Alone Season 8, where the longest lasting survivor will win $500,000, in the most popular survival show ever on TV. In Season 7, the Winner (Roland Welker), who stayed over 100 days won $1,000,000. Yes, One Million Dollars.
Spoiler Alert, we have a winner. Read further below for a play by play report.
Here is what the Season 8 Cast are carrying in their Backpacks vs what the past 7 season Winners list.
It is well worth noting
the most common tools carried by the past 7 winners such as: Axe &
Saw (7); Ferrous Rod, Multi-Tool & Sleeping Bag (6); Pot & Snare
Wire (5). It is equally interesting to note the things they rarely carried, that we might expect to be essential such as the Gill Net, which only 3 of 7 carried, and the Gill net was the #2 food producer in Season 7. The #1 Season 7 food producer, a Bow & Arrows, has only been carried by 4 of the 7 Winners. Now for the commentary from the show:
Season 8 Episode 1
The location this season is Chilko Lake British Columbia, at
3,885 feet above sea level, and known for its high Grisly Bear population. After a brief introduction of the candidates,
the Alone Gristly Mounting competition begins.
Day 1 - 8:57 AM
Tim opens the show apparently fighting back tears, immediately
casting doubt on his mental toughness, but we also see him with rabbit and bear
traps. These are something he has done before, not from the show.
11:39 AM
Clay is off to a good start, scouting his area, which is
mostly young trees when he finds a game trail and a number (shirt full) of bolete mushrooms (estimate 4 pounds) which are an
excellent source of many vitamins. We
see a flash back to his excellent bow building and shooting skill, as well as
fishing and shelter building. In the
show, we see his layered clothing and that he is a good hunter.
Clay gets a two-pound grouse with
his bow and cleans it by the lake side and then starts a fire and is warming
his cast iron pot, when his remarkable powers of observation allows him to see
a hidden mountain lion watching him.
1:22 PM
Clay is looking at a mountain lion which is staring back at
him. He doesn’t have his bow, a potentially big mistake. They stare at each other for a long while,
before he goes to get his bow and the line moves off in to the woods. Clay rushes the lion to try and tree him, a
smart move, but the lion is gone. Clay was
not afraid, and feels his mistake was in not rushing the lion immediately upon
seeing him… good point. Clay is quickly becoming the odds on favorite to win. See the Odds of winning below.
1:53 PM
Matt likes his area and discusses Drop Shock, the
realization of loneliness when dropped off.
He see’s a moose swimming in the lake, possibly scared into the water by
one of the other contestants being dropped off earlier. We don’t wee what
actions he takes, but hopefully it is trying to get in position to shoot this
moose. We see in a flash back that he has lived in a primitive shelter for many
years and has some survival skills.
He begins to try and build a primitive fire with a bow drill. He didn’t bring a ferrous rod, thinking he
could start fire, but he is struggling and using a ton of calories before
getting one going. His confidence and
fire building skill is admirable and could be an indicator of his
abilities. He begins scouting his area,
mostly young growth of tall straight trees.
9:47 PM
Clay experiencing a thunder storm from
under his tarp lean-to shelter.
Day 2 - 10:13 AM
Biko is drinking rain water trapped in his tarp shelter
edge (good design) and we can see he has a good start on a log cabin but with
wide gaps between the crooked logs. He
is on a nice hill over the water, suggesting deep water is available to him for
good fishing. He goes hunting and finds berries everywhere.
He finds some large rusty nails and plans to forge a knife
from one of them, an unusual skill. Since he didn’t bring a hunting knife, this
might be helpful. He uses his single head
axe as a hammer and his multi-tool pliers to hold the hot nail. The hammer side of the axe is a nice benefit,
but only leaves one sharp edge if you need to do a lot of chopping.
Day 3 – 6:07 AM
Tim awakens to a cold 38 F temperature dusk. Today is
moving day to where he will build his permanent shelter after having a temporary
tarp shelter; a good idea.
10:11 AM
We see Tim building a log cabin and making good
success. In no time he has a functional but
impressive shelter.
Day 4 - 8:04 AM
Rose is at a shallow beach with a tarp shelter, but
planning to move to higher ground. During
a flashback, we see her hunting and fishing experience is substantial, making her a
strong candidate. Using her Bow Saw, we see her building a shelter on higher
ground.
At 11:29, she has a simple frame up with minimal calories
used.
11:36 AM
Matt is planning on working on a shelter today, and has
named his camera Chad and is developing a personal relationship with it. Sounds crazy, yes, but remember what Wilson
did for Tom Hanks in Castaway. Exploring, he sees what he first thinks is a deer, but
it turns out to be grizzly bear with cubs. 70% of attaches are by mamma bears
with cubs.
12:14 PM
Matt is talking to the bear. After moving closer to Matt,
they run away as he talks to them. How
to handle a bear attack is a topic of great discussion. On Alone, do you holler and use your Bear Spray, our use your bow, since you don’t have a good bear gun.
That was close. Matt gives a good
recap of the situation, explaining what happened. He remained calm and handled it well.
1:18 PM
Tim is throwing rocks at a bird in a tree and scares it
off. Throwing rocks is a low success method.
Where is his bow? Likely he doesn’t
want to risk losing an arrow from shooting high into a tree. He is hungry, but has a great shelter.
He makes a fishing lure from a metal toothbrush handle and
begins fishing using a hand line, but with no success. It seems he gave up
easily. His odds look slim at this point despite being ahead of the others in
building his shelter. He lays down to take a nap in his shelter, telling us he
had a massive heart attack 6 years earlier.
Day 5 - 6:33 AM
Clay awakens to the breaking day in his open shelter. He
builds a good fishing pole, but has no deep water where he fishes. He is not accustomed to solitude and misses
his family when he catches his first fish, a 4 pound rainbow
trout, with his fishing line. Unfortunately,
he goes to cook breakfast instead of trying to catch more.
1:07 PM
Rose is near an inland lake or bay and we see her eating
bear berries, still living in her tarp shelter, which was good for a temporary shelter
until she can find a good location to build a better shelter about ¼ mile away.
2:47 PM
Rose is hiking to her new shelter location. She
quickly has a simple A-frame with a tarp covering, sear a fire place that she
plans to close in as a part of her shelter.
8:47 PM
Rose’s stomach is hurting and she is feeling sick before throwing
up. Possibly the berries she ate.
9:28 PM
Rose is coughing, possibly still throwing up. A set back like this will be hard to overcome,
just as a lucky find can provide a huge advantage. Chance is a factor especially since camp sights are drawn randomly.
Day 6 – 3:19 AM
Rose is still feeling bad and tossing and turning through
the night and into the morning. She is
questioning her ability to continue, an early indicator of possible quitting. A winners attitude would be that I'm going to over come this one way or another.
9:21 AM
Biko is noticing his body odor and shows us his forged
knife. It looks rough, better than nothing. He is wasting time putting a bone in his nose,
since jewelry is not permitted. Singing loudly and screaming, he is scaring
away any large game in the area, and has just reduced his chances of winning.
10:41 AM
Tim is laying in his good shelter that still needs a door,
but still better than most of the other contestants we have seen.
Walking to the beach, he sees grouse everywhere, as one flies
away he starts feeling sick and returns to his shelter holding his chest. Tim, the oldest contestant this year at 48, is tapping out on Day 6 with a possible heart attack, and
with the best shelter in the group. They bring in a chopper to fly him out.
9 Remain
4 days after the tap out, Tim is out of the hospital back
at Base Camp, talking with Nikki, a Season 6 Participant (who finished #5). After a previous massive heart attack six
years earlier, he knew the risk and had to Tap Out. Despite his good skills, with 35% of his heart
capacity, it is questionable whether he should have been out here.
Food Production
During this episode 1, we see the following food harvested:
Clay finds a shirt full of Bolete Mushrooms (Est 4 lbs.), gets
a 2-pound grouse with his bow and
a 4 lb. Rainbow Trout, with a fishing line, for a total of 10 pounds of food on
his first day, suggesting that Clay has a good chance of winning.
We see snowy previews of
Episode 2 suggesting those without good shelter and fire wood may be in a world
of hurt soon. Stay tuned for an update
next week.
Episode 2 – 9 Contestants remain
Day 1 – Second Group of 5
Contestants
7:41 AM
Colter begins to explore his assigned and begins sweating
so he changes clothes. Flashback shows
that he lives alone on an island in Alaska.
He looks initially to be a contender
10:08 AM
Nate begins to look for a temporary shelter location and explore
his area. Says he is not a bushman, but
is a problem solver, which will not be enough.
He finds a game trail suggesting a good hunting location, when he sees a
grouse in a tree. Tree shots are risky as you may lose your arrow if you
miss. He sneaks close and shoots
12:11 PM
Nate misses the grouse, but it looks like he found his
arrow, which was a special small game field tip with wires protruding so it
will snag, stand up and be easier to find.
Colorful arrows like red ones will also be easier to find.
1:07 PM
Theresa, lands on a shallow shore with crystal clear
water. A flash back shows she is a
primitive skills expert with a Phd. She
explores and finds some fireweed which is edible
and also some berries. Being able to carry
modern tools, her primitive tool skills ay not be much help. She builds a good, quick temporary shelter
with a single ridge pole and her tarp.
Day 2
8:27 AM
Michelle starts out eating roast crickets, which she says
she is comfortable with.
Flashback shows she lived in Alaska with an indigenous
tribe. She lived in a primitive shelter
for years. Se seems to know some good
wild plants, including a hand full of onions.
