Launching a new genre of television coined Survival TV, Stranded: Winter chronicles Les Stroud's first time surviving for the cameras in the dead of winter. Les ventures to remote Northern Ontario to endure temperatures of -40 degrees F for a week alone.
A year in the Wabikimi Wilderness. Les Stroud and Sue Jamison are prepared to spend one year in the isolated Wabikimi Wilderness surviving as the North American native would have 500 years ago, with no modern outdoor living conveniences. The young couple is fearful of the unknown wilderness. However, as the story unfolds it will be personal tragedies in the dead of winter that will test their character and personal fortitude.
The genesis of the award-winning show Survivorman, Stranded: Summer is a one-hour special that chronicles Les's first time surviving for the cameras in August of 2001. With just two cameras, a few items and and his wits, Les survives in the Canadian wild.
Les Stroud simulates becoming stranded after a canoeing accident in a Northern Ontario forest.
A broken down dirt bike provides the scenario for surviving in Arizona's Sonoran Desert.
Marooned on Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula, Les must survive on a tropical beach and in dense jungle.
Les is stranded in the swamplands of Georgia's Altamaha River Basin.
Pond Inlet, on the Northern reaches of Baffin Island, provides one of the most challenging landscapes our planet has to offer. Over 700km north of the Arctic Circle, it sits amidst grinding, ever-shifting flows of sea-ice where polar-bears roam in search of meat. In this severe climate, Les has been equipped with a bare minimum of raw materials to aid him for the next 7 days - a hunk of uncooked seal-liver, some oil-rich blubber for heat, a seal-hook, three matches, and a knife.
Les is airdropped onto a snow-covered peak in the Canadian Rockies courtesy of the Canadian Mountain Air Rescue Service. They'll come looking for him in seven days. Until then Les is entirely on his own, save for the grizzlies, cougars and wolves that also call this place home. To emulate a real-life survival scenario - in this case a heli-hiking expedition come to grief - Les has been provided with a few readily salvageable items, among them a broken camcorder and tripod. One man's trash is another man's treasure!
The spectacular red landscapes of Utah's canyonlands are as beautiful as they are inhospitable. Like outlaws of old who were known to eat their own horses out of desperation in this forlorn place, Stroud will cannibalize the mountain-bike he has ridden into the middle of nowhere. As well as these scavenged bike parts to aid him, he also has a multi-tool, a magnesium flint-stick and an old energy-bar - that he has a use for other than eating.
In the remote winter-bound forests of Northern Ontario, a crashed plane lies in the snow beside a frozen lake. There is no one alive on board. But this plane didn't crash here - the decrepit old wreck has been airdropped from a helicopter to provide a temporary home for Survivorman. For a week Les will have to survive in this harsh snowy wilderness with only an axe, a multi-tool and a single blanket to aid him.
Living "off the land" takes on a new meaning as Les Stroud casts off for a week at sea. With no food and only a bare minimum of equipment, Stroud will be set adrift in an inflatable life raft off the coast of Belize. Battling hunger, thirst and the Caribbean heat, he must also keep his cameras dry to film the ordeal. To top it off - the life raft has a few bad leaks and needs constant bailing. It also leaks air and requires frequent re-inflation with a hand pump - Survivorman is in for a busy few days!
Director's Commentary of S07E06 - Tonga
Director's Commentary of S08E04 - Survivorman and Son: Mongolia
Les and his wife will explore the difficulty of building a 'green' home entirely off the power grid.
Les begins the second season in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa. The scenario: running out of gas in the middle of the desert. His supplies: enough water for only four days, two empty soda cans, an empty jar of peanut butter, some jam, an ostrich egg, a broken down truck, and a bucket. The dangers: the brutal summer heat where temperatures on the sand reach 140F/60C; dehydration and heatstroke; scorpions and highly venomous Cape cobras.
Les finally gets to survive the one place he's always wanted to visit: the Amazon jungle in Ecuador. The scenario: brought by the natives into the jungle by canoe. The supplies: three feet of fishing line, a can of soda, a mosquito net, one match, "fire dust," a blowgun, a machete, and a spear. The dangers: stingrays, jaguars, spiders, ants, snakes, and scorpions. Added difficulty: Les is nursing a previous hip injury.
