In the 11th episode of Alone Season 7, we go from 3 very tough survivalist to just one, who WINS 1 MILLION DOLLARS.
Before we get to the conclusion, you might want some background on what they carried in their packs, and what happened during the first 10 Episodes; if so, click HERE. You might want to read a summary of the Lessons Learned from mistakes made on the Alone Survival Show; if so, click HERE. Read on to hear about the 3 hour Episode 11, which concluded with a Million Dollar prize for staying 100 days.
Episode 11 (Final)
Day 64 – 3 Remain in pursuit of the Million Dollar
Prize.
10:32 AM – 16 F
Callie is remarking about the volume of snow that has been
falling for several days. She heads out
for fire wood as she checks her trap line. She is expected to burn 400 calories
per hour walking. Her traps are all
buried with snow, with nothing caught in them.
She has lost 10 pounds in the past 2 weeks.
She has not decided whether to eat the diseased porcupine
meat or not. Freezing the meet, followed
by thorough cooking (well done) should minimize the risk.
Day 65
12:11 AM
We see Kielyn digging and transporting gravel out of her
shelter, as it acts an obstruction in draft tubes causing fire pits to draw air
poorly. It seems much better afterward.
9:12 AM
Kielyn has a nose pain, likely from inflammation after
smelling all the smoke. Then she heads
out on the ice to fish when she sees fox tracks and the fox out on the
ice. She is determined to push on, so
that a woman will win.
10:55 and she is fishing.
11:26, she catches a large fish (6 lb) with her hand fishing line. We don’t see her trying to catch any
more. It appears she stopped fishing,
and didn’t try to catch fish again until this fish was fully consumed, although
we don’t know for sure. IF so, this
would be a huge mistake on her part, although it is very cold out on the
ice.
Day 66
9:22 AM
Roland is talking about hot and rare and rock house &
singing a song. He is screaming like rock
fans… He goes out for rose hips which is rich in vitamin C and sees a large
porcupine.
11:57 AM
Roland clubs the 25 pound porcupine to death in a single
stroke. His stick has quills stuck in
it.
Day 67
5:07 PM and it dark out.
Kielyn is in her shelter eating her fish, and then making
snow shoes. The first one really looks
good.
Day 68
8:27 PM
Callie is in her shelter working with a hide.
Day 69
10:01 AM
Callie is having a fashion show with her rabbit hides. She checked her trap lines and caught
nothing. She decides to eat the diseased
porcupine cooked very well, which is probably ok. She cooks it in her pan to capture all the
fluids. It really tastes good as she
eats a chunk of fat, and feels energized.
Day 72
9:29 AM
Roland is eating and snarling, again raising questions about
his sanity. He starts a fire and burns the porcupine quills off to preserve
trap the fat inside, vs skinning which looses a lot of it.
5:22 PM
Roland is eating Porcupine for Thanksgiving; it has a
tremendous amount of fat which he relishes.
Day 73
7:11 PM
Callie is sewing it appears, or working with porcupine
quills.
Day 74
10:24 AM
Callie is showing porcupine quills in her boots. She is feeling no problems from eating the
porcupine and is feeling strong.
Gathering firewood, her shoulder is hurting. It looks as if there is a quill in her skin.
1:04 PM
Callie is examining her injured shoulder and there is in
fact a quill, which she is trying to cut out, which is very difficult to
do. But she is determined and gets about
a 1” quill out. At this point we don’t
know how it got in her shoulder.
Day 75
11:10 AM
Roland is at the icy lake shore to get a pot full of
water. It is frozen and very hazardous,
but he manages. We see his camera lens
is iced over. Getting water is becoming a problem he says.
He is planning to cook a brisket and finds mice have been
eating the fat, so he checks his fat store.
He could kill and eat this mouse, but thinks better of it, as killing
this bachelor mouse could allow a whole family to move it. He puts his fat in his musk ox head pouch and stores
it in his shelter.
Day 76
9:55 AM
Kielyn is eating the last of her fish and dreaming about
being home. She plans on going to try
and catch another fish. She should have
been fishing every day, if she wasn’t. She has lost 50 pounds since day 1. She can fish for 2 hours max before she must
go warm up.
12:16
Kielyn is pulling a fish in, but looses it and starts
crying. Despite the best fishing
location now, I expect she will be the next to tap out. We see her back at her cabin talking about
quitting.
6:21 PM – very dark out
Roland is out listening to the ice freezing which can make
loud noise at times. He enjoys the music
of the wilderness.
