For Season 3’s survival gear lists, click here.
For rules & to see a full list of the items that could’ve been chosen for Alone, keep reading.
***SPOILER ALERT // Please do not continue reading if you don’t want to know who won!***
Now I’m not going to lie, we weren’t the first ones to find out about History Channel’s new TV show Alone. Not even close.
Truth be told, there seem to be so many survivalist TV shows these days that we’re finding it a bit hard to keep up. But when an interesting question popped up on our new forum asking us which gear we’d take on the show if we got the chance to go on, we became more than a little intrigued.
Again – not going to lie – I didn’t expect much from Alone. I thought it’d be the same tired old “get regular people on the TV show with no outdoor experience, throw them in the wilderness and watch them starve to death” routine. I was hella wrong.
Alone has jumped right to the very top of my current favourite survival TV shows list, and dammit I think it’s going to be staying there for a while. If you haven’t given it a shot yet, this is your cue to go look up some clips on YouTube to at the very least see if it’s your thing – chances are if you’re here regularly, it is.
Now for most of the TV shows that we do these kinds of lists for (Dual Survival, Naked & Afraid, Dexter, Gotham), we just sit around watching and rewatching the clips of the episode that have the gear featured until we can identify them. This method is a little shoddy, considering there’s a lot of gear on the market – and a lot more gear that’s not even production. For Alone, however, we luckily managed to find an enormous list of the class of gear each person used right here.
All that’s left, therefore, was to see if it was possible to identify the particular products being used. And since some of the folks on the show were kind enough to post this information online – we’re in business for making a much more accurate overall list (and an easier time doing it!) than with other shows.
These bits of information are especially helpful because we otherwise would never have known what some of the men were carrying – especially seeing as how some tapped out earlier than they otherwise would’ve for things like being stalked by a bear (best damn excuse for tapping out if you ask me!).
If you were on History Channel’s Alone and I haven’t yet contacted you – it’s probably cause I haven’t figured out how to reach you! I’ve tweeted the vast majority of you and most of you said you would be doing YouTube videos or written entries detailing exactly what you took once you got the chance. We’ll be watching out for those, but in any case, if you’d like to add the specifics of your gear to this list or correct something on it, drop us an email (contact info is here) or tweet us @mtjsblog and we’ll be thrilled to patch this article up! Also let me know if you have any websites or social media accounts you want included on this page so if people want to find you they can. I’ve done my best to add those where I’ve found them.
An ENORMOUS thank you goes out to @BIZONTE who helped me track down so damn many of these articles + YouTube videos. Cannot thank you enough!
And another HUGE thanks goes out to Gary Britton who created the original post on the “Pathfinder School Learning Center” Facebook Group which was later copied onto this Blades and Bushlore thread where I found so much information!
*(The 10’s images were taken from History Channel’s Bio page for the Alone TV show).
***And for those of you who are interested – we actually got the chance to do an interview with Sam Larson & Alan Kay – the two final contestants of season 1 of Alone.
How the Survival Gear Had to be Chosen (Selection Rules & Prohibitions)
Joe Robinet mentioned in this YouTube video that the 10 items each person got to bring along had to be chosen from History Channel’s pre-made list of 40. While he mentions that he is not at liberty to say what the 40 items on the list provided by the History Channel were, he does mention that a water filter/purifier was not one of the items on the list, and thus, they could not select it to take with them on the show.
Joe also mentions that most of the men ended up with similar items as their 10 – and that a number of the men actually chose the exact same 10 items to use. He states that this is because there were many items on that list of 40 provided by History that no person in their right mind would bring along with them.
Mitch Mitchell mentioned the fact that there was also a banned list on top of the list of 40 items provided.
List of 40 Items to Choose from for “Alone” (Gear Selection Choices)
**Update – History has published the list of 40 items. They are as follows –
(*Each participant was allowed to select up to 10 items from the following list.)
