Walking The Amazon Comes To The Discovery Channel!

I've made little secret of my admiration for Ed Stafford, the man who walked the length of the Amazon River. Ed spent 860 days in the jungle, covering more than 4000 miles in the process, and setting the standard for which all 21st Century expeditions will be measured.

He completed the trek last August, and has been home to the U.K. since, and while Ed works away on a book about his exploits, the Discovery Channel is preparing to share his journey with their audience. They'll air two shows on successive Wednesdays, on February 2 and 9, at 10 PM, which will give us a glimpse into what it was like for Ed to make his epic hike. Check out the trailer and a preview clip below.

Survivorman Les Stroud Returns with New Show!

It seems like just yesterday that the online outdoor community was divided into camps over who was the better wilderness specialist, Bear Grylls or Les Stroud. The two men went head to head with Grylls' Man vs. Wild taking on Stroud's Survivorman. For those of you who missed those stimulating conversations, you're in luck! Les is about to return with an all new show for the Discovery Channel.

The new show is called Beyond Survival, and it will begin airing on Friday, August 27th. This time out, Les will be venturing into the remote corners of the globe once again, but he'll be living amongst the indigenous people there, and learning from them about how to survive in the harsh environments that they call home. Some of the places he'll be visiting include Madagascar, the Kalahari Desert, and Papua New Guinea. Some of the things he'll see and do in these places have never been witnessed by an outside before, which should make for interesting television.

Checkout the preview below.

Want To Be On Discovery Channel's Out of the Wild Season 2?

Casting is about to begin on the second season of Discovery Channel's Emmy-award winning Out of the Wild, a show that dropped nine amateur adventurers into the Alaskan backcountry and followed them as they learned to survive in the harsh environments there. The second season of the show will follow a similar formula, but will send the new team of explorers off to South America instead.

Pilgrim Films, the company that produces the show, is now looking for people to join this new reality show expedition. To be eligible you must be at least 21 years of age, and be available for a series of interviews coming up in October. If you're selected to be a part of the team, you must also be available for approximately a month later in the year for filming the show as well. If you're interested in being a part of the show, send an e-mail to OTWCasting@gmail.com with your name, phone number, a recent photo, and a brief explanation of why you should be on the show. For more information on the casting process click here.

The interesting thing to me is that they are headed to South America this time, but they don't say where they are going. The possibilities are nearly endless with places like Patagonia springing to mind, as it would provide a similar environment to Alaska. But even more intriguing is the thought of them going to the Amazon Jungle or perhaps the Atacama Desert or some place else that would provide an extreme environment that is very different from the last season. Could be interesting. If any of you try out for the show, good luck!

Discovery Channel Launches New Survival Television Program

For years fans of the Discovery Channel were split down the middle on the debate of who was better, Bear Grylls or Les Stroud. The debate went back and fourth and was often heated, with both camps steadfastly defending their guy. Then Les did the unthinkable by deciding he was done with Survivorman, and moving on to other projects. That left us with just Man vs. Wild to quench our need for watching a guy struggle to survive in the wilderness each week.

That's all changing, starting tonight, when Discovery launches its new show Dual Survival, which will throw two unlikely companions together as they struggle against nature and the elements to survive together. The two men in question include the military trained Dave Canterbury and his much more laid back co-host Cody Lundin. As you can imagine, Dave is a much more by the book kind of guy, while Cody is a naturalist who takes a more "hippy" approach to nature and the outdoors. As you can guess, the two don't always see eye to eye on how to survive in the wilderness.

The show makes its debut tonight at 10 PM ET/PT here in the States, and below is a clip of what you can expect. Hmm... could be interesting. Think it'll replace Les?

Thoughts on Everest: Beyond The Limit Season 3

Discovery Channel's third season of Everest: Beyond The Limit began airing this past Sunday, and subsequently finished up last night. The show did offer some amazing views of the mountain, and showed aspects of high altitude mountaineering, but personally I felt that it was mere shadow of its former self, and mostly ended up being a disappointment for me.

In the previous two seasons of the show, Discovery followed teams that were led by Russell Brice's Himex guide service on the North Side of the Mountain, located in Tibet. With the third season, the focus shifted to the South Side of Everest, found in Nepal. Brice's team returned, but the show also added climbers from Eric Simonson's IMG squad to the mix too.

All of this was well known before the show began airing, and it all seemed rather promising, but that was because I kept thinking of the possibilities in reference to the previous two seasons. I thought it would be great to see an in depth, multi-episode show centered around the very different approach to the South Side, with two teams giving us plenty to watch. What we got instead was Everest: Beyond The Limit Lite, a show lacking the depth and focus of the previous seasons, and in many ways it seems that Discovery gave up on the program before it ever aired.

I remarked in a previous post on this blog that it was disturbing that Discovery did little in the way of promotion for the show. I could barely find any reference to it on their website, and debuting the show during the week before Christmas and New Year seems like ratings suicide. Looking at what we ended up getting, I think that was a fairly accurate assessment. I can't imagine fans of the previous two seasons being satisfied with what we've been given this year.

