Survivorman | Season 3 | Episode 3 | Arctic Tundra

you know many people have perished because they missed the caribou migration by about a week up here in the Arctic I'm probably about two weeks early on the arctic char running up this river and I'm paying for it with an empty belly [Music] [Music] for eight long months here in the High Arctic the ocean is frozen solid and in the summer and even using that term summer is a bit of a stretch there's a short period of time where the land is finally allowed to breathe when the snow and ice finally retreat researchers from all over the world come here to study narwhal polar bear and even killer whales over here there are stories of people who get stranded even the local Inuit get lost and have to survive out here the weather you come in hard and lock you in from traveling home for weeks on end so I'm here to survive alone without food with very little gear and no camera in the Arctic tundra I'm on northern Baffin Island where every month is a new season at 72 degrees north latitude the Sun remains in the sky nearly 24 hours a day this time of year the ocean might have thought that it remains cold enough to kill you within minutes of complete immersion it's a harsh and unforgiving land I've left the research team on the rock being voted into a remote location for my own challenge any travel in this region long-distance traffic right now most of it's done by boats over the deadly cold Arctic waters just as it would play out with an actual researcher I've given myself a few items to survive a fishing tackle a two-way radio battery a small handful of whale blubber given to me by my Inuit guy the collapsible canoe the spot I've chosen is a prime fishing area for arctic char but they only run here once a year and like the caribou herds if you miss the run you can starve to death in an area that otherwise teams with life well at least I left the survival suit I'll help keep me warm even just trying to get out here we had to put up with two solid days of strong winds and rain and it actually delayed me getting out to this spot coming from our base camp but I'm in it now wherever I end up having to survive I've got to set myself a list of priorities in a place like this it's gonna be shelter I'm extremely exposed here the wind is blowing in hard it's cold off the water and it could rain on me at any moment it could also turn to snow all I really have to work with and this old fishing camp is that Shack behind me there and there's no roof it never fails to bring me down a little this worldwide juxtaposition of ocean refuse and ocean beauty that's pretty gross it's all rotting and filled with mold on the inside here so I don't think this is the spot lots of junk around here might as well make use of it this'll help it's not hard to find refuse on the shores of all the world's oceans the advantage is of course that without it I'd be reduced to hiding behind a small hill somewhere to get out of the wind well it's a wind block and a rain block that's what I need that's a breeze coming through here but start where I'm sitting in the middle of the Arctic eating whale blubber we're Narwhal going in gift given to me by the Inuit hunter that was training me out here a problem with this whale blubber and the skin is that the smell of it it's basically a dinner bell for polar bears hmm raw whale blubber and skin pull the bear territory feels kind of like deja vu I don't know this is a smart thing to be doing well I'm sleeping with a gun beside me tonight load it hopefully I won't have any issues with polar bears at all we're sleeping on top of the floater suit put it on if I get cold enough it's actually quite cold here it looks beautiful but the wind coming off that ocean is really cold I don't need to use night vision on the camera at all because it's 24 hours of daylight I don't think I can stay here too long it's the wind is really pushing in here it's hard to fish on the ocean side here just because the waves are so big just got to get through tonight wind and the Arctic go hand-in-hand small canoes can be useless in a place with frigid waters big waves and relentless winds I'm alone out here if I were to capsize I'd be in more trouble than I even care to think man it's so windy as who's blowing that big iceberg right into the bay here he's got me locked down I can't get the canoe in the water to move and get closer to the freshwater it's gotten pretty cold so wind can blow like this weeks in this stage no boat can come back here and get me in the Arctic the land and weather just are you can either handle it or you can't I'm taking chances as a fool's game right now no safety crew could get to me if they wanted to and with polar bears around taking a chance on survival is exactly what I'm doing the wind is coming in way too strong for me to stand out here and try to do any fishing to get some food it's brutally cold coming in off the Arctic Ocean I'd be chilled to the bone in no time that iceberg way down in the corner is the size of an office tower eight hours ago it was many miles down that way yet over the course of the time well that was hunkered down in that little shack it was blown right up right across the bay that's how