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Enjoyed watching him completely outside his and most people's comfort zone. As an alpine climber, I'm impressed. I know it's all a bit contrived, but even in the controlled situations he would have been put well outside his normal sedentary life and a fantastic experience for him, the arse ripped out pants says something 😕 . His family history. personal issues and heart on sleeve stuff was interesting and presumably genuine. I'm a fan.
Agreed. Great program, very much enjoyed watching it.
Everything I've seen from him is wonderful. I suffer from bipolar disorder and it was actually one of the only things I've seen on the illness that makes others understand my illness.
I saw when his family lived in Vienna then moved to what is now Slovakia to work in a sugar factory. His father moved to the uk in the 20s whilst the other brothers stayed. All of those who stayed were gassed during the war.
His programme on homosexuality was excellent, especially when interviewing in Uganda. They kill gays there.
QI is one of my favourite programmes.
What can I say. I'm a fan.
I enjoyed it too. I thought "Bear" came across better than usual as well. Fair bit of "Bear Grylls brand" product placement though, but fair enough, it was his programme I suppose.
really enjoyed it too. We are off to the Dolomites tomorrow to help build my confidence in the mountains again after suffering a bad head injury last March, so good watching. Mind are doing a good job, nice to hear Fry talk about it.
Shame the Ferrata set-up would have been dangerously ineffective if Mr Fry had fallen heavily. 2 larks footed slings to the belay loop and no braking plate. Good job the route appeared to be an easy one.
Who heads off with a rope and no ab-tat on a route requiring abseiling?
I suspect "Bear" to be a bit of a fraud.
Abseiling off a jammed knot, ermmmm even in my limited climbing knowledge I know that is a masshoosive safety no no. Not something to laugh off and carry on with.
What is the programme?
Abseiling off a jammed knot, ermmmm even in my limited climbing knowledge I know that is a masshoosive safety no no. Not something to laugh off and carry on with.
I think that was very much one of the contrived bits, but hey ho. Merry Christmas.
Next you'll be telling me that flying clipped to the outside of a heli is not the way to travel 🙄 .
Well there's drama, and then there's dangerously bad technique, but yeah merry Christmas I suppose.
But that's bear, Stephen Fry came over quite well 🙂
Wasn't that keen on the tandem abseil down a looseish cliff in the Dolomites with Fry wearing a helmet, but Bear, who was controlling the rope for both of them, unhelmeted. He's welcome to take that kind of approach to his own safety, no problem, but I'm surprised he did it when he was responsible for others.
Perhaps there was some devious backup I didn't spot.
Bear's programmes usually seem to be more focused on how to kill yourself quickly as opposed to staying alive, as they claim to be. Missed this one though, might watch it on 4od tomorrow.
Normally along the lines of "I'm going to hurl myself, from 10 meters, into this water of unknown depth!!!"
I just worry people will take it as survival advice.
fourbanger - Member
I suspect "Bear" to be a bit of a fraud.
That's a known fact isn't it?
He stays in hotels and there is a video where he claims to be in the middle of nowhere in Hawaii(maybe?) and then there is videos on youtube of people in the exact same place and when they turn the camera around there is a main road right there...
Still liked the programme, massive stephen fry fan anyway.
That's a known fact isn't it?
Yeh, but it's telly isn't it. It like Top Gear, or STW.
I like Fry. A sublime chap.
Anyone would have panicked when the rope ran out 3/4 of the way down. Didn't/shouldn't they have calculated this? On that- chapeau Fry 😀
On BG- I dont know why arm chair/minor outdoorists slag him off. Hes doing tv entertainment. He has the skill. To take Fry down there takes a confident and skilled fella. What if Fry had a panic attack? BG knows his onions.
He has skill
In presentation I concur but his mountaineering is cack. Good job they will have had a crew along to help out.
Just for the record I wasn't slagging him off, just confirming that not everything was real. Doesn't mean it isn't entertaining.
I wasnt aiming that at you. Im riled when the grills v chubby outdoor bloke arguments come up on stw 🙂
In these celeb doing daring do on telly things, I'd always assume there's a large safety crew just out of shot. I can't imagine there was any chance of Fry getting fried.
Take the Via Ferrata from WW1, there's no way they would have just used that if it genuinely was unused since WW1. Chances are, that whole route they did is an existing, well used, well maintained via ferrata scramble. Most of the original WW1 stuff will remain, so BG picks it up for dramatic effect?.
With regard tying a knot in the rope end, jammed in a crack, to use as a safety line. Not complete fantasy, it's standard equipment on soft sandstone in parts of Germany and Czech republic. A Monkey's Fist is a pretty decent chock. Altho, in the case of BG, done for dramatic effect IMO.
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With respect to Fry, it seemed largely to be a product placement exercise for BG's branded kit. And what was that nonsense about "running out of rope" at the end of the abseil.
Wasn't that keen on the tandem abseil down a looseish cliff in the Dolomites with Fry wearing a helmet, but Bear, who was controlling the rope for both of them, unhelmeted.
Yeah that was odd, surely either they both need a helmet (what with most of the danger coming from things falling from above), or neither did.
[i] I dont know why arm chair/minor outdoorists slag him off. [/i]
Don't you?? They like to think they could do it better. It's the way of the internet. Quite pathetic really.
Pathetic indeed. None of us know anything about mountaineering or bikes, so we should all chill out, have a sherry, and marvel at this top-[s]rope[/s] notch performance.