She sees a bear in the lake swimming toward her and retreats.
9:57 AM
Michelle watched the bear fishing
12:12 PM
Theresa is combing her hair, and announces she has chosen
her shelter location near the beach and plans to make a pit house. Using a
sharp stick to break up the ground, she scoops it out, and finds grub works and
pops her in her mouth and seems to like them.
Here target is waste deep. She
invests a lot of calories and gets a massive hole dug, but it seems close to
the water and at risk of flooding.
Day 3
8:36 AM
Jordon is eating an ant and starts on his shelter. Building things is his strongest skill. Flashback shows his back grounds is primitive
skills and carpenter. Using a long saw,
he is building a log cabin with a single slope roof.
7:36 AM
Jordan has a temporary A frame shelter for the night.
10:39 PM
He awakens hearing a bear outside his tent, and goes out to
confront him
10:41 PM
He sees the bear, but loses sight of him.
Day 4
7:28 AM
Jordin is up tracking the bear that was near his camp,
about 125 feet away.
8:08
Colter is trying to start a friction fire.
9:26
Stil no fire; the lack of a ferrous rod may prove to be a
serious mistake, but he has been able to the past days. He finally gets it started, but only after
expending a lot of calories.
He brought the bow drill because it doesn’t count as one of
his ten items.
He plans to build a boat to “invest” in food systems
Using a long hand saw, he is cutting some logs and bending
saplings to make a boat frame.
12:17 PM
Nate is finding some Bolete mushrooms, can weight up to 6
pounds, that he strung up 3 and one is gone.
He plans to set a trot line, but with barbless hooks they may not be
effective. He makes some fishing flies
from his para cord.
11:57 AM - Confusing time reported
Nate is setting out his trot line. He has a good walking pole / spear.
Day 5
12:16 AM
Theresa awakes to a bear outside her tent.
8:27 AM
She confirms bear tracks and continues on her Pit house,
the first one on Alone.
She is using driftwood from the beach for her center pole
and fills the hole with rocks. Leaning
other poles upright against the center pole, she wires them together with some
horizontal connecting poles.
3:37 PM
Jordan is fishing and hoping he will catch a cheese burger.
Catching nothing, he moves to fish in another location.
5:04 PM
Fishless Jordan is giving up and turning back to see a bad
storm blowing in. He is two miles from camp.
5:57 PM
The waves are crashing in on the beach that he is walking
on.
5:58 PM
Jording is getting wet, thinking he should have been
working on his shelter.
6:36 PM
Jordan is back in his shelter, wet, cold and tired after a
fruitless day as the rain falls
Day 6
9:14 AM
Michelle is building a chair. She begins to build her shelter, sawing logs
with her long saw. She builds two
tripods with a ridge pole between them.
Then she begins to lean logs against the ridge pole before covering it
with her tarp, for a decent shelter, but more work is needed
3:11
Colter is building he boat frame and wrapping it with his
ground cloth and drops his knife in his boat and pokes a hole in it, and then
does it again. He has a nice boat, but his odds of winning are going down. He carves a nice paddle from a log using his
axe and launches his boat in to the rough lake water.
5:12 PM
Colter determines that he needs outriggers, but hasn’t
taken on any water.
Day 7
8:32 AM
Nate is sitting on a log and watches a squirrel stashing a
mushroom that he plans to steal. He gets a 1 lb.
mushroom and has been eating some today, but we don’t know what. He is
building a low A frame shelter. He goes to check his fishing line and it
appears he as caught one.
5:12 PM
Nate does indeed have a fish, a nice Bull Trout weighing about 4 pounds using a hand line. He returns to camp to clean & cook it.
Food Production
During this episode 2 (week 1), we see the following food
harvested:
Nate finds a 1 lb. Bole Mushroom and gets a 4 lb. Bull
Trout using a hand line.
Add this to the other 4 contestants’ week 1 harvest
(Episode 1), and we have
Bow & Arrows – 2 lbs.
Fishing Line – 8 lbs.
Foraging – 5 lbs.
A number were picking and eating small quantities of berries
as foraging for a few other plants, but not finding a lot. Over a very lean week.
Episode 3 - 9
participants remain
Day 7
9:57 AM - 50 degrees F
Biko has cut the sleeves off his shirt as he wakes up for
the day. His goal today is to finish his
shelter, with hunting and fishing next.
He adds stripped logs to his shelter as rafters, with wire tying them together.
He adds boughs to the side that gets the most wind.
1:09 PM
Clay is working on his shelter also. Each participant is
allowed to take two pairs of underwear. He has a large pair that he plans to
use as a bear bag to put his fish in. He
has a good start on his shelter and is packing moss in the cracks. He talks
about missing his kids. He starts a fire
in his fire place which seems to be working well. His bed is off the ground. He starts crying when he talks about his boys. Skill, food and shelter wise, he is probably ahead
of the pack, but does he have the mental toughness?
Day 8
8:14 AM
Matt awakens to a mouse going through is stuff and tries to
smash him but misses. He talks to Chad, his camera. He is finding onions to make a stew. His fire
is out of control.
10:13 AM
Matt rushes to his fire and beats he run away fire down and
get is it under control. He chops his onions
to make his stew. He tells us that he keeps
his fire going constantly as he eats his survival stew.
12:13 PM
Biko sings loudly scaring off any large game before
starting on his shelter, to build an off the ground bed frame. He moves in to his incomplete shelter.
2:27 PM
Clay awakens it seems and decides it’s too windy to fish
and talks about putting his gill net out. So, he goes deer hunting. Hunting bears is prohibited. Wearing camo, he looks for a hunting sight.
He has some burned area that is hard to navigate. He doesn’t figure he has much of a deer
hunting spot, so he will just have to go fishing. He recognizes his slim build will require
finding food. Walking he see a grizzly bear
12 yards away.
5:02 PM
Clay is seen by the bear which runs off, but he remains
cool and doesn’t panic.
Day 9
10:01 Am
Jordon at 58 degrees F, decides to baths in 52-degree water
and says that viewer discretion is advised because of the nudity and the words
he is going to say. He returns to his
barely started but carefully constructed shelter.
2:32 PM, he has made substantial progress and saws his door
open what looks like will be a nice shelter.
2:47 PM
Biko is admiring the scenery, which is beautiful from his
shelter location he has selected. His fishing
efforts have been consistently unsuccessful.
He is changing his focus from shelter building to food.
He plans to swim across his bay to an area that is not
accessible by land. The water
temperature is 52F as he wades into the water with no apparent tools or
anything.
3:35 PM
We see him swimming up and climbing out the other side at
3:48, so about a 13-minute swim.
3: 48 PM
He has arrived and finds a couple of berries. He quickly deems this area is also un-huntable.
4:04 PM
We see him out in the water swimming back.
4:41 PM
We see him climbing out on the other side after a total
waste of calories. He sits by the fire and eats flowers, plants and roots as he
tries to warm up.
His swimming trip seems like insanity, but demonstrates a
toughness and strength that could carry him through to the finish line, if he
can find something to eat other than plants.
5:22 PM
We can see that Rose has a large clearing and enclosed bay,
some of the most interesting terrain of any of the contestants, but I’m not
sure if she is aware of it. She is feeling better after being sick and is making
a fishing pole, using the string spool, a stick and her trap wire. She is
hungry and going fishing.
6:16 PM
Her water is calm and apparently shallow; this may be her
enclosed bay. Her fishing pole is not
working as well as she hoped. She gives
up fishing and returns to her shelter.
7:52 PM
She is in her shelter and hears a rustling sound
outside. An obvious bear is seen. She has a bear banger.
8:12 PM
She shoots her bear banger and scares him off, but also any
other game in the area.
Day 10
7:51 AM
Michelle is foraging and playing news caster before
returning to her shelter and cooking her cow parsnip (?) that she
harvested. It is not tasty. Next, she is going fishing and begins by
making a long pole and extends it way out into the water and leaves it there.
Passive food harvesting, which will be needed to survive for very long.
3:28 PM
Matt is feeling lonely as he is missing his routine, when
he sees a bear walking the shore line across the lake. We see his well-insulated
living shelter and a separate shelter over his fire. He grabs his bow and finds his mouse has
chewed his bow string in two. Could this
be a game changing disaster for him?
4:24 PM
Matt is crushed over his bow sting being damaged. He works to repair it braiding the lines
together and wrapping them, and it seems to work for now
7:52 PM
Using his headlamp, which is part of his basic equipment he
builds a dead fall trap to catch his new enemy…. The mouse that chewed his bow
string in two.
Day 11
1:42 PM
Michelle is struggling with her hair as she starts working
on the door to her small shelter.
3:17 PM
She is feeling ill and sits to rest.
8:01 PM
She was blowing on the fire and instantly started feeling
bad. She is concerned that she has been
eating Water hemlock, one of the most toxic plants in North America, and that closely
resembles cow parsnip. She chews on a charcoal stick to absorb any toxins in
her system (a good idea).
Day 12
5:23 AM
Michelle is sweating and feeling weak and like she is going
to throw up. Hoping to make it to
morning.
7:22 AM
Michelle is going to get some water and feeling weird, but
a little better. She says she was close
to taping to get medical treatment before it was too late.
7:47 AM
Jordon greets us with a good morning from within his
shelter. He needs to get fish now that
he is warm and dry in his shelter.
Fishing with his hand line he tells us he has suspended his contracting
business to be here, when he catches a 4-pound Bull
Trout with his hand line, which will last him about three days. Instead
of fishing and trying to catch more, he heads back to camp, a common mistake.
