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.

- Ah, man.

(panting) (chuckles) Whoo-hoo!

Awesome.

Oh, yeah.

(wind whooshing) (bicycle rattling) (Les groans and grunts) Whoa!

(upbeat music) (Les vocalizing) (invigorating upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) (dramatic upbeat music) as the reality of filming survival in various locations around the world began to sink in, I realized that I would always need a new narrative mechanism for telling a story of how someone might become lost and alone, stranded in the wilderness, on the beach, in the desert, wherever and the first time I did it was the boreal forest I used to canoe.

A canoe mishap makes sense for that area.

Ocean kayaking in Costa Rica made sense.

Maybe I should do something with mountain biking.

That's where Utah came in.

And I realized that Moab, Zion, Bryce Canyon, the Escalante, these are well, these are all the places of Mecca for mountain bikers.

This would be the place where I would employ my mountain biking narrative.

And I got to say, the canyonlands of Utah.

For me, they are in my top three list of the most stunningly beautiful places I've ever visited in my life.

High Canadian Arctic high end is a Peru and Utah canyonlands.

- Today, on "Survivor Man," I'm in southern Utah and it's among the most mysterious and unexplored regions of the American Southwest.

Ancient cultures have survived here and vanished in the breathtaking but brutal canyonlands.

I'm going in for seven days, alone.

(helicopter whirring) (dramatic music) Awesome, massive country.

The ancient magic in these canyons is legendary.

I'm in for the ride of my life.

(helicopter whirring) (dramatic music) My crew will drop me in and the local scout, Desert Dave, will be camped out many miles away until I get back.

I hate this part!

No water.

Predatory mountain lions.

Nighttime chills.

Disease carrying insects.

Loneliness and despair.

These are the dangers and challenges of the Southwest canyons.

This is winter in one of the most remote canyonlands of the American Southwest.

(Les grunts) It's no wonder Butch Cassidy and his wild bunch chose these remote parts to hide out from the law.

But for now, it's just me, my camera, my horse for the next seven days, (panting) alone.

(dramatic music) Dave knows a lot about surviving out here but he's not telling me everything.

- I think people get kinda psychologically spooked out by some of the amazing energy that runs around these canyons.

A lot of people that have come here and vanished, there is something happening here that's not like what he's used to.

(dramatic music) - Well, (panting) I'm on my own now.

Time to check out my surroundings, I guess.

Here we go.

(ethereal upbeat music) (birds chirping) (Les grunts) This is some pretty amazing biking country.

I figure if I had to, really, I could probably bike out of here in about three days.

But hey, this is a survival show.

(air hisses) Let's make it a week.

(dramatic music) Yeah, I do have a pack full of gear.

It's all my camera gear and clothing.

They left it for me.

Like shooting your own horse to eat, I'll cannibalize the bike to survive.

It's incredibly quiet here.

Too quiet.

I don't really know how much sunlight I have left.

Let me tell ya, one, two, three-and-a-half hand widths, so that's about three-and-a-half hours.

I better find a place to settle down.

(ominous music) Well, this juniper tree behind me is gonna make some pretty good shelter for me.

But first I wanna get a big fire going.

I figure, if it does snow tonight, at least if I have a big fire going, you know, I can maybe make it through the night.

(gentle ethereal music) It may not look like it, but snowstorms blanketed these canyons just before I got here.

Baked by the sun in the day and frozen solid at night.

At least there is plenty of fire.

Can you hear the jet-way up there?

Right now, those people are eating lobster.

(air whooshing) The temperatures in these parts are wild, swinging to huge extremes in a matter of hours.

Oh, this is good stuff, really good stuff.

My biggest fear?

Can my body adjust?

Fire starter and bedding.

I gotta make a long fire that I can feed from one end, then I don't have to worry about trying breaking logs small.

I'm actually gonna line this thing with rocks because the sand is actually pretty damp.

Survival means multitasking and getting it done without breaking a sweat.

If I sweat, the cold nights will be hard to handle.

I still got maybe two hours of sunlight left.

Work on my shelter.

(upbeat music) This ridge pole is a little lower than I wanted, so I dug a hole down a bit and then lined it with some juniper bark, and this grass just to raise me up and it keeps me off the cold sand.

And then I covered all of these branches and sticks over the top to protect me a bit, reflect some of the heat back once I do get a fire going.

