, at a campsite, or in a parking lot, if you unwittingly find yourself within 25 yards of a bison, make some space. Walk slowly in the other direction while keeping an eye on the animal to avoid an unwanted interaction. If it’s the bison that moves closer to you, even if it’s slowly, that doesn’t mean you have permission to approach. You need to back away to maintain that safe distance, says Veress. 

Veress also reminds visitors that if your presence or actions cause a wild animal to move, you’re too close. It’s actually illegal to willfully remain near or approach wildlife within any distance that disturbs or displaces the animal. That includes touching young, as one tragically misinformed visitor did just this year.

MYTH 5: There’s no way to know when a bison is about to charge.

Fortunately, there are many ways to determine if a bison has marked you as a threat and is considering charging. First, its tail will likely be standing straight up in the air. It may then respond by bluff charging, bobbing its head, pawing at the ground, bellowing, or snorting. 

“These are warning signs that you are too close and that a charge is imminent,” Veress says.

While bison can and will react to human presence defensively any time of year, mating season, also known as rut, which happens in July and August, and calving season in the spring means female bison will be extra protective of their vulnerable young. So be extra cautious about keeping your distance during these seasons.

Bottom line: Keep your distance (like even this six-year-old boy knows you should), remember that bison are wild animals, and respect the fact that the outdoors is their home; you’re just visiting.

The post 5 Bison Myths, Busted (With Some Help from an Expert at Yellowstone National Park) appeared first on Outdoors with Bear Grylls.

“It became – and still is – our one uninterrupted period where we are all together with few

guests and few distractions, beautifully separated from the mainland by two miles of wild, tidal sea. We all love it,” wrote Bear in his 2021 autobiography Never Give Up.

While owning a private island sounds like the ultimate in glamor, the reality can be quite different. Some islands don’t have power or water supplies, and you need to be prepared to do boat crossings, sometimes in rough weather. However, when you get there, there are many options for outdoor adventures.

Could you live on a small offshore island? Here are some of the things that came in useful for Bear and his family.

Some Island Experience

Bear Grylls has always had a connection to islands. He spent his childhood on the Isle of Wight in Britain, where he had many adventures with his family, horseback riding on the beach, sailing, and climbing the hills and cliffs with his father, so he was used to island life and knew what it’s like doing sea crossings by boat or ferry.

Before he married his wife Shara, Bear once house-sat on a 20-acre island in Poole Harbour for the winter. He says he loved living there, chopping logs, keeping an eye on the place, and, as he says it, “living like a king.”

A Torch and a Crowbar

Buying and owning a private island is not as glamorous as it sounds. Bear tells the story of how when he first spotted that the island was for sale, he and Shara were 26 years old, had been married one year, and were living on a houseboat, trying to make ends meet. The idea of buying a private island seemed “crazy and fanciful,” he says.

Bear says that when they went to see the 20-acre island, it was a gray winter day and it was raining, which it does frequently in North Wales. They were told to bring a torch and crowbar to gain access to the boarded-up old lighthouse keeper’s cottage on the top of the island.

Bear says the locals probably thought he was crazy “buying a rock out in the sea that has no power or mains water, that is infested with rats and is regularly smashed by winter storms.”

But after negotiating the price down (it cost £95,000 or about USD $115,500), they managed to buy it by pooling their resources.

Patience and Hard Work

When they first visited the island, Bear and Shara found that the house on the island was caved in, with no roof, earth floors, and lots of rubble and junk. There was no power or water. They knew that renovating the house would take a lot of time and money.

Bear wrote about how they had no money to do anything with the island at first, and they used to go over to it on an old jet ski and camp in tents with no power or water. They put up a wind turbine and then small solar panels, and then they started to work on the house. He says the project took about seven years—and that one of the first big tasks was to get rid of all the rats.

A Boat to Get Supplies

Bear’s island is two miles out to sea, and he says even buying food is hard work.

“Even getting a few supplies involves going down the hill, swimming or rowing out to the RIB, then the rough, wet, two-mile journey across to the mainland, anchor down, row the dinghy ashore, hike to the shops, carry the supplies back to the shore, row out, back into the RIB, back over, and reverse the process . . . but now uphill.”

Sound like your idea of fun?

