In 1987, I had this idea that a great way to teach wilderness survival would be to head out into the woods and do exactly that.

Survive.

Now I need the skills because I'd be filming myself alone.

And you, the viewer, would be made aware of that.

And I thought, what a great way to make these skills more relatable to you.

Problem was, the technology was not available for me to film myself beyond the old grainy camcorders as we used to call them.

Well, fast forward to the year 2000, 13 years and indeed the technology became available.

the take home information.

And the skills that you would learn from this series would make you more confident in nature.

You'd stay warm, dry and safe, and therefore you'd be able to reconnect to the natural world.

What you're about to watch is raw and real, and not to be confused with reality television.

These are my journeys into the world of survival and around the planet.

These are the skills that can keep you alive and open the doors to nature.

The only reality that matters.

- Oh man.

Have my energy ever drained It's just hard to put one foot in front of the other right now and keep moving.

And with one arm, survival is definitely, definitely extremely tough.

(mysterious music) (upbeat mysterious music) as I carried on filming into the first season Survivor Man, I began to get greater fantasies on what kind of narrative story I could tell to teach something about survival.

somewhere.

I thought, hey, let's try a plane crash.

That'll be a good idea.

That was a lot more difficult to carry out than any of those other examples.

Still, if I could make it work.

What a fascinating experience it would be.

And so it was.

The other vital part of this story is that I was going to film it in the depths of winter.

often I am asked what is the most difficult place to survive in?

And I'm here to tell you, it is not about geographical location.

It never will be.

It's always about temperature.

The colder it is, the harder it is to survive.

- [Narrator] This time on Survivorman, it's the middle of winter and I'm headed to the northern reaches of Ontario in a land called Temagami, known for its giant old growth forests, expansive beauty, constantly changing weather, and in the wintertime, (indistinct).

To fly a helicopter or push plane up here, your knowledge of survival is not an extra, it's a way of life.

Push pilot are a tough breed.

Small bush planes with floats or skis were built to fly, not survive a crash, and many pilots have lost their lives, strapped into their seats.

But this is not a rescue operation.

My crew is taking this wreck to my survival location.

Hopefully there's enough of a plane left to help me survive until I make my own way back to the frozen snow covered bush.

- I've got one option and one option only right now.

Get a fire going as soon as possible.

I don't like playing with gasoline.

Hey, ha ha!

(Les laughs) Whoo!

Night comes in pretty early this time of year.

Makes for a long night.

Everyone says don't do it, don't eat snow.

Well, I don't have any water, so I'm eating snow.

So quite a bit of a makeshift sling here, Wrist is immobilized, arm is immobilized.

I'm now officially injured.

- [Narrator] There is no way I can carry the battery with me on my way out.

But there are yet other pieces of the plane that'll help me start a fire while I'm on the train.

(fabric screeches) - I'm gonna take these squares of cotton.

All I want to be able to do is try to get the cotton into an enclosed space like a tin can would be awesome.

Close it up like that and I'm gonna put it on the fire, but not let the flames actually get to the cotton.

And that way, I make what's called charred cloth.

And you'll see how that can help me out later, if it works.

(fire crackling) - [Narrator] The cotton is hidden from the flames inside the folded metal and left to blackened, but not burned.

(footsteps clacking) (fire crackling) Survival calls for constant multitasking.

Keeping an eye out for essentials every step of the way, like firewood or food.

Always improving your shelter.

Survival stuff like filming a TV show.

(tree thudding) (tree thudding) (footsteps clacking) - Careful of dropping that.

(footsteps clacking) All right.

Let's see what we got here.

Look and, well, it didn't, oh, get done.

Okay, I can put this back in.

But you see the black stuff there, nicely charred.

This is gonna work, I think.

Okay, so this is charred cloth, and all I have to do is try to get a spark to land right onto it and it should catch a glow, and with any luck, fire will follow.

- [Narrator] Instead of being burnt to ash, the cloth is charred and turns into what is essentially very thin charcoal, ready to take a spark.

(ax thuds) (ice shattering) (ice shattering) My idea of getting through this ice to catch fish is going nowhere.

I can't keep this up.

The risk of damaging my one good arm is too great, especially knowing that my challenge is to head out of here soon.

Sleeping during these winter nights is at best, a few minutes here and there, while I try to keep from freezing.

So in the noonday sun, I catch an hour of sleep while I can.

(airy music) But the sun may not last long.

- Oh man.

Have my energy ever drained.

It's just hard to put one foot in front of the other right now and keep moving.

in front of the other right now and keep moving.

But that's what you gotta do.

You gotta have that firewood, gotta keep the fire going, and with one arm, survival is definitely, definitely extremely tough.

But there still is one thing I can do with one arm.

I can play with my harmonica.

To Les Stroud from the students of Sawmill Valley Public School.