Les journeys into Labrador in the Canadian Maritimes. The scenario: driving a dog sled team almost 100 miles back to civilization in late winter. The supplies: a .22 rifle, a bucket of caribou meat (for the dogs, not for him), and, for the first time, a self-designed survival kit. The dangers: hypothermia, getting lost, the weather's effect on the trail, and injury from the sled or the dogs. Added difficulties: the dogs aren't familiar with Les, the possibility of vicious fights between the dogs, and Les simulates the role of stranded dog sled driver.
Les ventures into the plains of northeastern South Africa. The scenario: hot-air balloon crash. The challenge: hike back to the support crew. The supplies: a machete, a knife, a bottle of water, some rope, a small first-aid kit, and the balloon itself. The dangers: lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and the black mamba snake.
This time Survivorman decides to demonstrate survival by sea kayak in an ocean bay called Taroka Arm (literally "black bear") for good reason. At this time of year, the salmon are active and are one of the black bear's favorite foods. Black bear and grizzlies that live in this area are among the largest in the world and gorge themselves on the silver salmon during this period.
Les demonstrates survival in the Cook Islands using SCUBA gear, a ship wreck and found articles.
Catch up on all of Stroud's adventures in season two of “Survivorman” in this episode highlighting the most exciting segments this season and featuring amazing never-before-seen footage and additional survival tips.
Survivorman's Les Stroud hosts this look at how best to play it safe in the water, while testing popular theories of how to survive shark encounters. Les travels to the Bahamas and South Africa to test whether the behavior of Caribbean reef sharks and great whites changes depending upon the time of day. While in South Africa, Les and marine biologist Jeremiah Sullivan conduct an analysis of the great white's bite, and test whether kicking and splashing attracts sharks, and if it's safer to stay in a group or tread water alone if stranded in the ocean.
Les tries to survive in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. This time he has more than just his trusty harmonica and his multi tool, He also has some basic backpacking gear as well like a tent, a sleeping bag, and a flashlight. When he doesn’t show up at camp his team is forced to organise a Search and Rescue team to find him. Will they find him in time?
"Survivorman" Les Stroud takes two horses into the Colorado Rockies and discovers the challenges of surviving for three.
Stranded on northern Baffin Island, "Survivorman" Les Stroud learns harsh lessons in solo arctic survival in 24hour daylight.
This week, Les Stroud has an accompanying friend, Bob, who joins him on his hunting trip to the forests of Temagami. When plans for bear, moose and caribou hunting go wrong, Stroud is forced to measure the pros and cons of bringing along a friend on an adventure such as this.
Les Stroud is stranded in the outback when his ultralight airplane runs out of fuel.
Les Stroud must survive in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.
Les Stroud strands himself in the Norwegian mountains to survive for 10 days taking little food, no water or gear, and no safety or camera crew. Does Les stay with his marooned car or push on to find help? Hauling 65 pounds of camera gear, Les makes do with what he has, builds crude shelter, eats what he finds, and proves it takes true will to survive.
Being stranded in the Norwegian mountains will prove to be the most difficult survival expedition of Les Stroud's 20-year career. With no food or water, no safety or camera crew, Les must haul 65 pounds of camera gear down the slick wet mountainside in the hope of finding shelter. Scavenging what he can from the barren landscape, exhausted and starving, Les draws on his years of experience and the will to survive in order to make it the full 10 days.
Les Stroud is shipwrecked on the desert island of Tiburon. Part of the Sonoran desert, Tiburon is searing hot in the day and freezing cold at night. The coastline is a barren stretch with no source of fresh water. Les must distill seawater and scavenge for clams and oysters amongst the rocks and mud to survive. With the threat of stingrays in the shallow waters and coyotes hunting the shoreline, Les battles hunger, fatigue and loneliness in this 10-day survival ordeal.