SHELTER
- 12×12 ground cloth/tarp (grommets approved)
- 8 mm climbing rope
- 550 parachord – 20m
- 1 hatchet
- 1 saw
- 1 axe
BEDDING
- 1 multi-seasonal sleeping bag that fits within provided back-pack
- 1 bivi bag (gortex sleeping bag cover)
- 1 sleeping Pad
- 1 hammock
COOKING
- 1 large (no more than 2 quart) Pot, includes lid
- 1 steel frying pan
- 1 flint or ferro rod set
- 1 enamel bowl for eating from
- 1 spoon
- 1 disposable lighter
- 1 canteen or water bottle
- 1 bear canister
HYGIENE
- 1 bar soap
- 1 8 oz tube of toothpaste
- 1 face flannel
- 1 40 m. roll dental floss
- 1 small bottle bio shower soap
- 1 shaving razor (and 1 blade)
- 1 towel (30” x 60”)
- 1 comb
HUNTING
- 1 300 yard roll of nylon single filament fishing line and 25 assorted hooks (No lures)
- 1 primitive bow with 6 Arrows (must be predominately made of wood)
- 1 small gauge gill net (1.5 m deep x 6 m long and 2 inch [50 mm] mesh)
- 1 slingshot/Catapult
- 1 net foraging bag
- 3.5 lb roll of trapping wire
FOOD RATIONS
- 5 lbs of beef jerky (protein)
- 5 lbs of dried pulses/legumes/lentils mix (starch and carbs)
- 5 lbs of biltong (protein)
- 5 lbs of hard tack military biscuits (carbs/sugars)
- 5 lbs of chocolate (Simple/complex sugars)
- 5 lbs of pemmican (traditional trail food made from fat and proteins)
- 5 lbs of gorp (raisins, m&m’s and peanuts)
- 5 lbs of flour. (starch/carbs)
- 2 lbs of rice or sugar and 1 lb of salt
TOOLS
- 1 pocket knife
- 1 hunting knife
- 1 leatherman multi-tool
- 1 sharpening stone
- 1 roll of duct tape or 1 roll of electrical tape
- 1 small shovel
- 1 small sewing kit
- 1 carabineer
- 1 LED flashlight
- 1 pair of ice spikes
Banned/Prohibited List for “Alone”
The banned/prohibited items list;
- Fuel or matches
- Bug spray/mosquito repellant
- Sunscreen/Chap stick
- Sunglasses
- Beauty products
- Map (detailed topographical)
- Compass
- Unapproved technology (anything with a battery or an engine, eg. cell phones, computers, watches, etc.)
- Professional snares
- Firearms of any kind
- Ammunition
- Explosives or gunpowder
- Animal poison
- Professional fishing rods
- Fishing lures, flies, bait kits
- Fishing traps
- Food or beverage (except the options from the selection list)
- Decoys
- Animal calls
- Tree stands
- Professional bows or crossbows
- Scopes of any kind
- Tents or shelters
- Stoves, pressure cookers or other cooking appliances
- Hydration packs
- Fire pits
- Electric or propane lanterns
- Inflatable boats
- Filtration, purification devices, iodine tablets
- Coolers or food storage boxes (except optional bear canister)
Additional Items “Alone” Contestants Were Given
All the men got to take many pieces of gear that were not counted toward the 10 item limit. These included:
CLOTHING/APPAREL/PERSONAL EFFECT ITEMS
- 1 pair high leg Hunting boots
- 2 pairs of Outdoor Pants (can unzip into shorts)
- 1 t-shirt
- 2 fleece or wool shirts (a hooded fleece is approved)
- 3 pairs wool socks
- 1 hat (brimmed, wool or baseball)
- 1 bandana or shemagh
- 1 pair gloves
- 1 light outdoor jacket
- 2 pairs underwear
- 1 rain jacket and rain trousers
- 1 thermal underwear (long)
- 1 pair of gaiters
- 1 pair of Crocs, Teva sandals or Keen sandals
- 1 toothbrush
- 1 pair of prescription eye glasses
- 1 personal photograph
TRACKING/SAFETY ITEMS
- 1 canister wild animal repellant
- 1 air horn
- 1 backpack
- 1 camera pack
- Camera equipment
- 1 emergency flare
- 1 satellite phone
- 1 emergency personal flotation device
- 1 first aid kit (military type – tourniquet, wadding, ace bandage, alcohol, plastic bag, etc)
- 1 small mirror
- 1 20×20 canvas tarp
- 1 10×10 canvas tarp for camera gear
- 1 head lamp
- 1 gps tracking device
- 1 emergency rations pack to include water and food
WINTER SURVIVAL ITEMS
- 1 woolen sweater
- 1 pair of gloves
- 1 trapper’s hat with ear protection or toboggan
Which Survival Items Were Chosen for History Channel’s Alone
Before we go into the full breakdown person by person, here’s a list of all the gear taken onto the show by popularity (number of men who took the item onto the show in brackets after the item). The information was sourced from here.
