OK, they must be running low on ideas for reality shows back in the US. I wonder how long this one will last.
Earlier this year, Matt Keating spent two weeks in the jungles of Panama where he was grabbed by vines, stabbed by thorns, bitten by insects, subjected to extreme heat, humidity, thirst, and hunger, all while being physically connected to another person.
Although the above sounds like a diabolical horror-movie plot, it was, in fact, how things are done on “Tethered,” the new reality program from the Discovery Channel. The Oct. 26 episode will feature the adventures of Keating, who owns and operates Badass Outdoors in downtown Littleton, and Jay Morrow, a bull rider from Wayland, Iowa.
As they worked to make their way out of the jungle to an extraction point, Keating and Morrow were co-joined, 24-7, by a six-foot tether around their waists, the presence of which, as can be expected, turned normal activities into exercises in extreme problem-solving creativity.Overall, said Keating during a recent interview, the experience was demanding, demeaning and, simply put, one of the most exciting, exhilarating things he has ever done.
Born and raised in Madison, Conn., Keating, 31, is a lifelong lover of literature and the outdoors.
After graduating from Daniel Hand High School, Keating and a like-minded friend hit the road on a mission to hike and photograph every national park in America. The trip helped propel Keating to Bennington College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychoanalysis. Keating then decided that he wanted to get a post-graduate degree and enrolled at Prescott College in Prescott, Ariz., where he wrote the curriculum for his eventual master’s degree in “wilderness literature.” He gradually got the feeling that the city around him was growing too fast and in a way that he didn’t like.
He broke out a giant map of the U.S. and picked Littleton, which he calls “the perfect mountain town that doesn’t know it is yet.”
Keating opened Badass Outdoors which, he noted proudly, offers “guide-quality technical gear,” all of which he personally tests before it goes on the store’s shelves.
With his writing background, Keating began penning what are now dozens of essays for Survival Quarterly Magazine and also making and posting how-to videos on YouTube. The combination of the two, Keating believes, eventually got him a call from the producers of “Tethered.”
Sarah Davies, who is the show’s executive producer, said the show “brings together some of the most valuable aspects of a successful reality program — teamwork, survival, conflict, humor — while also introducing to viewers the unexpected element of having two individuals physically bound together with a tether.”
Unlike the desert or mountains where you can see for long distances, in the jungle, Keating said, “you can’t see more than four-five feet in front of your face. It’s hot and humid to the point it’s almost hard to breathe.” Every time he raised his foot to move forward, Keating had to do some elaborate planning, knowing that as soon as his foot touched the ground, it would be instantly wrapped by vines, which was disconcerting, but at least less painful than getting stabbed by hollow thorns, which would cause running wounds.
In addition to the inhospitable flora, the fauna was also equally unaccommodating, Keating said, recalling that ants would scamper up inside his and Morrow’s clothes and wait until they reached a critical mass before they launched a coordinated attack. The bites, he said, felt like they were being administered by “a sadistic 10-year old with a safety pin in each hand.”
Even though he and Morrow were expected to argue and bicker because of their many differences, their discussion of those differences, said Keating, quickly became a much sought-after, soothing balm at the end of a grueling day.
“Where Jay and I should have become enemies, we became pals,” said Keating, who said the men agreed that Morrow will come to New Hampshire this winter to do some hiking in the White Mountains and Keating will travel west to see Morrow compete in a rodeo.
I can think of quite a few cities that are Littleton. It would be nice to know the state.