11:14 AM
Clay is foraging for food and finding a lot of blue
berries. He has a gallon of cranberries and currants and is digging a hole near
the water to preserve them.
2:51 PM
We see a river or stream of water near the larger lake.
Jordan is making a video of chef Jordan's cooking bull head
trout soup, with false Solomon’s seal root, which tastes like asparagus. While this is simmering, he builds a smoker
for his fish. He is eating is fish from the pot lid with chip sticks. Finding food is a huge confidence boost for
him.
We don’t see much food being found, and those bringing 5
lbs of food as one of their 10 items may have an advantage over the others. It would allow them time to build a good shelter
and set some traps before finding food becomes urgent. That said, one good fish or kill could compensate
for not bringing food.
Food
Production
During
this episode 3 (week 2), we see the following food harvested:
Jordan
catches a 4 lb. Bull Trout using a hand line.
Clay had a gallon or so of berries he was storing underground, but I’ve
not been counting harvested foods like this because it’s not being reported how
much they find.
Add
this to the other 4 contestants’ week 1 harvest (Episode 1), and we have
Bow
& Arrows – 2 lbs.
Fishing
Line – 12 lbs.
Foraging
– 5 lbs.
Another
very lean week; at this rate, the contests won’t last long. Jordan, Matt, Teresa & Tim all brought 5 lbs of food as one of their 10 items selected, and this could prove to be a big factor.
Odds of Winning
Ranking
of the 10 cast members odds of winning are as follows:
Clay
at 1:7 with the top food supply harvested with a grouse, fish and mushrooms,
and a hoard of buried berries.
Matt
at 1:8 has skills and potentially likely to be strong mentally, but a mouse
eating through is bow string hurts his chances, even though he did a remarkable
job repairing it.
Biko
at 1:11 with mental toughness, his calories could carry him far, but loud
singing will scare the big game away. No
fish, game unlikely, bad decisions (swimming) with only mental toughness and
stored calories to carry him, his chances are going down.
Rose
at 1:13 is sick, probably from eating berries; doing a little better on this
episode.
Tim
at 0 who would be ranked with above average potential to win, if he had not
tapped out
Colter
1:10 his boat must yield a lot of food to increase his odds.
Jordon
1:7 got wet & cold, but caught a fish during
this episode.
Michelle
1:13 needs to find more than crickets to eat, but she is willing to eat things
others might not, which is an advantage. This week, she is sick and not
doing well, so her odds went down.
Theresa
1:9 Could be much higher if she survives the shelter building calorie
investment and can find some food
Nate
1:12 Limited
skills demonstrated so far and he missed getting a grouse and squirrel already.
Episode 4
Day 13 – 9 Remain
8:23 AM
Theresa is drying her cute underwear and making tea. It’s a windy day, too windy for fishing, so
she is going to work on her shelter. She
has a solid frame and is using fir bark to make shingles. Her shelter will be
excellent when it snows, but her hole in the ground could flood in a rain. She is
emerging as a strong contender, no mistakes, no whining, but not much food that
we have seen.
Day 14
10:18 AM
Nate is soaking up some sun rays. He hasn’t had any meat for 5 days. Fishing is difficult because of the shallow
water and wind blowing his line back into the land, so he starts to build a
pier using wood from the beach.
2:36 PM
Colter has built a boat and added some outriggers to
stabilize it. This is a lot of work but
may allow access to deep water where more fish are likely to be. He has a provided flotation device. His boat rides very low in the calm water and
couldn’t withstand waves, but navigates well.
He skinny dips for a bath, diving from a large log over the water. He sees a large bear down the beach.
4:27 PM
Colter is trying to scare the bear away but he continues
walking toward him. He beats some sticks together and the bear doesn’t budge,
but rather stares at him and continues to come.
A bear banger startles the bear who bolts a few yards then stops and stares
at Colter and continues to come toward him
He fires another bear banger and the bear runs away.
Day 15
7:57 AM
Jordon eats some smoked trout as he sits on a long looking
out over the water. He is making a
shelter door from sticks, for his pretty amazing cabin. Now he needs some hinges
to hang the door. He makes some blocks
with holes that the door pins can swing on.
His design skills are strong as he starts to make a latch.
10:43
His door and amazing shelter are finished.
12:09 PM
Nate reports waking up about 10PM and the weather was dead
calm when the wind started blowing and the waves started crashing. He will continue building his pier to get out
further so he can catch fish. Its 56F today as he wades out into the water to
set up his pier frame, which starts falling apart as he does.
12:51 PM
Nates pier falls apart due to a weak design and construction.
He warms up by the fire in his underwear,
drying them, before putting his clothes on.
1:46 PM
Theresa has a solid shelter underway and begins to make a
raised bed frame. She is feeling odd,
perhaps home sick. She hums and sings a
tune.
Day 16
7:31 AM
Colter has a nice looking shelter next to some solid rocks. He dreamed about food during the night. He is launching his boat to tray and get some
food. He is way out in the water. He hasn’t had any meat for 2 weeks. He is
pulling his slack fish line in, thinking he has a fish.
11”17 AM
Colter lays in his boat and fishes for at least 3 hours,
with 4 bites but no catches. He caught another fish, a jumper, The line gets wrapped around the paddle and
falls off the line right in his boat.
He catches a 1-pound trout using a hand line.
1:13 PM
Jordon considers smoking
kinnikinnick and makes a pipe to try it, all though he doesn’t smoke. He came close
to cutting his knee, and realized it and changed his work method; indicating he is mentally alert. This seems like a waste of time and energy,
but may help his mental toughness. He says that his smoke is not bad.
2:`16 PM
Nate is drinking his fish
soup when a squirrel is barking at him.
They are not allowed to hunt squirrels. He continues drinking form his
pot. Before starting to work on his pier again.
4:07 PM
Nate takes his frame out
into the water. This time it holds up
well. He drags some long logs out and
props them up on the frame.
Day 17
8:02 AM
Rose is working on what
looks like a fish trap. We see her
eating some plant. Here strap is small
and unlikely to be successful. She sets
it out in a foot of water and it floats.
She weights it down a few feet off the bank.
11:03 AM
Nate sets a fish line off
his pier, before drinking some spruce tea from his pot.
2:38 PM
He returns to check for a
fish. It looks like he has a small
one. Maybe ½ lb rainbow trout with a hand line.
7:04 PM
He is cooking his small
fish on a stick and eating every piece of it.
Day 18
2:34 PM
Jordon is standing in
front of his awesome shelter waiting for his boiled water to cool, and puts us
a sign naming his shelter. He is missing his daughter. He is sharing something private. His daughter was born with a heart defect and
had multiple surgeries and they lost her at age 4. The most painful part was the echo’s of the
good times when she was there. This will either give him strength or break him….
He seems strong telling about it.
Day 19
11:04 AM
Rose is checking her fish
basket and it has nothing in it, which is no surprise. It’s 3 steps from the shore in about 1 foot
of water. She wanders and gathers some
berries that are starting to fall off to the ground, or turn black. She talks about her husband or ex husband as
she gathers food.
2:16 PM
Jordon watches two ducks before
hiking back to camp. He can’t forget about his family which he needs to do to
win this event. He is talking like he is ready to quit, and then Jordon Taps out with the
best shelter in the group. Despite his
strong shelter building skills, he is not mentally strong enough to be a
contender.
6 days after tapping out
Jordan is talking with Nikki. Sad to see him tap out with his excellent shelter,
and doing better than average in catching fish.
Food
Production
During
this episode 4 (week 3), we see the following food harvested:
Colter
catches a 1 lb. Rainbow Trout using a hand line in his boat, while Nate catches
a ½ lb Rainbow Trout using a fishing pole (hand line) from the pier he built. Both achieving success from investments in tools
to help them fish in deeper water. No one seems to be using snare traps..possibly some regulation against it.
Add
this to the other and we have
Bow
& Arrows – 2 lbs.
Fishing
Line – 13.5 lbs.
Foraging
– 5 lbs.
Another
very lean week of mostly plants and berries.
Odds of Winning
Ranking
of the 8 remaining cast members and their odds of winning are as follows:
Clay
at 1:7 with the top food supply harvested, a grouse, fish and mushrooms, and a
hoard of buried berries.
Matt
at 1:8 has skills and potentially likely
to be strong mentally, but a mouse eating through is bow string hurts his
chances, even though he did a remarkable job repairing it.
Biko
at 1:11 with mental toughness, his calories could carry him far, but loud
singing will scare the big game away. No
fish, game unlikely, bad decisions (swimming) with only mental toughness and
stored calories to carry him, his chances are going down.
Rose
at 1:12 has recovered, but is not doing well, with a very weak fish trap in 1
foot of water, 10 feet from the shore.
Tim
at 0 who would be ranked with above average potential to win, if he had not
tapped out
Colter
1:9 - I said that his boat must yield a lot of food to increase his odds and it
did deliver the largest catch of the week, but that was only about 1 pound, but
it has helped for sure and demonstrates the potential for more.
Jordon
0 tapped out despite having the best shelter and being above average on harvesting meat.
Michelle
1:13 needs to find more than crickets to eat, but she is willing to eat things
others might not, which is an advantage. This week, she is sick and not
doing well, so her odds went down.
Theresa
1:7 Building a nice shelter, and still strong, she is emerging as a contender although
we haven’t seen her get any meat. From her skills demonstrated so far, I believe she will be in the final four, if she can harvest some meat soon.
