Bear Grylls Rock Climbing Commercial for Degree is Fake and Insulting (screenshots)
Okay, so this video came up in my facebook feed today (thank you Natalie and Stone Age) and I couldn’t help jumping all over it. Bear Grylls may have apologized for his motel living fake show in the past, but shooting a rock climbing video, talking about how climbing is how he clears his head? At least do your research and shoot it right! (Degree should up their budget). So if you haven’t see the video, here it is. See how much fail you can spot (and let us know in the comments!)
Degree Men Presents / Masters of Movement / Bear Grylls (Rock Climbing)
THE VIDEO IS FAKE (and really badly done)
Okay, so most commercials are fake, but most do a better job of appearing to look real. He may have gotten away with faking wilderness survival (since not that many people are into weekend wilderness survival) but the climbing community is both large and keen on the details. Take for Instance this first freeze frame.
Lead Climbing with a Top Rope
Now I have nothing against top rope climbing. In fact I personally lack the cajones to push into really hard lead climbing. You can see his yellow rope hanging below (super run out since he didn’t clip that piece he placed a few seconds prior). Also note his feet are not even in the crack and he appears to he hanging by a single hand jam. Maybe if he had actual climbing shoes on, he would be able to get some toe jams in! (oh… but what shoes is he wearing?
Bear… put on some climbing shoes please.
Yup, Bear decided that he is bad ass enough to use approach shoes for his route. Not a bad pair of approach shoes, but still.. get a nice pair of Five Ten or even better, Mythos by La Sportiva (crack climbers rejoice). If he is short on cash, he could always use his Citibank card to buy some shoes. I guess on a top rope it doesn’t matter that much though.
Clipping in to your rope, via a wired gate on the belay loop…. (my favorite)
It bugs me enough when people use a locking carabiner at the gym because they are to lazy to retie the figure 8. Outdoors on “lead” to put the full force of your fall on the belay loop and then on a wired gate? Come on! This is actually dangerous. I guess its a good thing he had that top rope set up.
More Top Rope shots if you missed them.
Everything is fake in Hollywood… so why do you care?
Last fall, I got txts from three different climbing friends telling me that Citibank had Alex Honnold and Katie Brown (Who I am madly in love with) in a commercial. Check it out.
See, you don’t have to be fake! First of all, they hired real climbers, and let they do what they love doing. What I like most about it is that they actually payed the climbers! (Not a ton of money in pro climbing) Plus, I would much rather watch Katie climb than Bear (and I know my female counterparts would agree about Alex).
Okay, did I miss anything? Am I going overboard on this? Let me know, leave a comment, bitch away or go buy a stick of degree…. I’ll stick to old spice, patchouli doesn’t quite do it. Oh and share this on facebook/twitter/Google or what ever your poison may be.
Climb On
- Julian
PS. Katie, you can contact me through the site, or twitter, or facebook… any of those ways works.
So much negative energy, why do you give a shit? lol.
I think mostly because they are toting him as a master of climbing, which it would be one thing if he was an average climber, and I wouldn’t mind so much. But the blatant lack of attention to detail is just beyond me. I have a lot more respect for companies that spend money on athletes in a sport, than fakes adventure men.
this is a commercial for christ sakes, don’t make such a big deal out of it…And he’s achieved more than you ever will, so stop hating him and use him as an inspiration.
He has definitely received more money and notoriety than I ever will, but I wouldn’t use him as inspiration. I think that is my issue here. There are a plethora of people to draw inspiration from when it comes both to climbing and other outdoor adventures, why parade him around on TV.
I don’t agree with the other commenters. There are many reasons why the truth is important and bullshitters should be exposed. Nicely done!!
Agreed, Mike. Showing this as some kind of mad trad master is just dangerous when there are people who buy into this, and could hurt themselves trying to replicate what he’s supposedly doing with ease. I mean ‘lead’ climbing with no belayer and wearing the wrong shoes? Why bother with a rope at all, right? Just nonsense.
Here is my list:
1. That is a really short rope… like way to short. A standard climbing rope is about 200ft long, his looks to be about 40?
2. He does not have a bleayer, ever…
3. He ties in to climb with a different rope than the one he is carrying?
4. He tops out without a rope, and with no gear in the crack behind him?
5. He is climbing in sneakers!?
6. Before he “starts climbing” It looks like he is tying into a cam. This would almost make sense if he were belaying himself up a single pitch, but every route on that rock is 3-4 pitches…
7. He never has more than a few pieces of pro on him? He would easily need a dozen.
8. At 1:30 you can see some stray dark line hanging down the crack…
9. At 1:24 you can for sure see he has placed no gear for quite some time…
10. At 1:43 you can see his top rope…
11. This is a 5.9 C2. That means he would be aiding at some point. The point here is he doesn’t have any of the proper equipment for this.
12. He is apparently trying to smear on the either side of the crack on perfectly blank walls. A crack climbing tip for the “master of movement”…use the crack.
The verdict.
They filmed this yokel scrambling up the base, flew him to the top with a helicopter, and lowered him over the edge to top rope the last 50 feet. I guess that counts as summitting?
Nice George with the detailed summary! (I was having to much fun in photoshop with the pink hat)