With a $1,000,000 prize, yes, ONE MILLION DOLLAR prize on the table, this is the hottest and most realistic survival scenario ever on TV. The contestants have a 5 square mile area to reside in and get to take the following list of common items along with 10 custom items that follows.

Here is the common gear that each participant gets to bring.

1 pair of high-leg hunting boots
1 pair waterproof Arctic winter boots
1 T-shirt (short sleeved)
1 fleece/wool shirt
2 wool sweaters
6 pairs wool socks
2 hats (brimmed, wool, fur, Arctic or baseball)
2 buffs or neck gaiter (no balaclavas)
1 shemagh OR scarf
4 pairs of gloves (1 insulated, 1 leather work-style glove, 1 over mitt, 1 thin glove liner)
2 pairs of underwear/briefs
1 insulated parka-style jacket
2 pair of outdoor pants/bibs (can unzip into shorts)
1 pair of fully insulated or waterproof winter pants/bibs
1 waterproof un-insulated shell/Jacket
2 pairs of thermal underwear (long top and bottom)
1 pair of gaiters
1 leather belt (or synthetic equivalent)
1 toothbrush
1 pair of eyeglasses
1 personal photograph
10 Personal items (see below)

Here is what is known about what the contestants selected for their 10 items. Callie & Amos did not initially disclose their list, likely for strategic purposes, but from watching the show, we can determined what they chose. Later the information was found and updated as shown below.

Episode 1

Day 1

Shawn (wears glasses) finds his camera gear with deep bear claw marks and gets a porcupine with a bow for about 30 pounds of meat.

Joe sets up camp using his tarp & scouts around.

Joe gets a 1 lb squirrel by throwing a rock.

Shawn is using a saw to make a smoker for his porcupine & enjoys it in his tent. He also cooks some in his cast iron pot.

8PM 37 degrees

Shawn has his bow and is boldly going out in the dark to investigate what was messing with his cook pot.

Day 2

Kielyn is setting 7 wire snares and looks to have a decent tarp shelter, but open and cold.

Got a 6 pound rabbit in a snare trap and started crying. She is obviously weak when it comes to harvesting your own wild food.

Day 3

Roland has an open tarp shelter and is eating some ants that were in his fire wood. Scouting around, he found a lot of fishing line. He missed an opportunity to harvest a badger because he was scouting without his bow (not smart).

Shawn is worried about bears coming back as he turns in for the night, so he is sleeping with his air horn.

Day 4

38 degrees at 9 AM and Joe is bathing despite the freezing cold water before foraging for berries and coral fungus. He sees a bear late in the evening, apparently heading to his camp and boldly moves toward the bear, running him off.

Day 5

Kielyn is waking up about 9:12 AM and starts working to finalize her seven pole pitch shelter

Day 6

9:42 AM Kielyn continues building a log wall for her shelter, finishing her first 6 lb rabbit for dinner.

Day 7

Kielyn continues working on her shelter and has another 6 lb rabbit hanging nearby apparently from her traps, making a lot of progress on a decent shelter.

Day 9

8:12 AM and Joe wakes up hungry and goes to check his snares, finding two rabbits of about 6 pounds each, 12 pounds total

Shawn is working on his shelter, a log cabin and doing well after getting off to a good start and bagging a porcupine on the first day. He finds and old boat while hunting, which he uses as a hot tub with moss which has anti-microbial properties. Shawn talks to himself a lot and sings which will help is attitude.

Back at camp, (2:04 PM) he can’t find his fire steel, beginning to worry as he can’t find it, since he last used it at the boat where he started a fire for his hot tub. It will be a huge set back if he doesn’t find it, so he taps out after not finding it by 5:45

At this point, we have about 30 pounds harvested with a bow, 24 pounds of rabbit with snare traps and 1 pound of squirrel with a rock.

9 People remain.

Episode 2

Day 5 We begin 5 days earlier, but watching different participants this time.

Roland is gathering berries, carrying them in a boot to fill and dry them in a hollow long and head for the area he wants to have a Permanent shelter from rock.

Day 6

Mark, sees large tracks near his camp. He spent 10 years in the marines, and teaches shooting and wilderness survival. He goes out to check his gill net and has 4 fish which brings his total to, 7 fish to date at about 5 lbs each for 35 lbs of food. His method of setting the net is unique, suspended out over the water on a long pole that can be pivoted in or out of the water.