After five days of surviving on Tiburon's shore, Les Stroud treks inland in search of food, water and shelter. In the mountainous desert landscape, Les must avoid packs of wild coyotes, scorpions and rattlesnakes. Alone and carrying heavy camera equipment, he is at risk of exposure and dehydration. Making fire to distill drinking water, he survives on clams and edible plants in this 10-day survival ordeal.
Les must survive for 5 days in the jungle on the island of Grenada.
Les must survive for 5 days on Frigate Island in the Grenadines
Les Stroud travels to the Mitre Peninsula, a remote peninsula located on the easternmost tip of Isla Grande in the province of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
Les Stroud travels into the forests of Ontario's Temagami, and the oldest mountains in North America to survive for 5 days, with no food, no water, no shelter, and no crew.
In the first episode of this 2-part special, Les finds himself in a remote track of forested land in Alberta, Canada, a renowned Bigfoot hot spot. Inundated by requests from fans to uncover the truth about Bigfoot since revealing his own possible Bigfoot encounter while shooting Survivorman in Alaska in 2009, Les sets out to uncover the truth about this elusive and quite possibly fictitious creature. (Also named "Episode 1: Alberta – Part One")
In the second episode of this 2-part special, Les continues his survival in the remote area of Northern Alberta to get as close as he can – if that’s possible – to the legend known as Sasquatch. Full of skepticism, Les enlists the help of a Bigfoot tracker named Todd Standing, who claims to have had multiple interactions with the legendary creature in the area. (Also named "Episode 2: Alberta – Part Two")
In the largely unexplored wilderness of Klemtu, an Indian Reserve on the coastal fijords of Canada’s beautiful British Columbia, local residents have been telling stories for generations about Bigfoot. Klemtu Hill is an old volcano, it’s a sacred area and the Bigfoot reports here are in the hundreds. Something that is supposed to weigh 900 pounds has to leave a trail – whatever is there, it leaves tracks, makes sounds in the night, makes friends and helps people, abducts and even kills people. Les Stroud’s approach is to place himself in the hot spots, in the firing line, wherever there have been reports of sightings or strange happenings, in a tent, outside of a tent, with fire, without fire, inside of a cabin, walking on lonely roads, whatever it takes to provoke an encounter. Les’s quest is to make contact and in this wild place of abundance, where large animals could exist indefinitely, it is the unknown that keeps him coming back for more.
Les tracks Bigfoot in the ancient red cedar forests of Northwest California: sixty miles in-land from Eureka, California sits the land of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Here the wide trunks of ancient red cedar trees stand like old guardians; their disorienting and protective branches stretching for miles towards the northwest sky. It’s easy to get lost here. And this old forest is dangerous. It’s the densest black bear territory in California…and a hot spot for Bigfoot activity. Les heads back out into the wilderness in search of Sasquatch. Les isn’t a believer – not yet. He needs irrefutable proof. He’s got to catch one on film. The town of Hoopa is swimming in Sasquatch stories. Les sifts through the evidence, talking to the locals, looking for signs, and attempting to invoke an encounter.
In this episode, Les is going for broke: he plants multiple hidden cameras, prepares DNA traps, hangs pheromone chips, hand bells and chimes with camouflaged sound recorders, all in an effort to coax an interaction out of the alleged Sasquatch. He returns to the site where Todd captured audio of a near-fatal Sasquatch encounter. Whoops and strange noises from the forest interior leave Les unsettled yet skeptical. Taking casts of animal footprints to compare with possible Sasquatch tracks, Les finds grizzly prints bigger than his hand. He scales the most remote and dangerous Grizzly Bear territory of the Canadian Rockies alone in his search for the truth. Les has to think like an animal – go slow and take breaks often. In this vast-reaching untouched forest, anything could yet survive.
Les returns to the wilds of Rural Alberta to document evidence of Sasquatch activity. He approaches with a skeptic’s eye, experimenting with stealth camera equipment and using infrared trail cams and thermal imaging. The search for definitive proof gives him the edge. The mission is to document the increasing regularity and recurrence of phenomenon that is baffling science – and hopefully, provoke an interaction. Things keep happening, events recorded in nature, that wild life biology is having a hart time explaining, without including Sasquatch. It’s not so much a mission as a quest. A piece of the puzzle is out there…and that puzzle is Bigfoot.