strong this wind is and it's cold for now I'm gonna head inland just a little bit get a drink of water from a nearby stream there's a river down that way and then come back in and hunker down that's all I can do is wait out this win because I can't travel I can't put the canoe in the water and get out of here it capsized in seconds unlike a lot of places I've been Giardia is not very prevalent in the Arctic water is all fresh and clean coming straight from glaciers [Music] with water looked after I can concentrate on trying for some food in colder temperatures the need for food escalates my energy is depleted much faster while I deal with the wind on the cold [Music] well I might as well try switching lures for a while anyway this one's not working I tried scouting around by the river to see if there was a spot in behind a [ __ ] it's not so bad there's a few spots but it's still pretty windy there instead I think I know a way I can make my shelter a little warmer fact I think I can get a fire going ingenuity is always the mother of survival once I started looking around with an eye towards surviving it's amazing what small items man-made or natural that there are they can help to improve my situation don't look so surprised there's not a Oceanside in the world that I've been to yet that doesn't have refuse on it [Music] hopefully that'll work now I just have to try and get a fire going without matches here oh yes there we go that's focused very little effort at all I'm able to walk around this old fish camp there's all kinds of little slivers of wood bits of plastic and I don't have to put much effort into it just have to gather it up bring it over here and I've got a good fire bundle of course now I need to have the fire alright this CB radio right now it's not the radio that I want it's the battery from the radio it's a little 12-volt battery this is what I need well scored a couple of things when I went over and looked in that big 45 gallon drum full of junk there is old cups and teapots and tons of metal cans but also old dish scrubbers steel wall and with this and this battery I can make fire I just have to touch the steel one of those two terminals and it should ignite for me alright well wish me luck touch it to this terminal here let's get it under there that is nice woo boy if any place I needed a fire it's here in the Arctic and that worked like a charm just about every place on the planet has an ancient and primitive people's history the Arctic shares its history easily as it can be thousands of years before items biodegrade and vanish from existence this mound here is a couple of thousand years old the tule indians first lived out here and this is what they made big sod circles the camera is actually in a lower circle and then there's the entrance way down even lower come into one come into the other and over top would be whale rib bones and caribou hide and that would make their shelter which would be a heck of a lot warmer than the plywood crate I'm sleeping in and all this area here is obviously where they harvested the sod from to make the mounds in the first place pull out of one area drop it down right beside it and make your mound there are places where you can take the time to affect your survival like in the tropics but up here the land offers no forgiveness it's indifferent to whether you live or die I should have moved it was calm wind for a few hours and which I slept through unfortunately that helps to get some sleep but the wind has picked up incredibly now and it's raining I think what I'll have to do is put on my Bighorn survival suit and get the heck out of Dodge which means going across the river going across the rapids you know fold up canoe [Music] I'm packed up it's probably going to take me a couple of hours and and a few trips since I have to take the canoe as well and that's the easy part of the trip after that I've got to negotiate the rapids they're only class 1 rapid they're no big deal just little little riffles but the water is frigid cold and everything I have to survive with will be in that canoe so one wrong move and I could be in a lot of trouble but first hi at least hiking overland in the Arctic is not as tough as pushing through thick bush and although in most Arctic regions the mosquitoes can carry you away here on Baffin Island there are relatively few bugs to bother me [Music] I was expecting to have to cross this river at a much more dangerous spot up ahead with Rapids but here I didn't spot this before it's quite low obviously I can walk across without any issue at all I'm at low tide right now as well so I've got to get the rest of myself across before the water level picks up its your pace to look around play it safe if I were to dump here in the water with everything I've got you're very dangerous situation this is after all the Ark always got to come back to the camera okay so this is the section that I have to get across now and that's nothing I can scoot across that without any issue at all another bit of a distance to carry all my gear before I get to what looks like some old fish camp a bunch of 45 gallon drums over there so I'm gonna put the camera away so it doesn't get wet pop in the canoe get