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Bear Grylls

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Edward Michael Grylls
Born (1974-06-07) 7 June 1974 (age 50)
Occupation(s)adventurer,
author,
motivational speaker,
television presenter
Chief Scout
SpouseShara Cannings Knight[1]
ChildrenJesse, Marmaduke[2] and Huckleberry[3]
WebsiteBearGrylls.com

Edward Michael Grylls, nicknamed Bear, (born 7 June 1974) is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is best known for his television series Born Survivor, known as Man vs. Wild in the U.S.. He is one of the youngest Britons to climb Mount Everest, doing so at age 23. In May 1998, Grylls was appointed the youngest ever Chief Scout at the age of 35.

Personal life

Grylls was raised in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland[citation needed], until he was four when his family moved to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.[6][7] He is the son of the late Conservative party politician Sir Michael Grylls and Lady Grylls (née Sarah Ford).[8] His maternal grandparents were Patricia Ford,[9] an Ulster Unionist Party MP and Neville Ford who played first-class cricket. He has one sibling — an elder sister, Lara Fawcett. In a recent episode of Man vs. Wild featuring Hollywood actor Will Ferrell, he said his sister gave him the nickname "Bear" when he was just a week old.

Grylls was educated at Eaton House, Ludgrove School, Eton College, and Birkbeck, University of London,[10] where he graduated with a degree, obtained part-time, in Hispanic studies in 2002. He learned to climb and sail from his father at an early age. He earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate as a teenager. He now practices Yoga and Ninjutsu. He speaks English, Spanish, and French.[11] Grylls is Christian, describing his faith as the "backbone" in his life.[11]

Grylls married Shara Grylls (née Cannings Knight) in 2000.[1][9] They have three sons: Jesse, Marmaduke,[12] and Huckleberry (born 15 January 2009 via natural childbirth on his houseboat).[3]

In December 2008, Grylls suffered a broken shoulder while kite skiing across a stretch of ice during an independent expedition to climb a remote unclimbed peak in Antarctica. Travelling at speeds up to 50 km/h (30mph), a ski caught on the ice, launching him in the air and breaking his shoulder when he came down.[13]

Military reserve service

After leaving school, Grylls considered joining the Indian Army[14] and spent a few months hiking in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim and West Bengal, Assam. From 1994 to 1997, after passing United Kingdom Special Forces Selection, he served in the part-time United Kingdom Special Forces Reserve, with 21 Regiment Special Air Service, 21 SAS(R), as a trooper, survival instructor and Patrol Medic.[15] He claims that he served in North Africa twice.[12] In 1996, he suffered a freefall parachuting accident in Kenya. His canopy ripped at 1600 feet (500 m), partially opening, causing him to fall and land on his parachute pack on his back, which partially crushed three vertebrae.[16] Grylls later said: "I should have cut the main parachute and gone to the reserve but thought there was time to resolve the problem".[17] According to his surgeon, Grylls came "within a whisker" of being paralyzed for life and at first it was questionable whether he would ever walk again. Grylls spent the next 18 months in and out of military rehabilitation at Headley Court[17] before being discharged and directing his efforts into trying to get well enough to fulfil his childhood dream of climbing Mount Everest.

Former SAS soldier Chris Ryan has stated he does not believe Grylls broke his back on an SAS operation in Africa and that Grylls has exaggerated stories about his military record. Ryan said: "Bear Grylls goes on and on about an operation in Africa. He tells people he broke his back on an operation but I don’t know where in Africa he would be doing an operation. I’ve spoken to several guys who were regimental sergeant majors and instructors in the regimental SAS but none of them could remember this operation."[18]

In 2004, Grylls was awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve.[19]

Everest

On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved his childhood dream (an ambition since his father gave him a picture of Everest when he was eight) and a record, as the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest, just eighteen months after breaking his back. However, James Allen, an Australian/British climber who ascended Everest in 1995 with an Australian team, but who has dual citizenship, beat him to the summit at age 22.[20] The feat has since been surpassed by Jake Meyer and, at age 19, by Rob Gauntlett.

Grylls' expedition involved nearly four months on Everest's southeast face: From his first reconnaissance climb on which he fell in a crevasse and was knocked unconscious, regaining consciousness to find himself swinging on the end of a rope, to the weeks of acclimatisation climbs involving climbing up and down the South Face, negotiating the Khumbu icefall (a frozen river), the Western Cwm glacier, and a 5000 foot wall of ice called the Lhotse face, to the grueling ascent with the ex-SAS soldier Neil Laughton, involving climbing for hours in the night, that took him past extreme weather, fatigue, dehydration, last-minute illness, sleep deprivation and almost running out of oxygen inside the death zone where air is three times thinner than at sea level.

