Interview with Sam Ebeyer - Part 2

Here we go to continue our interview with Sam Ebeyer - as he tells us about his experience on the show, Out of the Wilds-Venezuela.

BMP: How did your relationships with others change or what did you learn about relating to others?

Sam: My relationships changed as our group grew in the context of relationship. That sort of experience made that group friends of mine for life. Earlier on, they were strangers but once we all got to know each other, the depth of mutual care and encouragement was pretty amazing. We started out as strangers and ended up being very close. I still keep in touch with Brad, Duz, and Beanie.

BMP: What piece of equipment helped you the most? Least?

The most useful piece of equipment was undoubtedly the machete. The applications in our setting were myriad. We needed that machete to do most things from clearing brush, to cutting branches for making camp, to splitting firewood. That heavy machete was undoubtedly the most valuable item we had. The magnesium and flint was pretty important as well. Fire is a big deal in the wilderness. The least helpful piece of equipment was the hammocks we carried around. They were cotton string hammocks that sucked up all of the water and moisture so they weighed 4 times as much when they were wet. We kept using them for bedding but I wish we would have ditched them much earlier or made a bunch of cord out of them. Everyone wanted to ditch them but felt like they couldn’t. If I could do it again, I would burn those hammocks.

BMP: What is your favorite location or scenery from the show?

Sam: The most amazing scenery was being on top of Roraima (a tepui) near angel falls. We were at 10,000 feet and we could see for miles all around. It felt like another world. That location was responsible for the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. I understood the “why” behind that almost immediately. It felt like an alien place. There was an amazing waterfall as well.

BMP: What challenged you the most during the show?

Sam: What challenged me the most from the show was the calorie deficit. I lost 32 lbs in a few weeks. We burned 6-10,000 calories a day hiking with 60-70lbs at altitude and lived off of the land. If we ate a few hundred calories each day, I would be surprised. There simply wasn’t any food and we felt it. Lethargy, irritability, fatigue, and constantly being rained on/crossing rivers. These were par for the course and a constant hurdle particularly while dealing with a group of people struggling the same way. Relational aspects proved difficult as we starved.

Photographer - Luke Terbieten

 

This ends Part 2 - more to come...