Alone in the Wild: How Did Ed Survive?
Once again, Ed's being quite the trooper and staying up until 2am UK time to be here! I guess that's nothing compared to surviving in the wild for 50 days...
Alone in the Wild: Hunger premieres tonight at 9P et and we're lucky enough to have Ed online with us to answer questions throughout the show. Ed will also be commenting on the show during the premiere.
So ask your questions here on the blog comments or on Nat Geo Channel's Twitter page.
Here are a few we got earlier today that Ed has answered:
Viewer question: How easy was it to sleep?
Ed: I was so tired at the end of each day I slept pretty good. I just had to blank out the worries of being investigated by a bear in the night.
Viewer question: I wonder why people do things like this? Are they crazy??
Ed: I dont think it's crazy. I want to test myself and push my limits and through doing so I redefine myself, I learn about myself and the environment that I'm in. Life is a chain of experiences and I choose to have a rich life, full of big, intense extraordinary and exciting experiences. I can't think of anything crazier than not filling my life with these adventures. When I was a kid I never thought I'd get to jump out of a plane, climb Everest or go to the North Pole but at some point I realised - as an adult I can do anything I want and I started doing them.
Viewer question: Did you do any mental exercises to stay sane? If so, what?
Ed: Every day I would write in my diary. Motivational stuff convincing myself that I was doing ok and to keep going. The biggest challenge to me mentally was having to constantly express my fears, worries and difficulties on camera. It's a powerfully negative thing to vocalise those things daily and something I would normally steer away from on an expedition until it was over and I was safely home. But I was there to make a film and it was my job to explore the emotional, psychological landscape too so it wasnt something I could get away from.
(9:04p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: I found that the mood of the forest affected my moods. I learnt since, that feeling of nothing and stillness is called 'acidie' and occurs in extreme solitude.
(9:05p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: I knew that was a bear, it couldn't have been anything else.
(9:06p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: Good job i missed. i didn't have permission to kill squirrels as they are considered fur bearing animals and need a different licence in Canada.
(9:07p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: Varying Hares is what I was after. I caught one the whole time I was there!
(9:07p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: Bad idea! Don't move! Ive got too much stuff!
Viewer question: What kind of food did you crave when you were out in the wild?
Ed: I craved anything sweet. I had a chocolate bar with me that I ate at the end of week one - it was amazing! For weeks after I got home I ate 2 or 3 chocolate bars every day.
(9:11p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: If I'd stayed I could have worked more on hunting the area - and I had to leave the canoe behind as there are no rivers big enough to paddle.
(9:12p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: I learned on that walk that my pack needs to be streamlined - anything attached to the outside would catch on branches.
(9:14p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: Apparently they eat your buttocks first!
Viewer question: How long did it take for you to pack?
Ed: Not long, I didn't have much with me.
Viewer question: Why did you have two guns?
Ed: I was advised to take a 12 bore with slugs for bear protection. I thought the 22 would be good for small game. Youre right - 2 guns is too much and I eventually gave up on the 22.
Viewer question: Did you have a map or a compass?
Ed: Yes I had both.
(9:15p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: still not big enough for a canoe
(9:17p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: A Yukon hunting guide gave me the fence before I got on the plane, I felt a bad that I wasn't using it but it felt like a cheat so I had to ditch it.
(9:24p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: I was really tired that morning, I just wasn't eating enough to replace the energy I was using. But I thought - 'I'll carry on - how bad can it get?'
(9:26p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: Longest 5 miles I've ever done.
(9:27p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: That was one of the hardest days but one of the best.
Viewer question: What's your favorite wilderness area in the U.S.? In the world?
Ed: Himalayas have to be somewhere up there, Cairngorms in Scotland, Fernando De Noronha isn't exactly wilderness but very special.
Viewer question: What is your day job? How could you afford to be away for that long?
Ed: I'm an adventure film maker. Ive spent the last 4 years filming on Everest.
Viewer question: If you did this again, aside from a lighter pack, what one item would you want to take that you were without?
Ed: I had everything I needed. I had too much and it felt good whenever I got rid of anything. carving the pack down to the minimum was a great exercise.
Viewer question: Did the river water taste better than tap water?
Ed: Not in that river. It was coming out of the lake so tasted like lake water. The glacial streams were crystal.
