Alone in the Wild – Day 38: Ed Recalls Advice From Polar Explorer Rune Gjeldnes

ByMary Anne Potts

Published August 11, 2009

2 min read

Text by Annie Hay

Here's the latest from Ed Wardle, who voluntarily wound up in the Canadian Yukon, alone, unsupported, for three months for the National Geographic Channel's new TV show,

Alone in the Wild

. Currently just 38 days into his journey, the show is revolutionizing reality television. Gone are the days of waiting for the show to tell you what happens, now you can keep track on your own time. By logging onto the website before the show airs, viewers can follow his one-way tweets and see short videos he has made from the field.

Regular status updates also keep us in the know. At 38 days, 4 hours, and 42 minutes, his status checked out “green” for “all is well,” and a recent tweet announced, “thought I stumbled on a snoring bear then saw moose in creek 20 yards away, growling. Then saw wolves circling. Wolves saw me and vanished into woods. Wow."

And, there isn't any of that "pretend survival" stuff that's sweeping the reality survival TV world these days. Ed sleeps in the wilderness—not a hotel room like, ehem, some of those other guys—and documents his struggles completely on his own, using motion-sensor and wearable cameras. His video is then picked up at a predetermined location by camera crews, and posted on his website for all of us back at home, sitting in our 9-5's, to have something to daydream about.