- Axe (all 10)
- Sleeping Bag (all 10)
- 2 Qt Pot (all 10)
- Ferro Rod (all 10)
- 25 piece Fishing Kit with Line (all 10)
- Knife (9 / Josh Chevez had no knife)
- 12×12 Tarp (Only 6 carried)
- Saw (6 chose this tool)
- Paracord (5 chose this item)
- Bow & 6 Arrows (4 chose this item)
- Gill Net (4 chose this item)
- Emergency Rations (3 chose this item)
- Canteen/Waterbottle (3 chose this item)
- Leathermen Multi-Tool (2 chose this item)
- Bivy Bag (2 chose this item)
- Sling Shot (2 chose this item)
- Sharpening Stone (2 chose this item)
- Wire (Only 1)
- Extra Tarp (Only 1)
1. Sam Larson’s 10 Survival Items for Alone
Sam was kind enough to direct us to a pretty sweet article he wrote up describing the ten items he took along with him. If you’re interested in some more depth and explaination, be sure to check that article out here.
You can find Sam at his website Woodsong Wilderness, or follow him on his social media accounts found here: [ YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest ]
- Axe
Vintage head + ash handle carved by Sam specifically for the show - Sleeping bag
Large canvas “trapper” sleeping bag
- Ferro Rod
- Knife
Green River Hunter Bushcraft Knife with 5-inch blade - 300 yards of single filament line and 25 hooks
- Plastic tarp
5 mil translucent drop cloth - Metal pot
Zebra stainless steel pot - Slingshot
- Bow and 6 arrows
Old 45 lb recurve with handmade ash arrows - Extra emergency rations
A small amount of pemmican
2. Joe Robinet’s 10 Survival Items for Alone
Joe had actually uploaded a video to YouTube describing which 10 items he’d chosen for History Channel’s Alone. You can find this video here.
You can find Joe at his website JoeRobinetBushcraft.com, or follow him on his social media accounts found here: [ YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram ]
- Tarp
10×10 Bushcraft Outfitters Nylon Tarp - Pot
Zebra Billy Pot 14 cm (without metal insert – not allowed to bring the insert) - Paracord
9 strand mil spec paracord
- Sleeping bag
-20 Degree Celsius Chinook Synthetic Sleeping Bag (he mentioned he didn’t like it) - Fire steel
Bunker style fire steel from Firesteel.com - 300 yards of single filament line with 25 assorted hooks
10 pound fishing line + assorted (small, medium, & large sized hooks - Small gauge gillnet
Example - Extra emergency rations
Legumes & lentils - Knife
Adventure Sworn Mountaineer Custom Knife 4.5 inch blade - Axe
3. Wayne Russell’s 10 Survival Items for Alone
Wayne went over the list of items he chose and why he chose the items he did in this YouTube video here. You can find Wayne at his social media accounts here: [ YouTube, Facebook, Google+ ]
- 12×12 groundsheet
- 550 paracord – 20 m (approx. 66 feet)
- Saw
- Axe
- Sleeping bag
-17 Degree Celsius sleeping bag (like this one) - Large 2 quart pot
- Ferro rod
- 300 yards of single filament fishing line and 25 assorted hooks
- Knife
Ka-Bar Becker BK2 Bushcraft Knife - Leatherman Multi-Tool
Leatherman Wave Multi-Tool (*mentioned here)
4. Josh Chavez’ 10 Survival Items for Alone
12×12 ground sheet- 550 paracord – 20 m (approx. 66 feet)
- Saw
- Axe
- Sleeping bag
- Bivi bag (gortex sleeping bag cover)
- Large 2-quart pot
- Ferro rod
- 300 yards of single filament line with 25 assorted hooks
- Bow and 6 arrows
5. Dustin Feher’s 10 Survival Items for Alone
550 paracord – 20 m (approx. 66 feet)- Axe
- Sleeping bag
- Large 2-quart pot
- Ferro rod
- Water bottle/canteen
- 300 yards of single filament line with 25 assorted hooks
- Small gauge gill net
- Slingshot
- Knife
6. Alan Kay’s 10 Survival Items for Alone **Winner
Saw- Axe
- Sleeping bag
- Large 2-quart pot
- Ferro rod
- Water bottle/canteen
- 300 yards single filament line with 25 assorted hooks
- Small gauge gill net
- 3.5 lb wire
- Knife
7. Brant McGee’s 10 Survival Items for Alone
Brant has just recently started up a blog over at his website Condition One Survival. Look forward to more posts from there! If you’d like to follow Brant, check out his social media here: [ Twitter, Google+ ]
12×12 ground sheet tarp- 550 paracord – 20 m (approx. 66 feet)
- Axe
- Sleeping bag
- Large 2-quart pot
- Ferro rod
- 300 yards of single filament line with 25 assorted hooks
- Bow and 6 arrows
- Extra emergency rations
- Knife
8. Lucas Miller’s 10 Survival Items for Alone
12×12 ground sheet tarp- Saw
- Axe
- Sleeping bag
- Large 2-quart pot
- Ferro rod
- 300 yards of single filament line with 25 assorted hooks
- Extra Tarp
- Extra emergency rations
- Knife
9. Mitch Mitchell’s 10 Survival Items for Alone
Mitch also posted a YouTube video about the 10 items he took with him.
