Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
BEAR GRYLLS
The most intense man in the universe, Bear Grylls, is known for a lot more than just being the face of the hit television show ‘Man vs. Wild.’ He was a Special Forces operative in the British military and has summited Mount Everest. Those are just two tidbits of many.
Here are some wild facts about Bear Grylls that will make you reevaluate your definition of adventure.
Summiting Mount Everest
While there is a lot of controversy surrounding Bear Grylls’ show, Man vs. Wild, there is no doubting that the man is an absolute beast of an outdoorsman. In 1998, Grylls became the youngest Brit to climb Mount Everest. Grylls trained for roughly one year before his daring summit of the world’s highest peak.
Bear Grylls hiking everest
What’s more impressive about his ascent is he did it roughly 18 months after recovering from a life-threatening injury he suffered while serving with the British Special Forces (more on that later). In an interview with The Telegraph, Grylls said he should have died multiple times while on Everest. Thankfully, he summited and returned without any major incidents.
His nickname
Surprise, surprise: Bear is not Bear Grylls’ real name. While it is an extremely rugged and fitting nickname, it’s not the name his parents gave him when he was born. Born Edward Michael Grylls, Bear was given the nickname by his sister, Lara, when he was just a tiny lad growing up in the village of Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, a British island located in the English Channel.
Bear’s father, Sir Michael Grylls, a politician and seasoned outdoorsman himself, taught Bear how to climb and sail at a young age. Little did he know that his boy Edward would become an absolute bear of an adventurer later in life.
British Special Forces
Where, you ask, did Bear learn his survival skills? In a little place called the British Special Air Service, SAS for short. The SAS is universally regarded as one of the most elite special warfare units on planet Earth. It is there where Bear, who served in the SAS for three years, learned desert and winter warfare, combat survival, parachuting, diving, climbing, how to operate explosives, and received extensive medic training.
Grylls served in the 21 SAS Regiment and had two tours of duty to North Africa. It was also his service in the SAS that inadvertently opened up his survival career after a nasty accident forced his honorable discharge from the military.
Karate black belt
One would think that being trained in hand-to-hand combat in the British SAS would be enough. One would think those lethal moves should keep any foe at bay. But for Bear Grylls, nothing is ever enough. As a teenager, prior to his enlistment in the military, Grylls earned his black belt in Shotokan karate.
Shotokan karate is one of karate’s more popular disciplines (it’s actually the most practiced karate style) and originated in Okinawa, Japan. Shotokan is also credited with helping popularize karate globally. For Bear Grylls, that 2nd-dan black belt is just another tool that fits in his absurdly large toolbox.
Nearly paralyzed
As we’ve already mentioned, Bear Grylls served in the SAS. An integral part of the SAS training is parachuting, free falling, and HALO jumps. While parachuting and free falling may look very fun from the outside, these are some of the most dangerous maneuvers in military training. There’s an assortment of things that could go wrong, and should they go wrong, they often can become lethal.
While skydiving with the SAS over Zambia, Grylls’ parachute failed to open up at 16,000 feet. Rather than cutting the main parachute and resorting to the reserve, Grylls tried to sort through the mess while rapidly descending toward Earth. That was the wrong move, as Grylls landed on his parachute pack, fracturing three vertebrae in his back. Over the next year, he spent roughly 10 hours per day rehabbing the injury while preparing to climb Everest.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
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