Day 6

Callie, who didn’t disclose her pack list. Is over looking over the water, and excited to find a lucky rabbit foot. She has a pot, a bow, a hip knife, an axe, snare wire. She lives outside and teaches wilderness skills like hide tanning. Hunting with her bow, she sees 5 wolves. She decides to follow them as they move away, as she likes to eat many of the same things that wolves eat. They are also likely to deplete her area food supply. I’m certain she has a ferrous rod.

Correy is hunting with his bow and shoots a 1 pound squirrel with a good shot. He makes bows for a living, so that is not unexpected. He has a multi-tool that he is using to clean the squirrel.

Amos who didn't disclose his pack list is checking his gill net, and carrying his bow. He also has his net suspended using a long pole over hanging the water. He catches a Northern Pike that weighs about 7 pounds. He has a good debris shelter built. He is from El Salvador and learned survival there to feed his family. When he came to the US, he began teaching survival. He has a pot and uses a Leatherman Multi-tool to clean the fish. He sees a wolverine nearby, likely attracted to the small of his fish.

Day 7

Roland is still working with his rock shelter, built against an existing rock wall. He begins using his axe and saw to cut some large logs. He has a hip knife on his side. He saws down several large logs, notches them and locks the logs in place.

Day 8

Correy, is boiling water in his pot for drinking. He is building a log A Frame and believes his creativity will be his advantage. Carrying a log back to camp, he steps in a hole and hurts his left knee which had surgery in the past. His shelter is starting to take shape. He uses the tree tops to provide insulation.

Callie is laying in bed, wondering where to set up shelter, close to fire wood, water & food, but not coming up with any obvious choices. Here A frame shelter quickly takes shape in a windy area.

Mark is cooking fish head soup which has lots of fat. His gill net is delivering lots of food as he works on his small log cabin. He has a nice flat rock fire place inside his shelter that he built and hears crows cawing. He steps out to investigate and sees a black bear.

He decides to try and “bump” the bear off, by going towards him.

Day 10

Correy is making a gill net from paracord inter filaments. He is notching up his belt a notch smaller. He’s not seen a rabbit, or grouse and is having a problem with his injured knee. He wakes up each day hungry, hoping his gill net delivers some food, and it does, catching a 5 lb lake trout which he cooks in his pot. With the high productivity of the Gill net, not bringing one, is an obvious mistake.

Day 11

Callie is moving camp because it is so windy; this will require a lot of calories and could prove to be a serious mistake. He goes out hunting with her bow and gets a porcupine which looks to be below average in size for an estimated 20 pounds, but still and excellent and significant harvest. She demonstrates skill and experience in processing the animal with a small hunting knife. She processes him into a Dutch oven.

Correy, continues to harvest berries, but is concerned about his knee when he finds a huge hard fluid sack behind his knee, and grows concerned about his ability to stay in the game. He is unable to sleep tonight.

Day 12

Correy: The pain in his knee has increased so he decides to tap out, despite having a good shelter and doing fairly well. 8 Remain.

At the end of Episode 2, – 8 People remain. and we have about 51 pounds harvested with a bow, 47 pounds with a gill net and 24 pounds of rabbit with snare traps and 1 pound of squirrel with a rock.

8 People Remain

Episode 3

Day 8

We start, 4 days earlier with a different group of people.

Joel from South Africa, runs his own survival school, is exploring his area and finds a musk ox skeleton. It seems apparent that his beard seems to protect his skin from the buzzing bugs

Day 9

Kielyn, has her gill net out with zero success and is trying to fish with a hand line, without any success. Her snare traps have been successful, but she needs fat from fish. So she goes exploring for a better fishing site. She has a nice cabin built, but must start over now.

Keith is building his shelter and combing his long tangled hair, which is source of protection against bugs. He has been hunting every day and has shot a 1 lb squirrel and a 7 lb grouse with his bow. With feathers, he can make additional arrows. Hunting, he sees moose tracks and is counting on big game for his hundred day ticket. He shoots another 1 lb squirrel for dinner, then uses the guts for fish bait.

Kielyn finds a better looking fishing spot about 1 mile away and begins to fish with her hand line. In hindsight, good fishing waters might have been considered in setting up her camp. She catches a fish, but loses it before she can get it in. Using barb-less hooks makes it really hard to catch fish especially if they don't swallow the hook and you don’t keep your line tight.

Day 10

Kielyn is back fishing, without any success. Walking the shore, she sees a huge moose, 20 yards away, but doesn’t have her bow, which just proved to be a huge game changer mistake. He sees her and begins swimming away. She makes a moose call and he swims back to her briefly before swimming away.