A Spirit of Adventure

In good weather, island life can be idyllic. When Bear is on the island in summer, he loves to go cold-water swimming in the sea, climbing, caving, coasteering, and kayaking with his family. He has a pull-up bar suspended over a cave for working out, and he has also had some paramotoring adventures there.

“I have had some epic powered paraglider flights taking off from the cliffs on the

island. These have included a few very close calls, such as engines failing over the sea. Or the time the exhaust broke from its mount and smashed into the props as I skimmed over the lighthouse. It was the luckiest and best-timed emergency landing I’ve ever had,” he wrote in Never Give Up.

If you’re an avid outdoors-person and willing to put in a lot of work—and you happen to have the money—buying a private island might be for you. For Bear and his family, it has become a retreat they can call their very own.

The post Bear Grylls Bought a Rat-Infested Island, Says It Was One of His Best Decisions to Date appeared first on Outdoors with Bear Grylls.

Humble Beginnings

Peterson grew up in Newberry, Ohio, somewhere southwest of Cleveland that doesn’t have any fast-food restaurants—not even a Starbucks.

Peterson’s love of animals started early. He and his sister spent much of their childhood running around in the woods catching snakes, turtles, and frogs. They’d disappear into the wilderness behind the house, getting into swamps, ponds, creeks, and rivers and catching things like bullfrogs, painted turtles, water snakes. The most dangerous thing in their neck of the woods was a common snapping turtle. 

Coyote’s family would camp across the U.S. together, which encouraged his love for outdoor adventure. His animal knowledge is completely self-taught from reading books, working with experts, and leaning on his semi-photographic memory.

“I developed a skill for being very good at being able to submerge myself into the environment without being noticed, which allowed me to get close to animals,” he said. “And then I developed the skill for being very quick at hand-eye coordination—to be able to catch things.”

Coyote eventually moved on from the animals in his backyard to some more dangerous ones—including snakes, as well as lizards and the creepy-crawlies of the world. He learned how to interact with these animals without making them feel threatened. He says there’s something to the idea of having a “touch” with animals; it is all about hand-eye coordination and being fast, while also being gentle at the same time.

The College Years

By the time Coyote got to college, he admits he was more into sports cars and girls than animals—the “typical teenage-type things”—but it was in these foundational years that Coyote’s love for storytelling really began to blossom.

“I became very interested in how an individual who watches a film ends up feeling internally,” he said. “And I was like, ‘why are these movies making me feel a certain way?’ I wanted to learn how to make other people feel like that.”

Coyote decided he wanted a career in screenwriting, producing, and directing, but Ohio State University did not have a film program. He didn’t give up, though, convincing his guidance counselors to allow him to create a personalized study program. He took different classes from separate departments in the university to create his own major, essentially piecing together a degree in cinema.

“I wanted to learn the business of the ‘street,’” he said. “I wanted to learn the legalities of the industry. I wanted to learn how to write. I wanted to learn how to build teams. I wanted to learn how to produce. I never had interest in ever being in front of a camera.”

Behind the camera, Coyote was good. He won a screenwriting competition and ended up directing the first feature film at Ohio State in over 25 years. 

Inspired by the likes of adventurers Steve Irwin and Bear Grylls, Coyote loved the fast-paced editing and in-your-face cinematography of shows like Man vs. Wild, and his own take on the genre eventually became Brave Wilderness, but the road to success was a long one. 

The Origins of Brave Wilderness

Coyote and his business partner, Mark, came up with the idea for Brave Wilderness when they both had day jobs. Coyote was working 9-5 for a printer-ink company and not making enough to support himself. 

“Everybody told us no,” Coyote said after countless pitch meetings and feigned interest that never led to a signed contract. He worried that 10 years down the line he’d be $100,000 in debt with a day job that wasn’t fulfilling his passion for storytelling.

One day, Coyote’s boss asked about his movie projects and then invested a small amount of money to help Coyote and Mark get started. They used the money to establish their first LLC and get an entertainment attorney to help them protect their intellectual property—the most valuable thing at the end of the day.

“We could put together pitch packages and the test footage, but made sure we were doing it the right way and we weren’t getting taken advantage of or giving up the rights to ownership of our likeness and image of the footage,” he said.

The pair continued to develop their concept for over five years and had cast a friend as the wildlife presenter on camera, while Coyote was directing and filming.