(9:31p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: That day went on and on but looking back its one of my strongest memories. I'm still glad I went through it.
(9:38p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: I cut my fingers on grass I was pulling to wash my pot.
(9:39p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: I caught a small hare in there too but one small hare doesn't do much. I needed three square meals a day. And more I needed feeding up after that trek.
(9:40p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: I guess I'm still scared of bears. Read too many horror stories about bear attacks and I knew I was more vulnerable being alone.
Viewer question: Ed were you instructed to use water cleaning tablets? Any pollution / parasite concerns with the water supply?
Ed: I boiled all the water I drank - couple of billy cans a day. I drank straight from the wee ice cold streams coming off the high mountains.
Viewer question: Were you expecting to find salmon at your new location? What time of year do they usually show up?
Ed: Salmon have been seen there by the 8th August and stay around for about a week.
(9:43p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: I started eating them straight from the river after that. I could see bigger Grayling in the river but it took me a while before I could catch them.
Viewer question: Did you have a mantra or favorite quote you remembered when you experienced fear?
Ed: On Everest I had a mantra that I would say a lot during the first summit, 'I will not die'. At Camp IV I found out my climbing friend Matt had one too - 'I am not a statistic!' My mantra in the Yukon was 'Be Strong'. It was something my girlfriend said in a letter, '...sometimes it will be tough and overwhelming you'll have to be strong...'
(9:45p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: Normally I would have stayed out filming the rain much longer but getting everything wet is a bad idea.
(9:48p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: A local guy told me after that the salmon have reached that point by the 8th August in previous years, turns out it was the lowest salmon count ever this year. Another guy reckoned the warm weather was holding the salmon at the bottom of the river.
(9:49p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: I wondered if the leaves and berries were affecting my heart rate. Blueberries can do that.
Viewer question: What was your worst injury while you were in the wild?
Ed: Luckily nothing much, cuts and bruises. I stabbed a tree branchinti my scalp one day - that made me mad.
Viewer question: Did you try and converse with animals?
Ed: Not really. I felt there was a forest entity that I considered talking to but it was pretty big and scary. Sometimes benign and all providing, sometimes malign and alienating.
(9:52p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: Someone suggested 'set lines' that I would leave out over night to catch fish but they're illegal in Canada.
(9:56p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: That's about 28 lbs. The most noticeable thing was that the muscle went really soft and I didn't have any energy. It was really frustrating, filming was a pain in the neck.
Viewer question: How did this experience compare to Everest in terms of your mental outlook?
Ed: Filming myself was the biggest difference. On Everest no one talks about the negatives. If we did we'd all give up and go home. Out in the wild it was my job to express and explore the fears, difficulties, problems and tell the camera every day. Vocalising those negatives solidified them, made them more real and that took a toll mentally. I guess also having a summit helps!
Viewer question: What was your favorite or most memorable part of the trip?
Ed: Stumbling on a pack of wolves surrounding a moose. Skinny dipping in the lake. Sunny days and warm nights. Seeing a bear for the first time. Getting real close to a moose and getting some great shots. It was awesome! All of it.
(9:58p) Ed watching Alone in the Wild: She's a killer, Queen..., gunpowder... laser beam, dynamite and bla bla just like marie antoinette... bla bla caviar and cigarettes... dynamite with a laser beam, garaunteed to blow your mind... bla bla - ALL DAY LONG and DAY AFTER DAY. I don't even like Queen that much. Where does it come from?
Viewer question: Did this challenge make you proud to be Scottish / instill any feelings of patriotism?
Ed: I'll always be proud of the country I was born and grew up in and hope that Scotland is proud of me.
Viewer question: How many times did you cry during this expedition? Where you shocked that you did?
Ed: Most days. It was very strange and a weird to watch now. Something to do with the solitude, pressures of coming back with a tv series - or not, lack of inhibitions. Don't know why really.
Viewer question: How cold was the water when you swam in it?
Ed: Not so bad and if you don't have any hot water showers your body starts to get used to cold water. I take a shower in the garden in the mornings after a run, feels great.
Viewer question: How many video camera batteries did you pack?
Ed: 2 weeks worth of batteries. Once a week I would swap the batteries onto a solar panel charger that I set up by the lake and take the full set back to my camp.