For example, in seasons past, we really got to know the climbers well over a series of episodes that showed them making the entire climb, including acclimatization treks up to each of the established camps on the mountain. Watching this season it seems that a climb up Everest is merely five days of incredibly challenging climbing, rather than the month plus spent preparing for a summit bid. The producers of the show really glossed over the process, focusing instead on a different climber or two each episode who are making their assault on the summit, all the while the narrating reminding us that they are moving into the most dangerous part of the mountain. We're suppose to forget that it is a different "most dangerous part of the mountain" than the last time they mentioned it.

I will commend the show for it's solid camera work, which seemed to get better as the episodes went along. It also did a decent job of breaking down the climb into easy to understand sections, accurately indicating when climbers were on the Lhotse Face, the Yellow Band, or the Hillary Step. They also did a fine job of explaining the basics of mountaineering to a mainstream audience, even if they were a bit overly dramatic at times.

Where the show really dropped the ball for me was with building any kind of chemistry with the climbers, which was previously a strength in seasons past. In Seasons 1 and 2, you really got to know, and care about, the climbers, as you watched them work really hard to go after their goal of the summit. This year, it was a brief introduction of the climbers, and then off they'd go on their climb, with little regard to connecting with the audience.

It's a shame that the show has fallen to this level. While it is still interesting to watch, it is a far cry of what it once was, and has pretty much left me disappointed in the end product. I very much doubt we'll see a Season 4.

Everest: Beyond The Limit Season 3 Schedule Clarified

Leave it to Alan Arnette to figure out what's going on with Discovery Channel's series Everest: Beyond The Limit. Last week I posted a story with the news that it seemed the show was set to begin airing on December 30th and would consist of five episodes. This info came from Tigress Productions website, and seemed to counter rumors that show would begin on Sunday, Dec. 27th.

Turns out, both dates were right, but for different reasons. Alan says in this blog post, that the show will air on both the 27th and 30th, and all five episodes will be broadcast on those two days. It seems episodes 1-3 will be shown on the 27th, beginning at 8 PM Eastern Time. Then on Wednesday the 30th, episodes 4 and 5 will be broadcast, bringing the show to a very quick end. Here's what we can expect to see on those episodes according to Alan:

Episode One covers early trips through the ice fall, David Tait’s summit with the rope fixing team and the ice fall avalanche that killed the Sherpa.
Episode Two concentrates on John Golden’s summit attempt with IMG
Episode Three covers the main IMG team summit on May 20
Episode Four is the first Himex summits on May 21
Episode Five is the second Himex summits on May 23

This is very interesting news for a number of reasons. First, and foremost, I know fans of the show have been waiting for news for some time, and I think it's quite odd that two weeks out, we're still waiting for Discovery to start promoting the show. I also think it's odd that there are only five episodes, and that they are all going to be shown in rapid fire succession, a far cry from years past when the show went on for weeks, and was accompanied by another show called "After the Climb" that broke down in more detail the events that transpired on the mountain, usually with the climbers giving us the scoop. I know that Beyond The Limit has a nice following for Discovery, and after a two year hiatus, you'd think they'd be pushing it's return and milking it for all it's worth. After all, this will be a different show, with new climbers, on a different side of the mountain. It sort of seems like the show is being sent out to die, airing through the holidays, a traditionally slow time for television, without much fan fare.

I guess we should take what we can get and enjoy it for what it is.

Update: The Discovery Channel Schedule does go out to Dec. 27th now, and the show is indeed listed for that Sunday. The three episodes listed for airing that night have the following descriptions:

Episode 1: Everest gives up it's first summit of the season, and takes its first victim.
Episode 2: After a knee injury ended his football career, John Golden overcomes a disability to attempt the highest goal on earth.
Episode 3: Astronaut Scott Parazynski attempts to be the first spacewalker on the summit of Everest.

There you go. Set the DVR's now!

Everest: Beyond The Limit Season 3 News

I know a lot of people have been waiting for news on the third season of Everest: Beyond The Limit, which is said to be coming soon on the Discovery Channel. Like you, I've been wondering when we would receive more information on the show, and when it would begin airing, and so far, Discovery has been mum about any of the details.

Thankfully, Tigress Productions, the U.K. based company that produced the show for Discovery, has a bit more information on their website, where they claim that it will begin broadcasting on December 30th and that they have created five episodes for the 2009 season. This contradicts some of the information I had heard, which seemed to indicate that the show would begin airing on December 27th with a two hour premiere. I'm also a bit surprised at the season being just five episodes in length, as in years past, it has been substantially longer.

Two things to keep in mind with this information however, is that the start date listed could be for the U.K., and since they have different approaches to broadcasting there, the 60 minute episodes listed on their Tigress website could be cut for the BBC, which wouldn't include commercials during the show itself. Cut those five episodes down to 40 minutes each, roughly the length of an American show, sans commercials, and you have at least two more full episodes on top of the five listed. Pure speculation on my part, but a possibility none the less. Of course, Discovery could make it easier on us by just letting us know more about the show.

The third season of the show will follow both the Himex team, led by show favorite Russell Brice, as well as Eric Simonson's International Mountain Guides team, as they go for the summit from the South Side of the mountain, a first for the show, which has always been set on the North Side in Tibet in the past. For fans of the past seasons, it should be fun to watch, as we'll get to see a completely different approach to the climb. For instance, while the North does have plenty of challenges, the South has the dreaded Khumbu Icefalls for climbers to contend with. Can't wait to catch it all.