You can find Mitch’s website Native Survival here, and if you’d like to follow Mitch, you can find him at his social media accounts here: [ YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Twitter ]
- Axe
Gransfors Bruks 24 inch Wilderness Axe - Sleeping bag
Old school canvas outer & inner down sleeping bag; polyester baffle (approx 12 lb) - Bivi bag (gortex sleeping cover)
- Large 2-quart pot
Second hand stainless steel 2-quart pot with iron handle and stainless steel metal lid & a lip (beneficial for use as a dutch oven) *Got an email suggesting this might be the Mauviel M’Cook Stainless Steel 1.9 Quart Saucepan with Lid - Ferro rod
Light My Fire Army Fire Steel - 300 yards of single filament fishing line with 25 assorted hooks
300 yards of fishing line
25 Stainless steel fishing hooks
Kept in an Altoids tin (not allowed to have a plastic baggie, but this passed inspection) - Small gauge gill net
6 m 4 foot deep gill net - Bow and 6 arrows
Bear Archery Montana Longbow
Shooting Glove
Arm Guard
Wicker Quiver
5 Broadhead Magnus Stinger arrows + 1 Practice arrow (for practicing and small game) - Knife
Native Survival Knife by Jacklore Customs - Sharpening stone
Fallkniven DC 4
Nagura stone
10. Chris Weatherman’s 10 Survival Items for Alone
Chris went over the items he brought along with him in this article here.
- Saw
Take-down buck saw (made himself)
- Axe
Wetterlings Chopping Axe (chosen over the Gransfors Bruks Scandinavian Forest Axe because the handle was longer) - Sleeping bag
Wiggy’s Hunter Ultima Thule -60 sleeping bag (special ordered a longer version of this bag) - Ferro rod
1/2 diameter fire steel + lanyard - Large 2 quart pot
Zebra Pot 14 cm - Water bottle canteen
64oz Klean Canteen Water Bottle
- 300 yards of single filament fishing line with 25 assorted hooks
Fishing line + assortment of hook sizes with a couple very large (wishes he took the gill net instead)
- Bow and 6 arrows (maybe would not have chosen these again)
Samick Sage Takedown Recurve Bow with 45 lb draw
2x Fishing Arrows
2x Blunt Headed Arrows
2x Broad Head Arrows - Knife
LT Wright Genesis Deep Woods Explorer
- Sharpening stone
Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener
How To Apply to Be On the Show Yourself
Back while season 1 was airing, I saw this question being asked on the History Chanel Facebook page. The reply was as follows:
If you’re referring to Alone, please email aloneshowcasting@gmail.com with your name, age, contact information, location, and a brief description about your survival expertise.
While I’m not 100% sure this is how they’re still taking castings, it’s worth giving a shot to the email if you’re trying to apply to be on the show yourself.
What Gear Would You Take With You?
We’ll of course be updating this page as new information becomes available, but if you spot something before we do, let us know and we’ll fix up the post!
And of course what I’d love to hear from you…
Which survival items would you take with you?
It would be great to know what items each feels was a waste to bring and what items would have been better.
a bow and arrow for season 1 might be useless, since the island is overrun with 3 apex predators, who have probably eaten most of the deer. Seeing Alan eat slugs was disgusting, but it could have been used as fish bait, as could the 33 baby crabs that Sam ate. After severing a fish’s head, it could be used as bait in a homemade crab trap. everyone could take 5 lbs of beef jerky, and use that for sustenance, while they get busy harvesting food from the water. 25 hooks could be used for a very long trot line, and it seems like there was no shortage of live bait. However, most of the participants do not have exposure or experience with these harvesting techniques.
you want the 12×12 reflective tarp, the 2 person cotton rope hammock from Amazon ($70). the cookpot, the fishing kit, the snarewire, the 3 lb block of sea salt (if you’ll not be on the sea). The Big roll of duct tape, the slingbow, the modified Crunch mulittool and the Cold steel shovel, modified to have 8″ of saw edge and to be taken apart and re-assembled without tools. You’ll make several different lengths and types of handles for it.