Things get weird when Les tracks Bigfoot in the smoky mountains of Tennessee with Scott Carpenter, a local researcher claiming to have interactions with Bigfoot in the area. Scott’s theories leave Les feeling jumpy. Or maybe that’s the black bears. There are more than 1,500 black bears that live in these mountains. Les knows that where bears thrive, humans can survive, too. But, is it possible that something else could be surviving in the unknown wild? A higher intelligence? Something that doesn’t want to be found? Battling his own psyche, Les enters the Bigfoot hot spot, planting hidden cameras and scent traps, in an effort to elicit an interaction, seeking irrefutable proof. But the longer Les hunts for Sasquatch, the weirder things get.
Les begins his search in East Texas, invited onto private land by a local who claims to have experienced Bigfoot phenomenon for over 35 years. For Les to succeed, he has to find concrete proof. He collects DNA samples, analyzes tree breaks and plants hidden cameras to lure Bigfoot into his frame. Combining low-tech with high-tech surveillance puts the odds in his favor, but Les has to keep digging if he wants to find out the truth. Locals’ stories lead him to the remote mountain terrain of rural Utah. Here, ungodly screams and tales of haunted hollows find Les camped out in a canyon way off the beaten path. Les remains firmly planted between skepticism and acceptance. Lacking irrefutable evidence, Bigfoot is a contradiction. A 10ft monster that he can’t find…
Les plants himself in Bigfoot hot spots across North America, collecting stories and experiences from Bigfoot believers, gathering and examining evidence to debunk the mysteries that surround this ancient legend. Les has had his own eerie experiences in the wild, things he can’t quite explain, but he isn’t a Bigfoot believer. It’s not his job to say it’s an alien or an ape. It’s his job to wage war in the middle ground, where a battle is raging for reason. But what happens when reason isn’t enough? Over and over, Les encounters people who approach Bigfoot from a more spiritual angle. Is there an intelligent life-form surviving in the forgotten wilderness of our world? And if so, does it want to be found?
Les teaches winner of a fan submission contest, amateur filmmaker Joseph McConnell, about wilderness survival in the remote Ontario wilderness.
Part 1 of 2. Les Stroud disappears into the thickly forested Translyvanian Alps to test the skills of Romania´s top search-and-rescue team, and himself.
Part 2 of 2. Les simulates a broken leg so that a Romanian search and rescue team will locate him in the Transylvania mountains.
The story of a family that was lost for six days in the forests of Oregon.
Les travels to Northern India in the foothills of the Himalayans to survive in an area with the world's reported densest tiger population.
Les and friend, Bob Wilson are stranded on a deserted island in the archipelago of Tonga.
Les retraces the last steps of experienced Argentinan hiker Laureano Emanuel Santos on the circuit track of Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia to investigate how tragedies can occur even on well-traveled wilderness trails.
Director's Commentary of S07E01 - Fan Challenge
Director's Commentary of S07E02 - Transylvania Part 1
Director's Commentary of S07E03 - Transylvania Part 2
Director's Commentary of S07E04 - Oregon
Les and his 16-year-old son Logan find themselves trapped without supplies and without a way home while sea kayaking along the coastline of British Columbia. Staying hydrated, fed and warm takes on a whole new meaning with Logan by his side. Lack of food, unsafe water and inclement weather can wreak havoc on the body – let alone one’s mood. Logan’s better at video games than survival and better at hockey than starting a fire. Distraction can cause mistakes…and mistakes can be very costly.
Les and Logan set out for a father/son fishing trip in a tin boat. Stranded after their motor dies, Les and Logan are quickly plunged into an intense survival situation that could happen to any summer cottager. This father/son team must work together to stay hydrated, secure food, make shelter and flag down a rescue plane. Les gets creative using bug spray as a fire-starter. Father/son dynamics effect their decision-making.
