Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- That's definitely a grizzly bear.

That's pretty damn fresh.

A grizzly bear can simply end you.

And it can happen in a split second.

- I've never interacted with grizzly bears.

I've always been the hunter, never the hunted.

- Woah, bear. Move off, bear. Holy *bleep*.

- I have twins on the way,

so I don't really have the option of going home.

This is my job now.

- That is a *bleep* mountain lion.

I hope I see him again.

- This is Tim. I need help.

I think I might be having a heart attack.

I made the right choice. I know I did.

This pain will end my life if I don't get help.

♪ ♪

male narrator: In "Alone's" most terrifying location yet,

10 participants face

the deadliest predator in North America...

- There he is, right there.

- Grizzly bears.

- Hey, bear.

- There are a lot of grizzly here.

I'm gonna have to live with them.

- Go on, get.

- Every second we're on the land,

we're being hunted.

- Holy *bleep*, mountain lion.

- He's circling around my shelter.

narrator: Bone-chilling cold...

- Winter's coming.

- You combine the wind with the rain and the cold,

this place could make the Arctic look easy.

- Oh, *bleep*.

narrator: And complete isolation.

- You cannot hide from yourself

mentally and emotionally.

- [screams]

- There's no place to go.

- I am suffering from loneliness.

narrator: Who will survive?

- Yes, yes!

- This could be the end.

- I don't want to tap,

but I don't want to die, either.

- You have to suffer before you can succeed.

- [retching]

narrator: The last one standing wins.

- At what point do I push the button?

♪ ♪

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[birds chirping]

- What in the world?

This is insane.

There they go. [laughs]

Alone for the next few months.

Holy cow.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

So my mom introduced me to this show 11 months ago

almost to the day.

She is, like, an "Alone" superfan, and so, like,

I can't tap out for anything less than,

like, a amputated leg.

It's a really good energy and motivation

I think I have from my mom.

♪ ♪

I am sweatin'.

I'm gonna get out of these.

Today's really, like, reconnaissance on,

what do I have available on this piece of land here?

So that's what I'll do first.

Jeez, these pants are fitting pretty tight.

Operation change clothes done.

[light music]

This is just an insane opportunity.

All right. I'm gonna enter the woods.

Living off the land, living with your hands,

taking pride in your work, being exhausted, being sore.

♪ ♪

Oh, it's delicious.

And I get to be on TV, and I get to demonstrate skills

and go live a dream that I've wanted to do my entire life.

Like, there's nothing that would merge or align

with my life and my passions like this show.

[dramatic music]

It's beautiful out here.

I've been an educator in Alaska for about 14 years.

I work for an environmental field school

located on the Inian Islands in southeast Alaska.

So there are seals, and otters,

and other predators that will come rub your line.

They call me the "Jolly Green Hermit"

because I live on an island surrounded by wilderness,

and I'm the only resident there.

I love my bay.

To me, it's a lifestyle, like, living like this.

I plumbed my house, wired my house,

because I absolutely love DIY, doing it yourself.

Holds heat for a long, long time.

My biggest strengths are living in wild places,

not having a lot of tools and a lot of resources.

And I've been alone.

Like, I was alone for 42 days this last winter.

So now I'm gonna go be alone.

And it's not gonna freak me out,

'cause I've done that before.

Look what I found. Fresh water.

I've been training for this my entire life.

I'm here to test myself and see how I do.

This is my marathon. I got to go run it.

♪ ♪

All right.

*bleep*.

Bear poop.

Pretty soft.

Let's see.

It's got some worms in it,

but first sign of a big game animal I've seen.

It's like a bear highway, here.

♪ ♪

Bear bed, bear trails.

[whistles]

Lots of berries.

The Chilcotin area that we're in

has an incredible amount of grizzly bears

in huge concentrations.

Hey, bear.

So every second that we're on the land, we're being hunted.

We are prey.

Got to move real quick.

There isn't a bear on the planet right now

that couldn't come and kill any one of us, any time.

It's scary.

All right.

Get the *bleep* out of here.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Well, I'm almost alone.

[boat motor whirring]

♪ ♪

Finally, alone.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

It's beautiful, just beautiful.

I'm gonna drop this pack,

get down in some hiking clothes,

and walk the shore line a little bit.

Let's see what we can find.

When you think about Launch Day,

you're amped up, and you're ready to go.

Boat drives away, and you're standing there alone.

And you have to realize it's time to get to work.

Like to get a good spot for a temporary shelter.

Because there's no one that's gonna help you.

There's no questions to be answered,

except from yourself.

And you have all these ideas

and all these plans that you want to do,

but you have to start to prioritize

based on what you see.

That's a good spot for now.