But this is about (sighs) as much work as I wanna do tonight before I get too sweaty.

Sun's almost behind the mountains.

(ethereal music) Every time I come out and try survival in a new location, I like to test some kind of survival item.

Just to see how it works.

This time around I'm gonna try this little item, magnesium flint stick.

What I wanna do is shave off this magnesium.

I need to make a little pile.

Gotta be real patient.

Well, that's not a bad pile.

We'll see.

I just don't know.

Magnesium.

There we go, there we go.

Okay, okay, okay.

Burn baby, burn.

Burning me.

Whoa!

That little magnesium stick is definitely a winner in my book.

(Les chuckles) (soft ethereal music) (fire crackling) Nice to be under this juniper tree 'cause it is chilling down really quickly, soon as that sun disappeared.

So I guess I should show you what I have to survive with for the week.

Always, of course, my multi-tool.

You've already met Mr.

Magnesium flint stick.

And last, not least.

Huh, I've got some food.

Well, look at this, an old, shriveled up piece of energy bar, mm.

And some corn chips.

Wow.

I would say that's about enough to last a week, wouldn't you?

Inedible but useful.

Well, there is snow up in the mountains and just a few miles from here devastating flash floods wiping out everything in sight.

I hear that bobcats and mountain lions come down into these valleys at times like these, searching for food, easy food.

Sleeping food.

(ethereal music) (gentle bright music) That was one frosty night.

Ground's all frozen now and frosted over.

Really it was just a matter of sleep a half hour, wake up, feed the fire.

Sleep a half hour, wake up, feed the fire.

And just pray for morning.

I can't believe it.

I can't find any water in this area at all, and yet, there is a creek down in the canyon cut.

And guess what, I can't get to it because everywhere I look it's like a 30-foot drop.

I can get down in there but I'd never get back out again.

Oh, look.

See what I mean?

How frustrating is that?

A beautiful canyon cut, flowing creek and I can't get to it.

That's called getting ledged-up in cowboy terms.

Come to a spot like this, get down and you can never get out again.

Can't get to the water, you die of dehydration.

And at the moment I'm ledged-up.

(gentle upbeat music) This is all the water I could find in this whole slick rock area.

All it is is a little bit of frost melt.

(Les slurping) When Butch Cassidy and his wild bunch came through here they sometimes had to shoot a horse just to eat.

It's time to retire my trusty horse.

The parts on this bike could save my life.

(dramatic music) I shivered through last night because my shelter was thrown together so quickly to beat nightfall.

I'm hustling now to insulate it and the bike frame makes a great supporting wall.

Try not to take too much to hurt the tree.

Exposes them to bugs.

Out of respect for the environment, I took this bark from several trees.

I think in time I could probably maybe even weave a really nice bed out of this, but for now I think just pulling it in loose like this keeps it lofty, probably good insulation as a result.

(slow ethereal music) This temperature can be deceiving.

I'm tempted just to kinda kick around in the sun.

That could be the death of me.

It can go well below freezing in just a few hours.

This shelter can never be insulated enough, can never have enough firewood.

See that?

Look.

Beautiful isn't it?

Well, beauty fades fast, especially when you're cold and alone.

(gentle suspenseful music) A general rule that survivors use to gauge the odds of survival is called the five Ws.

Wood.

Well, there's plenty of wood for burning and for shelter.

Weather.

Weather is pretty good right now.

If it did turn bad there's places that I could get in and protect myself.

Widow-makers.

Well, there is nothing tall, standing and dead that's gonna come crashing down on me in the middle of the night and kill me.

Wigglies.

Scorpions, spiders, snakes.

They're all buried deep in the ground this time of year.

I don't have to worry about them.

But water.

Well, water.

There's none of it.

Without a good supply of water, I may have to move on at daybreak.

(ethereal music) Off to bed.

(soulful harmonica music) I feel a lot better with a shelter like this now, I'll tell ya.

All closed over and hopefully warmer thanks to this juniper bark fireplace.

(sighs) (upbeat music) It's too bad I have to leave.

The shelter is just right, but I need a drink and this place is dry.

The strapping from inside the bike tire is perfect to bundle up this juniper bark and the bark is great insulation, and way too valuable to leave behind.

The crew will have to fly in later to clean up the site.

