Saturday 21 January 2012

Bear Grylls Fan Dies of Hypothermia in the Highlands

My earlier post about Bear Grylls giving people the wrong idea that they can 'live of the land' , has sadly come to pass. A 29 year old man, who watched the show and thought that he could survive on Rannoch moor in wintertime, by employing bushcraft, hunting and trapping techniques, was reported to have been found frozen to death in a bothy at Corrour in the west highlands. People need to get it into their heads that you don't challenge the mountains, you go there with an attitude of respect for the dangers that lie there and are thankful if they let you leave in one piece. As for surviving off the land in the Scottish mountains in winter, that would be difficult to do in summer time, even if you had a hunting rifle, a lot of experience and foraging, trapping, shelter building and fishing skills, there is also precious little firewood and even less shelter there, where the winds can blow at well over a hundred miles per hour,  so a knowledgeable person would not have picked that area as a long term winter survival exercise location. A coastal region has far more wild food available, firewood and shelter options on offer than the mountains, which claim around thirty victims every year...

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