“When the cameras really weren’t rolling I would be catching a snapping turtle, and then I would bring it into the scene for the host to hold,” Coyote said. “He would have his lines memorized.”

While pitching that concept, big wigs at different production houses would watch the footage and ask where the animals came from. Coyote showed them behind the scenes, and they said, “Well, that’s the show.” And just like that, Coyote became the star. 

From Behind the Camera to in Front of It

Coyote says it’s funny that he ended up being in front of the camera. In the end, it was his Ohio roots and his special “touch” with animals that was the ticket to eventual success.

Success wasn’t won quite yet, though. On the verge of giving up, Coyote and his team launched a channel on YouTube and in 2014, they launched Brave Wilderness.

“We recognized that YouTube was our opportunity to get our foot in the door and get people watching our content,” Coyote said. “And if people started watching and they liked it, we knew that we would get some momentum, which is exactly what we did.”

YouTube was a miracle for them as a distribution platform.

“We are not reliant on anybody in Hollywood. I have no greater executive or parent company. We are 100% in control of our own existence,” Coyote said. “It goes back to knowing your intellectual property rights and having the right legal assistance to guide you with the business choices you make.”

Coyote had graduated from Ohio State in 2005, but it was a solid nine years before he began to see the fruits of his labor, spending at least five years on the development of Brave Wildness and losing a multi-million-dollar opportunity that fell through at age 26. He says they “didn’t make a dime” off Youtube until 2016, when they finally started making a consistent revenue.

“[It was] a solid decade of non-stop hustling, getting paid zero dollars—zero income from my glorified hobby,” Coyote said. “We were dumping all of our vacation time, all of our extra financial resources to keep the machine going. But we knew in the back of our minds that this was primed to happen.”

Coyote believes practice will never make perfect, it will just make you better. All of those learning curves along the way drove him and his team harder to figure it out. He believed they had all of the right skill sets to make something amazing—and they did.

Coyote concludes: “If you truly believe that you can accomplish something, you just keep pushing and keep trying. It takes resilience. Don’t be afraid to take risks.”

The post Coyote Peterson on His Wild Career (That Almost Didn’t Happen) appeared first on Outdoors with Bear Grylls.

Step One: Which Mushroom Is Best for You?

All mushrooms are different, of course, and they may vary slightly in the environments they prefer. Oyster mushrooms are a common choice for beginners, as well as turkey tail or shiitake. It’s important to know what you want from the beginning, though, so that you can tailor your growing setup to that variety.

Easiest Option: Buy a Kit

There are plenty of services out there that will send you everything you need to get started. These kits will include whatever substrate you need, likely in the form of wood chips or sawdust, and likely some hydrated lime. They will also include wooden dowels or some similar host material pre-inoculated with mushroom spawn. From there, it’s mostly a case of mixing these ingredients and storing them properly.

It’s All in the Mix

Your kit might come with a storage system, but otherwise, grab a plastic bucket or tub of some kind, clean it well, and get your substrate in there. You need to hydrate it properly, so it’s moist but not wet. When you grab a handful and squeeze it in your hand, it should drip a little bit of water and hold its shape. If your kit includes lime, mix that in. Then, mix in your spawn, evenly and well, ensuring as many points of contact as possible.

But Where in the Kitchen Do You Put It?

There are a few key points here. First, no matter where you put it, you have to maintain your mixture’s humidity and moisture throughout the growing process. A spray bottle should do the trick, and a plastic bag as a cover will help maintain humidity.

Temperature and Incubation

Got a thermometer handy? For incubation, you’ll want your mushrooms to live at around 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on where you live, this may mean keeping it near a refrigerator’s exhaust for that warm air or an open window that gets some sun. Be sure to avoid direct sunlight, though. You’ll know your mushrooms are properly incubated when you see those white threads, mycelium, spread all throughout the substrate.

Fruiting

After incubation, bring the temperature down a little, into the low 60s. From there, it’s a waiting game, ensuring that you maintain humidity and moisture. When you see the mushrooms grow to a healthy size, it’ll be time to harvest and enjoy.

Intermediate: Buy the Spawn and DIY

You can save a little money and lean further into your own capability by simply buying the spawn and creating your own setup from scratch. A key difference in this approach will be finding or creating your own substrate.