if you know to take a 2 person, $60 cotton rope hammock from Amazon, you can make 2400 sq ft of 3″ mesh netting in 8 days. After youve caught all of the large fish in your area, simply overlay two segments of the netting, offset them a bit, and stitch thru the netting at every other mesh intersectioin, converting the netting into 1.5″ mesh Every day, you put another 300 sq ft of netting out into the lake, tapering the width of the net to match the depth of your water. It will then create 2 “v’s” in the water, with the shoreline forming 2 legs of the v’s. Bait the apex of each v. The second day’s netting should be the seine, which you stretch across the open end of each V, one at a time, of course, and move the seine up to the apex. There, you use a spear or dipnet to secure your catch and move on to the next v. Empty each v twice a day and you’ll average catching at LEAST 20 lbs of fish per day. That’s 7000 calories. You need 200,000 calories to last 100 days.
Here´s my list:
Leatherman Signal
Gränfors Jägerbeil (Hunters Axe)
Silky Saw Bigboy
Cold Steel Speznaz Shovel (with one Saw-Side)
Wiggys Antarctic Sleeping Bag
Ferro Rod
GSI Aluminium Dutch Oven
Trapping Wire
Gill Net
Bow with 6 Arrows
I’m not a survival expert. But a lifetime of rural living, hunting, fishing, etc had me “talking to the tv” again. I’m on season 1. And well, some items they chose made sense, some did not.
Fish hooks and line without a rod & reel, seem like a wasted choice. Do as the natives do/did and use a net.
A tarp in a rainforest seems like a good decision until you can make a roof of native materials.
Knife, whatever you are comfortable using. I do like that nobody opted for some silly Rambo style knife.
Axe, yup. From felling saplings to make your cabin, dugout, lean to, and bear pole. To chopping firewood, or a bear if it wants to get ornery.
Saw, I can see no fault carrying another way to cut small logs and saplings. Ditto a machete.
Sleeping bag, yup.
Pot. From boiling sketchy water, to melting ice, to cooking shellfish. It makes sense.
A bow, or slingshot… I would not take. Simply because I am not proficient with a bow yet, and I am a danger to myself and others with a slingshot.
A fero rod, yup. Plenty of fat pine and other tinder out there.
Water bottle or canteen. Stainless, so you can boil with it. Guardia is no joke.
I’m not sure how the producers cast this show, but if it’s like many others, they don’t want people who are good outdoors. They want “characters”, that have interesting personalities that add drama. Either through fear, mistakes, or lack of experience.
none of them have had a clue, in 7 seasons. 2 of them have gotten lucky, arrowing big game that happened to stumble onto their little 1.2 mile radius circle. Prior to that, both of them were losing a lb per day, just likeeveryone else. has always done.
you can do MUCH better, if you understand that you dont want a debris shelter, or a fire for warmth. When you act accordingly, you’ll save a month’s worth of calories and time. if you know what to take and do with that savings, you’ll eat quite well for 100 days, barring the first week.
Fascinating to watch season one after watching 4, 5, & 6. Obviously the first time around people didn’t really know what to expect. A lot more lightweight gear than later seasons. I wonder if they expected to have to hike more and wanted to keep weight down or if they just didn’t expect such dense undergrowth. Also by the conspicuous display of gear labels in later seasons I suspect contestants got freebies or discounts from Arc’teryx and Feathered Friends.
With hindsight as a tool- If it were me… I’d bring the pemmican and use it to provide energy to construct a decent shelter in the first few days.
As other posters have said- dig a hole anywhere and it will fill up with water.
Of course lots of practice beforehand with firesteel and wet wood.
Sleeping Bag
Steel pot/lid
Firesteel
Paracord
Fishing line/hooks
Wire
Leatherman
Axe
Saw
Pemmican
*No tarp because the honkin’ canvas one they provided was plenty.
*All my clothes would have big gaudy shiny metal buttons- use for lures.
they all “think’ that you want a big shelter, with a fire inside of it. You dont. What you want is a small work awning, in front of a small sleeping shelter, with a raised wooden bed and hot rocks under that bed. You dont want the fire hazard, the CO hazard, or to the (eventual) lung cancer and emphazema hazard. You can use the one way projected heat of a Siberian fire lay any time and place, if needed. You can use the gravity-fed Dakota fire pit to heat big stones, too. The smaller the shelter, the more it will conserve your body heat., the more quickly you can build it, the easier it is to move. You can have a big kill that you need to move to and process. You can need to move where you’ve not yet used all of the squaw wood. Where you need to be in order to “hole up” for the winter is probably not going to be where you need to be in order to efficiently forage, in the 1-2 months that you have a chance to do so.