THE LIVE BLOG WITH ED WARDLE IS NOW OVER. Thanks everyone for your questions! Come back next Wednesday 9P et for the last episode of Alone in the Wild which documents Ed's last days in the wild. Ed will be with us again commenting on the show and here to answer your questions!
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46 Comments
Ed, were you expecting to find salmon at your new location? What time of year do they usually show up?
Did you have any idea where you were going? Did they tell you where other lakes/rivers were?
Thanks for that shot, Nat Geo editors! ; ) So how cold was that water Ed?
How did you keep your camera charged?
Do you feel like you really needed all the gear you packed? From the looks of the show, you have a lot of comfort items that aren't really needed for what you were attempting.
Did you constantly talk to yourself out loud when the camera was off? Did you try and converse with animals?
How did this experience compare to Everest in terms of your mental outlook?
How long at this point had you been in the wild?
@ Hensonbl, I think this is from Ed's third week.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/alone-in-the-wild-week-3-videos
I kinda wish Nat Geo had a day counter in the corner.
Ed, how do you catch a fish that small. I mean, how can that physically fit on a hook?
You rock - the shows i've seen so far (2 or 3?) have been really fun to watch - you lasted 49.5 more days than I probably would have
I wonder what role the camera itself played in terms of your feelings of loneliness. It seems that without the camera there, there would be no reason to speak at all. Did it ever make you feel better to know that even if it was one-sided, your "conversations" with the camera would be seen and heard by others?
@ Oliver85 -- they must have been listening! ;)
Hello Ed,
My wife and I have been watching the show and we are dissapointed in so much. What did you expect? You're alone in the wild! And you have a lot of gear that should give you an advantage and yet you do nothing but complain! Be a man! You've got a shotgun and a rifle! a fishing pole and tackle, and covered hammock, a tent, pots and pans, heck, you have all the essentials and you want to quit everyday. And why do you keep moving your campsite? Are you looking for a McDonalds out there? You should've stayed where you caught the fish during you first move. You had everything you needed all around you. You just have to work for it and be patient. I think you're just not cut out for something like that. First of all you have to want it bad enough, you have to want to be there and to prove to yourself you can do it because ultimately, you can! You need to be hunting and fishing more!
2 stone = 28 pounds
if you had to lighten your pack what items would you have removed?
Thanks pohick. I was just about to ask that.
I agree a little with Joe. You ran from anything big. The fear of bears might have kept you from a good meal. That moose would have kept you happy for a long time....
It is illegal to shoot the moose if no one was paying attention in the first place.
Another thing, I don't see you fishing or hunting! Just you sitting around wishing you weren't there or moving from one spot to another.
I'm not saying I am a master of the outdoors but I think I could do way better then you my friend. I'm sorry if I am so harsh.
I have to agree with you Joe, I know that this adventure would be hard on anyone, but there is a lot of crying so far in this show. As Joe has pointed out, this isn't a survival show so far, it is a camping trip with all the luxuries of home.
OK, everyone here sitting in their nice cozy rooms are A+ Monday night quarterbackers. He was one man, it it difficult filming things while you are hunting for 1. everyone here would complain that it is boring and 2. he has a 22. which is NOT powerful what so ever. You can't shoot a large animal without spoiling the meat with the shotgun. If you don't like the show don't watch it.
Joe, I don't think it would be much of a show if they showed him standing in a river fishing for hours every day. Not good tv. The emotional stuff is what's going to make the final cut
You said it hensonbl!
I agree with commander. Being completely alone 24 hours a day for more than a month would push most people to their emotional, physical, and mental limits, and camping in the Yukon is still far removed from a cozy room.
I know you didn't have a liscence, but If you'd shot a moose you'd have been set in terms of food -- despite the legal issues, did the thought ever occur to you to just go ahead and shoot a moose?
Hey everyone has their own opinion and that's the way it should be. I'm simply saying he should be employing more survival tactics and using the luxuries he does have to his advantage which he hasn't so far. Here's an example: When he was watching the squirrel in the tree he took out his shotgun and fired it expecting a kill when he should have used the scoped .22 rifle on his back which is perfect for small prey. A .22 rifle is a highly accurate weapon.