Nate
1:12 Limited
skills demonstrated so far but he did catch a small fish from his pier, and there could be more coming.
Episode
5
8
Contestants remain after Jordan tapped out on day 19 despite being in one of the
strongest positions.
Day 17
7:57
AM
Clay
is tightening up his belt and haven’t had any success fishing lately. Deep water is ¼ mile away from his camp. Possibly not the best camp site. He begins to build a dip net.
9:49 Clay has a nice dip net made demonstrating
impressive skills. Taking his nicely built fishing pole and net he goes
fishing. Casting out fairly far.
10:31
still no fish
11:13
still no fish. He recognizes he cannot
out starve some of the others.
11:49
AM
Michelle
found some snails by the lake shore and boils and eats them, remarking they are
crunchy and taste a bit like claims. She
hasn’t been successful fishing and is building a decent fish trap as eating
bugs has not been enough
3:11
PM
Matt
is singing on his way going fishing. It
is 43F. He snagged his lure and is
wading in to get it wearing his underwear. Waist deep and he got it unsnagged. He is covered in chill bumps. Dressed again, he gets a bite!
5:43
PM
Matt
pulls in a small fish about ½ lb using a hand line.
Rather than keeping fishing, he goes back to cook his fish in a soup, the best
way to secure all the nutrients and hydrate the same time. He roasts the bones in the fire; a good
idea. He is talking to Chad, his camera,
his Wilson, like on Cast Away. He meditates
and meets up with his wife, causing him to miss her. This will either make him stronger or break
him.
Day 18
8:27
AM
Biko
makes a handle for his home-made knife using stainless steel snare wire. He
splits wood with his newly made knife.
He hasn’t caught any fish yet and decides to make a fish basket /
trap. He has lost 35 pounds already. He
is wondering if anyone else has tapped out.
He hears bears and sees tow cubs running off and uses his air horn to
scare them off
11:07
AM
Biko
using his air horn is likely to scare off other game. It’s highly likely he hasn’t ever been
successful hunting. He is very concerned
about the bears, as he should be. He puts out a decent fish trap, but in very
shallow water, perhaps a foot deep.
Day 19
8:44
AM
Michelle
is building a t-pee like structure for her fire place and for cooking,
basically a smoker. She is tired and eats
some fire weed and berries. She is eating her snot for the salt. She is slender
and needs food, and goes off to check her fish trap, which is on dry land.
10:31
AM
Michelle’s
trap in on dry land and open suggesting an animal pulled it out and opened it.
Day 20
8:07
AM
Nate
is playing with his mustache. He needs
to improve his sleeping arrangements to make a bed frame with rope he found on
the beach as his platform. He admits not
being s survivor, but is rather a homesteader.
His new bed is narrow, but looks comfortable.
1:13
PM
Matt
is looking up a tree, already 40 feet up, admiring the view and thinking about
his family and acknowledges its not going to help, but he loves them and misses
them. Sounds like he is close to tapping out, but recognized he must change his
mind set. He adds to his debris hut for some added warmth. Gathering grass, he
gets in a hornet nest.
3:28
PM
Might
fights off hornets and flees to get away cussing. He and Chad (his camera) decide to go home.
9:13
PM
Matt
is starting to get bleeped out a lot as he sits around the camp fire. He is about to crack and tap out, criticizing
the audience for judging. Quitting is
killing him.
Day 21
We have reached what I call the Naked & Afraid day. This is the day that naked contestants must survive to, with only one item, not a pack full of stuff like on Alone.
Knowing that competition is limited to 21 days, your Naked & Afraid Strategy is different from your Alone Strategy, which is indefinite in length. That said, this Alone Season 8 has changed my back pack list, which I will cover in a future post.
This raises the question, how much longer should I easily survive Alone with a backpack FULL of very useful tools, warm clothing, a tarp for shelter and more, vs the other show with only one tool, totally naked, BUT with a companion.
Why are these skilled Alone survivalist not lasting much longer? Is it the Alone Factor, or are they exhausting too many calories on a long term shelter. I would suggest that being exhausted amplifies the Alone Factor. My future Pack List will always include some food after this season. But let's get on with this weeks show.
Day 21
7:57
AM
Michelle
is noticing her teeth are discolored, possibly something she is eating. Setting her up for tapping out. She recognizes her situation is dire as she
tightens up her belt that has many holes, a good idea to have under these
circumstances. She is hunting grouse.
9:34
AM
Michelle
is still hunting grouse, sitting on the ground
11:01
no grouse, she is rationalizing quitting and about to tap out. Moving to another spot and sitting in her
chair, she sees a grouse.
12:16
PM
Michelle
stalks her grouse and lost it in the brush.
Feeling weird, chest pressure, she sits back in her chair remarking
about her health and harming herself. Michelle Taps out on Day 21.
3:12 PM
7
Remain
Clay
has a good stack of fire wood outside his cabin as he departs to go hunting. He
is not catching any fish, so hunting is his only option. He moves through the woods slowly stealth
hunting. Most of the time stopped and
listening. He is obviously an
experienced hunter, highly focused. He
sees fresh deer dropping. He is not sure
where he is but likes the area.
Considering walking back to camp to so he can better know where this
site is and not scare the deer away.
6:18
PM
He is
a clever hunter talking about hunting back at camp.
Day 22
8:08
We see
Matt’s camera gear and him in his shelter planning his day and how he can get
food. He is not satisfied with his
performance. He talks about his wife and
sings her song as he fishes uses a hand line.
He is not a good singer, but it helps his mind. He gives up fishing near dark. His family is more important that winning, so
Matt Taps out on Day 22. His family is more important than his ego he
says. He tells Chad that he will miss
him. He makes a defensive speech to self-justify
his quitting, but it’s not necessary.
This environment is tough, probably the toughest yet.
11:13
6 Remain
Clay
hasn’t had meat in 14 days and is going hunting back where he found the deer
sign. There are more fresh deer
droppings. It’s late in the morning, they are likely bedded down. He sees a
buck and freezes; it is staring right at him.
He swallows hard, knowing his winning tickets is here. The buck moves behind a tree; he draws his
bow and releases an arrow.
3 days
after tapping out Nikki is talking with Michelle. She noticed how skinny her body was when
washing. Here food gathering was probably above
average, but not enough. We see the inside of her shelter which is quite well
built. Several times she was holding the
yellow brick (GPS Tap out Radio) thinking about tapping out. At one point she saw a bear with a large
fish, so she followed him hoping he would drop some pieces, which didn’t
happen. Previews from next weeks show the
boat coming for another contestant who apparently tapped out.
Food Production
During this episode 5, we see a measly ½ lb Rainbow Trout
caught by Nate using a hand line
Add this to the other and we have
Bow & Arrows – 2 lbs.
Fishing Line – 14 lbs.
Foraging – 5 lbs, but there is a lot of this that they
don’t show.
This is undoubtedly the most challenging event ever, with
the lowest food production, making the choice of food as one (or 2) of their 10
items as a key choice. Unless two
contestants emerge with major kills, this will be over in record time. I can
see Clay with a deer winning followed by, Colter with a good fishing boat
catching food. Thresa has some great
skills but is yet to show her food generating capabilities, but I’m confident
she has more to show us. Biko could out survive the others on his reserves and
mental toughness.
Odds of Winning
Ranking of the 6 cast members are as follows:
Clay is the top candidate, as the best hunter and tracking a buck,
he is in a strong position. I estimate
his odds of winning at 1:3
Biko at 1:6 as the skinny contestants tap out, he seems tough and
creative despite no meat. If someone
else doesn’t score big on food, he could be the winner.
Rose at 1:10 has recovered, but is not doing well, with a very
weak fish trap in 1 foot of water, 10 feet from the shore. If she is not the next one to tap out, it
will be due to a lucky break or pure toughness.
Colter 1:7 Limited, small fish are being caught and his boat may
enable him to fish deep water and catch some big ones. What seemed like a big gamble, building a
boat, could be a game changer.
Theresa 1:6 Building a nice shelter, she is strong and emerging as
a contender although we haven’t seen her get any meat.
Nate
1:8 Limited
skills demonstrated so far but he did catch a small fish late in the game.
Episode
6
We
start with 6 of 10 Contestants remaining, having just passed what I call the Naked
& Afraid day (21).
This is the day that naked contestants must survive to, with only one item,
not a pack full of stuff like on Alone. How long could you survive? Test your skills here: Wilderness Survival TEST.
Day
22
12:13
PM
Clay
releases his arrow and is smiling. He
shows where the deer was standing and goes to that point and finds frothy blood
indicating a lung. He finds his broken
arrow; waits a while for the deer to die and then goes searching for him. The
deer is down, providing 50 lbs of Deer Meat with his
bow.
Colter
is picking red berries and has a gallon or two collected, before the snow,
before the snow sets in. He also picks onions.
4:29
PM
Nate
is very thin, with a primitive look. He
heads off to check his fishing lines. He walks out on his pier and lifts his
long pole and pulls it into the shallow water, with a large fish attached…. But
it comes off at 4:47 PM, and gets away.
It appears to be a bull trout that weighed several pounds. He may have let his line get slack, or it may
have not been hooked well.
5:12
PM
Clay
has field dressed his deer and brought it all back to camp. Preserving it, then protecting it from bears
will be his next challenge. Grizzly’s
will range further as food becomes scarce in the months leading to hibernation.
He harvested about 50 lbs. of meat and a hide. Due to the massive bear
presence, participants were given one heavy rope solely for hanging meat. Apparently,
they could not use this rope for anything else.