across there and get on to the camp hopefully before it rains this is a heck of a lot easier than hiking it over nothing like canoeing pull off here without ending up in the ocean trick is the river meanders all over the place and if you get caught down one current and you get taken way out of the way so just sort of hug the right side here and make my way over this side of the river if any luck the fishing will be better over here - since I was filming in the river Lorraine came in pretty hard and I had to sit here for about a half an hour while it pelted down on me now there's sunshine over in that part of the sky which is great unfortunately the part of this guy that's still coming towards me is still white with rain now I gotta make this home and I've got to get some food I'm stuck here the bunch of metal drums well so much for that I spent all the time going across land and then across the river and then cross a little bit more land to get to here and in the span of time that it took for me to do all of that the ocean calmed down so I could have just waited God in the canoe and actually just got in the ocean and paddled around to this site it just shows you you cannot you know take chances on the weather it's really difficult so as it is right now i mean i'd like to start throwing a line and see if I can catch some arctic char but that doesn't mean that this blue sky isn't gonna leave me in 45 minutes so what I better do first is get a shelter put up here then I can start trying for some food one man's toxic sludge is another man's potpourri [Music] that's what bad that gives me a place to get into and it starts raining again once again with my shelter looked after I can turn my efforts towards getting food wind is picked up again unbelievable did not take long at all I had about an hour of calm calm weather here now the wind's coming right in on me and that's a cold wind taking a couple of liters here strung them together a couple of small hooks on the bottom some bear hooks bear hooks bear hugs I'll have to do now put some bait on it some whale blubber a couple of small hooks then he let the sea go we'll just go for a big gulp now what I'll do is I'll take this blubber and I'm gonna rub it around everywhere because oops for me because that scent is gonna bring that's gonna bring the seagulls in these traps can be very effective it's about 80 yards or so from my shelter that shouldn't scare to see you guys much hopefully they'll come in and I'll have myself a bird dinner birds and their eggs wild edibles all of them a great survival food but nothing equals the advantage of having actual fishing tackle to catch the large arctic char catching fish with improvised bits of string and pins bent into hooks is an extremely rare bit of situational luck unusually extremely harsh and challenging situations fishing tackle for me now is no longer recreational equipment its survival I've been fishing for a few hours without a single bite and I've seen birds seagulls all around me ever since I first got out here and yet as soon as I put the bait out I haven't seen a single bird maybe if I blow a little bit of HAARP it'll change my luck [Music] [Music] Oh see if I can get a bit of sleep orders are a little tight compared to a last shelter but in fact with any luck at all they won't be as windy and I think I should be fine for rain as well I think I'll be alright in here long as it doesn't get too windy ah Who am I kidding this is Baffin Island it's always too windy good thing about that bird trap in any traps that you leave is that they work when you aren't working so if I hear a bird squawking maybe that will be a dinner for me loneliness seems intensified in the Arctic with its long and foreboding expanses that wrap around all of your senses I'm finding now that my lack of food this is four days without food now it's really wreaking havoc on my energy levels it changes all the time depending on where I I try to survive but when I have to survive in cold and wind and rain it just depletes the energy levels that much faster and makes things will tougher to deal with so I'm gonna put in a concerted effort at trying to catch some fish now and if that doesn't work I'm gonna have to head in inland and see what I can do just the act of walking to check a trap can suck the energy right out of me you know the craziest thing now it's four days without food and all this cold fresh air dreams are just becoming vivid just wave whacked-out wild and crazy dreams never happens at home get out here without any food in your stomach and all the aloneness the big expanse and the fresh air and you just get these intense dreams I'm also getting pretty down actually dreams are kind of like an escape that's a shame I haven't put a big hunk on top without a hook in it that if they wanted they could have just taken and they haven't they haven't even touched it that's really strange I feel a couple pieces out on the ground before there's something down here on the ground and I watched them come in and eat it this thing's been sitting here for 24 hours and they haven't touched it that's a bummer all right back to fishing [Music] cold wind the lack of wild edibles stuff for what these kinds of