Andrew Price, an extreme survivalist and TV professional from Swansea, has become the first Welshman to feature in the hit series Alone: World Championship. He has recounted a terrifying moment when a grizzly bear came close to his tent while he was asleep.
The show pits ten elite survivalists from seven countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand, against each other for a $500,000 prize. The season is set in the Arctic Circle along the Richardson Mountains in Canada's Northwest Territories and launches on August 13 on Sky History UK.
Grizzly bear incident caught on camera
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Andrew, 51, described the moment a grizzly bear approached his camp. He had set up a trail camera near his cooking area, about 100 yards from where he was sleeping, and had hung a rabbit head and skin from a tripod.
"In the middle of the night, well, I'm assuming it was in the middle of the night, it's hard to tell on the camera, but a grizzly bear comes along, tries to get the rabbit off this tripod, knocks the tripod over, and then sort of leaps back, startled," he said. "This is all happening while I was asleep, just a short distance away."
He added: "The bear's face, I mean, the camera footage isn't particularly clear, but you can definitely see this poor bear is just sort of sniffing around, knocks this tripod sticks over, and is just really startled by it... I didn't expect that to happen. So he [the bear] then proceeds to drag it around in indignation. It's quite a moment!"
Why Andrew took on the challenge
Andrew said his friend, Dr. Theresa Emmerich Kamper from Exeter, England, who appeared on series eight, inspired him to take part. "A friend of mine, Theresa, was on and we were chatting at The Bushcraft Show a little while ago, and I was just like, wow!" he said.
He joked: "Well, apart from the $500,000 prize, that was definitely one of the callings." He also noted the opportunity to live entirely off the land with a production safety net: "It just sounded like the ultimate challenge for anyone that's interested in what we do."
Filming himself proved a challenge
Andrew struggled with having to film himself, as contestants have no camera crews. "I really don't like filming myself, because I've been making YouTube videos for years, I'm working in television, and I've always had someone filming me," he said.
"Surviving is a challenge in itself, but then when you're surviving and having to film while you're surviving, it's a pretty tough call," he added, teasing that "it's a gritty series".
Reflecting on the experience, Andrew noted how much he relied on technology, saying: "I think that was something that sort of stuck with me as something I was like, wow, I really thought I could just disconnect from all of this stuff and forget about it. But it didn't, it caught up with me."
Alone: World Championship starts Thursday 13 August at 9pm on Sky HISTORY.
