Imagine that you're blindfolded,
earmuffed, and flown by chartered jet (with blacked-out windows) to some
distant part of the world. Once there, you're transported in a military
helicopter (still blindfolded) to another spot and dropped with a stranger,
a cameraperson, and minimal supplies and told to survive. What would you
need to know so that you could travel through multiple, unknown terrains
to reach a final destination weeks away? Where could you get the training
needed to survive?
Well, for the 12 contestants in NBC's reality-show LOST, the answer
was BOSS. In July, 2001, each set of the show's contestants were flown to
our basecamp in Southern Utah for a 2-day crash-course in worldwide survival.
The curriculum included a wide range of skills: human physiology and thermodynamics,
modern shelters and natural shelter options, water location and purification,
cultural and animal risks around the world, as well as how to deal with
stress in a crisis. BOSS president Josh Bernstein and senior instructor
Mike Ryan led the training at BOSS's Durfey Creek basecamp on Boulder Mountain.
"It was tough to get the contestants up to speed, since some of them
have never camped or flown anywhere before," said Bernstein. "The
learning curve was basically vertical, so we bombarded them with information
and walked them through a thought process which we felt would help them
anywhere in the world. Our goal was to give them the skills and confidence
to get through anything, from the Amazon to the Arctic."
While the show's success was
affected by the events of 9/11, all of the contestants made it home safely
and we were happy to have played a part in the adventure of LOST.