To prepare for climbing at such high altitudes in the Himalayas, in 1997, Grylls became the youngest Briton to climb Ama Dablam, a peak described by Sir Edmund Hillary as "unclimbable".

Other expeditions

Circumnavigation of the UK

In 2000, Grylls, led the first team to circumnavigate the UK on a personal watercraft or jet ski, taking about 30 days, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He also rowed naked for 22 miles in a homemade bathtub along the Thames to raise funds for a friend who lost his legs in a climbing accident.[21]

Crossing the North Atlantic

Three years later, he led a team of five, including his childhood friend and Mount Everest climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite, on the first unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Arctic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat. Battling force 8 gale winds, hypothermia, icebergs and storms in an eleven-meter-long boat through some of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world including the Labrador Sea, the Denmark Strait, and the stretch made famous by The Perfect Storm, Bear and his team were just barely able to finish the journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to John o' Groats, Scotland. He was awarded an Honorary commission in the Royal Navy as a Lieutenant-Commander for this feat.[citation needed]

Paramotoring over Angel Falls

In 2005, Grylls led the first team ever to attempt to paramotor over the remote jungle plateau of the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the world's highest waterfall. The team was attempting to reach the highest, most remote tepuis.

Dinner party at altitude

In 2005, alongside the balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal, leader of the Royal Navy Freefall Parachute Display Team, Grylls created a world record for the highest open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot-air balloon at 25,000 feet, dressed in full mess dress and oxygen masks. To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps. This was in aid of the The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and The Prince's Trust.

Paramotoring over the Himalayas

In 2007, Grylls claimed to have broken a new world record by flying a Parajet paramotor over the Himalayas, higher than Mount Everest.[22] Grylls took off from 14,500 feet, 8 miles south of the mountain. Grylls reported looking down on the summit during his ascent and coping with temperatures of −60 °C . He endured dangerously low oxygen levels and eventually reached 29,500 feet, almost 10,000 feet higher than the previous record of 20,019 feet. The feat was filmed for Discovery Channel worldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK. [23]

While Grylls initially planned to cross over Everest itself, the permit was only to fly to the south of Everest, and he did not traverse Everest out of risk of violating Chinese airspace.[24]

Longest indoor freefall

Grylls, along with the double amputee Al Hodgson and the Scotsman Freddy MacDonald, set a Guinness world record in 2008 for the longest continuous indoor freefall.[25] The previous record was 1 hr 36 mins by a US team. Grylls, Hodgson, and MacDonald, using a vertical wind tunnel in Milton Keynes, broke the record by a few seconds. The attempt was in support of the charity Global Angels.

Media

Grylls entered television work with an appearance in an advertisement for Sure deodorant, featuring his ascent of Mount Everest, compared with what really made him sweat (giving a motivational talk to an audience). Grylls has been a guest on television programs, including Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Attack of the Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Harry Hill's TV Burp. Grylls recorded two advertisements for Post's Trail Mix Crunch Cereal, which aired in the US from January 2009. Warner Bros. asked Grylls to appear in its remake of the film Clash of the Titans.[citation needed]

Grylls is a bestselling author. Grylls' first book, titled Facing Up, went into the UK top 10 best-seller list, and was launched in the USA entitled The Kid Who Climbed Everest. Its subject is his expedition, at 23 years old, to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. Grylls' second book Facing the Frozen Ocean was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2004. His next book was written to accompany the series Born Survivor: Bear Grylls. (Released in America in April 2008 to the Man vs. Wild Discovery television show) It features survival skills learned from some of the world's most hostile places. This book reached the Sunday Times Top 10 best-seller list.

He has a series of children's adventure survival books titled: Mission Survival: Gold of the Gods, and Mission Survival: Way of the Wolf. His latest book is an extreme guide to outdoor pursuits, titled Bear Grylls Outdoor Adventures.

Escape to the Legion

Grylls filmed a four-part TV show in 2005, called Escape to the Legion, which followed Grylls and eleven other UK "recruits" as they took part in a shortened recreation of the French Foreign Legion's basic desert training in the Sahara. The show was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4,[26] and in the USA on the Military Channel.[27] In 2008, it was repeated in the UK on the History Channel.[28]

Born Survivor/Man vs. Wild

Main article: Man vs. Wild

Grylls hosts a series titled Born Survivor: Bear Grylls for the British Channel 4 — broadcast in the U.S. on Discovery Channel as Man vs. Wild, and as Ultimate Survival on the Discovery Channel in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The series features Grylls dropped into inhospitable places, showing viewers how to survive. The second series premiered in the US on 15 June 2007, the third in November 2007, and the fourth in May 2008. Grylls is currently filming the fifth series.