Joel is salvaging the musk ox skull and horns as a camp decoration. He has caught 5 fish in his gill net so far and goes to check it again. Using a pole suspended over the water, he pulls in another fish, a white fish, which can reach 23 pounds, but this is a small one, at about 8 pounds. Along with his 5 other fish, likely of similar weight for 40 lbs of fish from his gill net. This is an excellent catch, but could be exhausting the fish population in his area.

Day 11

Amos wakens and stretches and checks is productive gill net (caught Day 6, 8, 9 & 10 for 11 total fish reported), including one today, a pike about 7 pounds, with the others likely the same size, for about 77 lbs of fish from his gill net. He has 10 pounds of smoked fish saved (probably 15lbs before smoking) and suspended in a tree. This would suggest that he has consumed 62 lbs of fish in 11 days, or 5.6 lbs per day. This is a bit hard to believe, but in this environment, it is possible. IF true, Amos has a substantial food advantage over the other contestants, but may soon exhaust his area fish supply. Amos says that he is eating well and not hungry. While eating dinner, he hears a wolverine outside his cabin. Taking his bow, he goes out to look.

Day 12

Joe is picking and eating berries, before returning to his meager tarp shelter, he begins building a log A Frame Shelter. He has focused on food so far and is staring his shelter now. He uses notches and a dove tail interlock to build his A Frame, a solid construction method, and begins layering it with logs.

Day 13

Joel is talking to his musk ox skull, much like crazy Tom Hanks and Wilson on Cast Away, which may have kept him from going totally crazy. Chopping logs, he begins building a ladder to get up to his food Cache platform (Labaz) like Jordan from Season 6. Standing on his ladder, he is unnecessarily topping the trees, adding risk and wasting calories, when one of the tree tops knocks him down, but he is uninjured. Upon completion, he puts his food on it.

Day 14

Roland is setting and checking snare traps and catches a 1 lb squirrel in a snare trap on a pole, and eats the dripping blood which can carry disease. Skinning the squirrel, he observes the inside of the hide is white, while the stomach is blue, suggesting winter is near. His massive saw is used for cutting huge logs to build a very strong duty shelter; so strong that he can even walk on the roof. This appears to be the best shelter in the competition, that clearly has the potential to last 100 days. But it has consumed a lot of time and calories, and limited his time harvesting food. IF he can get past this, he has a good chance to win.

Keith is building bone ear rings and using a knife in a dangerous way that could cut his leg. Checking his fishing lines, he has a fish on one and nearly lost a nice lake trout weighting about 15 pounds.

Day 15

Joe is stretches and warms up before heading out to check his snare traps he set the night before. He is hungry and finds nothing in either snare. He finds a squirrel hiding in a hole under a rock and tries to fish him out with a sharp stick, but he escaped when he left to get a bigger stick. His winter shelter is progressing slowly

Day 16

Roland is eating fire weed root and working to build his food store by putting some in his rock shelter holes. Limited success with his gill net, which he was depending heavily on, leads him to move it to another location.

Nobody tapped out during this episode, so 8 still remain.

At this point, we have about 60 pounds harvested with a bow, a remarkable 164 pounds with a gill net and 25 pounds of food (almost all rabbits) with snare traps, 15 pounds with a fishing line and 1 pound of squirrel with a rock.

With 265 pounds of meat harvested, this is over 29 pounds per contestant and about 1.8 lbs per day on average.

At approximately 600 calories per pound of meat, this only 1,100 calories per day on average; i.e. not sustainable. The top performer, Amos is reportedly harvesting about 2,800 calories per day. While even this is a low calorie intake in such harsh conditions, it may be sustainable for 100 days, especially since he has a dried store saved for leaner times.

8 People Remain

Episode 4

Day 17

9:58 AM

Mark is checking his gill net and harvesting two large Lake Trout, likely weighing 10 pounds. The Show tells us Mark has caught 26 fish up to this point. At an average of 7 lbs. each, this is 161 lbs. of fish he has caught in his gill net. (including previous 35 lbs.). He is cutting using his knife & combing his short hair with a rough wooden comb, as it is getting in his eyes. His shelter looks a bit rough but cozy with a solid fire place and drying rack with 18 fish dried. Food for Mark has been no problem. He begins building an additional drying rack to keep up. He is using his copper snare wire to build it.

Keith (2:16 PM) has a sign over his shelter, naming it “Ramshackle North” as begins grinding a caribou bone tattoo needle, and obvious waste of time, and if used, and unnecessary risk of infection. He makes ink with crow berries and charcoal and begins to tattoo his leg with A 7 for Alone Season 7. He then begins to work on his gill net made from para cord. At 17 days, he finishes & sets it. He seems to be wasting a lot of time with signs, tattoos and totally unnecessary things. I would say his odds are more than 1,000 to 1 to win this competition. He says that he has caught only 1 fish so far with his hand line (not this episode).