I’ve applied for every season since the first one. yes, you CAN sleep up in the tree 15 or more higher, if you’re scared of bears. I’m not scared. More people die of dog bites, bee stings, etc than bears. But you can make a ladder, get into the hammock 15 ft up and then the next day, find a tree in which you can make a platform to sleep on. If a bear can climb your tree without waking you, you’re doped up. You’ll never sleep that well on this challenge, guaranteed
Does anyone know if they allow contestants with medical conditions to take their medications with them?
Officially, I wager that you are able to apply but I would guess that they would find a reason to decline you by virtue of not wanting to risk the liability of you losing your medications. :/
absolutely, with maybe 2-3 exceptions per season. The rest are just blowhard know-nothings. They also gave Nicole a primo site and she still blew it. Women, gays, transgenders, minorities get on the show just by showing up at the boot camp. there’d be no psyche war if they had plenty of meat. After blowing up being such “experts”, it looks SO bad to not be able to procure an average of even 1000 calories per day (they all lose at least 1/2 lb per day, most lose a lb per day) they get depressed and quit.. Complete failures on international TV. Dont even know what gear to take. As someone else said here, if you take the same stuff and do the same things that the losers have always taken and done, you’ll lose. There’s nothing special about HOW you’ll do those same things
I have read a lot about it not being a survival game and all mental. well if you have ever had to survive on your own in any place its pretty much all mental strength. surviving is easy we do it every day now having to deal with your self all by your self with no one to tell you good job or to ask for help or going hungry for a day or two will mess with your confidence (Mental)can you mentally get back to trying to stay alive when your cold wet hungry and mentally blocked. gets to all of use. mental boys and girls hardest thing to deal with. and all you big bold tough guys that are not scared of bears you would probably the first to get eaten on the show. I have shot bears with guns and bow and I doubt that a big biker guy would climb a tree after hes been shot with a arrow. Respect your surroundings my friends without that you will not survive.
the above is a pant load. So far, ONE guy, Jordan, season 6, has had enough to eat. He got a moose, with LUCK. He suffered ZERO psych stress. Know why? Cause he had plenty to eat, that’s why. Cold weather preserved the meat for him. The others know that they are failing, grossly so, with the entire world’s eyes on them, including their students and others who would have given them money for “instruction”. in survival. They dont know what gear to take or what to do. That’s why they starve. They are hung up on this bs about axe, saw, sleeping bag, paracord, belt knife, ferrorod. gillnet, food ration, and it keeps them from taking the Cold Steel shovel (with a saw edge) a modified Crunch multitool, the big roll of duct tape, the 3 lb block of salt, the 12×12 tarp, the 2 person hammock, the snarewire. Have to take the slingbow, the skillet and the fishing kit, making 50 small hooks out of the 25 big ones, then making 16 treblehooks out of the 50, using the snarewire. If you can’t make fire without a ferrorod, you dont belong on this show. If you can’t keep a fire alive by bedding the coals and putting a little primitive A frame shelter over it (dampening down first) you dont belong on this show.
They could make 1000 sq ft of netting out of the half of the 20×20 tarp that they dont need for any other purpose. That’s a 300 sq ft net weir for fish, another one for waterfowl and plenty left over for making a net bag of debris to use as a blanket, a net bag full of rocks to use as an anchor, a few “boxtraps” for birds and rabbits, and a small seine and cast net (if your area will let you utilize such tools. You need a snag-free bottom of your body of water and clear water is a huge help, too. Netting is the key, and none of them has had the brains to see that.
nobody’s been charged or ‘stalked’ by a bear. that’s bs, plain and simple. If you take what everyone else has taken and do what everyone else has done, you’ll get the same result. They’ve all just starved. Every last one of them has lost an AVERAGE, of at LEAST 1/2 lb per day! People are clueless about how much food value is in this or that amount or type of food (google it). They are also clueless about how many calories per day you need (3000-4000 calories per day for a big man, active all day out in the cold, stressed, not sleeping well. NOBODY has managed to get that much, ever, in one day, in all 5 seasons. A couple of ducks have been caught, but only one was for one guy. /The other times, it had to be split between two people. A duck is 3-5 lbs, half of which is not edible flesh. It might be as much as 1000 calories per lb of flesh, IF it’s fat. So that’s at most 2500 calories.
do NOT show or tell anyone, much less the Alone people, that you know how to last twice as long as everyone else has, that you dont mind being alone, you dont miss anyone, etc. They’ll NEVER pick you if you admit any of the above! They want inept weaklings, who know JUST enough to impress cub scouts and that’s it. Then they can relax, knowing that their expenses will end in 2 months or less.