As dark approaches, he hoists his meat up into a tree.
6:39
PM
Clay
is eating the buck heart which is high in iron, zinc and other nutrients.
Day
23
6:49
AM
Colter
has a bear near his camp.
7:38
AM
Colter
is in his sleeping bag, considering fish traps and gill netting for passive
food harvesting. He plans to have
cranberries for breakfast and sees that something ate half of his cranberries
and tore up his fire pit. He begins working on a fish trap. A land slide
blocked the river preventing fish from reaching this lake, with hungry
migratory bears coming for fish and not finding it. He makes the best fish
trap of any contestant on alone. He launches his boat and lowers his fish
trap in deep water with two sticks as floats.
11:47
AM
Thresa
is in her sleeping bag as rain falls.
She seems strong and positive. She starts a new fire in her shelter, and smoke
is a problem. She has a remarkable shelter, but she can’t move it because of no chimney.
2:21
PM
Nate
is making a fish dip net. Its 30 degrees F, noticeably colder as he drinks some
hot water from his pot to warm up (good idea). With his dip net frame complete, he begins using
Paracord to make the net portion. He hasn’t eaten meat in 6 days. He returns to
his fishing dock, having lost 35 lbs, his line is moving with a small 12” fish
on it. So Nate
caught a 1 lb trout on a hand fishing line.
3:23 PM
Clay is checking his meat
cache, no flies on it at 35 degrees F, but he needs to build a smoke
house. Using a long saw (3’+), he begins
building a log smoke house. He uses
snare wire for his rack. He has lost 22 pounds. It’s ready in no time, and he begins loading it with meat. And starts a
fire inside.
Day 24
1:32 PM
Nate is concerned about
possibly drinking bad water but feels ok.
He plans to build a fishing rod and reel to improve his chances of
catching some fish. They all seem to be
only using one fish line, instead of many or a gill net; probably a legal restriction or
rule. He seems determined to find food.
4:02 PM
Nate is feeling nauseas
after drinking water he thinks a squirrel pooped in. He should eat some charcoal. He needs to get his fire going again, but
seems to be struggling before vomiting.
He is shaking but not vomiting and has his fire going well as sun set
approaches. He seems to be better but is
apologizing, likely about to Tap Out at 24 days. Next, we see Nate Tapping Out on Day 24 as the snow begins.
Day 25 – 5
Remain
8:03
Biko reads his personal
rules which makes make good sense. He plans to go fishing and checks his fish
trap… nothing. He has not caught one
fish the whole competition and has lost 50 lbs so far. He throws a hand line
out. He is trying not to get mad because
not catching anything is frustrating. Biko catches a 1 lb rainbow trout on a hand line, his first meat. He begins singing and screaming, scaring away
any other food, and returns to camp rather than trying to catch another fish,
while they are biting. He intentionally makes a lot of
noise to keep the bears away, and it seems to be working. He eats the bone marrow and eats the eyes, both
of which contain important nutrients.
1:13 PM
Thresa is washing her hair with hot
water. It is easy to do, being short,
but potentially less protective and warmth than longer hair.
She begins carrying large rocks to make a fire chimney that won’t smoke
up her living quarters. It can get -40
degrees F during the winter, so her fire will be critical. After she finishes, she tests it, and it
initially looks smoky, but gets better as the flame becomes strong and causes
air to rise out the chimney.
8:44 PM
Thresa has moved into her permanent shelter,
the first time she has lived in a home alone.
She has an awesome shelter and is in good spirits. We have seen no food gathering yet, but she
looks strong.
Day 26
7:38 AM still dark
Rose had a restless night with the wind
picking up. She needs to get her shelter
"buttoned up". She begins making a
triangular door with a wood frame and evergreen boughs for cover. Her shelter may be the weakest of the remaining contestants.
11:04 AM
Clay shows us a nice rainbow over the lake.
Things are looking well for him with a good supply of deer meat. He talks about
missing his family… pre-tap
out talk, as I call it, but he is the leading contestant right now by
far. He has studied stoic philosophy for
years, i.e. viewing the world through logic as opposed to emotions in order to
lead to a more peaceful life. He
recognizes his small deer meat supply is temporary. With about 700 calories in a pound of deer meat, his 50 pounds will last about 25 days, so he must be using his strength to find more.
Episode 6 is over and 4 days after tapping out on day 24, we
see Nate talking with Nikki. His tapping
out next was sudden, but not a surprise as he had struggled the whole time and survived
this long with pure toughness. Getting
sick, likely from bad water was what sent him over the edge.
Food Production
During this episode 6, we see a game changing kill by Clay
who shot a deer with his bow, yielding more meat than everyone else combined has harvested by
all available means.
Add this to the other meat harvested so far, and we have
Bow & Arrows – 52 lbs.
Fishing Line – 16 lbs.
Foraging – 5 lbs, but there is a lot of this that they
don’t show.
With the deer kill, Clay must now preserve his meat and
protect it from the bears. If he can do that,
he is the leading contender by far.
Odds of Winning
Ranking of the 5 remaining cast members are as follows:
Clay is sitting on 50lbs of deer meat and in the strongest
position. I estimate his odds of winning at 1:2
Biko at 1:5 caught his first fish but has lost 50 lbs. of
weight. He will likely need to lose 50
more to win.
Rose at 1:9 hasn’t been featured, so we haven’t seen much of her. She will likely not last more than a few more
episodes.
Colter 1:5 Built an awesome fish trap, set it in deep water using
his boat. There is potential here.
Theresa 1:4 Awesome shelter but no meat. She must find meat soon or tap out.
Episode
7
5
Contestants remaining
Day 26
12:27
PM 29F
Biko
is eating his fish soup from his first catch.
Then he begins making a door for his shelter. It is a log door with pine boughs for
insulation and it opens like a draw bridge
4:01
PM
Rose
is working setting a snare before drinking hot water from a glass bottle she
found on day 23. She adds rose hips to
make tea that is rich in vitamin C. She
is not catching anything in her snare traps. With no snow on the ground it is
more difficult to pick the best spots.
She found a bear trap that is huge.
Since 2017, hunting grizzly bear in British Columbia is banned for all
non First Nations people.
Day 27
8:29
AM
Biko
is in his sleeping bag telling about his dream about food. He will be taking rock to his shelter for a
fire place. We see him exhausted as
limited food begins to take its toll.
His ankles are still sore from a recent surgery. Carrying his rocks back
to camp, he apparently falls.
11:16
AM
Biko
fell but says that he didn’t hurt himself. He slipped on some clay that he can
use for future needs. He finds a zip log bag that he plans to use to carry clay
in. He stacks some large flat rocks to
make his fire place and uses the clay to fill the cracks. He lights his fire to test it.
5:03
PM
Colter
is bow hunting and finds some mushrooms which he eats immediately. We learn that due to local fishing regulations,
participants cannot set gill nets until day 45. He is back in his shelter
drinking water and we see he has a lot of Bolete mushrooms stored and he begins
threading them on a wire for smoking. He believes that he has about 30 plus
pounds of mushrooms
Day 28
8:24
AM
Rose
is in her sleeping bag, in her small shelter, with some snow on the ground
around it. Walking to the water, she
sees fresh bear tracks. We can see the bear near the water before she spots
him. The bear is moving toward her, and
she blows her air horn.
9:27
AM
Rose
is still backing away from the bear and shoots a bear banger to scare him off. He was circling her. She is holding her radio for tapping out, whimpering,
now crying from fear. She attempts to
get it together, puts her radio away and remains strong. She is now skittish from ever noise she hears.
3:31
PM 43 F
Clay
is working on making a Decoy head from the dear he killed. He fleshes the head out and uses the skin. He struggles to clean the hide with a small multi-tool
knife blade. He stuffs it with moss and
has a deer head decoy. Lots of work here, not sure if it will help him. He mounts it in
his shelter. He begins extracting the
brain to tan the hide.
Day 30
8:41
AM Colter awakens to a fair amount of snow and begins to insulate his
shelter. His shelter is next to a large
rock which should help provide some structure and insulation. He insulates his log door with ever green
boughs, and also adds a bunch to the shelter walls.
9:23
AM
Theresa
is awakening. She has been gathering a
lot and continues to do so. Fishing has
not been successful for her. She gathers
bear berries. She states that 80% of a primitive hunter gatherer’s calories comes from
gathering. She is digging Solomon’s seal
roots and finds a large one. She is in
new territory. She has "no idea where she is" and starts crying. She is ready to be home.
2:34
PM
Theresa
seems lost and is crying. She is
carrying her bow and believes she is getting closer to the lake as the forest
is thinning. She remembers a fallen tree
that she had seen and she is back at the late where a creek flows in. She is back home with a sizeable harvest of gathered
food.
3:46
PM
Colter
is eating some cranberries and going boating, to check his nice fish trap, but
there is no fish in it, so he is going fishing. He hooks one, and pulls it in
and stays after it, and catches a second one.
Both are small, maybe 1 lb each. So he catches 2
lbs of fish using a hand line.
Day 31
2:33
AM
Clay hears
a grunting outside, probably trying to get his meat. He looks around wearing a
head lamp. What ever it was is gone…
back to bed
7:48
AM
Clay
didn’t sleep well, so he gets up to find Black Bear tracks, shown by the line from
the main pad being straighter than that of a grizzly. They came
up very close to his camp. His meat is still in his smoker, but the bear is likely to
come back
11:01
AM
Rose
has her small shelter insulated better.
