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Edward "Bear" Grylls (born 7 June 1974), is an English mountaineer, adventurer, author, television presenter and motivational speaker.

Personal life

Born and raised in Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, he is the son of the late Conservative party politician Sir Michael Grylls and his wife Sally. He was educated at Eton College and studied for a degree in Hispanic studies from the University of London.

Career

Military

Grylls served as an officer with the Territorial Army for three years as a Specialist Combat Survival Instructor and Patrol Medic with the Special Forces unit, 21 SAS Regiment (Artists Rifles). His military service ended in 1996 due to a parachuting accident during a training exercise in Africa. His canopy ripped at 16,000 feet (4500 m), partially opening, causing him to fall and land on his parachute pack on his back, which broke three vertebrae (t8, t10 and t12) and left him struggling to feel his legs. Grylls later said of the accident, "I should have cut the main parachute and gone to the reserve but thought there was time to resolve the problem." Grylls spent the next 12 months in rehabilitation and, with his military service over, directed his efforts into trying to get well enough to fulfill his childhood dream of climbing Everest.

Following his discharge from the Territorial Army, Grylls has since been awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant Commander in the UK's Royal Naval Reserve.

Civilian

Grylls works as an international motivational speaker, charging between £10,000 and £20,000 per speech. Grylls's entered television work with an appearance in an advertisement for Sure deodorant featuring his ascent of Everest compared with what really made him sweat (giving a motivational talk to an audience). Grylls has been a guest on many television programmes, including Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, the Oprah Winfrey Show, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, David Letterman,and Jimmy Kimmel. Grylls has hosted and produced two television series of his own, Escape to the Legion and Man vs. Wild.

Charities

Grylls has a close relationship with several charitable organizations; many of his expeditions and stunts have raised large sums of money for them. Grylls is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust. He is also vice president for The JoLt Trust, a small charity that takes disabled, disadvantaged, abused or neglected young people on challenging month-long expeditions.

Global Angels, a UK charity which seeks to aid needy children around the world, were the beneficiaries of his 2007 attempt to take a powered paraglider higher than Everest. Grylls's attempt to hold the highest ever dinner party at 25,000 feet was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme and launched the 50th anniversary of the Awards. His attempt to circumnavigate Britain on jetskis raised money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution Lifeboats. Grylls' Everest climb was in aid of SSAFA Forces, a British-based charitable organisation set up to help former and serving members of the United Kingdom armed forces and their families. His 2003 Arctic expedition detailed in the book Facing the Frozen Ocean was in aid of The Prince's Trust, an organisation which provides training, financial, and practical support to under-privileged young people in Britain. His 2005 attempt to paramotor over the Angel Falls was in aid of the charity Hope & Homes for Children.

Escape to the Legion

Grylls filmed a four-part documentary in 2005 called Escape to the Legion which followed Grylls and 11 other UK recruits in the French Foreign Legion as they endured the month-long basic desert training in the Sahara. The show was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4, and in the USA on the Military Channel. In 2008 it was repeated in the UK on the History Channel

Man vs. Wild / Born Survivor

Grylls hosts a documentary series known in the U.S. on Discovery Channel as Man vs. Wild. This series is titled Born Survivor: Bear Grylls for Channel 4 and Ultimate Survival for Discovery Channel in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The series features Grylls being dropped into some of the most inhospitable places on earth and showing viewers how to survive. Season 2 premiered in the US on June 15, 2007, and season 3 in Nov 2007. Grylls is currently filming season 4.

Some of his stunts include climbing sheer cliff, wading rapids, and even wrapping his urine-soaked t-shirt around his head to help stave off the desert heat. Grylls has eaten snake (one made him sick), worm, scorpion, camel, rabbit, lizards, raw fish (with the comment "I love sushi!"), sheep's eyeballs, goat's testicles(a berber delicacy), a tree frog, and grubs. In one episode he cooked a lamb's eye on a string in volcano water. He has also rubbed snow on his body to dry off after jumping into an icy lake, squeezed both elephant dung and partially digested food from the stomach of a dead camel into his mouth for water, ripped raw chunks of meat off a dead zebra with his teeth and engaged in urophagia - drinking his own urine. Intermittently, Grylls also regales the viewer with tales of other adventurers stranded, and or killed in the wilderness.

Criticism

Following allegations that the show deceived viewers into believing that he was really stranded in the wild when he wasn't, Channel 4 temporarily suspended the show. Discovery aired re-edited episodes designed to remove elements that were considered too planned, with a fresh voiceover, and has continued to broadcast the program.

An adviser to the Man vs. Wild/Born Survivor series had claimed that Grylls had been staying at a Californian motel between filming. Similarly, it was alleged that Grylls had stayed at a crew base-camp in the Costa Rican jungle while giving viewers the impression that he was alone. These allegations were confirmed by Channel 4, who argued that it wasn't a documentary, but a 'how-to' guide to survival, implying that 'faked' or re-shot scenes were acceptable in that context.

Books

Grylls' first book titled Facing Up, went into the UK top 10 best-seller list, and was launched in the USA titled, The Kid Who Climbed Everest. Its subject is his expedition, at 23 years old, to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. The book details the climb, from his first reconnaissance climb on which he fell in a crevasse and was knocked unconscious, coming to swinging on the end of a rope, to the grueling ascent that took him over ninety days of extreme weather, sleep deprivation and almost running out of oxygen inside the death zone.