You can have this beautiful plan

that you think you're gonna follow,

but Mother Nature will find a way to tell you real quick

that your plan's not gonna work.

And that's where I think I have an advantage.

I'm not a bushman. I'm not an angler.

What I think I'm good at

is out-of-the-box problem-solving.

♪ ♪

It's not easy.

It's definitely not easy country.

[dramatic music]

Well, how about that?

I was active-duty military for 24 years.

I had two combat deployments,

one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

There's no other opportunity for me

to do something to challenge myself to this level.

It's all the things in my wheelhouse.

I'm comfortable in the wild.

I'm comfortable alone.

I'm really well-practiced in a high-stress environment.

That, to me, is a huge skill for my mental health

and my ability to cope with anything

that happens out there.

It's another mission for me,

and I just focus on what has to be done,

and I'll go do it.

I'm leaving behind my wife and five children.

Even though I miss them, I have so much experience

of being away from them for the military.

And I know how to place that away

and compartmentalize that emotion.

My philosophy on life

is to always vision yourself the champion.

You have to see yourself collecting the medal

at the end.

And I always end up where I see myself ending up.

♪ ♪

This is a nice, open area.

I'm just checking for scat,

see if it's been visited by anybody recently

or...if there's any game trails.

There's a game trail right there.

So that's a good thing to keep an eye on.

[whispers] Hang on.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[whispering] There's a grouse in the trees.

♪ ♪

Right there.

♪ ♪

All right. I see him.

♪ ♪

[chittering]

[dramatic music]

[chittering]

Damn it.

He's gone.

So I made the mistake.

Got greedy on day one.

That's okay.

I'll locate my arrow and then move on.

[light music]

My life just put me through experiences

that are different than other people,

and it's given me a philosophy on life

that I don't ever see the downside of something.

It's required for me to be positive all the time

and try to stay high energy.

And I just figured out ways to do that,

and that's why I think this is a challenge

that's kind of suited for me.

All right. That's okay.

If that's the one mistake I make today...

[laughs]

We're good.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Oh, my gosh.

All righty.

This is them leaving.

Bye-bye, boat.

Bye-bye, people.

[sighs]

Hello, solitude

and...quiet.

It is quiet.

Brilliant.

The site is gorgeous.

It's absolutely fantastic here.

I'm gonna go ahead and take a little walk around.

And then we'll start looking for a quick,

temporary shelter site for the night.

[light music]

Even though this is going to be

an incredibly difficult process,

I think it will be absolutely worth it in the end,

just for the learning experience.

I do absolutely love puzzles and challenges,

which are based around my areas of expertise.

I'm gonna use a reverse grip

'cause it gives me a lot more power and control.

I'm a Stone Age specialist.

I have a PhD in prehistoric animal skin

processing technologies.

I have done almost all of the outdoor skills,

but from a Stone Age standpoint,

using stone tools, bone tools, wood tools.

We're just gonna go ahead and make these ring cuts.

I decided to participate because it's the opportunity

to put into practice all of the skill sets

that I've worked my entire life learning

and the skill sets that I teach.

This is a heck of an opportunity

to really get into the mindset of someone

who lived off the land.

The 500,000 is actually a pretty big factor for me.

I, honest to God, barely make ends meet,

but I still love what I do.

It would allow me to live,

thrive and learn for a long period of time.

[laughs]

Okay.

There's loads of plant food around.

♪ ♪

Fireweed.

Nom, nom, nom.

It's actually kind of spicy.

That's not why it's called fireweed.

It does happen to taste nice.

♪ ♪

I want to wander my entire site.

I will probably spend at least two days doing this.

Berries are just ripening up now.

There aren't a lot of Stone Age specialists in the world.

It does give me an advantage for problem-solving

and out-of-the box ingenuity and such.

♪ ♪

Wow.

What we've got here is evidence

that I have a friend on this beach.

Got a neighbor of the big furry, toothy variety.

This is actually bear scat.

Track impressions are just there.

Grizzly bears are a concern, absolutely.

You don't just bang pans and have them run away.

They know they're at the top of the food chain.

They're humongous.

♪ ♪

So let's quickly get this set up, shall we?

I'm originally American.

Did grow up in Wyoming.

♪ ♪

Grizzly bears were part of your wildlife population.

♪ ♪

You really have to keep a super tidy camp.

And you need to cook in a separate place

than where you sleep; it really changes

the entire concept of how you formulate a home.

Going to boil some water.

Do the things that you can to help not bring

a bear into your camp, and other than that,

it's totally out of your control anyway.

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

[wind whistling]

♪ ♪

- Okay.

Here's our cricket.

It crawled out of the fire pit this morning.

I was like, "Oh, I was hoping for more crickets."