It’s small, but may be easy to keep warm. She goes to check her snares, hopeful that
she catches something. Se seems afraid
of bears. She has her bow with her,
which is good. She caught a rabbit in
one of her snares. It is a 4 lb Snow Shoe Hare, caught by a snare wire, which
she skins with her multi-took knife. She cooks and eats it. Rose is the first one we see catching food with snare traps and demonstrating a skill that will be increasingly valuable when snow covers the ground, much like Ice Fishing will be.
3:37
PM 38F
Clay
is at his smoker to set up an alarm system using his air horn. He uses paracord
for the trip line. Testing it, it seems
to work.
Day 32
9:44
AM
Clay
begins to ration out his remaining meat. It is about 2 ounces per day or 140
calories, so he decides he needs to go fishing.
A better strategy might be to eat more and keep his weight up, and
prevent a bear from stealing it.
Fishing, he catches nothing.
11:29
AM
Theresa
is building a raft to use for fishing. She has a flotation device provided for
safety. She plans to put a weight out,
so that she can pulley a fishing line in and out. She lays on the raft, and
pushes it out, when she gets tangled up and stuck.
She is staring to freeze.
3:29
PM
Theresa
is in the water for nearly 35 minutes before returning and heading to the fire
she has handy, a smart move. He puts her
warm clothes back on while beside the fire, but looks weak and shaky. She realizes this was almost a serious
mistake.
8:09
AM Totally Dark
Theresa is back in
her excellent shelter with a big fire going. She has whelps on her thighs from
trying to get warm. The life vest
inflated and tangled with the para cord and her ankle to return.
Food Production
During this episode 6, we see a game changing kill by Clay
who shot a deer with his bow, yielding more meat than everyone else combined has harvested by
all available means.
Add this to the other meat harvested so far, and we have
Bow & Arrows – 52 lbs.
Fishing Line – 18 lbs.
Foraging – 5 lbs, but there is a lot of this that they
don’t show.
Snare Trap 4 lbs.
Rose is the first to catch food with a snare trap. During season 7, 118 lbs of food were harvested with snare traps.
Odds of Winning
Ranking of the 5 remaining cast members are as follows:
Clay still has his 50lbs of deer meat smoked and stored and has protected it so far. I estimate his odds of winning at 1:2
Biko falls carrying rocks for his fire place and is dreaming about food. I put his odds at 1:6 (was 1:5) as he shows evidence of struggling.
Rose was shown more during this episode and caught the first snare trapped hare, demonstrating a skill that will increase in value when the snow covers the ground and tracks are visible. I move her from a 1:9 to 1:8 based on this but may have gone higher if she wasn't crying.
Colter is seen with about 30 lbs of mushrooms stored. Raising his 1:5 to 1:4.
Theresa 1:5 Still no meat, despite an innovative idea for fishing, that nearly cost her life. In addition, she got lost in the woods and was crying. As a result, I move her from 1:4 to 1:5 as the lack of meat begins to wear on her.
Episode 8
5 Contestants remaining
Day 32
8:27 AM
It is 28 F and most of the
ground is covered with snow.
Biko had a mouse visiting after
it ate a giant hole in his tunic. He falls on his way to go fishing. While fishing, he is singing loudly, possibly
scaring off any fish & game. He has
lost 60 pounds since day 1. He gained
weight for this event
9:21 PM
It is dark and windy as Biko tells
a story to the camera.
11:28 PM
Biko woke up to the sound of the
mouse eating Bow silencers. He has a club and is waiting on the mouse.
Day 33
8:32 AM
Clay is going to string up his
deer hide. It is going to be a nice day,
so he plans to get more food, and goes to the waters edge to fish using his well
made rod and reel. The water looks
shallow and unlikely to be much fish. He
sees a Grizzly walking the water line, going away from him. He has a much deeper appreciation for his
family. This alone has been worth
it. The bear is closer and approaching
him.
10:41 AM
Clay is moving away from a
bear, possibly a bit too fast. We see
the bear 40 years away, startle and run away toward his camp, so he returns to
his camp.
11:21 AM
Theresa is checking her knee,
which got burned as she was warming up by the fire after a dangerous swimming
incident. She is having strange dreams, likely from hunger. She goes to check her trot line, which has
ice on it. She starts crying… her chances of winning are going down. She is too
tired & too thin, all she wants to do is go home.
1:32 PM
Colter in in his shelter but
needs to poop. He has not had any meat for 3 days and goes to check his nice
fish trap that hasn’t caught anything yet despite about 10 times checking it. He launches his small tarp boat and stands up
to check his trap. It seems stuck, which
is not good.
3:07 PM
Colter pulls hard to get his deep
water fish trap up, and he can’t get it to budge. He should try pulling from different angles
to get it unstuck. He pulls as much paracord up as he could to salvage his
cordage, and cuts his trap loose.
Day 34
8:11 AM
Biko is tired of being dirty
and stinky, and picking his beard, so he is going to braid it, with his dirty hands. He seems to be strong physically and
mentally.
11:41 PM
Biko hears the mouse in his
tent again, and sees him and finds that it has chewed some laces off his ankle
brace. He is using a lot of foul language and uses his air horn to scare off
the mouse
Day 35
8:02 AM
Rose is in her sleeping bag
after being up for several hours. It is 15 F today as she goes to check her
snares, with most of the ground covered with snow. She sees bob cat tracks on her snare trap
trail. The cat appears to be following her scent. She gets dizzy after bending over, and
standing back up. Her toes are hurting.
Back at her shelter, checking her feet, she has signs of early frostbite, and
needs to warm her feet more often.
10:52 AM
Clay is stringing up his deer
hide, and sits on it like a chair, drinking from his wooden cup he made on day
2. He sees a bear walking down the beach. It appears the bear is scouting around his
camp.
11:51 AM
Clay sees a bear very close to
him and coming closer, probably 8 yards away.
He sprays his bear spray and it runs away. He seems excited, not afraid and hollers hey
bear to insure it is running away. That
was close enough, he won’t be tracking another one
Day 36
9:52 AM
Theresa is looking at some lens
cleaning cloths to clean her camera. She
is in good spirits and says she needs calories, and goes scavenging. We see some of the snow has melted, leaving a
lot of bear ground exposed. The water
level has gone down, suggesting a high pressure front has come in.
11:01 AM
Theresa is waling on the beach
and sees something. It is a dead 1 lb white fish on the
beach. This is her first meat. It has claw marks on it, possibly dropped by
an eagle. She looks for more, and finds
another bigger Fish, about
3 pounds of meat. Good thing she
didn’t leave after finding the first little one. Her foraging skills have carried her so far.
Day 37
8:41 AM
It is 7 F, as Rose starts her
fire. Her left foot felt dead all night.
She examines it and find slight purple
spots. She needs to use hot warm rocks
to keep her feet warm. She goes to check her traps.. she is very tired and it
hurts to walk. Her heard is beating
hard. She can’t carry the camera any
more
11:07
She is struggling and doesn’t
feel good. She is tougher than expected,
but is about to pass out. She sits a bit
and decides to head back to camp.
12:13 PM
We see the boat coming as Rose
struggles. She forgot her com bag, and
didn’t check it, so they came to check on her. They check her feet. She is skinny and likely to be forced to tap
out.
The medic says…..”We have some
Medical Concerns, your BP is low and your not eating enough, so I’m going to
medically extract you from the field”.
So Rose is gone on a Medical
Tap out.
She can barely walk out.. she
doesn’t want to leave and starts crying. They have to carry her on to the
boat. This is one tough woman.
5 Days after Extraction, Nikki
and Rose are talking from the Alone Base Camp.
She had -50 degree boots, yet her toes were showing early signs of frost
bite. She had a small shelter, with no
fire inside, which was possibly a factor. She was mentally strong, but her slender body
didn’t have enough fat reserves to carry her very far. She went almost 30 days without meat before
catching her first hare in a snare trap.
4 Remain.
ood
Food Production
Add
this to the other meat harvested so far, and we have
Bow
& Arrows – 52 lbs.
Fishing
Line – 18 lbs.
Foraging
– 104 lbs, estimated as there is a lot of this that they don’t show, but was recently noted on the show.
Snare
Trap 4 lbs.
Theresa
found two fish totaling about 4 pounds total wandering the beach.
Odds of Winning
Ranking of the 4 remaining cast members are as follows:
Clay still the leader with 1:2 odds of winning with his 50lbs of
deer meat smoked and stored.
Biko is strong willed but losing weight fast. I keep his odds at 1:5.
Colter is struggling to find food beyond a few plants and berries. I keep his odds at 1:5.
Theresa found 2 fish
weighing about 4 pounds that will hopefully give her the strength to catch some fish. With her strong shelter and skills, I move
her odds from 1:5 to 1:4.
Episode 9
4 Contestants
remaining
Day 38
12:51 PM
10F – getting cold. Most of us don’t even go out in this weather.
Biko is cold and singing loudly in his
cabin. He adds moss to the cracks in his
shelter to help it stay warmer. Biko is
focused on controlling his mind to have no negative thoughts. He has a nice fire going, but we see snow (?)
flakes falling in his cabin.
Day 39
2:13 PM
Colter is sitting by a nice warm fire
of small sticks before going fishing. He
finds a dead bird floating in the water and cleans it. He has lost 65 lbs, and this is his first red
meat in weeks. It is not rigid and hasn’t
been dead long. It looks to have worms,
but he will cook it well. It is only
about 1 lb at best that he found foraging, but better than nothing.