if you’re on a seashore, you’ll find barnacles, periwinkles, snails, etc to use as bait. on a freshwater lake or river, what you to is use shovel to make a longer handle for the shovel, then use the shovel to dig j-channels along the shore. Stir up some mud, shake some grass roots into the water. Minnows will enter the J channel by the time the water is clear. Keep your shadow off of the water, tread softly and you can block the channel with the shovel, trapping the minnows inside. presto, bait for the treblehooks/baitbags, with the forked stick “engines”. These 24 treblehook set ups, half of them on land, set for gulls, ducks, magpies, will feed you ok until you’ve made enough to netting to be catching more fish than you can eat every day. Then move all of the treblehooks to become land-sets. You’ll need the change of diet and the fat, which fish aint got. You’ll also need to peel, shred, boil, then fry cambium, so as to have some fiber, and a carb-source, which you need to keep your brain working properly.
make a couple of lists. What gear to take, then what to do, when, with a plan b and plan c for each step. Dont cut up your hammock right away. Use it, with hot rocks or hot water under/in your sleeping gear with you, if it’s cold, until you can get all your insulation and shelter squared away.
as you can see from my may 13 post about the 10 items, there’s no room for rations, ferrorod, sleeping bag. Here’s how to start your first fire, keep it alive all night, then have backup. Heavily rust the outside of your shovel before you go, using coatings of iodine to achieve that effect. A strip off of your bandanna works perfectly,, and some shredded duct tape is a fine coal extender, until you can find some pine resin. Once you have one fire, you have ashes and charred punk wood, for starting fires with any hard rock and carbon steel tool.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dave+west%2C+curved+fire+roll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2fJ8FYKZs4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzvTsF4Z9xY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfe-S40nAgI
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dakota+fire+pit
take the cold steel shovel (with saw edge) the modified Crunch multi-tool, the slingbow, the 12×12 tarp, the hammock, the fishing kit (as treblehooks) the duct tape, the 5 qt skillet with lid, the snarewire. If you’re on a seacoast, take the 2 lbs of sugar and one lb of salt. you’ll be able to stone-boil extract all the salt you need to preserve the 100+ lbs of fish and meat surplus that you’ll have. If you wont be on the sea, you have no choice but to take the 3 lb block of salt. You need it for bait, for food preservation, for replacing your electrolytes and for helping you eat bland food.
If you are not going to be on a sea shore, the 3 lb block of salt MUST be one of your items. You dont need to bother with the sleeping bag. Hot stones can be use to dry local debris. Pile said debris on a raised wooden bed. Bundle more of the debris, tie together the bundles into mats and pull them over you. Alternately, if the debris is too small for bundling, it can be “quilted” into net bags, and thus, but used over you like a blanket. Take nothing that you can’t do without or which you can field-make. There’s too many vital items and the limit of 10 is reached far too quickly.
take on of Chief Aj’s slingbows. they are now allowed 9 arrows. Take only 2 of them as broadheads, the rest as 4-tined fishing heads. Save one for use in bowfishing, have a slip on rubber fletch on that one. The broadheads have regular fletching, the 6 remaiing arrows should feature spiral flu flu fletching, which greatly aids arrow recovery and does a lot to prevent arrow damage. All feathers should be water proofed. Each tine can become 2 fishhooks, so you end up with 16 treblehooks, and 6 blunt arrows, courtesy of the Crunch multitool and the snare wire. Also, bring the fishing kit as 8 treble and one single hook. Treble hooks are FAR more likely to suffice for un-manned lines than single hooks. Make tarp and tape bait-bags, so that the fish, birds and mammals are forced to bite right where the treblehook is hidden. Power the hooks with springy forked sticks, so that they get “set” suddenly, not letting the quarry “mouth” the bait and then pull away.
heavy duty shelters are a waste of time and calories. Until you’ve fed yourself well for 6 weeks, stick with just a tarp shelter and a raised wooden bed. then you can move it to where the squaw wood is easily found, instead of having to haul lots of wood long distance, cutting it, etc. VITAL to take a hammock and the 12×12 tarp, cut-tear them into strips, twist the strips to add strength, spool the cordage around 2″ logs until you’re ready to load it onto your netting needle. Half of the 20×20 tarp is also converted into 3″ netting. Then you use splits of local reeds, roots, vines, shoots, strips of bark to convert the 3″ mesh into 1.5″ mesh, by weaving in the splits and tying every other mesh with a tiny hunk of the 900 ft of fishline that you are allowed to take. This will not suffice for making the seine, but it works fine for making net-weirs.