[tense music]

It does not gross me out to eat bugs.

In North America, I think it's a very underutilized resource.

There are many tribes that live on grubs

and whatever edibles that they have.

All right.

Crickets: high calorie, very high in fat.

Whew. All right. Here we go.

Down the hatch.

♪ ♪

A little gritty.

The legs are really...

get caught on your tongue...

[laughs]

'Cause they've got these, like, little barbs.

[laughs]

Tastes okay.

Nothing to write home about.

[dramatic music]

I spent four years

living with an indigenous tribe

called the Siberian Yupik in remote Alaska.

I wanted to live with an indigenous population

that was still living with the land.

It's already really cozy in here.

I'm a teacher.

I've taught kindergarten through tenth grade.

I've been in the woods teaching kids

to be more connected with nature,

and I have a lot of skills.

We have a red squirrel.

I've done primitive snaring.

And I also know a lot of wild edibles.

I built a primitive shelter,

and then I lived in it for years.

Most people who teach in survival schools

don't live primitively for many years.

So there you go.

I'm leaving behind my husband.

He was right from the start extremely supportive.

Both of us know it's gonna be

the hardest thing I've ever done,

but I've practiced these skills for a lot of years.

I'm a small person, but I'm stronger than I look.

♪ ♪

I'm gonna gather a significant amount of edibles.

[light music]

♪ ♪

This whole hillside is covered with wild onion.

Ideally, the shelter is starting to happen

in the first few days.

But we're kind of late in the season,

and so a lot of plants, a lot of the edibles are past prime.

Come on, baby. Oh, yeah.

Woah, that is the biggest one I have pulled yet.

So I'm just gonna gather as much as I can find.

Whoo!

[wind whistling]

It's warming up.

Do some clothing changes

and figure out what else to gather.

♪ ♪

Stop and have some.

Mmm.

It's quiet today on the lake.

It's nice.

[spits]

No frickin' way.

[tense music]

Oh, my God.

Okay, so there is a bear.

And it has seen me.

♪ ♪

And it is swimming towards me.

♪ ♪

Holy crap.

♪ ♪

All right.

♪ ♪

*bleep*.

♪ ♪

Holy crap.

[sighs] Damn.

Kind of surprised to see that.

All right.

[tense music]

That's the biggest bear I've ever seen in my life.

And now it looks like it's fishing.

A bear's first instinct is not to attack humans.

But we're on their land.

There it is again.

There's different temperaments.

You can get a bear that's acting unusual.

You can get predatory bears.

You just have to really be with your head on a swivel.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- So...

Yes, I'm totally using the camera as a mirror right now.

All right. That is now my comb.

[tense music]

I've chosen my permanent shelter site.

I want to do it here.

I've got a large open area.

It is right off the beach.

However, I do plan to build a pit house,

a semisubterranean dwelling,

in which case the elements will be held at bay

by a very, very sturdy shelter.

♪ ♪

I want to make a pit house

because they're incredibly warm.

They are kept at the temperature of the ground,

which is about 50 degrees.

So really, my fire only ever has to heat air up

from 50 degrees to where you want it,

not from the outside temperature

up to where you want it.

It's a massive advantage.

[light music]

♪ ♪

It is an extensive project, and it will take some time.

Lots of digging with a stick and a rock, oh, and a jawbone.

I found an elk jawbone, which has also been useful.

♪ ♪

This type of structure was used quite frequently

in this area by native peoples.

So obviously, it's possible to do.

Pit house technique has been in use

for thousands of years all over the world,

by various cultures all over the place.

♪ ♪

Mm. Yay.

I keep finding little grubs while I'm excavating.

And they taste like pine nuts.

They're delicious.

These, these are the nutty grubs.

They're really, really yummy.

Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Pine nut flavor. Oh, they're so good. Mmm.

I don't know what they are, but they're great.

Another grub.

[spits]

Ooh.

[spits]

That one didn't taste like pine nuts.

Don't know what that one was. Wasn't very good.

[spits, coughs]

Ugh.

Steep learning curve.

[dramatic music]

I'm hoping to get this at least waist deep,

but we'll see how the substrate holds up

and what happens.

♪ ♪

Definitely feel the judgment coming from the Internet.

"Oh, my God, she's spending so much energy.

Why is she doing this?"

Because I don't plan to be here for three weeks.

I plan to be here for three months,

and I want a nice home in which to live

that is really, really truly tight against the elements.

And if I'm gonna do something like this,

this is the time to do it, while I still have energy.

♪ ♪

Oh, well, I feel pretty accomplished.

The majority of the hole is dug.

♪ ♪

[sighs]

Hell, yeah.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I wish there was a good way to get these in bulk.