The show has featured stunts including Grylls climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, balloons, and planes, paragliding, ice climbing, wading rapids, eating snakes and crocodiles, wrapping his urine-soaked t-shirt around his head to help stave off the desert heat, drinking urine saved in a rattlesnake skin, wrestling alligators, field dressing a camel carcasses and drinking water from it, and free climbing waterfalls. Grylls also regales the viewer with tales of adventurers stranded or killed in the wilderness.

Criticism

Man vs. Wild / Born Survivor has been criticized for fabricating some of the situations Grylls finds himself in. In 2006 it was revealed that Born Survivor misled viewers into believing that Grylls was stranded in the wild alone when he was not and Channel 4 suspended the show for a few weeks.[29] The issue of scenes being manipulated was raised by Mark Weinert, a U.S. survival consultant. He told the UK's Sunday Times that Grylls spent nights in a motel in Hawaii when he was claiming to be stranded on a desert island. Mr Weinert also alleged that a raft was put together by team members before being taken apart so Grylls could be filmed building it.[30]

  • Grylls was shown trying to ride "wild" horses that were in fact tame, and had been hired from a trekking station nearby.
  • That Grylls had drank his own urine while "stranded" in a desert.
  • A scene where Grylls was purported to have escaped from an active volcano by leaping across lava, avoiding poisonous sulphur dioxide gas, was actually created with special effects, using hot coal and smoke machines.
  • Similarly, it was revealed that Grylls stayed at a crew base-camp in the Costa Rican jungle, while giving viewers the impression that he was alone.
  • There have been several other incidents, including the impression Grylls built a raft "in a matter of hours with no tools". According to an adviser on the show, the raft was actually in part built by a stunt consultant.
  • This episode implied it was filmed on a small South Pacific island, which Channel 4 admitted was actually a peninsula in Hawaii, the scene of Hollywood movie shoots.

These incidents were confirmed by Channel 4, who argued that it was not a documentary, but a "how-to" guide to survival, implying that staged scenes were acceptable in that context.[31][32][33][34] Discovery and Channel 4 aired re-edited episodes, removing elements that were too planned, with a fresh voice-over and a preceding announcement pointing out that some situations are "presented to Bear to show the viewer how to survive".

Survivalist Ray Mears has labelled Grylls a "boy scout" and a "showman" who uses TV trickery on his programme Born Survivor,[18] although one columnist pointed out that these accusations coincided with the start of one of Mears' shows on BBC2.[35]

Chief Scout

On 17 May 2009, the The Scout Association announced Grylls would be appointed Chief Scout following the end of Peter Duncan's five year term in July 2009.[36] He was officially made Chief Scout at Gilwell 24 on 11 July 2009 in a handover event featuring Peter Duncan in front of a crowd of over 3,000 Explorer Scouts. He is the tenth person to hold the position and the youngest Chief Scout since the role was created for Robert Baden-Powell in 1920.[37][38]

Charities

All of Grylls' expeditions and stunts have raised money for charitable organizations.[citation needed] Grylls is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, an organisation which provides training, financial, and practical support to young people in Britain.[12] He is also vice president for The JoLt Trust, a small charity that takes disabled, disadvantaged, abused or neglected young people on challenging month-long expeditions.

Global Angels, a UK charity which seeks to aid children around the world, were the beneficiaries of his 2007 attempt to take a powered paraglider higher than Mount Everest. Grylls's attempt to hold the highest ever dinner party at 25,000 feet was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and launched the 50th anniversary of the Awards. His attempt to circumnavigate Britain on jet skis raised money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Grylls' Everest climb was in aid of SSAFA Forces Help, a British-based charitable organisation set up to help former, and serving members of the British Armed Forces, and their families and dependents. His 2003 Arctic expedition detailed in the book Facing the Frozen Ocean was in aid of The Prince's Trust. His 2005 attempt to paramotor over the Angel Falls was in aid of the charity Hope and Homes for Children.[39]