It's an entertainment programme, not a mountaineering/survival show. Stephen Fry came across well in it and I think on some occasions he was genuinely scared. Better than some of the pish that was on the other channels. Could be worse you could have had to endure 'The Hobbit' extended 5 disc set like me 😉
I thought Stephen Fry would have more integrity than to appear on this kind of nonsense - gave him the benefit of the doubt and watched him, but have now revised my opinion of him accordingly. I'm confident he won't be too bothered 😕
Don't you?? They like to think they could do it better. It's the way of the internet. Quite pathetic really.
You don't think BG's advise would put you in danger in a survival situation ?
I conjecture his advice might be "buy more of my branded kit".
Buy what kit? Bar 'BG' and aqua-something. Do you sit there and read labels? Oblique. Its hardly large easily identifiable font and text that you see often on Countryfile etc.
Can't remember now. Don't watch Countryfile. I don't doubt BG is richer and tougher than me.
Going riding.
Its the James Blunt-effect. Posh kid becomes officer then makes money out of looks 😆
Fav bear moment is when he hunkers down in a bit if forest in the gorms,nothind but a bit polythene to keep out the midge and rain....Maybe 200m from a bothy.
Its easy to accuse people of being arm chair critics.
Anyone with any experience of climbing can recognise that most of what Grylls does is set up for dramatic effect rather than good practice.
Shame the Ferrata set-up would have been dangerously ineffective if Mr Fry had fallen heavily. 2 larks footed slings to the belay loop and no braking plate.
How so? (Genuine question, btw)
Don't criticise the bear, I bet none of you have drunk your own piss on television 😆
What was the programme called?
[url= http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bears-wild-weekends/4od ]http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bears-wild-weekends/4od[/url]
Started to watch the programme lost interest not in Mr Fry but Bear and the narrator, editing and the knot at the falls...............but all respect to Mr Edward Michael Grylls, he has summited Everest, no mean feat regardless of the commercialisation of the Mountain,
Lazy, dishonest toss for the easily pleased.
I hated this for exactly the same reasons I dislike Top Gear.
I admire his achievements, but his TV stuff makes him look untrustworthy.
The BG clothing line appears to have been a bit of a disaster - there was a whole shop full of it, heavily discounted in Llanberis not long back
Made by Craghoppers IIRC, some decent bargains out there.
Watched it last night and thought it was OK but would have been miles better without the stupid narration trying to big the whole thing up though.
I've seen/said 'hi' to BG quite a few times over the last few years, as he spends the summer in the same place as us, and he comes across as a very nice guy.
I used to run hot and cold over SF but now settled on liking him 🙂
Don't you?? They like to think they could do it better. It's the way of the internet. Quite pathetic really.
Not as pathetic as spaffing over a TV 'personality' who consistently bullshits his way through every single bit of TV he takes part in. If he's got the skills which I assume he has, why the need for all the BS?
I prefer not to have my intelligence insulted as a viewer in favour of 'entertainment', YMMV.
The 'races' on Top Gear are more entertaining as I think everyone (surely) knows they are totally staged. It's different when you're genuinely trying to pull the wool over people's eyes.
Look at the others featured in the Masters of Movement series of adverts (as posted earlier in the thread). You've got athletes like Travis Rice and Darren Berrecloth who are genuinely some of the best in the world at what they do, just doing it. Whereas Bear Grylls is in there why exactly? And why is his video so staged?
Apologies DrJ I was driving most of yesterday. The forces that a fall on via ferrata can generate can be greater than the harness or the body can cope with, think catastrophic breakage of the webbing, metalwork or the body. It is possible to fall greater than the distance of the strops attaching you to the cable, the distance between the cable anchor points plus the length of the slings/strops. The worst that a climbing fall can allow is twice the length of rope in use, via ferrata can allow greater than this.
A via ferrata harness set will have a means of reducing the energy at the bottom of the fall usually a piece of rope threaded through a plate similar to one used for belaying which slips and reduces the forces on the rest of the system.
Sorry Sandwich, I don't understand.
Unless the cable snaps or an eye pulls out, how is it possible to fall further from the via ferrata than the length of your attachment straps, assuming you're on 2 of them?
Overall the programme was good fun for the tourism and personalities. It must have been very heavily edited and prepared - witness the state of Fry's trousers after coming down the last bit of scree slope. We didn't see any of that 2 mile stretch.
[i]Not as pathetic as spaffing over a TV 'personality' who consistently bullshits his way through every single bit of TV he takes part in.[/i]
Hmm.. wonders if grum accuses me of such behaviour... I only had it on the telly cos my kid likes Bear Gryll's "adventures". I had a laptop in front of me and only looked at some of the nice views and listened to their religious discussion. Still think it's pathetic that the internet warriors try so hard to show how great they are by slagging someone who is actually out there doing something. 😀
Unless the cable snaps or an eye pulls out, how is it possible to fall further from the via ferrata than the length of your attachment straps, assuming you're on 2 of them?
Am not an expert but .. via ferrata is not necessarily horizontal, they can be vertical (e.g. up a ladder) or any angle in-between, so the fall doesn't start to become arrested until the carabiner that's on the safety cable actually strikes a point where the cable is fixed the the rock. That can be a distance below the fall point.
re Top Gear vs BG - Top Gear is nonsense presented as nonsense, it doesn't take itself seriously. It felt like the BG/Fry film was meant to be taken 'seriously'.
Just to clarify, the above comments relate to BG, not SF.
My guess is that someone other than BG decided that the only place SF was likely to fall was on his arse and therefore old school via ferrata methods were fine. BG didn't bother clipping on for most of it and apart from the very start it was a traverse.
It's also very likely that they'd have paid local guides to inspect cables/anchors and advise them on set.