(gentle upbeat music) This is an amazing sight.

You gotta see what I'm looking at here.

I'm thinking down there is water.

A big canyon like that's got to be a flowing creek.

And water is what I need, so I'm gonna take the chance on it.

Got to find a way down.

(gentle upbeat music) It's got to be at least 1,000 feet straight down.

Okay, now I'm pretty sure that I can find my way down in this canyon.

What I'm walking on is a fresh cattle trail.

Yeah, that's right, I said cattle trail.

They know the way down.

There are cattle roaming throughout here, free-range.

Cattle don't mean salvation, that's for sure.

Ow!

Okay, tell ya what.

(panting) As dedicated as I am to getting some good shots here, this canyon is getting too steep.

I gotta strip down a bit and stop filming.

It's too much work going up and down, setting up these cameras.

I'm just get this camera.

All right, (clears throat) I'm ready to head down, take the little camera with me.

Maybe I can talk to you on the way.

(Les groans) This is when the camera gear really gets heavy.

Should've taken my pants off before I walked this.

That is where I came from.

It's a long way down.

(ominous music) (Les panting) (Les grunts) I better check this place out.

(gentle foreboding music) This is not good news.

Let me show you what I just walked.

This is my creek down in the valley bottom.

Dry as a bone.

- Your body needs to thermoregulate, and part of that is your cells need to shrink and expand and if you don't get a drink of water you can't do that.

You can sleep all night in lots of insulation next to the fire and still be cold all the time.

- Not good news.

It's a long way to come and not have water.

I'm getting thirsty.

My mouth is tasting stale.

My head is starting to hurt a bit.

I know that's from dehydration.

Not drinking enough.

I haven't peed in a long time.

That's a bad sign.

A small patch of snow to keep me going until I can find shelter.

(gentle dramatic music) I searched a long stretch of this canyon floor for some good shelter.

A lot of caves that I thought from a distance looked great.

Up close they're either too high to get to, or too small to snuggle into.

And most are pack rat dens anyway.

This one is facing south and it could keep me warm on sunny days.

- So caves are great for people but there's a lot of creatures that have set up their living in there that are dangerous to us, and they carry black plague, or bubonic plague.

Hanta, which kills you a little faster.

Anaphylactic shock from being bit by the kissing bugs that live on bats and pack rats.

- I think this cave is ready for an extreme makeover.

(gentle dramatic music) (Les groans) I've leveled out the floor inside here.

I put up a rock wall and area for a fire on the inside here.

Then what I need to do is get a fire going in there and start to warm up the cave, very gently, very slowly.

I knew once I got my fire going that I'd probably want a big one just to get some good coals first, so I thought I'd set up my fire up in the little flat area there, get a big fire going and I can transfer some coals over to here and start a small, low fire to help warm up the cave.

You gotta be really careful.

This is a deadly situation.

It wouldn't take much to thermo-crack this wall and have a Cadillac-size rock come crashing down on top of me.

So I'll need to heat the cave very slowly to keep the rock in tact and maybe smoke out any pack rats that might be deep inside.

(fire crackling) You know, everywhere I go to survive is pretty intense and pretty special.

This place, it's magical here.

Not sure.

It's the strangest I've ever felt, really, is in this canyon.

I'm mean, I'm just corralled in by it all and to know that the Anasazi were here, and the Paiute, and Butch Cassidy and his gang, there's a lot of history here.

One of the traditions of the Paiute people were to take this rabbit brush, take this plant, and they would burn it (groans) into the cave on their first burn just to ward off evil spirits and ghosts and such.

Seems to me like a good idea.

Desert Dave told me that these canyons were the most remote in the Southwest and as a result have the densest population of mountain lions.

Locals fear coming down here, as I have unarmed.

One of the fire rocks just blew up on me, sent big coals right into my bed and burned my finger trying to clear it out.

It's gonna feel a little strange sleeping in here.

I'm sure I'll be thinking about this rock over my head constantly.

(Les sighs) (fire crackling) (bark rustling) (ominous music) Well, finally promising.

A little touch of water here.

Just one little puddle, Ah, brother raven is calling me.

I think he wanted to tell me that I was close to something good here.

One last trap to check.

I think it's down.

Whoa!

Well, what do you know.

I think it's a type of a ground squirrel.

(Les imitating raven cawing) 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