Day 78
9:38 AM
Callie is thinking about buttered popcorn.
Temperature is -17 F, as she goes down to the lake for
water, which will require busting the ice.
You can hear the ice creaking as it rises and falls with the water.
Between 0 and -20 F, ice can grow 1-4 inches thicker in 24
hours.
She is happy the ice is forming as she will be needing to
ice fish for food soon. She fills her
rain boot with lake water and carries it back to camp. And her toe is hurting, so she takes her
boots off. Frost bite is a hazard that
will get your toes first and it looks like she has it on her big toe. This could take her out of the competition.
4:26 PM and it is totally dark as the days are short
Callie continues examining her right big toe, which is
purple and is likely frost bite, but it could have been burned from being hear
the fire. She is tough, but struggling
to stay warm, so it sounds like she is considering tapping out. Staying warm is
becoming a challenge for everyone.
Day 80
10:01 AM
Kielyn is tying to figure out what she wants from this
experience…. To win. She is talking
about her family. Sounds like she is
going to tap out. She is walking in her
fine snow shoes toward the lake and begins crying again. Glad to see the lake one more time from
here. She calls to tap out on day 80. After as hard as she worked to
get here, it is hard to imagine tapping out 20 days before winning a million
dollars.
Day 81 – 2 Remain
8:59 AM very dark outside
Roland is working with a multi-tool to make a fishing lure.
9:52
Roland puts on his black bear mitts and an artic wolf parka
as he goes to the lake with a long pole.
The pole helps if he falls through the ice which is frozen over
now. He begins to chop through the ice
so he can fish. He begins fishing using
a hand line.
Day 82
11:54 AM – 29 F The
days are short.
Callie is happy the lake has iced up as she heads out to go
ice fishing. She has made her own lure
and clay weight
1:01 PM and she is fishing.
It is cold and windy out on the ice.
2:23, no fish and her toe is cold. She walks around to warm up her feet.
Day 83
10:12 AM – 26 F
Roland is putting on his heavy clothing and going down to
the ice to get water.
1:27 PM (average 5
hours of daylight in the artic)
Callie is warming her feet back at her shelter. The frost bite on her toe is hampering her.
She heads to the lake at -28 F for water.
Day 84
9:47 AM and still dark
Roland is working to keep enough fire wood
10:21 PM -27
Callie is gathering fire wood, but has to stop and warm her
toe,
Day 85
1:06 PM
Roland is fighting the cold and can’t get ahead on fire
wood. He works all day light to get
enough fire wood to last the night.
3:02 PM
Callie is cold and trying to keep dry & warm
8:47 -31 F
Roland is by the fire trying to stay warm. He doesn’t know why he keeps trying.
Day 86
10:06 AM
Roland is eating the last of his berries, and craving carbs.
His berries are more than a little moldy. He may have lost the berries as they were in
his ceiling and never froze. He decides
to eat the stomach contents from the musk ox, which is mostly grass.
The sour smell tells him it is a nutritious meal. We see him eating it.
Day 87
10:23 AM
Callie is still in good spirits it seems. She has maintained a positive attitude
through out the event, which has been an advantage for her. She heads off to check her trap lines as her
porcupine will not last forever. She
finds a 5 lb
rabbit in her snare trap that
will provide over 3,500 calories. She is
tough and could make 100 days if her frost bit toe doesn’t prevent her.
Day 87 – 2 contestants remaining and 13 days to go.
1:07 PM and a calm -33 F day at hand.
Roland is sitting by the fire after sleeping short spells and
waking up every few hours to put wood on the fire and keep the shelter
warm. The battle is at hand. He heads out for water as the snow starts to
fall with a -52 wind chill factor, getting 7.5 inches per day of snow on
average. It is becoming a full blown
white out. He seems lost.
2:23 PM
Roland is trying to find his way back to his shelter in
white out conditions. Following his
tracks before the snow covers them, he makes it back to the timber, where it is
easier to see, with more landmarks to show the way.
Day 88
10:10
Callie is facing -32 degrees and going out to set her gill
net below the ice. Even her camera
screen is frozen. She chops her fishing
hole open. She needs 1 fish to stay 12
more days.
12:39 she is fishing, but nothing.
1:54 her frost bit toe is getting cold so she has to walk
and get some circulation.
Back at camp she cooks bone broth for dinner and is hungry
as she drinks from a pot full of bones.
Day 89
10:39 AM
Callie said her feet were cold most of the night. She gets an alert that its time for a medical
check, which is early indicating they are worried about something. They arrive and examine her feet. They walk off to discuss their findings as we
go to a commercial break.