Sourcing the Substrate

For this, you’ll want to harvest or source hardwood of some kind. No pines or conifers, since they’re too resinous. Oak, poplar, birch, or ash should all make great homes. If you opt for wood chips or sawdust, they should be made from these varieties of wood. You can also use cut hardwood logs, so long as they’re freshly harvested. Coffee grinds are a viable option, so long as whatever mushroom variety you grow can thrive in that acidity.

Sanitization and Pasteurization

If you’re using wood chips or sawdust, you’ll need to ensure that you don’t have some rogue bacteria or living things in your substrate. For this, you can place your substrate in a baking sheet and place into an oven, around 140-160 degrees Fahrenheit, for 10-20 minutes. Not enough to burn, just enough to sanitize. Alternatively, you could cover your substrate with boiling water, and that should work fine as well.

This process has the same effect as that lime mixture that would have come in your kit. Its alkaline qualities prepare your substrate in much the same way, so if you’re feeling ambitious, you could source some lime, find the right mixture, and go that route instead.

Adding the Spawn

Now, you can add the spawn. If you’re using wood chips, double-check your moisture levels. Mix in your spawn, cover it to maintain humidity, and let it be. Follow the same incubation and fruiting steps as you would with a kit, spraying it with water so it doesn’t dry out.

If you’ve opted to use a hardwood log, to add your spawn, you’ll want to drill into the log. Insert your inoculated dowels or whatever form your spawn came in. Follow the same processes until you see a lot of healthy mycelium. Here’s a tip for using logs: soaking them overnight in water can help trigger fruiting, if they’re ready.

Advanced: Creating Your Own Spawn

Essentially, this last step is a crash-course in cloning mushrooms. For this, you’ll need some internal mushroom tissue, so harvest a piece from the gills. Place it in a jar with some sanitized grain such as barley, wheat, or millet. For this, a microbe-proof air filter covering the jar can help the mycelium grow safely and without competition. Placing the mushroom tissue in between two sheets of damp, sterilized cardboard can also work. Grain is recommended, though, because when you later spread the spawn throughout your substrate, there will be a lot of points of contact.

What Will You Grow?

Now that you know some techniques, do you have a sense of what mushroom you want to grow? Will you opt for a shiitake or oyster, for taste? Will you grow reishi for its medicinal benefits? It’s hard to go wrong, but it’s easy to do. The rest is up to you.

The post How to Grow Mushrooms in Your Kitchen appeared first on Outdoors with Bear Grylls.

“I found this guy last Wednesday just casually walking by my fence, so I called the Maple Ridge SPCA. His back feet are HUGE,” Shelley commented on a Facebook post.

The tortoise currently weighs around 35 pounds (16 kilograms). Shelley described him as the size of a turkey platter, one that can be used to serve 24 people a Thanksgiving turkey. And he is only going to get bigger.

Frank was checked over by vets at Dewdney Animal Hospital in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. They estimated him to be at a juvenile age, somewhere between eight and 15 years old. This species of tortoise can live up to 150 years old and grow to the size of a wheelbarrow. Frank loves to eat grasses, shrubs, and plants.

Native to the dry deserts of sub-Saharan Africa, these tortoises are endangered but are often smuggled into North America, where they can reproduce in captivity and be sold at low prices. Tortoises of this size are not thought to make great pets by reptile experts and can often end up escaping or being abandoned. 

The species can be overwhelming for families to care for as they outgrow their spaces. Plus, since they typically live longer than humans, looking after a giant tortoise is a life-long commitment. 

This particular tortoise is currently living with a foster family, who nicknamed him “Frank the Tank,” and he is still looking for his forever home. 

The post An Adorable Tortoise Called ‘Frank the Tank’ Invaded a Spinach Patch (Want to Adopt Him?)  appeared first on Outdoors with Bear Grylls.

First of all, he had broken three vertebrae in his back 18 months before the climb. He had to overcome all of the physical and mental challenges associated with rehabilitating his back to even get walking again, not to mention getting fit and training for such an intense expedition.

‘I Seem So Full of Fears About Everything’

When he arrived at Everest, Bear wrote about how hard he found it to adjust to life at Base Camp, 17,4500 feet up the mountain—there was “the cold, the extreme altitude and the wilderness of rock and ice,” along with the absence of anything familiar like trees or flowing water, plus getting used to breathing in the thin air.

