PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN STEPHENS

Home of the Brave
The Discovery Channel's Adventure Shows

NAMES Les Stroud, Mike Rowe, Sig Hansen, and Phil Harris

WHY THEM Whether it's Stroud coping with the world's harshest environments on Survivorman, Rowe tackling Dirty Jobs, or Alaskan king crab fishermen Hansen and Harris going after The Deadliest Catch, the quartet risk life, limb, and personal hygiene for our edutainment. (We'd have included Man vs. Wild's Bear Grylls in the photo, too, if he weren't climbing Everest!)

THE POWER OF ONE In addition to enduring extreme conditions in such locales as the freezing Canadian Arctic and the scorching canyonlands of Utah, Survivorman's Stroud also handles all the filming duties. Solo. ''You can't portray survival and have a crew,'' he says. ''How difficult would it be to resist having a bite of someone's Mars bar?''

HOLD ON TO THAT APPETITE On Dirty Jobs, Rowe investigates such ewww-inducing occupations as sewer inspecting and, in a forthcoming episode, snake wrangling. ''I had a python s--- on me,'' he says. ''When you're working your way through the lexicon of poo, if you can pull 'python' out of your pocket, you're pretty much going to trump the conversation.''

CRABS ARE MEANER THAN SNAKES Fishing for crab in the Bering Sea is known as the most dangerous way to make a living, something confirmed on Deadliest Catch. Three seamen perished when a ship capsized. But with the season lasting just weeks, there is little time for mourning. ''You plow on,'' says Hansen. ''It affects you later. You're there to fish.''

WILD YOUTH When Harris was just 17, he ''bulls---ted'' his way onto a boat and made around $130,000 in less than a month. What did he do with the dough? ''You want the honest answer? I bought a car, I bought a house, and I bought a couple of hookers.''

SECRET TALENT ''For short periods of time I can create the illusion of great competence,'' says Rowe. ''Ultimately, I have no real skill.''