Day 18

10:07 Callie works on building another shelter. It is very basic at this point and behind all the other contestants. Her chances seem very slim at this point, as she is hungry and way behind other contestants on shelter. Checking her snare traps, she is excited at 11:31 to find that she has caught a rabbit (est 6 lbs.) in one of her snare traps. Watching her skin & gut her rabbit, it probably only dresses out at 4 pounds, but I’ll stick with the 6 lbs. estimate for consistency.

3:22 PM, Joel got 2 rabbits (12 lbs.) with his Bow. He gives lessons on hunting, advising not to “stalk” rabbits. Instead, walk round like a grass eater and do not make eye contact. Pattern the movements of animals he suggests. Cooking his rabbits in a pot, he indicates he is eating like a King.

Day19

10:23 AM

Mark is gathering tasteless reindeer moss (1% fat) and eating it from a pot. Eating so much fish is disrupting his bowl movements, demonstrating the importance of diet diversity. He has about “80 pounds” of dried fat rich fish stored at this point. He is focusing on finding plants to add diversity to his diet. He is foraging for plant foods, especially blueberries and their roots because they can help regulate the digestive track with their high fiber content. He finds multiple piles of bear scat and sees a bear in the distance (at 11:46), running away. Every time he leaves, the bear comes to his berry patch. He plans to hunt the bear with his bow for food. He hides on the ground and waits. I would think a tree would provide better visibility and add an element of safety, but also discomfort.

2:13 PM

We find Keith on his peninsula checking his recently made gill net, which is empty. Food is a problem, and he is feeling light headed as he eats Rock tripe, an edible lichen, traditionally only used in survival situations. There are reports of George Washington’s troops eating this to survive the winter at Valley Forge. He cooks it in a rusty can before eating it and encourages viewers to try a bite.

Day 20

7:47 AM and Joel is waking up after dreaming about social events, a variety of foods & his son. He begins to work on his A Frame Log Shelter when a fly gets stuck in his ear. Using his multi-tool, he tries to remove it at 10:47 AM. From the aerial view, we can see his camp is on a bay, with a creek in the distance behind him, that would likely make a good place for a gill net, but recognizing this from the ground would require a lot of time and calories to explore. He whips his head to try and get it out with centrifugal force, and uses his light to draw it out. Using a syringe from his provided first aid kit, he fills his ear with warm water to successfully wash the fly out.

Callie is having a staring contest with her camera. Being alone drives people to do silly things. She begins to make some clay pots. This is a very useful skill, but it is questionable as to whether it is a good use of her time and calories. Not doubt it helps occupy her mind under the circumstances, and the 2-quart capacity of the allowed pot is limited.

Day 21

10:51

Keith is discussing tapping out and trying to rationalize it. He pretends to call as if to tap out & orders a pizza with double cheese before going to check his snare traps. He is obviously struggling, but his determination and character come through this time, but can only carry him so long. He finds a 1 lb. squirrel in one of his snare traps.

Day 22

8:05 AM Roland is noticing the sound of total silence, as he goes to check his gill net to find two fish, a lake trout and a white fish for about 12 pounds.

9:12 AM Keith is having stomach cramps as he tries to finish his squirrel soup and sits on a camp chair that he obviously constructed. He throws up what he just consumed.

10:27 AM and Keith is ill, possibly did not cook his squirrel well enough. An hour later, he is tapping out, which is not unexpected.

Recap: During this episode we see Mark cutting his own hair. Callie is behind from changing her shelter location, but her snare traps have been more successful than most. Roland finally gets some fish, while Mark is eating too much fish, and not enough fiber. Joel struggled with a fly going in to and flying around in his inner ear. Callie is making clay pots to supplement her one 2-quart pot. Keith shows us the safety gear that must be carried everywhere you go, including multiple cameras, a tripod, tracking devices and a large first aid back pack. Each contestant agrees is it a lot to carry and a burden. Keith tells about what happens after you tap out & the medical attention you receive.

At this point, we have about 72 pounds of meat harvested with a bow, a remarkable 302 pounds with a gill net after we learn that Mark has caught 26 fish and has 80 pounds smoked, and 32 pounds of meat with snare traps, 15 pounds with a fishing line and 1 pound of squirrel with a rock.

7 People Remain

Episode 5

Day 23

9:52

Roland apparently has some water leaks in his shelter due to a very hard rain, and he pulled his net to prevent losing it. Now he debates putting his net back out.