temperatures and the gray sky very little blue play on the psyche [Music] you know many people have perished because they missed the caribou migration by about a week up here in the Arctic I'm probably about two weeks early on the arctic char running up this river and I'm paying for it with an empty belly when it comes to luck and survival it's all about the timing one month one week even one day can make the difference between life and death by starvation timing is everything I've been trying for days to catch some fish for survival and I took the chance on throwing a line in just now while the narwhal are forcing the char close to the shore and right past my lures [Music] [Music] oh yeah comment ok I'm gonna keep fishing if you're watching the background there's a narwhal going right by me here maybe that's what's chasing all the arctic char in and why I'm able to catch them it's because there's narwhal out there trying to feed on them [Applause] [Music] beautiful beautiful oh yeah yeah you know the irony to this is that I wasn't even going to come back and fish right now is getting so disillusioned with all the fishing I'm just gonna hike the fields and start gathering lot edibles I don't even know where my fishing rod went that was a big one oh yeah no word of a live this is how I caught him first this guy then to that guy then I cut that guy and then finally that big momma check it out this is a good day yes good day I'm one hungry boy let me tell you it's been four and a half days now and I could use some nourishment time to get some understanding some traditional food preserving techniques can save a ton of food from perishing and ensure survival split the fish like this now I've got to put some slices in the fish so that it can air out if I slice in straight they tend to fall together so I've got a slice on an angle so they fall the little all the little sections will follow fall open and then dry better fresh sushi can't get sushi this fresh in LA one thing I love to eat on fish and not too many people save is the liver I find the liver in the heart tasty is part of the fish so I'm gonna save the liver in the heart eat those up haha heating the fish Roe's fantastic caviar basically highly nutritious look at this guy see those right there that's where some other fish maybe a seal has gone after this fish and tried to catch him and eat him and he got away but he didn't get away from me so I will honor you buddy by eating you of course now the possibility of polar bear coming is going to be that much stronger with all this fish smell whale blubber smell all around my camp no eggs in this one but a nice big liver so I'm going to have to be extremely diligent watching out for polar bear that's 3 last one the Beast sweet more eggs number four four reasons why fishing tackle it's vital in a survival kit normally a lot of this stuff will go to waste but in a survival situation that's definitely not the case first of all I've got all these Phillips here that are cut away that I'm gonna cook up and enjoy got liver which is my favorite some fish hurts and what's left of the fish there there's a ton of raw meat on it that I'm gonna pick away and and just eat raw now and enjoy the fish eyes go in for soup if I had a pot but I don't have a pot so I can just eat all of that raw and then lastly all the intestines well I'll be able to use them to add to my bird trap over there because they don't seem to be coming in for the last little bits of whale blubber that I put out so fine I'll put out some of this fish there's a seagull right now oh let's see if I can get myself a bird to add to the feast but for now speaking of feasts I'm gonna go get a fire going and continue with my fish feast this is killer measure of a good outdoor guide if they can get a fire going for you after three days of solid rain that is a good guide of course if they pull out some chocolate and some Scotch or wine well send their master guides having fire in this area is a luxury afforded me by the refuse left behind by people fishing here all right magic a little steel wool one battery and we've got fire [Music] fresh-cooked arctic char wow that's unbelievable you know right now my editor is watching this I'm thinking man I wish I was there catching them jar and heat them to basket right Barry oh that's so good reality is now that I'm here to film a show about survival the fact is we're so far out on the north edge of Baffin Island that anything could go wrong and it could be that these four fish I caught are going to be desperately needed not only for me but also for my safety crew if we get trapped here and can't get out by boat helicopter or plane food will run out and catching fish may be what keeps us all in survival it wouldn't be the first time that a film crew has been stranded somewhere remote oh and here comes the rain and that's what you look like to me you look like a camera arctic char liver tender and tasty oh I'm getting full I think it stopped raining just because I now have the bounty of fish doesn't mean that I shouldn't see what else I have available to eat those after all it could be the last fish that catch hundreds and hundreds of these plants all around haven't got a clue what