Oh yeah, ooh.

(harmonica music) (harmonica music continues) - [Narrator] Three days without food, I think I'll call it a night.

The weather today was perfect for travel.

Tomorrow, I'll try to take a stab at leaving.

That way I won't be late, which would worry the rescue crew.

- It's too cold.

Too cold.

(mysterious music) - [Narrator] My plans were to leave.

But Mother Nature had other plans for me.

(air hissing) (Les grunts) (branches crunches) (fire crackling) - Oh, it's all about the cold.

Another frigid night.

Clouds came in, they brought with them a storm.

Winds blowing, piercing from the south, making this projected little shelter into an exposed shelter.

(air rushing) - [Narrator] It's four days now without food and I get barely an hour of sleep each night.

I'm tired of dealing with a fake injury.

Sling's coming off.

I'd rather just get out of here, back to warmth, back to food.

- Might as well take a walk and check my snares anyway.

Boy, this blew up real quick.

I may not be getting anywhere.

Not today.

- [Narrator] If this storm keeps up, I'll be stuck at the plane wreck another night.

- Got a snare up in here I'll check.

(Les shouts excitedly) Check it out.

- [Narrator] I had set this snare up only 12 hours before using the wires from the plane.

Sometimes you get lucky.

(Les grunts) - Well.

(Les pants) Now don't really know what to say.

I hate to take the life of any animal, but in a matter of survival, then, if it's a case of life or death, all creatures a fair game.

Dinner.

Dinner.

(suspense music) This is not easy weather.

Just keep your lenses clean.

Just keep your lenses clean.

The snow is getting finer and finer and that's got me worried because I'll tell you, if this turns into freezing rain, well, I'm not traveling anywhere, that's for sure, and it'll be kinda miserable.

Well, time to do the deed with the rabbit more correctly.

Snowshoe hair.

(air rushing) (Les grunts softly) If you're still with me on this, what do you wanna do now is take the rabbit's fur off just like you're taking off a sock and sort of a wet sock like so that it rolls back on itself.

It's actually much easier since he didn't freeze on me.

If he was caught early in the night, he'd be frozen solid.

So, just finish this.

(air rushing) Oh.

Jesus.

Oh, my hands are just frozen, hang on.

- [Narrator] If you can capture game this big, there are many more uses for them other than food.

- Oh, oh, that's cool.

Okay.

Well, I said, take it off like a sock.

It's because fur on the inside, you now have essentially a sock.

Well, I'm gonna save you the grossness of taking the guts out and get this guy cooking.

(mysterious music) (air hissing) Its making me gag.

(Les groans) Well, my fear has come to pass.

The snow has turned into freezing rain.

There's really not much I can do but sit here and cook this rabbit.

Try to stay out of the rain in my little shelter here.

- [Narrator] After four days without food, it's easy to get over the sadness of killing an animal and attend to the most basic of human needs, the need for food.

This is where my filmmaking and my actual survival meet.

(airy suspense music) (fire crackling) - Oh, in case you haven't noticed, I completely abandoned the whole one arm survival thing.

That's enough of that, man.

Now I just wanna get this food into my stomach.

Then I wanna try and get outta here.

Oh.

Yeah.

Oh, this is gonna be so nice.

Look at this.

Ah.

Now this is gonna taste good.

Wow.

Mm, rabbit is a good survival food in the fact that they're not hard to catch.

However, there is a thing called rabbit starvation.

See, they're completely lean, no fat and if you eat nothing but rabbits, so you catch a couple of dozen and exist over the next month or so, eating nothing but rabbits, you bring yourself into protein poisoning.

You've gotta get fat somehow.

But that's because most people don't continue to eat the internal organs and the brain and the eyes, and even the bones.

And you can bet, I'm gonna finish off every little bit of this rabbit tonight.

(fire crackling) (air hissing) (suspense music) (air swooshing) Well, it was freezing rain or snow all night long.

Fire's pretty much out.

A few coals, that's about it.

Maybe it's time I make my way outta here.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Five days, finally my chance to get going.

I can use what I broke off of the plane to help me travel and the rescue crew will come in later to clean up the mess.

I lost a full day due to the bad weather.

It would've been nice to get another snowshoe hair or two.

But at least eating one, bones and all, has renewed my spirit and energy.

(footsteps clacking) (sledge clacking) (beeping suspense music) The weather may slow my progress, yet, if I don't make it back on my own, the rescue crew will come looking for me, and I hate when that happens.

(upbeat music) (footsteps clacking) - [Les] Weather turned pretty nasty here late in the day.

I'd love to be able to build a nice rock shelter, covering and everything.

But you know what?

I'm on the move and I think rather than put the energy I'm on the move and I think rather than put the energy into building a big shelter, I'm gonna put the energy into gathering a big whack of firewood.

into gathering a big whack of firewood.