11:37

Joe is shaving his whiskers and working on his shelter, which is still way behind the others, before going off to check his snares. He finds that he caught a 6 lb. rabbit, but something has chewed his head off. He finds another 4 lb rabbit in a trap also partially eaten up, possibly by a fox. He is late checking his traps and should probably have been doing it a daylight, but getting enough sleep is also an important consideration.

Day 24

8:32 AM

Joel is carving his story on a stick. Perhaps this is something that helps his sanity, but is otherwise a waste of time. He begins making a chair with a head rest adding comfort

12:58

Roland is eating something from his pot before going to set his gill net again, which is a difficult task. He doesn’t have a very good fishing spot.

2:09 PM

Roland sees a bear in the distance looking straight toward him, and begins to stalk him, trying to get up wind, in hopes of getting a shot at him with his bow. 4:15 Roland is still hunting bear.

5:12

Kielyn is working on personal hygiene, including cutting her hair for some reason. She checks her snares, carrying her bow with her to hunt along the way… a good practice. 5:43, she sees and shoots a 6 lb rabbit with her bow. Cooking it, she struggles with smoke in her cabin; perhaps she needed a fire place with a chimney.

Day 25

9:12 AM

Callie is sitting on a stump on the ridge, overlooking the water before digging up rocks to make a fire place. She stacks a lot of large rocks to make nice fire place, sealing the cracks with clay.

At this point, we are ¼ of the way to the 100 day challenge and all the contestants are struggling in one way or another.

Day 26

8:16

Joe is laying in his minimalist a frame tarp shelter which is noisy in the wind. He heads to the water to try and catch some fish using a hand line. He catches a fish about 11:00 AM that comes off the hook, but he jumps down and pulls in a huge lake trout with his hands that is as long as his leg and probably weighing probably 30 lbs.

Kielyn is building a chimney to help draw the smoke out. Her fire place is high risk of catching her shelter on fire, with sparks going up to her plastic tarp roof.

Joel is crafting some dice and playing with them, which is a waste of time at this point. Later, when they are snowed in, these would be good projects. He begins to make house shoes or slippers to wear in his cabin, using bark and rabbit hide. He begins to chop wood to make a mandolin and demonstrates good skill in doing so but I would say at this point, his chances of winning are decreasing with every project like these, although his spirits are good and he is unlikely to tap out from loneliness, but rather from limited food.

Day 27

9:23 AM

Callie is talking and you can see the frost as she speaks. She continues to work on her nice fire place.

3:21 PM

We see Amos, which is rare. He found an old can of fish, but it is rotten. He is catching fish every day in his net and has enough to last for a month. His gill net has washed away from the shore, but he is able to hook it with a stick and pull it in. He has a good flat place to fish from, but has no fish in his net today.

We see ice in some small pools of water, as the temperature is 33 degrees during the day.

8:37 shows snow falling as Amos is in his shelter looking for his Axe after being out trimming some branches off of some poles he was cutting. He goes out in the dark to look for it.

At 8:53, Amos continues looking for his Axe but gets too cold as dark sets in and returns to his cabin.

Day 28

9:42 and the wind is blowing hard as Amos wakes up to look for his Axe. The ground is partially covered with snow and will soon be fully covered, so he must find his axe today. He finds in laying on the ground. His lesson here is to keep up with your important tools.

Day 29

8:42

Roland finds nothing in his gill net so he hunts and picks some cranberries as he returns to camp, he sees a Musk Ox and takes a shot at it with his Bow from a long way off, but the episode ends before we see if he hit or missed it.

In this episode, we see the wind picking up as winter blows in and becoming a nuisance and it is getting colder. We did not see the Gill nets catch anything. Several are starting to hunt for larger game. Surviving 100 days will surely require a large kill like a bear, a moose, or a musk ox, and much more.

At this point, we have about 78 pounds harvested with a bow, a remarkable 302 pounds with a gill net and 34 pounds of meat with snare traps, 45 pounds with a fishing line and 1 pound of squirrel with a rock.

Episode 6

7 Remain

Day 29

11:48 AM

Roland hits an 800 lb musk ox at about 35 yards with his bow and last arrow. Watching the musk ox for 3 hours, sees him get up after laying down from his injury. Roland approaches the musk ox and stabs it with his knife several times before killing it. But he only has a few hours before dark to process it, so he guts it and takes the fatty organs back to his camp, after covering it with evergreen trees which will help cover the smell.

Day 30

3:05 AM

Amos has a bear visit at night.