Day 40
10:43 AM
Theresa is wearing a nice self-made
leather parka and goes to the waters edge to forage for more food. She finds some frozen rose hips, eating ½ cup
of berries per day, about 1500 calories.
She made a nice small fish trap and is going to set it out. She uses a
clothes line set up to pull it out in deeper water.
2:26 PM
Her basket snagged on something and her
line broke. The water is 40 F, and she
strips down and wades out to fix the problem as she talks about missing her
parents. He legs are very skinny.
3:32 PM
Biko is making a gill net from para cord,
well before they can legally use them.
Day 41
No time
specified as Biko works on a spear. His
ankle hurts and its getting harder each day.
Day 42
No time
specified again, perhaps Biko’s camera is not working right. He is working to make a knife sheath from he
belt
Day 43
Still no time
on Biko’s camera. Apparently the battery
had died at some point and lost the time.
Day 44
Biko is in his
cabin talking by the fire. He has named
it Troll Cave. Not working on getting
food that we can see.
3:14 PM
Colter is
working on a gill net, and laying down resting, and working on his net
again. His net is for catching large
fish, i.e. big holes.
8:11 PM
Still working
on his long net with a large camp fire burning near by. It is a good one.
Day 45
2:27 AM
Colter is worried
about his boat on this windy nigh and goes to check it.
2:44 AM
Colter is
walking in the dark hollering hey bear as he goes to check on his boat. The boat is in bad shape, both knots are
loose and it has a lot of water in it.
He tightens the knots and plans to come back in the morning to take care
of it.
8:02 AM
Biko plans to
set his gill net out today. He cuts down
a small tree to attach his gill net to.
He hasn’t eaten in weeks and has lot 58 lbs so far. His long gill net has good potential of
catching some food although it is in shallow water. He sees two bears out swimming toward his
camp… 30 feet away.
He uses his
air horn and they swim away. They start hibernating
in November, which is what Biko is doing.
He is physically and mentally tough
11:17 AM
Colter has a
large long log burning, saving a lot of time cutting wood. He is going to put his gill net out. The boat needs a little work with some
additional supports added, which he quickly does. He has some stabilizing pontoons and rows out
on the rough water to put his nice net out.
3:09 PM
Clay is
gathering a ton of moss to patch some cracks in his shelter and uses his fish
landing net to carry it. He also uses a
big pile of moss for archery practice.. a good idea with only 6 arrows
allowed. He starts to work setting out
his gill net. This should have been out
earlier and the net set out at daylight of the first day it is allowed. He builds a tri pod to hang the net on. He sees a bird swimming and shoots his bow at
it.
4:04 PM
Clay shoots
but misses. He needs to see if he can recover his arrow, but we don’t see him even
try. Using a laundry line system to put
it out without any problems
Day 46
1:01 PM 20 mph winds
Theresa is
walking the beach. The high waves may
have washed something up, but she is seeking to check her fish trap, and finds
it on the beach. They waves apparently
tore the weight rock off. She has spend
all the time on trapping fish that she plans on doing. She is talking about having a limited number
of days without putting her health at risk… tap out talk….
Day 47
7:11 AM
Biko has his
camera clock working again. Loud winds
woke him up early. He is wondering about
his gill net, and goes out to check it.
This could be a source of food that propels him to victory, but he sees
no fish without even pulling it in…. probably too shallow. The lack of food is starting to add up and he
is beginning to start his tap out talk. He
starts to cry, which is usually the beginning of the end. He is ready for it to stop.
Day 48
8:53 AM 25 mph winds
Clay is giving
the weather forecast like a weather man. Big waves as he goes to check his gill
net. It is tangled up as he pulls it in,
but has no fish. Gill nets normally or a
great source of food, but not so far
Day 49
7:37 AM
Colter is a
sleep and awakening in his shelter after a good nights sleep. He goes to check his gill net, which is out
in deep water since he has a boat to use and put it out far from the shore. He pulls it in and has 1…. 2… large bull trout about
7 pounds each in his gill net.
One fills his 2-quart pot. His
boat may be proving to be the game changer that I suspected it could be.
Day 50
10:24 AM
Clay is
finding some large pine or matsutake mushrooms that have an odor like dirty gym
socks, probably 10 -15 lbs. of food. He checks his gill net again and catches
nothing. He is fishing in shallow water
and getting angry at his net as he struggles to put it back out.
5:02 PM nearly
dark
Theresa is
preparing some mushrooms and seems to have a lot, but spilled her soup and had
to cook some more. She has some roots available
to eat too. She talks about having Chinese
food when she gets back…. Tap out talk.
It’s November, Guy Fawkes Day in the UK.
She goes out to burn a touch to celebrate. She runs up and down the shore which improves
her spirits, but wastes valuable calories.
Day 51
1:28 PM
Biko has lost
a lot of weight, but still has more reserves than any other contestant. He is going out to forge for onions. The shallow water gill net is not working,
plants are his only food.
During this episode, we see the
contestants are tired, hungry, and lonely, so they are not doing much.
Our food harvested so far is as
follows.
Bow & Arrows – 52 lbs.
Fishing Line – 18 lbs.
Gill Net – 14 lbs.
Foraging – 135 lbs., estimated as there
is a lot of this that they don’t show.
Snare Trap 4 lbs.
The only success was a deep-water Gill
Net that Colter set from his boat, with two seven-pound bull trout. The other shallow water gill nets have
yielded nothing, providing a Key
Lesson Learned that deep water fishing is needed.
Odds of Winning
Ranking of the 4
remaining cast members are as follows:
Clay still the leader
with 1:2 odds of winning but he is getting frustrated with his fruitless shallow
gill net as the pressure is getting to him.
Colter spend a lot of
time building his boat, and it has started to pay off with 2 large fish from
his deep-water gill net. With the
ability to move it to any location on the lake, he should continue to catch fish,
while the others are getting nothing. But
the risk of boating is high. So I move
his odds from 1:5 to 1:4.
Biko is strong willed
but losing weight fast, yet still more reserves than any other. His strong
mental attitude could be wavering but I’ll keep his odds at 1:5 since he has
been dauntless so far.
Theresa has remarkable
skills and has proven to be tough, but the question I have on who is likely to
tap out next depends on whether Theresa can gather more to eat, than Biko has
in fat reserves. With a good fish catch,
snare trap harvest, or Bow kill, she will jump above Biko. Until then, I move
her odds from 1:4 to 1:5 simply to balance the probabilities from Colter moving
up.
4 Remain with a chance of winning $500,000
Episode 10
Day 55
9:29 AM - Temperature is 16 F
Biko is pretending to be a fish looking at his lures. It’s been 36 days since he has had any meat
protein. Checking his shallow water gill
net, it is frozen and empty. He has lost
75 lbs so far, and is worried about getting pulled out for that reason. His mind is wandering a lot, but he stands
tough so far, as he warms his feet by the fire and gets them a bit too hot and
burned his socks.
Day 56
8:52 AM
Theresa is making her bed and has been having trouble
sleeping because she is so skinny. Today
she is foraging with a focus on rose hips.
She looks thin and worn and says her time is limited. Her balance is shaky and picking berries in
brush is challenging. She finds a nice
bush of berries, and has done well foraging, but she has been unsuccessful
hunting or fishing so her only food has come from foraging
10:43 AM
Colter is crafting dice, something easy that occupies the
mind yet a waste of calories. But
maintain both physical and mental is key.
He seems more energetic since catching the two large fish, as he goes
off to check his gill net again and find that his boat has sunk, likely due to
the waves.
12:32 PM
Colter has a gill net out there likely with several fish in
it, but needs to salvage his sunken boat to check it. He crawls out on a frozen tree to rescue his
boat, and he is able to maneuver it in to the bank, and believes he can salvage
it. The gill nets is his one chance to
win.
Day 57
7:32 AM
Clay is dressing for the day, which took over 9 minutes to
do. He goes out to check his gill net,
and believes he must catch fish to win.
His net is twisted up and not very functional. He must pull it in to untangle it, and finds
that there is a large fish in it.
10:12 AM
Clay pulls his tangled net in and has a rainbow trout weighing about 7 lbs from his shallow water
gill net. His net is so tangled, he is going to spend a lot
of time untwisting it and putting it out again.
Day 58
11:14 AM
Colter is
checking his eye after sticking something in it. He is going to boil some water
to wash his eye. He washes his dirty
face too, before launching his boat to check his gill net. He rows out to his deep water net and pulls
it up and has another large fish. It is
bigger than the last two. Chalk up an 8
pound bull trout to a gill net, the leading food producer now that they can
legally use them
5:13
Colter is
cooking a fish stew and has a few days worth of food. He is catching more food now than any of the other contestants.
Day 59
8:23 AM
Theresa is
cooking rose hips and kickinick. She is
finding a good supply of plants to eat, but needs some meat. She has lost her pot hook. Her body is tired, but her attitude is still
good, as she carves another pot hook and discusses her British accent. She is weak and carving and sawing is
dangerous.
12:29 PM
Theresa
injures her hand with a huge saw cutting a small piece of wood. Each participant is provided a first aid
kit. It’s clean but it’s deep. She recognizes her mistake and is critical of
herself. She was afraid her mind would
be willing, but her body incapable. She
talks about the Med checks and her fear that she will get pulled. With even close to Clay's
hunting and fishing skills, she could easily be the winner, with her strong
foraging skills.