And of course no one wants a show of him doing nothing but fishing. But if crying and whining is what you want in a show like this then you found a winner olly!
With all due respect Joe but aren't you crying and whinning about what the show had and didn't have right now?
GO ! Ed you can do it!
Ed, all I can do is wish you luck in your future ventures. I think based on what the show was built up to be, I was put off a little and joined the camp of "you have to be kidding me". I do hope everyone else enjoys your work and again, good luck man.
I'm not crying or whining, I'm defending my original position. And isn't that the point of adding you're own comment? To speak your mind.
And if it really does appear that I am then please excuse me. I am just so disappointed in Ed's performance so far. I would love to have the opportunity he had. IT would be great to get away from all the BS in normal everyday life and go back to basics for awhile. I would go in a heartbeat even with all the challenges involved.
I hear you Joe, but I don't think its fair to criticize him for not trying hard enough when there is probably hundreds of hours of footage of him hunting/fishing/foraging on the cutting room floor.
Everyone's welcome to their opinions -- and Joe -- your McDonald's comment in your fist post made me laugh out loud -- but at the end of the day, the guy, who is not a survival expert, was out there for 50 days with no human contact with the pressure of also filming a TV show also on his shoulders (in addition to finding food, etc.) -- I wouldn't have made it a night! Unless your a special ops navy seal Rambo kind of guy, I bet most other folks wouldn't have made it much more than 50 days either!
In my opinion, what Ed accomplished is pretty amazing! (and pretty watchable TV!)
Commander.....a little snippy aren't we? Kind of like a teenage girl? I don't care about the law. He could have paid the fine and eaten like a king. Although I too appreciate the beauty of nature I believe that is competing with survival instinct.
All hail commander!!! All knowing and all critical of anyone who speaks ill of our hero Ed. I am sorry if I offended ye oh mighty one.
I am amazed by one thing: This is Alaska's summer - July-August and there was not a single word about mushrooms! There is no need for starvation: edible mushrooms can substitute even for meat and there are plenty of them in this region at summer.
More than that - common mushrooms for this region are Birch (Orange, Brown or White), which are very specific Boletus (with sponge) that are almost impossible to misidentify - it takes about 10 minutes of training with someone who knows mushrooms.
PS Even Ed is clearly an amateur in survival, I've seen the same situation when professional survivorman was starving in September in the Boreal forest!
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with Joe either; Ed does seem to have made a few bad decisions and is reacting quite emotionally at times. But I think the point is (and the reason for the show), this is what happens when the more or less average person (active outdoorsman but not a professional survivor) is subjected to prolonged isolation in the wilderness like this. Most of us get cranky when we can't get our morning coffee or we have to skip lunch. Imagine not having a full nourishing meal for days on end while being ALONE... in the WILD! No one here can really say for certain how they would deal with these circumstances. I think that's what commander's trying to say.
I will say this; my original opinion of Ed and this show hasn't really changed much, however many of you such as Pohick and Kolchak have made some really good comments and made some really good points about the whole thing. And so I have to say thanks to Ed, NatGeo, and all of you involved in this topic for providing such a stimulating discussion. I look forward to watching the rest of the show and continuing our discussions as well.
I just wanted to say hang in there, my husband and I have been watching you and although I could never do what you are doing it not only is teaching everyone things about living out in the wilderness, solitude and other social and survivor skills but you are building your character, strength and learning more about yourself that you might not have ever learned.
worse show I've ever had the misfortune to watch. I don't think I've ever seen a guy with a gun ever cry that much in my life. You don't see survivor man crying after 7 days. The saddest part about that is the man tried himself against nature and lost, he now knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he couldn't survive in the wild even with the help of modern equipment like a gun.
I think i can handle that
Ed how will you preserve a big deer in case was legal to hunt ?!!! I know was cold but how?
Ed how will you preserve a big deer in case was legal to hunt ?!!! I know was cold but how?
Thank god you quit. I couldn't take your snivelling and crying anymore. Hint before going into the woods, learn what you are doing first. Gun safety, I was waiting for your shotgun to go off in your face. Not a good way to carry it. Also how did your gear keep changing? Did you really carry the multiple weapons, back packs and other cast iron garbage? This what a joke.
I kept expecting Bear Grylls to pop out and join you!
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