Grylls' second book Facing the Frozen Ocean was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2004, it describes how - with a team of five men - he completed the first unassisted crossing of the frozen North Atlantic, Arctic Ocean in a rigid inflatable boat. He was awarded an Honorary commission in the Royal Navy, as a Lieutenant-Commander for this feat.

A book was also written to accompany the series Born Survivor: Bear Grylls. It was published under the same title as the television series, featuring survival skills learned from some of the world's most hostile places. This book reached the Sunday Times Top 10 best-seller list.

Feats and Record attempts

Grylls has been involved in several solo and team based feats and attempts for charity or record breaking.

By land

Ama Dablam

Grylls first entered the record books in 1997 by being the youngest Briton to summit Ama Dablam in the Himalayas with his good friend Colm Keaveny, a peak famously described by Sir Edmund Hillary as "unclimbable".

Everest

Then in 1998, Grylls achieved a Guinness World Record as the the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest. However, James Allen, an Australian/British climber who ascended Everest in 1995 with an Australian team, using an Australian passport, but who has dual citizenship, claimed to have beaten him to the summit at age 22. Since then, British climber Rhys Jones reached the summit on his 20th birthday in May 2006.

In an interview with David Letterman (June 2007) Letterman calls him "The youngest Briton to summit Everest" and Bear "corrects" him by saying another man (Michael Matthews) did it the following year but died on the way down, and regardless of his death it has become this man's record.

By sea

Circumnavigation of the UK

In 2000 Grylls led the first team to circumnavigate the UK on a personal watercraft or jet ski, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Lifeboats.

Crossing the North Atlantic

Three years later he led a team of five British men on the first unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Arctic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat. The team battled giant waves, icebergs and storms.

By air

Paramotoring over Angel Falls

In 2005 Grylls led the first team ever to attempt to paramotor over the remote jungle plateau of the Angel Falls in Venezuela. The team was attempting to reach the highest, most remote high tepuis, made famous by Conan Doyle's Lost World.

Paragliding over the Himalayas

In 2007 Grylls claimed to have broken a new world record by flying a petrol-powered paraglider over the Himalayas, higher than Mount Everest (original claim, "over Mount Everest", and after being challenged, "above Everest" on his website). His report of the flight described coping with temperatures of -60C and dangerously low oxygen levels to reach 29,500 feet, almost 10,000 feet higher than the previous record of 20,019 feet.

The expedition raised over $2 million for children's charities worldwide including Global Angels. Grylls described the expedition, filmed for Discovery Channel worldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK, as "the hairiest, most frightening thing" he had ever done. While Grylls initially claimed that the flight was over Everest itself, the permit was only to fly to the south of Everest, and he didn't approach Everest itself out of risk of violating Chinese airspace.

The pair took off from 14,500 feet, 8 miles south of the mountain. Grylls says he got within two miles of the famous peak during his ascent. From there, the mission website reports him “riding the wind into the record books”. “There are various formalities and rules. You need a proper flight recorder trace, an FAI license, you’ve got to take off from flat ground – you can’t just take off from the side of a hill. You need to have a flight observer. If you don’t, it’s not a record.” He added, “It’s the responsibility of anybody who does anything ground-breaking to prove what they have done.” He said that even if the instrument displays froze mid-flight, as Grylls wrote afterwards, it doesn’t mean they stopped recording. “It may well be they’ve got a trace.”

Dinner party at altitude

Alongside balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams, Bear Grylls created a world record for the highest ever open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot air balloon at 25,000 feet, dressed in full mess kit and oxygen masks. This was in aid of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Charity.

References

1. Sport Magazine Bear Grylls written by Nick Harper, 29 Nov 2007
2. ^ City Speakers International - Bear Grylls' bio
3. channel four on the parachuting accident and filming 'escape to the legion
4. Mail Adventurer Bear Grylls' battle with back pain and high cholesterol Mail on Sunday, Moira Petty, 24 April 2007
5. "News and Events: Royal Navy". The Royal Navy. 2006. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
6. Murray Norton (2005). "Fancy An Adventure". Webchats.tv. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
7. "Escape to the Legion". Channel 4. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
8. "Military Channel: TV Listings: Escape to the Legion". The Military Channel. 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
9. http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/World_history/programme_2829.php
10. http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/World_history/programme_2831.php
11. http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/World_history/programme_2838.php
12. How Bear Grylls the Born Survivor roughed it - in hotels
13. "Rhys' Everest Adventure". BBC. 2006-10-26. Retrieved 2007-11-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. Bear Grylls : Man vs. Wild : Discovery Channel
15. "Latest News". Bear Grylls. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
16. "Flying Into A Dream". Telegraph Media Group. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
17. "Bear Grylls Glides Over Himalayas". Telegraph Media Group. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
18. "Explorer hits heights with Himalayan record". Telegraph Media Group. 2007-05-16. Retrieved 2007-11-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Official website
• Official Blog
• Channel 4's Escape to the Legion microsite
• Bear Grylls at IMDb
• Adventurer Bear Grylls' battle with back pain and high cholesterol
• Template:Worldcat id

Template:Persondata

• Living people
• 1974 births
• Alumni of the University of the West of England
• Old Etonians
• British Army soldiers
• English explorers
• English motivational speakers
• English mountain climbers
• English television presenters
• English non-fiction writers
• Rock climbers
• British karateka
• Summiters of Mount Everest