Other work

Outside of TV, Grylls sometimes works as a motivational speaker.[40] Grylls has his own outdoor survival clothing range produced by British manufacturer Craghoppers.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Out of the Wild: Bear Grylls survives the urban jungle". mensvogue.com. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  2. ^ "Bear Grylls : Man vs. Wild". Discovery Channel. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  3. ^ a b Bear Grylls Welcomes Son Huckleberry Celebrity Baby Blog, 15 January 2009
  4. ^ "Who dares wins". The Echo. thisisdorset.net. 2004-04-17. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  5. ^ Hastie, Jenny, "This is where we hide from the world" homesandgardens.com, July 2005
  6. ^ "Born Survivor: Bear Grylls — Ireland". Discovery Channel UK. Retrieved 3 June 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  7. ^ "My Life In Travel: Bear Grylls" Independent.co.uk, 17 April 2004
  8. ^ "Obituary: Sir Michael Grylls" Telegraph.co.uk, 13 February 2001
  9. ^ a b "Person Page 24749". thePeerage.com. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  10. ^ "History of Birkbeck: 1900s". Birkbeck. Retrieved 3 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  11. ^ a b "Ask Bear Your Questions" BearGrylls.com
  12. ^ a b c "Biography" GearGrylls.com
  13. ^ "Diary: From Bear" JourneyAntarctica2008.com, 6 December 2008
  14. ^ Grylls, The Kid Who Climbed Everest, 11
  15. ^ "Bear Grylls – Mountaineer & Motivational Speaker". City Speakers International. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  16. ^ "Escape to the Legion". Channel4.com. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  17. ^ a b Petty, Moira (2007-04-24). "Adventurer Bear Grylls' battle with back pain and high cholesterol". Mail Online. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  18. ^ a b Lyons, Rick, "Why SAS hero cannot bear Grylls" Daily Star, 14 May 2009
  19. ^ "News and Events: Royal Navy – Honorary Officers of the RNR". The Royal Navy. 2006. Retrieved 19 May 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  20. ^ Summit Magazine #40, Winter 2005, page 12
  21. ^ Blundell, Joanna, "A Boys Own adventure" Telegraph.co.uk, 7 April 2003
  22. ^ "Latest News". Bear Grylls. Retrieved 2 September 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  23. ^ Grylls, Bear, "Flying Into A Dream" Telegraph.co.uk 19 May 2007
  24. ^ Martin, Nicole, "Explorer hits heights with Himalayan record" Telegraph.co.uk 16 May 2007
  25. ^ "Bear Grylls breaks Guinness World Record at Airkix Milton Keynes". MiltonKeynes.com. 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-12.
  26. ^ "Escape to the Legion" Channel4.com
  27. ^ "Military Channel: TV Listings: Escape to the Legion". The Military Channel. 2007. Retrieved 19 May 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  28. ^ "ESCAPE TO THE LEGION: Escape To The Legion – Part 4". The HistoryChannel.co.uk. 2008-03-24. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  29. ^ Deacon, Michael, "How a 19th-century Scot conquered the Outback" Telegraph.co.uk, 30 May 2008
  30. ^ "Grylls series 'to be transparent'" BBC.co.uk, 24 July 2007
  31. ^ "How Bear Grylls the Born Survivor roughed it – in hotels". Mail Online. 2007-07-23. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  32. ^ Booth, Robert, and Gadher, Dipesh, "‘Coal tipped into volcano’ for fake Grylls film" TimesOnline.co.uk, 12 August 2007
  33. ^ Booth, Robert, "TV 'survival king' stayed in hotels" TimesOnline.co.uk, 22 July 2007
  34. ^ "Bear Grylls 'faked toxic volcanic fumes with a smoke machine' in new Born Survivor fake row" DailyMail.co.uk, 12 August 2007
  35. ^ Mangan, Lucy, "Who's harder, Bear or Ray?" Guardian.co.uk, 21 May 2008
  36. ^ Pugh, Oliver, "Grylls puts on his woggle and scouts out a new challenge" Independent.co.uk, 18 May 2009
  37. ^ Quinn, Ben, "Survivalist Bear Grylls named as new chief Scout" Guardian.co.uk, 17 May 2009
  38. ^ "Bear Grylls announced as new Chief Scout" Scouts.org.uk, 17 May 2009
  39. ^ Murray Norton (2005). "Fancy An Adventure". Webchats.tv. Retrieved 19 May 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  40. ^ "Speaker: Bear Grylls" CitySpeakersInternational.co.uk

External links

The Scout Association
Preceded by Chief Scout of the United Kingdom
and Overseas Territories
2009 – present 		Incumbent

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