9:03 AM

Amos builds a better door to his shelter to protect his food supply, but the door he builds will not come close to keeping a bear out. He has been catching fish most every day in his gill net. Going to check his gill net, it is gone; washed away.

11:15 AM

Roland is heading back to his musk ox kill. He works all day and gets it cut up and carries each part away from the kill site to cache it for the night.

Day 31

9:46

Mark is storing some fish up in the air to protect it from predators and then sings around his fire. The temperature is 31 (F) degrees Fahrenheit as he goes to check his gill net and finds it empty. He went from 3-4 fish per day to none suddenly. Realizing the fish move deeper as it gets colder, he sets his net deeper…. Clever.

Day 31

11:37

Kielyn begins working on a raft using a barrel she found, to go fishing in deeper water. A risky decision that could result in tapping out, if she falls in the water

Day 32

9:06

Mark is taking a bath by soaking a sock in warm water before going out to check his gill net. Seeing bear scat, he hopes to hunt one for food. No fish today in his net. Returning to his food cache, all his fish are gone. Mark quickly goes from a solid position as a potential winner, to below average. He builds a stand to hunt bear from.

3:24

Joe is letting the noise from the wind get under his skin as he starts on his log cabin shelter, which is way behind the other contestants as his focus has been on food. As the rain starts, he retreats to his temporary tarp shelter which is leaking now, and blows in the wind and makes a lot of noise.

Day 33

9:02 AM

Joe continues working on his shelter moving his tarp over the log cabin wood A frame. It will be a solid shelter IF he lasts long enough to get it done.

Day 34

9:02 AM

Callie wakes up to a coat of snow on the ground, and looks forward to tracking the animals to snare trap them. Trapping has been her primary source of food.

9:54 AM Temperature: 30F

Roland is eating boiled musk ox heart. He heads off in the snow to his cache and sees bear tracks everywhere, only to find his kill remains have been raided, but his hidden cache is safe. He gets a couple of large quarters carried back to his shelter. He has a solid shelter and more food than all others, putting him in the top position for leading this even if he can secure his musk ox meat.

Amos is going to make another gill net after loosing his first one in choppy water. He quickly finishes it from paracord strands and sets it out.

Day 35

9:17 AM Temperature: 28 F

Kielyn is going fishing in her new raft, using rabbit guts for bait. The raft is shaky, but floats.

10:32

The raft is dangerous and not working out; it would need outriggers and a lot of additional work to make it usable. Past contestants that built boats did not realize any benefit what so ever from them, and one even fell in the freezing cold water and had to tap out, making boat building a bad idea (so far)… another Lesson Learned.

1:21

Amos is remembering his daughters second birthday today. Checking his newly made gill net, he has an 8 lb pike. Amos doesn’t spend much time videoing, which allows him to spend less calories lugging camera’s around and more time focusing on finding food. … another Lesson Learned.

2:56 PM

Roland is going to his musk ox cache to get the last two (of 5) loads he estimates as 120lbs each. As he gets near, he sees bear tracks, and then a bear. Bears not in hibernation are prone to be hungry and more dangerous.

At this point, we have about 678 pounds harvested with a bow, a remarkable 310 pounds with a gill net and 34 pounds of meat with snare traps, 45 pounds with a fishing line and 1 pound of squirrel with a rock. The bow skills demonstrated have been very good, hitting small game with remarkable accuracy.

Episode 7

Day 35

8:45

Mark is setting snare traps and showing us how well his shelter and supplies are set up, with fire wood, dried fish and more. He has a good set up and is in a strong position. Fresh snow helps with tracking, hunting and trapping. The last 5 days had been a challenge finding food. He is setting more snares, before checking his others and finding a rabbit has been stolen from his trap by a fox.

Day 36

8:38

Roland is in his dark rock house, after butchering his musk ox, and is processing the fatty testicles for food and the sack hide and he plans to eat from the horns to the hoofs. He eats the back strap.

11:07

Joel is clowning a bit near his gill net. He wants to make an eating bowl to use his pot more for boiling water, and begins to cut a tree for the wood. He has two weeks of fish fillets in his food cache. His legs are hurting as he carries his cut tree back to camp. He begins working to make his rectangular shape wood bowl, using his axe.

5:51, he begins burning his bowl out with hot coals.

10:31, he hears something and fears it is something after his food, so he goes out and finds a badger.

10:34, Joel is sees a wolverine after his food, so he find some of his food is missing about 10 pieces of fish, leaving him with very little (4 days worth), which he takes in his cabin.