1:29 PM
The medical team are checking Callie’s frostbite toes and
talking. There is spreading second
degree frost bite, you are malnourished. She is being forced to tap out immediately for
medical reasons on day 89. She
loves this place and doesn’t want to leave, but also doesn’t want to lose a
toe. She leaves with 5 of her 6 arrows
in her quiver.
Now the question is will Roland
last 100 days
Day 90 – 34 F
12:28 PM
Roland has a big fire burning and is planning to eat his
musk ox hoof after cooking it in the fire. There isn’t much musk ox left and he
must use every piece.
Sitting by the fire, Roland talks about not having any
friends.
Day 92 and -40F
12:27 PM
Roland, the only contestant left, is going ice fishing, but
nothing.
Day 94
1:24 PM
Roland talks about his recently departed mother.
Day 96
3:02 PM
Roland is still
talking about his mom
Day 97
11: 41 AM
Roland is in his shelter and wants to do right by his family
in the future.
Day 99
Christmas day
12:12 PM
Roland sticks a small Christmas tree in the snow and puts a
wire star on it. He thought nothing
could ever change him, but this did.
Day 100 - 1
Millionaire remains
12:28
He carves his initials & 100 in calendar tree, and poses
beside it. He is listening to the wilderness sounds. Silence is soothing. He begins humming… he can hear his departed
mother singing in church as tears comes to his eyes. He has a nice fire outside his shelter. Back in his shelter, he shows us his moms
picture. His Sister, Megan, is coming to
greet him. She calls for him from
outside… they hug in excitement.
2:08 PM
Him and his sister celebrate and she tells him that the
whole family is proud of him.
During this 3 hour episode, we went from 3 outstanding
contestants, to 1 millionaire winner - Roland
Kielyn talks about not seeing the sun for a month being
depressing. She was the most
disappointing tap out for me, because, her ice fishing resource had the potential
to get her to 100 days, but she lacked the mental toughness and cried
often. Not saying I could have done it
myself, as I know it is not easy, and judgement is impaired under such severe
conditions. I believe her mistakes were
only using one fishing hole, and not fishing every day, to build up a
reserve. Fish are often territorial, and may
move less in cold weather, and after catching a few from one hole, it likely
becomes less productive. Using multiple
holes might have improved her food harvesting advantage even further. She might also find one fishing hole that was
notably more productive than the others.
From what the Alone producers showed us after the lake froze over, she
only went fishing when she was out of fish (probably busy getting fire wood to
stay warm. She could have used set lines
and left them out to catch fish, while she was cutting fire wood. There are
several ways to do this, including “Tip Ups.” She also came within 20 yards of
a moose and didn’t have her bow with her.
With a moose, she could have easily made it 100 days, with her survival
skills.
Callie talks about having ice on the inside of her fire place
as the cold sets in and the difficulty in deciding to eat the porcupine which
she knew was diseased. She was already exposed from butchering the animal and
that was a factor in moving forward eating.
She talks about finding a porcupine quill in her shoulder. It took months for her toe to get better. She might think of her right big toe, as a
million dollar toe. Callie was a
mentally tough participant, with a positive attitude, and good survival skills,
and with warmer boots, she could have easily made it 100 days.
At the end, Roland had a huge stack of fire wood, a big rack
of musk ox ribs for food. He could have lasted much longer. His survival skills were masterful, and clearly
as good, or possibly even better, than any contestant so far. As a hunting guide and second generation
student of survival, he didn’t exactly prosper, but survived longer than any
contestant in Alone show history, in part because of the show target of 100
days. What will they do next season?
Most contestants struggled to stay warm in the Arctic,
emphasizing the need for extreme clothing, and raising the question as to
whether an underground den or deep cave might have proven warmer. Clearly a good supply of fire wood built up in
advance was a necessity.
There is no doubt that these final three had excellent
survival skills, and working together, they probably could survive
indefinitely, especially in a better habitat, or living a nomadic life style.
After 100 days
and a million dollar winner, we still have 703 of meat harvested with a bow,
and a key factor in determining the winner in two Alone shows. Then 315 pounds with a gill net, now 113 + 5 pounds added this episode, of food captured in a
snare trap, 62 + 6 pounds this episode with a
fishing line, 25 pounds this episode with a
stick, and 1 pound of squirrel with a rock.
I’m looking forward to the next Alone season, and to taking
my own Survival Test, to see how long I can
stay out.
JR
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