Day 60
11:37 AM
Colter is
gathering some long logs for fire wood with his renewed energy. Its 22 F, so he will need plenty of
wood. He burns a long in the middle
rather than wasting energy cutting them in to small pieces, he lets the fire do
it….. smart. He begins building an
additional Gill Net, since the other one is working so well
4:38 PM and
it is already dark as he continues in to the night investing his time and
energy wisely.
Day 61
10:36 AM
Colter is
launching his boat to set his second Gill Net way out in the deep water, where
he has been very successful. He goes to
check the first net, but no fish. Fish
are territorial, so he probably needs to move it to a new area as he may have
caught the ones in this area. The lake
is huge, so there is plenty of room.
Day 62
8:17 AM
Clay is
telling a story about Adventure not giving up her secrets willingly. The water is choppy, so he goes hunting for
grouse instead of checking his gill net.
He sees Mountain Lion droppings, and he can hunt them legally. He makes a predator call to try and call the
big Cat in as he plans to sit in a stand
Day 63
5:23 AM
Clay is up
early to go cat hunting. Wearing a head
lamp, he sees fresh grizzly tracks.
6:23 AM
The sun is
not up yet and Clay is hunting, but if a grizzly is around he doesn’t want to
use his predator call right now. He sees
the bear made a full circle around his camp.
He has his deer meat in his camp now to protect it.
Day 64
10:21 AM
22 F as Biko
awakens. He wants to focus on finding
more food. Of the four finalist, he has
found the smallest amount of food. With
no fish in his Gill Net, he decides to move his net, which is a good idea. Hopefully he catches some fish here. He is exhausted and struggling to climb the
steep hill back to his camp. He is
tough and begins to harvest his onions
he planted on day 48. He is talking to
his self. He is talking about his
family.. sounds like pre tap out talk.
Day 66
9:04 AM
Biko says
today is the day,,, the day I tap out…. Just kidding… I’ve got more weight to
lose. He is going to check his gill
net. He found a frozen fingerling fish
on the bank. So about 8 ounces of fish from foraging. He is realizing
he may not win… more pre tap out talk as they typically begin to rationalize
tapping out as the mind and body grows weak.
Day 66
10:47 AM
Colter is
energetic and rowing out to check his two deep water gill nets, but nothing
today.
Med checks
are coming and they are all worried about passing it.
Day 66
3:22 PM
Clay is
carving an airplane for his son. He came out here for himself, but is staying
for his boys… to set a good example… to be proud of their dad. He is missing his family bad…. Pre tap out
talk, despite having harvested the most meat. He finished a nice wooden plane.
Day 67
2:42 AM
Colter is
awake
8:21 AM
Colter is
worried about his Med Check. He doesn’t
want to get pulled as we see the boat coming.
Theresa is
worried about her Med Check
Biko is
worried about his Med Check.
Clay is
worried about his Med Check too.
The crew has
arrived and checks Colter… they question Theresa, take Biko's temperature and Clay's Blood Pressure…. Would they pull all 4 out on the same day?
They ask Theresa,
you’re not seeing any chance of improvement in the future… No I’m not.
Next, we see
them pulling Colter for a Medical Tap Out for health reason. Colter??? He has got the second most meat and
highest energy level, with the big fish he has been catching, so this is a
shock. Being the oldest in the group, his age must be a factor in his health. He is upset, questioning his
decisions. He believes that he over invested in the boat
and gill net. I was initially concerned about this, but it was really paying off now as he was harvesting more meat than all the others combined in the past few episodes.
3 Remain
Clay is in the strongest position, with a good balance of skills, especially hunting, has him with maybe 5 lbs of deer meat still left and he recently caught a 7 lb fish in his shallow water gill net.
Biko, with remarkable mental toughness, but limited success finding food, and the highest weight loss. Yet, he probably can last another month on his fat reserves.
Theresa, with perhaps some of the strongest skills seen in many areas, but zero meat harvested. She acknowledges her time is limited but with a good fish catch or hunting kill, she could be propelled to the top.
Episode 11
3 Remain
Day 68
2:06 AM
A bear is circling Clay's shelter. He consumed the last of his deer meat 3 days
ago, so there is nothing for the bear to eat except Clay.
8:16 AM
Clay is checking his shallow water gill net only to find no
fish and a tangled net. He is beginning to think the net is a waste of time.
10:57 AM
Theresa is waking, with no point in getting up since it is
snowing outside. She has an awesome
shelter and fire place. She is in good
spirits and begins to make a broom to clean her shelter. Her hands are weak and carving wood with her
knife is hard. She builds a nice grass
broom. She goes out side to sweep and gets dizzy and returns inside to find her
fire has died. She needs fire wood. Bending down is hard for her.
Day 68
2:03 PM
Theresa gathers fire wood, mostly small sticks and sees deer
tracks, but doesn’t have her bow with her.
2:52 PM
Biko is looking at his kids pic, thinking about the
competitors as he goes to check his shallow water gill net and fish with his
fish line. You can see the bottom where
his gill net is located.
Day 69
8:17 AM
Theresa is watching her laundry in her cooking pot, and
talking about frito pie and drinking tea, after which she is exhausted. She isn’t sure she can draw her bow to hunt
deer… she needs a nap. She gets a
message that production (Alone Crew) is coming a day early. She is wondering if she has won, when in
reality, she is likely to be take out due to medical reasons.
She weights 94 lbs, 36 pounds down from when she
started. They tell her that they must
pull her for medical reasons. Theresa is Tapped out for medical reasons, but not by
choice. She asks for a few minutes to go
back inside her shelter for a few moments. She went in to cry in private, not
wanting to cry in front of everyone. She
is disappointed. Her spirits are still
good, and her will strong. She had the
one of the best shelters ever on the show.
11:13 AM
2 Remain, it is 17 F outside
Biko is holding his toes, apparently they are cold. He is singing, don’t give up on this contest.
Plan for the day is to get some food. He
begins to skin a tree to eat, and boils it in a pan. He is calling it done and begins to eat
it. It taste like trees. It’s hard to eat, he feels nauseous.
2:17 PM
Clay is setting a snare trap. His thoughts are what day is it, and what
does he have to eat. He goes to check the snares and carry’s his bow. He has never snared rabbits as it is illegal
where he lives. He sees track going
right through one of his snares, but no meat. He got one! He snare trapped a
snow show hare weighing about 4 pounds. Continuing to check his trap
line, he finds another 4 pound hare, for 2 today
and four during the show.
7:17 PM
Clay is eating rabbit
10:31 PM
We see Clay’s cabin with him sleeping and hear something
outside. He awakens and goes out to investigate. It is a fisher which has no enemies due to
his aggressive behavior. It is like small badger. He should have shot it with
his bow and eaten it.
Day 70
8:33 AM
Biko says his guts are in knots after eating some tree under
bark soup. He is going to find some wild onions. He has lost over 90 pounds, or
20% of his body. He found a ton of wild
nodding onions. The whole hill is covered
with them. They offer around 20 calories
per 100 grams. This gives hope and renewed energy. His onion soup hits the
spot. He is not leaving until they pull
him.
12:26 PM
Clay putting his pants on before going to check his snares.
Not knowing when the end is, makes this difficult. He sees that the fisher is
walking his trap line. IF he catches another hare, the Fisher will steal it…
looks like it has already happened.
Its 18 F outside.
Clay has a problem, and say’s you can’t trap them…. Probably protected
by law. Clay recognizes he has limited time. Regulations say he can’t shoot
them. This may put him out he says… pre
tap out talk.
Day 71
9:09 AM 27 F outside
Biko goes to get some water and the trail is icy. The waves
soak him as he tries to get some water in his pot. Even getting water has become risky. He has nothing to go back to in the way of a
job, and is bringing little ones into the world and needs this money. His heart is beating, and he feels weak, like
his body is falling apart. He apologizes
and looks like he is about to tap out.
11:13
Biko looks to be finished. He says I’m sorry Aaron, I gave
it everything I got. He is tough, and
says he knows he can do a few more days. The loneliness is the hardest part he
says.
11:38 AM
Clay is in bed thinking. Possibly about to tap out. The first thanksgiving he has been away from
Liz, in the 23 years they have been together. He gets dressed, and decides to
look at his family photo, that he has refrained from looking at so far. He is crying.
Them boys ain’t never seen me shed a tear. He is so lucky to have Liz
and his boys. He is ready to get home.
Is the most qualified survivalist about to quit?
Day 73
9:24 AM
We see the boat coming to get someone.
Biko
has tapped out on day 73. He is one tough guy, but quitting possibly a
few days short of $500,000. How much longer would Clay have lasted?
Day 74
11:07 AM
1 Person Remains – Clay
He is standing out looking at the water, admiring the pretty
day. He is getting a health check today,
as they come to tell him he has won.
He recites a nice poem as he waits.
They inspect him, and interview him… how are you feeling…
its an amazing place, but I’m closing in on 100 days of being away from my
family which is hard. I can make it to 90 days or more, depending on how many
rabbits I can catch.
2:08 PM
They tell Clay that he has won. You have out lasted
everyone… I’m coming home baby. Boys we
are going to have some adventures when I get back.
He is thankful for every animal, fish, berry that he found
on this place. His eyes are red from
crying.
He uses a phone to call his family and tell them he had won
and was on his way home.
He thought this was going to be a test of his skills, but it
was a test of will, a test of fortitude, of resolve. It was an emotional challenge for me.
We see him board a chopper with his back pack. Go to history.com to see his fire side chat.
Stay tune for Alone Ultimate Moments & our top food production methods.
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