A tragic tale comes to us from Arizona this week, where a man was found dead Monday evening, still hanging in his climbing harness on a mountain south of Tucson. He had apparently been attacked by bees while rock climbing and stung hundreds of times, according to authorities.

Steven Wallace Johnson, 55, of Tucson, had been rappelling from a cliff on Mount Hopkins. He was an experienced hiker and climber who had gone to the mountain on Friday, said Lt. Raoul Rodriguez of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department. Johnson's dog was also attacked by the bees, and was found dead on top of the ridge from which Johnson was rappelling, Rodriguez said. The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of Johnson’s death, and determine whether it was a fall or the bees that killed him.

If you are fortunate enough to live within the native range of birch trees, then you have a lot of interesting survival options at your disposal. Birch can provide you with firewood and containers, and the right species of birch can even be turned into a tea and sweetener.

Fire
For friction fire building with birch, you can use the dead and dry branches for your drill and fire board. These materials are effective, but not quite as easy to use as willow or cedar. By far, the best fire related use of birch comes when you burn the papery curls as your fire starter. This birch paper is like a stepping stone between tinder and kindling. Whether wet or dry, these birch bark curls will burn strong, creating a black oily smoke. Any birch species that produces papery bark will be useable, but the white birch (aka paper birch) is the most effective. You’ll need an open flame like a match or lighter for best results in lighting the bark. Spark-based fire starting methods are not particularly effective for lighting the bark strips.

When you think about bow fishing, you might naturally jump to the idea of shooting harpoon-tipped arrows attached to a reel of line. Sure, that’s how most folks do it, but there’s another fish bow out there. This one isn’t for arrows, but in fact, it’s an improvised spool to store your fishing line.

My instinctive reaction to the headlined question is, “No, I don’t believe I want to see a wardrobe-less survivalist trying to do perform survival skills on a deserted island.” The whole thing stinks of gimmicks and exploitation.

But I had to make myself watch at least one episode of "Naked Castaway" (Sundays at 10 p.m. on Discovery) before I made my decision.