Father and son embark on a photography expedition deep in the Ecuadorian jungle but when the tour guide doesn’t return, Les and Logan must put their wills of survival to the ultimate test… After being stranded in the Ecuadorian jungle, father-son team Les and Logan must confront the diversities and dangerous of one of the most dangerous rainforests. Les and Logan take on a photography expedition in the jungles of Ecuador; ecologically one of the most diverse and dangerous in the world. When the tour guide fails to return, Father and son team must put their survival skills and willpower to the ultimate test.
Les returns to Mongolia after surviving a near-fatal car crash the year before with his son Logan, a recent cancer-survivor.
Director's Commentary of S03E03 The Arctic Tundra
Director's Commentary of S03E02 The Colorado Rockies
Director's Commentary of S01E08 Plane Crash
Director's Commentary of S01E01 Boreal Forest
Director's Commentary of S02E05 Alaska
Director's Commentary of Survivorman Bigfoot S01E01 - Alberta
Director's Commentary
Director's Commentary of S08E01 - Survivorman and Son: Tofino
Director's Commentary of S08E02 - Survivorman and Son: Wabakimi
"Behind the Scenes" is an intimate one-hour look at the making of the Survivorman series. We go behind the scenes of this popular show to take a look at clips and outtakes over the nine episodes.
Les Stroud takes a look at the case of James and Jennifer Stolpa, who were stranded in the snows of the Sierra Nevadas with their infant son, and demonstrates some simple survival skills that would have made the Stolpas' ordeal a much less brutal experience.
Surviving the wilderness is one thing, but how do we survive the next flood or earthquake? This one-hour special has Les Stroud surviving in a flooding house and traveling to New Orleans to interview actual survivors of hurricane Katrina. Stroud demonstrates a host of intriguing skills that could save your life.
Les reviews his experiences surviving in the wild for Survivorman and Survivorman Ten Days. While counting down ten wilderness survival issues he has faced, he shows segments of both shows relevant to each item. The issues in his countdown are: 10. Starvation/Dehydration 9. Darkness 8. Weather & Terrain 7. Shelter 6. Bigfoot 5. MacGyverisms 4. Fire 3. Cheating Death 2. Search & Rescue 1. Lost.
Les and Bill Engvall survive for 24 hours in the deserts of Nevada.
Les and a camera crew build a bush shelter.
Les simulates a trail runner becoming lost in the woods for 24 hours.
Les shares tips on starting a fire in the bush.
Les takes a group of 16 professional hockey players to survive in the boreal forest outside of Hornepayne, Ontario, Canada.
Les describes what should be included in a survival kit.
Les goes to a secret location just outside of Portland, Oregon with his friend and filmmaker Devon Massyn in search of Bigfoot. The final installment in the Survivorman Bigfoot series not aired on the Discovery Channel.
Les discusses how to properly hike a trail.
Les shares survival tips for a possible zombie Apocalypse.
A spin on Survivorman that Les would like to make into a series.
In the same vein of the first collection, this newest Barn Sessions CD/DVD compilation follows talented players working together to create an album and documentary entirely live 'off the floor'. Friends of Les, music lovers and filmmakers collaborated again at his off-the-grid property deep in the Ontario woods in the fall of 2012. Based on his ongoing belief that the best music happens during a live session, Les got together with musicians Jeff Bird, Doug Adams, Donny Reed, Reese Wynans and Andrina Turenne to name a few, and created some musical magic. See and hear it on this newest creation - Barn Sessions III. Included with the album - a bonus video documentary: how it was done and why.
The genesis of the award-winning show Survivorman, Stranded: Summer is a one-hour special that chronicles Les's first time surviving for the cameras in August of 2001. With just two cameras, a few items and his wits, Les survives in the Canadian wild.
Launching a new genre of television coined Survival TV, Stranded: Winter chronicles Les Stroud's first time surviving for the cameras in the dead of winter. Les ventures to remote Northern Ontario to endure temperatures of -40 degrees F for a week alone.
Director's Commentary of S07E07 - Patagonia