I’m sad that you spoiled who the winner was. I was half way through episode 1 when I wanted to look up what items each person got. Now I know who wins and it partially ruin the season for me. I hope you will consider not doing to in the future.
I literally have a spoiler alert at the top of the article
The producers have tremendous costs each day that the contest goes on. They want it to end as soon as they have enough video for 12 shows. Their liability insurance and rescue teams cost them many, many thousands of $ per day. So they not only pick horrifically un-suitable sites, times of year and gear lists, but also the weakest, most inept people that they can find
Given that they’ve all starved and you’ll have to eat like 400 lbs of very bland fish, game, vegetative juice and cambium, I’ve changed my mind and if I was sent to a sea shore, I’d forego the sleeping bag in favor of the 2 lbs of sugar and 1 lb of salt, so as to help me choke down all that tasteless crud “food”. I’ll still have to extract many lbs of salt from the sea, but the sugar is precious. I can dry out and use debris, on top of a raised wooden bed and in a chunk of tarp or netting, pulled over me, in place of the sleeping bag, with heated rocks under the bed. I can get by on a 10×10 sleeping shelter and a 10×10 work awning/tarp, until it gets so cold that I have to give up on foraging and just “hole up” on my preserved food and my bodyfat. At that time, I can use the 10×10 “awning-tarp” as a second wall of my little shelter, with several inches of dry debris between the 2 layers of tarp. A Dakota fire pit (or 3) can be “gravity fed” with a log in a third hole down to the flames, so that big rocks are always being heated, and I can use the Cold Steel shovel to rotate them into being under my bed. When using the Dakota pit, no heat is lost to the side, so you need much less fuel to get the same heating effect, assuming that you can find some head-sized stones, that is.
carlos lanes from lowell ma. I watch all the 5 episodes of alone, what I notice is that every body is an expert survival, but some of them don’t even last a week. I think you should give chance to others that are not expert but willing to take the challenge, some times have some one that are not expert will be interesting.
they HAVE all just starved. Naked and Afraid doesn’t use fat people. That’s the only difference between the 2 shows, other than NA is never sited in cold country. Alan and Sam averaged losing a lb per day while on this show. Fowler lost almost that much. 7/8″ of a lb per day, despite having caught 50 lbs of fish. You have to catch 600 lbs of fish if you’re not the biggest lardass on the show.
the gillnet has been reduced in size from 150 sq ft of 2″ mesh to 48 sq ft of 1.5″ mesh, rendering it useless. The ration size has been cut from 5 lbs each to 2 lbs each, rendering them not worth taking. Take a modified Cold Steel shovel, a modified Crunch multi-tool, one of Chief Aj’s slingbows, the 12×12 tarp, the 2 person cotton rope hammock, the big roll of duct tape, the fishing kit, the snarewire, the 5 qt skillet with lid (amazon) and if you’re on the seacoast, the sleeping bag. If you’re not on the sea, then you have to take the 3 lb block of salt. it’s great bait, it helps choke down fish and cambium (the only likely foods at that time of year) and it helps preserve meat and fish until consistently freezing weather does so for you. you need to make 2000 sq ft of 1.5″ mesh netting out of the 12×12 tarp and out of half of the 20×20 tarp, as well as out of the hammock. The 4-tined fishing arrowheads, each tine can become 2 fishhooks. Use the snare wire to convert them to treblehooks and set them for mammals and birds. The baited net weirs and the seine will provide all the fish you can choke down.You’ll need FAT and fish dont offer any, other than salmon during a “run”.
the ferrorod is a wasted pick, folks. you can easily start a fire with the batteries that they give you, a tine from one of the fishing arrowheads and the duct tape. You can do it with the highly polished bottom of your skillet. You can do it by firerolling a hunk of your t-shirt, using rust from the (pre-corroded) outside of your shovel. If you take half a day, it’s pretty easy to get fire with a big McElroy pump drill., given some mods and some thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8BXhxHWyF4
note that you can just us 6″ long, 4″ OD logs for the counterweights, using the modified crunch (awl) to drill a hole into the side of the logs, so as to mount them on the flywheel part of the drill. Split the end of the entering stick, and soak it with water, so it will swell in the hold, if you dont want to use 2 sticks and tie the weight in between the sticks. You CAN also use a small piece of dry wood, dovetailed into your hearth board. Notice that the spindle head is removable? those 2 parts are the only ones that have to be dry wood. Use the tape and your gaiters to make a dry bag in which to keep your fire kit. It rains an average of 12″ per month on Vancouver Island.