One of the first challenges of climbing Everest is to get through Khumbu Icefalls, which is 2,500 feet of ice, on the way to Camp One.

In his gripping book about the climbing expedition, Facing Up, which was published in 2000, Bear shares what he wrote in his diary the night before the first climb on the Icefalls, about his fears and about how the build up to the climb was so exhausting, mentally:

“I seem so full of fears about everything. The cold, the risk of death in the falling ice, the pain of the climb itself. There seems so much ahead. Nobody minds pain occasionally, but the prospect of being at my physical wit’s end for the next two months terrifies me, as I stand here at the starting gate,” Bear wrote. “Taking gambles like this just isn’t healthy. I feel knotted up inside. All I seem to have to hold on to are my stuttering faith and my memories of those I love at home.”

A Near-Death Experience

The next day, Bear and the team set off up the huge frozen Icefalls, climbing over dangerous frozen peaks, ice cubes, and frozen bridges, and across a set of ladders, precariously set up across crevasses with steep drops into the abyss.

At one stage, a huge section of ice cracked and gave way. Bear’s legs buckled and he fell down into a crevasse, being smashed by the falling ice. He lost consciousness for a few minutes. He was dangling on a thin rope and was eventually pulled out by the team’s two Sherpas, Nima and Pasang, who luckily were nearby.

Despite this terrifying incident, and how it knocked his confidence and shook him up, Bear didn’t give up. He later wrote that the constant worry and strain of not knowing what lay ahead had plagued his waking hours on Everest, but he always pushed through the fears.

“Even on rest days at Base Camp, the gentle nagging fear never left the recesses of my mind. The fear of what the next day would bring, the fear of the unknown, and the fear of possibly not seeing my family again,” wrote Bear in Facing Up.

‘And Then You Go Again’

Bear recently told a story to Danny Trejo in Running Wild, when they had just ziplined down a cliff, about one particularly difficult time during his Everest summit.

“I could see the last 1,000 [feet] above me in a snowstorm in the middle of the night and the steep couloir, deep snow. Every step I went on, I was sliding two back. However, halfway up this thing, I was hyperventilating, dizzy, I was hallucinating, and I said ‘I cannot do this’, you know that voice is going ‘I cannot’ but it’s like, do you know what, also it’s all come to this. I’m not going to quit.”

“The thing is all the fatigue and the doubt . . . you know, I think as you get older, you learn how to manage yourself and sometimes it’s hard, you’ve got to rest and then you go again,” he said.

It’s Not About Not Being Afraid

Bear made it to the top of Everest in 1998, and he hasn’t done it again (at least not yet), but he has undertaken some more amazing challenges, such as an Atlantic crossing in a rib boat, a dinner party in a hot air balloon at 25,000 feet, and a paramotoring challenge over the Himalayas, among many, many others. 

His motto has always been “never give up,” and he has always said that it is the failures in life that teach us how to build up inner resilience.

As Bear wrote in his book Never Give Up, it is not about never being afraid, but it is about learning to overcome the fear. “The mark of a champion is never the absence of fear or doubt, but rather how you respond when doubt and fear comes a-calling. That’s the clincher. Because if the stakes are high enough, trust me, the doubts and fears will come. What matters is how we respond.”

“The way you deal with fear and doubt is to confront them. Head on. Keep moving

towards the difficult. Acknowledge and then shake off those doubts, and keep going. Head down, into the wind.”

The post Even Bear Grylls Gets Scared—Here’s How He Climbed Everest Anyway appeared first on Outdoors with Bear Grylls.

With videos that have more than 50 million views, we had to get to know this gator whisperer. We caught up with Chris for a Q&A, and here’s what he had to say.

Outdoors.com: Tell me about your outlook on life.

Chris Gillette: Life is an adventure, and we need to experience it and grow every day. I try to seek new adventures, challenge myself to do things that I don’t necessarily “want” to do, and to have humility, discipline, and empathy along the way. And stay positive!

Outdoors.com: Why do you love gators, crocs, and animals in general?

Chris Gillette: I grew up poor in the middle of nowhere; animals were often the only friends I had, and I learned at a young age that animals are just like us—that the walls separating beast and man are mainly artificial constructs in our own minds. When you forge real bonds with animals that are sometimes kinder than those you have with humans, it really puts things in perspective. This created a lifelong passion for wildlife and a mission to help protect animals and try to teach the world to try to view animals the same way I do. 

