Snickersnack: I wonder why he was chosen for Chief Scout. Scouting isn't about wilderness survival.
Basically it's PR. Bear Grylls is a truly badass guy, in his composure rather than his survival skills. The guy's the youngest man to scale Everest, every Scout's dream. His practical skills are astounding. He is the perfect Scout. The Association hopes that having such an influential figure head will help bring in more adult leaders, which we're severely lacking. We've got 300,000 young members in Britain and only 90,000 adult volunteers. My group is really feeling the strain, so me and some of the other older Scouts are being 'prepared' for Leadership. They've even paid for our training already.
The decision to have camera crew and all was probably the Discovery Channel producers being pussies about his safety or something. If they documented his Everest climb he'd probably have come back down every night by helicopter to sleep at base camp.