Day 37

10:17

Roland puts some brain in his testicle pouch, and uses it on his gloves and hands and face like hand lotion. He heads off to build a meat crib, like a log cabin to protect his musk ox kill. I think they all underestimating the ability of wild animals to get in, especially bears. I would use my cache as bait near my cabin to kill a bear for food.

12:46 he is sawing trees and continues to build his crib. His structure is impressive, but I don’t believe it will stop a bear, wolverine or badger. His construction is interesting…

Day 38

10:18

Mark is combing his hair and is not recommending his diet except for fast results. Having lost a lot of food to a bear, he is struggling, and gathering reindeer moss to eat as he checks his trap lines and finds a fox caught.

11:18:

Mark sees a fox in his snare trap, but he is not allowed to kill them due to local regulations. So he releases him to steal food from his traps.. But he finds a large 6 lb rabbit in his next trap, an later a 5 lb white fish in his gill net.

3:11

Joel is looking to build an underground box in his shelter to store his fish. He feels that he is lacking electrolytes as he lines his box with ever green limbs and snow. He layers his fish and covers it with a metal plate he found and a rock. He begins to saw wood for his fire as the day wears on and we see him collapse and fall over with exhaustion. He has lost 22 lbs since day 1, has a good shelter an food stored. He needs to eat more food and store less. Store it as fat on his body instead.

Day 39

8:06

Kielyn is craving coffee and a croissant. Bow in hand she is hoping to find food and she hikes to check her snares. Lots of empty traps, but she sees a cow moose along the shore line and heads that way an looses site of it. She returns to her shelter and begins to cry.

2:11

Callie has a weasel raiding her shelter. She lets several ounces of meat get away. She won’t make it like that. She goes to check her traps at 17F degrees, and finds a 6 lb rabbit in a snare trap, an then a second 6 lb rabbit. Continuing, she finds a third, and a fourth for a total of 24lbs of rabbit from her snares on this one day.

Day 40

Joel is giving thanks for everything in some foreign language before returning to his shelter with a nice fire going. He had trouble sleeping last night as his legs are getting weaker. Even in his shelter, his breath is frosty. His energy is low and he talks about he is risking his safety, as he begins to rationalize tapping out. He makes the call and officially taps out, on Day 40, with dried fish in his storage box.

6 people remain

3:43

Mark is seeing snow driven wins as he looks as his family pictures. This likely makes him home sick and more inclined to tap out. He begins to carve a wooden toy horse for his son. This keeps his mind active as he sits in his shelter, but it also burns calories unnecessarily and risks cutting himself. Suddenly he notices his shelter is on fire. He is fighting it as the episode ends.

During this episode, the food supply begins to dry up as the wolverines begin to try and steal food more, despite using elevated structures, which do not seem to work in protecting their food.

The longer they are out there, the drier their shelter becomes, increasing the risk of fire.
Joel set up cans with rocks inside them as alarms to alert him to animals being present.

So far we have about 678 pounds harvested with a bow, a remarkable 315 pounds with a gill net and 64 pounds of meat with snare traps, 45 pounds with a fishing line and 1 pound of squirrel with a rock.

Episode 8

Day 40

6 Remain

7:48 PM

Mark’s shelter is on fire. He is battling it, but we can’t see much. Apparently soot built up and caught fire. Its 14 degrees F as we see Mark in his shelter, after saving it, but with no far Tomorrow he plans to fix his fire place with different materials this time.

Day 41

8:12 AM

We open with Mark by his rock fire place, talking about his son Matt. Half of his insulation is off from having caught fire. He is exhausted and uses his tarp to funnel his smoke out of his shelter.

12:07 PM

Joe seems lethargic before working to finish his shelter. It’s way behind, but very well built, at least the 20% of it that is complete. He has lost 15% of his body weight.

2:52 PM

Amos has made a walking stick for his baby and talking about her. Missing his family seems to be wearing on him. The ground is about 85% covered with snow. He has lost 30 pounds, which is surprising since he is supposed to have a good food supply. He is setting more snare, using a reverse warp and a knot that will close in. He sees fox tracks near his shelter and is concerned about his food supply.

7:39

Amos is working on a multi-point fishing type spear. We see the fox outside his shelter and he hears a (6 lb) rabbit in his snare, and goes out to check it.

8:03 PM

Amos scrambles to recover his rabbit before the fox gets it, and is successful, catching the rabbit about 5 hours after setting his first snare trap.