Outdoors.com: What are three things about you that would surprise us?

Chris Gillette: I have been vegetarian for over 10 years. I can hold my breath for five minutes. I’m pretty decent at nunchucks. 

Outdoors.com: What is your most memorable animal encounter and why?

Chris Gillette: Honestly, it is really too hard to choose! How do I pick between freediving 70-feet deep on one breath of air, swimming alongside a wild 15-foot tiger shark off the coast of Costa Rica, or hanging out 20 feet up in a tree with a wild black mamba in the bush in the Okavango Delta, or being underwater in the wild between a 13-foot alligator and 15-foot crocodile? There really are too many to choose just one.

Outdoors.com: What is your greatest fear?

Chris Gillette: People ask all the time if I have dreams of being killed by gators, and I actually literally never have. But I do often have bad dreams about being back in school and late for class and not knowing where the classroom is, or showing up and there’s an exam I didn’t know about. A lifetime of working with the world’s most dangerous cold-blooded predators and the thing that left the deepest mental scar was school.

Outdoors.com: What has contributed to you living your dream life?

Chris Gillette: Hard times build character. Growing up with very little was a blessing and taught me to work hard to get results. This is especially true when working with animals; they couldn’t care less how much is in your bank account or where you’re from, just what you can do—presidents and hobos taste just the same [to] a gator. Understanding hard realities at a young age wasn’t fun then but made me a much better man now. 

Outdoors.com: How did you get into your line of work?

Chris Gillette: Getting to where I am today took a lot of discipline and perseverance. A lot of young people ask how to get where I am, and I tell the honest truth that there is no clear path or easy answer. Making a living working with wildlife is a constant grind and hustle; it is very difficult to make money. I remember those days eating ramen noodles for lunch and a jar of peanut butter for dinner. If you’re in it for the money, be a lawyer. 

I have always been determined to work with animals; I spent years volunteering and working at facilities with no pay, just to gain experience and learn about animals. Again, there is no set out path in this work. It’s not like other jobs where there’s a clear set of classes and corporate ladder to climb. My life was riddled with constant unknowns and dead ends. Many times, I worked five different jobs within one week, between gator wrestling for tip money, running a shark dive, catching crocs at night for a university lab, running airboat tours, running my gator swim tours, working as a cameraman/consultant for wildlife film projects. I was all over the place trying to hustle and make things work out. 

Outdoors.com: Do you ever get scared handling “dangerous” animals?

Chris Gillette: No. “Fear is the mind-killer”—I read Dune when I was a kid, and that phrase really stuck in my head. It’s very true. I end up in very dangerous situations, and there is a realization that things are going wrong and you might be killed, but you cannot allow fear to creep into your mind and destroy logic and reasoning; those are the only things that’ll keep you alive. 

Outdoors.com: Tell me about being on Trailblazers.

Chris Gillette: I can’t, they make you sign NDAs. Speaking in very general terms, I have appeared on dozens of shows across many networks, including Animal Planet, NatGeo, Discovery, History Channel, Travel Channel, ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, [and] even The Weather Channel. I have had some fun TV experiences and an overwhelming amount of negative experiences with most shows faking and staging everything. Almost every “reality” show is entirely scripted, and I mean like they literally hand you a printed script to read to the camera arguing about a situation that never even happened, then put it on TV as reality. That is why I love social media so much, where I can actually show my real life and present things with honesty and integrity—an extremely different way of working from my TV-show days. 

Outdoors.com: Who inspires you and why?

Chris Gillette: Steve Irwin was the most influential person to me. Not only was [I] a huge fan of his animal content but he was also the first person I saw as a kid who actually made his crazy passion for animals work for him and create a career.

Outdoors.com: What advice would you give someone trying to be up close with animals like you are?

Chris Gillette: If you’re trying to be up close with animals, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. I was doing the same things I do now before social media existed out of passion and love for animals, but I see a lot of people online now that use the animals for attention and views—like the animal is just a prop for them. My advice is to of course be careful, take things slow, but to always keep passion and love for animals at the forefront. Never let the desire for views make you forget you’re here for the animals; they’re not here for you and . . . always respect the animals. 

Outdoors.com: What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

Chris Gillette: Have humility and respect for mother nature, because nothing can humble you quite like an apex predator. 

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