Monday, February 24, 2020

Alone: The Beast S1 E2


Three contestants must survive with no tools; just the clothes on their backs, in a harsh environment for 30 days with one animal.  This will test their primitive skills and ability to use Stone Tools.





S1 E2

Finding a huge Musk Ox, Ben Jonas, Nate Weber & Robert Edwards must use primitive stone tools to process it.  They begin a gutless quarter, which is a great idea to save time, since they will have plenty of meat.  Three participants eating a pound of meat per meal is 3 pounds X 3 or 9 pounds per day, and 270 pounds over a 30-day period.  

Upon removing the first quarter, they put it in the lake water to preserve it.  This with extend the shelf life of their meat, but risks contaminating their water.    

Faced with a black bear stealing their meat, they throw rocks and charge him to run him off, then begin to make fire, using cordage made from spruce root which breaks too easy, so they weave cordage from the Musk Ox hair, which works.  

They build a good debris shelter against a earth berm and begin to tan the hide.  Their first attempt at building pottery exploded, but crushing some Musk Ox bone into the clay did the trick.

 Finding a nice-looking stone, they begin to sharpen it and burn a slot in a handle to make a stone Axe.

It’s obvious this newly formed team has good primitive skills, determination and a good work ethic, but the meat is tough and doesn’t have enough fat, so they make fish hooks from Musk Ox bone and fishing line from the sinew.  

This fish are not biting, but a squirrel, killed by throwing a rock, provides a welcome change in diet.  They then use some of the red squirrel meat for fishing bait, finally landing a large lake trout, probably weighing ten pounds, and containing a good amount of fat that gives them a big boost of energy. 


Summary:
Ben Jonas, Nate Weber & Robert Edwards, were a skilled team, that worked together well.  They smartly processed their beast, and were able to harvest a squirrel and a 10 pound lake trout, as well as protect their food from a bear and win this competition.

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Alone: The Beast S1 E1


Three contestants must survive with no tools; just the clothes on their backs, in a harsh environment for 30 days with one animal.  This will test their primitive skills and ability to use Stone Tools.



S1 E1
Our first episode opens with Zane Kraetsch, Lindsay Persico and Joe Schilling begin locating their beast which turns out to be a moose.  They begin to fabricate stone tools to process the moose meat, but their available stone seems limited.  Doing the best they can with stone tools, they begin skinning and gutting the moose.  Lindsay takes the lead gutting the beast to allow it to cool, as Joe heads off to make a small shelter of evergreen boughs.    
Day 2 has Joe coughing and Lindsay trying to quarter the moose as Zane begins to build a smoking rack.  Joe’s coughing intensifies and he is soon no help to the team.   
The next day (3), Zane begins to build fire using moose hide as cordage.   After 7 hours, he uses Witches Hair, growing on trees as a powder under the spindle and quickly gets fire, demonstrating the importance of using the right materials.
They use the moose stomach as a water carrier and  pot for hot rocks to disinfect the water.   Lindsay and Zack are working well together now but Joe is only resting and actually being more of a burden than help.  When he taps out on Day 3, actually looking strong, the team is actually better off.
Day four finds them using the moose hide as a cover, the remaining team of two begins to smoke the meat as the temperature gets down to 28F during the night with a light snow.  The next day, they continue drying meat but also reinforce their shelter.  During the night, they awaken to a bear growling outside their shelter and Zane is missing his kiddos. 
Day 10 opens with a light snow covering.  The team has abundant meat when Zane quits for no apparent reason, except perhaps a lack of mental toughness.  Leaving a woman out their alone was clearly unexpected to her.
Avoiding the bear, a tough Lindsay drags the moose remains further away. At this point, she has lost 10 pounds as the nights are getting down to 28F. With the bear still coming close to her shelter, she decides to relocate her camp, leaving her shelter behind on day 17.  She uses a Birch log and a Chaga fungus that grows on hard wood trees to carry her fire.   Leaving her shelter is risky, but staying might also be even higher risk.  One potential mistake, is she should have put a large log on her old fire as a back up to carrying her fire with her.  But it was not an issue for her as she was able to rekindle her fire.
Day 18 begins with building a new shelter in 32 degree temperatures.   Run down and light headed on Day 23, finds her struggling to eat the low fat dried meat so she decides to go hunting using the moose shoulder scapula as a throwing weapon and killing a grouse, carrying her to extraction day. 

Summary:
Lindsey Persico, is the lone survivor in this episode, proves to be tough, smart and a hard working, who was able to process large quantities of meat and harvest a grouse.