Day 42

9:24 AM

Callie greets us and then drools green spruce tree juice that she is using to clean her teeth. She has lost 20% of her weight. Off she goes to look for tracks, carrying her bow primitive wood with her. She sees porcupine tracks and wolf tracks along with it. The light even snow makes tracking easy, but she loses the tracks in a place with lots of rabbit tracks. She should have circled around where she saw the last tracks, in larger and larger circles trying to pick up the tracks again. Seeing all the tracks in this area, she plans to set more snares

12:13 PM

Amos begins to skin his rabbit and feels he has a good chance to win. Not gutting it, he took a health risk. Returning to his shelter, he sees a fox coming right toward him until it is only 10 yards away. The fox has no fear of him. Local laws prohibit killing the fox. I would have charged the fox growling loudly.

12:59 PM

After the fox lingers around him, Amos shoots him with a blunt arrow, and scares him away.

1:44 PM

Kielyn says 40 days is the longest she has been in the wilderness, but this time, she is alone. She heads of to check her traps (late in the day) as she is down to her last rabbit. She sees lynx tracks and finds a trapped rabbit eaten up. Waiting this late in the day to check her traps increases the risk of loosing her food to predators. She finds another trapped rabbit eaten up. She should have been up at the crack of dawn checking them. She is lonely and crying. Loosing her freshly trapped rabbits is demoralizing.

4:01 PM

Joe is having his sleeping bag zipper snagging… if he were using a military bag, he would not be having this problem. He checks his snares again and finds four (6 lb) Rabbits (24 lbs), two were still alive. He whacks them behind the head with a stick to kill them. He skins one and eats it about dark, when he hears a wolf and expresses concern about his safety. He is the only contestant who did NOT bring a bow and arrows, as he is not proficient with them.

Day 43

9:58

Joe is telling about his dream last night as we see he has two skinned rabbits and several un-skinned his rabbits. He is working on his shelter and his legs are becoming wobbly.

4:13 PM - 21F

Mark is sawing logs for fire wood, but questioning why he is doing this. He is hungry but he has food. He had a large fish fillet for breakfast and keeps eating. He is considering quitting, even with food stored up.

Day 44

10:21 AM

We see the boat coming to pick up someone who has tapped out. We see a hungry Callie looking broken, then Joe talking about quitting, despite having food, as the show breaks for commercials.

10:52

The boat is landing and Joe Taps Out on Day 44.

11:42

5 People Remain

Kielyn is in her shelter warming her hands and talking about the book The Lure of the Labrador Wild. She is low on energy but getting dressed and pushing on to check her traps. She finds three 6 lb rabbits (18 lbs) in her snares. With the snow showing where they travel, snares are delivering a lot of food where as we see nothing from the gill nets. Skinning the first rabbit she finds some fat on it.

3:18

Mark is talking about talking to himself, but yesterday was arguing with himself. He is doing this for Max, but the loneliness is wearing on him, so Mark also taps out on Day 44.

Day 44

4 Remain

4:48 PM

Callie is out checking snare traps, harvesting a 6 lb rabbit; a good idea right before dark. Wearing a porcupine skin, she says trick or treat… happy Halloween. Being alone is beginning to wear on her. She skins her rabbit and cooks the whole thing in a pot for dinner, talking about her family and ancestors as she warms her hands over an outside camp fire. This could prove to be a waste of fire wood, instead of using it to heat her shelter.

This episode we see more predators and although unlikely to pose any risk to the safety of the contestants, surely, they are a risk to their food supply.

Joe should have got a gill net in the water sooner, and built his shelter earlier while he still had the strength to do so, or built a lighter, easier shelter. We later find out that he had trichinosis, a serious medical infection usually from eating meat that is not cooked well, but could also be from eating moist uncooked plants, usually near the waters edge.

In Episode 8, a blanket of snow makes it much easier to see animal tracks and good places to set your snare traps and proves to be the only source of food this week. So now we still have 678 pounds of meat harvested with a bow, 315 pounds with a gill net, 45 pounds with a fishing line, 1 pound of squirrel with a rock, but we go from 64 to 112 pounds of food captured in a snare trap.

Perhaps a lesson is to focus on fishing before the snow falls, and then focus on snare traps afterward. That said, I would be looking for food or resources any time I travel and would still be snare trapping even some before the snow as it had delivered 64 pounds during the first 39 days, but 48 in the last 4 days after the snow. Diversity of diet is another reason to be pursuing more than one food source.

4 Remain after 44 days, so surviving for 100 days is looking like a long shot for anyone, except perhaps Roland, who has a solid shelter and 500 lbs of musk ox meat. At this point, he is clearly the odds on favorite to last the longest, although we did not see him during this episode.

Episode 9

Day 45 – 4 Remain in pursuit of the Million Dollar Prize money.