And if I have to, I'll just sit beside the fire all night.

(upbeat music) (ax thudding) (upbeat music continues) - [Narrator] I've got a pace going that'll keep me warm without the risk of sweating.

A 14 hour long night requires a lot of heat.

(Les breathes heavily) - Piece like this, makes for a great base for a fire to start off with.

Its pretty hard to get a fire going right on the snow.

Sucks the moisture right up.

Got a big wood, got the base.

Got my little spot.

Tinder.

- [Narrator] It's a risky decision to make, but I think the effort of trying to build a solid shelter would be better put into maintaining a big fire.

There's a lot of easy wood nearby.

Perhaps a little unorthodox for the survival manuals that I know it can work.

- That's the right stuff.

Oh.

More freezing rain.

- [Narrator] Without the battery and gasoline, it's now my chance to see if my plan for fire will work out.

- Remember the cloth that I charred?

Now is when it has to help me.

And along the way, I stopped to get a drink just in a little stream bed.

I looked and saw some different rocks there and I just tried a couple with my ax.

Sure enough, I've got one rock here that made a spark off the ax.

So, I'm just holding the ax just right above it.

Let's see if I can.

(rock clinking) Come on.

(rock clinking) Oh-oh.

Come on baby.

(rock clinking) Oh yeah.

Look at that.

Okay.

I wont mess around too much, but I will show you.

All right.

Put it in my cedar.

(air hissing) (insects chirruping) Oh, that's beautiful.

Yes, indeed.

Once you got the flame, birch bark time.

Nothing takes a flame better than birch bark, even when it's soaking wet, it burns well.

- [Narrator] The bark of a birch tree is loaded with oils.

- You see that?

That was just a rock right from here in Temagami, some cloth that I charred that came off the airplane and my ax, fire.

(fire cracking) (air hissing) (lens clacking) - All right, have a look at what I'm trying to follow.

It's really faint in this overcast, but you could just barely see old snowmobile tracks.

(air hissing) (upbeat music) This weather is crazy.

Goes from bright and sunny and sometimes cold, very cold to rain, to cloudy.

It's changing nearly every hour.

Kind of a weird week.

(funky upbeat music) (funky upbeat music continues) Well, I'm following a snowmobile trail.

That's no guarantee of rescue up here.

You could walk for more than a week on established trails and never see a soul.

- [Narrator] I am very, very lucky that I had that thaw a few days bag packing the snow.

It means I can get by without needing snowshoes, as long as I still have a trail to follow.

Two feet to either side of this trail and I'm thigh deep in snow.

(objects clacking) The trail seems endless, but it's almost impossible for the human psyche not to continue on, ever moving forward, believing that salvation lies just around the next corner.

It's a dangerous mantra.

And now I've broken one of my own cardinal rules.

I've warmed up, but I let myself get wet with sweat.

Stopping now without a ready made shelter or fire and I could easily freeze.

Sticking to the trails means I shouldn't get lost even in the dark.

(mysterious music) - Ah, so what am I doing walking around in the frigid night air of a Northern Ontario winter?

Well, I made a decision.

See, it's sixth night.

Tomorrow's the seventh day.

I'm supposed to be making my way outta here tomorrow.

So I figured rather than sleep 15 minute intervals, oh, my mouth's frozen, all night long.

Oops, I just keep walking.

You see, I can't get lost if I follow these snowmobile trails.

And I should be good to go as long as I don't hit a lake.

Ah, I can sleep tomorrow in the sun.

Alright, I'm awake anyway.

I am gonna pull an all nighter.

(footsteps clacking) (airy mysterious music) (air hissing) - [Narrator] Well, I made it through the night.

As exhaustion sinks into my bones, it's all about the constant push forward, out of the cold, away from the wind.

My thoughts are of warm places, hot food.

(footsteps clacking) (sledge screeching) (air rushing) (helicopter engine revving) Sometimes I think my production team is waiting for a chance to film my failure to survive, perhaps hoping.

But they will be there to catch Survivorman, face down in the snow, frozen solid, one hand on the camera, the tape is still rolling.

(helicopter engine revving) For now, since I'm still a few miles from civilization, they get their chance at a small (indistinct).

I'm sure they'll never let me live this way now.

(helicopter engine revving) I think I could have made it back before night falls again, but I'll take the lift when I can get it.

This is one CrossFit Canadian boy happy to go home.

(funky outro music) Directly inspired by his own survival expeditions, journeys and challenges.

World renowned survival instructor Les Stroud brings you survive, essential skills and tactics to get you out of anywhere alive.

Available for 19.99.

In addition, the book will to live Dispatches from the Edge of Survival is available, featuring Les Stroud's own top ten survival stories of all time.

21.99.

To order, please go to lesstroud.ca, and click on shop