this plant is called all I know from learning from Nanuet hunter that the root is very edible and there's hundreds maybe thousands of these plants all over the hillsides this plant which actually there's lots of it my camp this is the traditional burnable material now I'm fortunate in that there's all that leftover scrap wood that I've been able to burn and have a full-on fire but if I didn't have that this plant burns fantastically in fact I do have a stash of this back at the camp for when I run out of scrap wood or through the night just to keep the fire going okay here's some more wild edible plants beautiful mmm and tart to these hillsides here I just carpeted with wild edible plants so I've got wild edibles fire starting material arctic char on the ocean coast and the irony is that this has one of the harshest climates on the planet and you'd think that it would be the toughest to survive here and true enough outside of a short two-month span it is extremely hard survival here but right now there's some bounty that I can take advantage of and plenty of it if you know what you're looking for the warmth of food digesting in my belly helps to keep the chills out of my body you know one of the main components of survival is luck I had fully intended on spending the day inland searching for wild edibles and hunting for ptarmigan and it was just by chance that I realized I forgot something so I came back to the camp and while I was here I thought ah water's nice and calm nice and high maybe I'll try casting the lure and a couple of times and see what happens and bam you saw the results so as much as you need to be in shape as much as you should have a survival kit you certainly must have the mental faculties to survive you have to have that will to live but also sometimes to survive all you need is a lot of luck today I got lucky I sure hope no Polar Bear come around with all that fish got smell everywhere [Music] all right this is morning of day five trapped again by the rain I'm surprised there anyway fires still going that's good that was set up well and I've got lots of food so I'm okay that way I have no idea whether or not a fire will attract a polar bear or keep a polar bear away I'm gonna hope for the latter without a windbreak from trees without land features to stop the windy onslaught without a well-made constructed shelter being trapped in by the wind and rain in the Arctic is unequaled for hours still raining [Music] four and a half hours still raining [Music] [Music] that's it that's been my view for five hours now lovely view isn't it what everybody's doing at home right now probably having a hot drink somewhere watching TV maybe they're watching Survivorman stretching six hours and it's still raining seven hours and it's still misting slash training good thing that there's a lot of scrap lumber lying around here [Music] eight and a half hours and it's raining again get about time I do something rain or no right one way I can make sure I don't lose a fire is to kind of put together a makeshift good luck here I've got some of this it's the last of the whale blubber I was using it as bait for the seagulls but instead I'm gonna make an oil lamp out of it you just scrape the whale blubber it just juices out grease and oil oops watch I don't dull up my knife so I'll show you what I mean here so alright now this is just an old sock it was laying around here so I've been drying it and I'm gonna take a piece of it soaked it up into this oil there we go okay that I'll put that in a little protected place and that should burn a good long time for me it still come in the rain army here but a little bright spot in the sky up there so who knows 9 hours of waiting out the rain the weather is blown in really strong and I read it into the safety crew and it looks like we're just gonna have to pull out air tomorrow weather keeps coming in and battering us and we don't want to get to be one of those situations where we're locked down for a week she's gonna get through this last night but it is the weather's just socked us right in it's all just gray misty and blowing in from the Oceanside the wind and the rain continue to change the arctic view scape [Music] [Music] [Music] I had lost a few days at the beginning of this Arctic venture and now the return and repeat of the harsh weather is shutting down the chute and forcing the safety crew and I had to head back to the protection of the small Arctic village we originally left from but with my full belly of arctic char thanks to having fishing tackle a survival gear I've been able to affect my best survival ever in a place above all others it is probably the most beautiful when it comes to the landscape and yet the harshest when it comes to survival [Music] you

Channel: Survivorman - Les Stroud

Views: 946,598

Rating: 4.8732395 out of 5

Keywords: Survivorman TV Series, Survivorman TV Show, Les Stroud, Survivorman Les Stroud, Survivorman TV, Stroud', Survivorman, 'Les, Outdoor Survival, Survivorman - Season 3 - Episode 3 - Arctic Tundra, Todd Standing, Logan Stroud, Sam Omik, Uzimann, Joseph McConnell, Bob Wilson

Id: JB49FfklrLw

Length: 43min 32sec (2612 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020