Survival expert returns to Discovery Channel

MANILA, Philippines – Premiering Monday, October 28 at 9:00 p.m., world-renowned survival extraordinaire and global phenomenon Bear Grylls is back in the brand new BEAR GRYLLS: ESCAPE FROM HELL where he will apply his expertise one step further by pitting himself against real-life dangers faced by ordinary people stranded in devastatingly dire situations in the world’s most desolate landscapes. Coupled with incredible archive footage and intimate interviews with the survivors – including a British scientist who was lost and alone in the deep jungles of Malaysia – Bear will show how they survived by attempting to recreate and reliving their fateful journeys through firsthand experience and demonstrating the best possible strategies for survival.

Join Bear on the gripping six-part series of BEAR GRYLLS: ESCAPE FROM HELL as he risks his life by trekking in the shoes of these amateur adventurers across the most inhospitable locations on Earth and through the harshest weathers, dissecting and analysing the survival techniques they employed and providing expert advice and tips on what could have been done to completely elude or alleviate the severity of these unfortunate circumstances. From a plane crash in the Amazon, to remote crevasses of the European Alps, scorching North African desert and more, Bear will toss himself into the same unforgiving landscapes where these incidents took place and attempt to live, sleep, survive and navigate to safety. Watch as he traces and reconstructs the steps and actions of these survivors – and even suggests what he thought they could have done better – including throwing himself into mini-avalanches, leaping off from cliff ledges to tree tops, hunting and eating animals and insects unique to each terrain, creating shelters and making weapons.

While each landscape presents its own unique set of challenges, they also share universal themes of survival; hydration, shelter, warmth, food and navigation. Bear uncovers how each survivor cheated death using ingenuity and persistence to ensure they had at least one of these necessities. Along the way, he demonstrates crucial life-saving skills that can be easily executed by inexperienced adventurers, including drinking the blood of a snake for crucial hydration in the scorching desert, minimizing the loss of mobile phone battery energy by warming it up underneath your armpits, hunting tarantulas in the jungle for vital caloric intake, creating tepee shelters from tree branches, fighting off frostbites by creating improvised hot water bottles with zip lock bags and your pee, amongst others.

Expect more than just action as BEAR GRYLLS: ESCAPE FROM HELL marries emotion with real experience in a no holds barred series that celebrates instinct, courage, ingenuity and sheer determination in the face of extreme dangers and phenomenal pressure, revealing insight into the human spirit and our instinct to survive. BEAR GRYLLS: ESCAPE FROM HELL encores every Friday at 3:00 p.m., Saturday at 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

In addition to BEAR GRYLLS: ESCAPE FROM HELL, viewers can also look forward to more inspiring stories of endurance and persistence from the iconic explorer in Bear Grylls: Get Out Alive and Bear Grylls: GREAT ESCAPES, premiering on Discovery Channel in 2014. Bear Grylls: Get Out Alive is an extreme adventure-reality competition series – hosted by Bear – that sees ten teams of two battle through the ultimate survival and endurance tests for their chance to claim the USD$500,000 grand prize. In Bear Grylls: GREAT ESCAPES, Bear presents the world’s most jaw-dropping escapes and near death experiences in an adrenaline-pumping, fact-packed clip show.

BEAR GRYLLS: ESCAPE FROM HELL

Episode 1

Bear enters the Guatemalan jungle to relive the experiences of three groups of jungle survivors. Mexican archaeologist Armando Anaya tells how his team were attacked by bandits as they excavated Mayan ruins, then stripped of their belongings and forced across a dangerous river. In Malaysia, British microbiologist John Gillat had only set out on a short walk from his hotel when he got lost in the jungle. It was soon clear he would have to stay in the jungle for the night. Two Frenchmen, Loic Pillois and Guilhem Nayral, went on an expedition into the Amazon rainforest which turned into a gruelling 52 day ordeal. Bear experiences their toughest challenges and demonstrates the survival skills they used to stay alive – from river crossings, to tarantula hunting and lighting signal fires.

Episode 2

Bear heads to Canada’s snow-covered Pacific Coast mountain range to explore incredible real life survival stories in this hostile, unforgiving terrain. He throws himself into mini avalanches, jumps into freezing cold rivers and leaps from a cliff ledge into a tree top as he retraces the steps of three remarkable men – Sébastien Boucher, Eric Le Marque and Charles Horton – who all found themselves in the ultimate battle for survival. They faced freezing temperatures, life threatening injuries, severe dehydration and extreme exhaustion but showed courage, ingenuity and sheer determination to escape from hell.

Episode 3

Bear travels to Morocco’s searing Sahara Desert where he recreates the brute force of a Saharan sandstorm, scales crumbling desert cliffs, drinks the blood from a snake and his own urine for vital rehydration, as he retraces the steps of three remarkable men – Mauro Prosperi, Ed Rosenthal and Merritt Myers – who each found themselves in the battle for survival. They all faced scorching temperatures, the constant search for water, severe dehydration and heat exhaustion, and accepted that death was inevitable, before pulling back from the brink and surviving despite the odds.

Episode 4

Bear heads to a dramatic canyon in North Africa and white water in Italy to explore three extraordinary stories of survival. He experiences the terrifying climb that four base jumpers, including Jace Ramsey and Johnny Strange, were forced to attempt after they jumped into the Grand Canyon and realised there was no way back out. Bear then plunges into fierce white water to relive the story of Polish explorer Maciej Tarasin, who lost his canoe and paddling partner Tomek Jedrys, in a remote river canyon in Colombia. Back in the scorching desert canyon in North Africa, Bear relates to the trauma of Merritt Myers, who went through hell when he got trapped a high ledge under a beating sun and with no water.

Episode 5

Bear explores the stories of three young men who all self-rescued from mountain ranges and impenetrable forest. When nineteen year old British backpacker Jamie Neale got lost in the mountains for a staggering twelve days, he had to learn how to make camp and stay alive. Bear examines how he walked out to safety unaided. Bear also meets his namesake – a brown bear – to experience what happened when sixteen year old William Parven came face-to-face with a black bear in California. Like William, Bear negotiates a steep waterfall to illustrate the dangers that befell the teenager when he slipped and fell. Bear also demonstrates the skilled techniques of Eagle Scout Dan Stephens, who fell and knocked himself out in Quetico Provincial Park, Canada. He escaped from his own personal hell by navigating his way out using star light.

Episode 6

In this special episode, Bear examines the most dramatic, entertaining and surprising moments from the series to give viewers a complete picture of survival.