[tense music]

I was cutting through this log,

and there's tons of these ants in there.

♪ ♪

That would be some good protein

if I could collect 'em all.

♪ ♪

They taste, uh...

Sour, kind of lemony.

I'd eat a whole bunch of 'em if I could.

Anyways, time to get shelter-building.

♪ ♪

So I'm thinking about right in here,

building the permanent shelter.

♪ ♪

Clear out these trees that are here.

♪ ♪

My strongest skill is my ability to build things.

And my goal is to build a solid shelter.

That's of prime importance to me.

♪ ♪

My background is primarily

in bushcraft and hunting.

I've come across the animal tracks.

I'm really happy to see here.

I'm a carpenter by trade.

I went to school for engineering.

So I love building things,

traps and structures and anything

that you can construct from the natural world.

I am hot, I'm tired, and I'm dirty.

And I absolutely love it.

I'm leaving behind my wife, my son, and our dogs.

Daddy's gonna miss you too.

My last dinner home.

Winning the money would allow me to pay off our house

and be completely debt-free.

And that would allow me to spend more time traveling,

more time with my wife and son.

♪ ♪

I lost my daughter 2 1/2 years ago.

When you go through those kinds of experiences,

that mentally and emotionally

prepares you to handle a challenge like this.

Anything that I experience out here

is not going to be as bad as that.

There's no turning back.

I am full speed ahead.

And I'm hoping I can make my family proud.

♪ ♪

[saw scraping]

I'm building a log cabin with a single slope roof.

Whichever side I put the sleeping bag on,

I'll have it short

and then taper up to a tall area,

some place I can stand up in.

Biggest thing, getting the shelter done.

Then it will be the hunting and fishing and everything.

♪ ♪

Typically, I'd be trying to cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.

And trying to slow that down.

Don't need to sweat, just slow and methodical.

♪ ♪

Building a log cabin is a huge caloric expenditure.

I know it's gonna be a lot of work.

But I know that's what's gonna allow me to survive

on fewer calories in the long run.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

I'm doing this saddle notch on all of the logs to stack them,

kind of like Lincoln Logs.

And that way, they can sit fairly tight together,

and there's very little gap in between the logs

that I'll have to fill in later on.

♪ ♪

This thing's beautiful. Beautiful, I tell you.

♪ ♪

[groans]

Well, I've worked myself out of logs.

That's it for today.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

I feel very good about my potential to win this.

♪ ♪

But I also know that things happen.

Nature is brutal,

and any one of us can be brought down

when we least expect it.

♪ ♪

[animal chuffing]

♪ ♪

[rustling]

♪ ♪

[bear chuffing]

♪ ♪

[bear groaning]

Damn it. Where did you go?

*bleep*.

♪ ♪

I have no idea which way he went.

♪ ♪

I guess I need to get that cabin built.

[laughs]

[groans]

♪ ♪

[wind whistling]

♪ ♪

You can see there's a bit of a path

that goes through right there,

which would explain a lot of the noise

coming through last night.

♪ ♪

And you can see my shelter right there,

100-125 feet away.

Oy!

I feel super vulnerable.

I have to get this shelter done,

but it's gonna take a long time.

♪ ♪

Obviously, at some point,

I'm gonna have to get some food in me,

gives me a bit of a conundrum.

I can only go so long without food.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[scraping]

♪ ♪

- *bleep*.

[sighs]

A lot of things went wrong on that one.

Don't know what attempt this is; six, maybe.

Against the pleading of my mother,

I didn't bring a ferro rod, so sorry, Mom.

[chuckles softly]

So I've tried to have fires three nights,

and I've got it going twice.

So I'm two for three, Mom, two for three.

That's not bad.

You make it in the hall of fame with those numbers.

All right. Here we go.

[tense music]

I chose not to bring a ferro rod

'cause I'm just as bad with it

as I am with a bow drill,

but a bow drill doesn't count against me

as one of my ten items.

A ferro rod does.

So why bring an item that counts?

The other reason is I wanted to bring a tarp.

I have plans on water catchment

and different things, so that was my choice,

and for the next few months,

I am hoping that I can do better with the bow drill,

or I'm out of here.

Ta-da!

[laughing]

Just as simple as that.

Kids, listen to your mothers.

♪ ♪

[chuckles]

[fire crackling]

It's really enjoyable. I like this.

I just wish I had food to go with it.

I think a boat--

I think this season a boat's gonna be the way to go.

You're gonna have forage, fish, trap and hunt,

but I think fish are gonna be the most dependable,

so I'm gonna change and build a boat.

[wind whistling]

[dramatic music]

I never built a boat before.

[laughing]

Well, this is gonna be fun.

I was a math major in college.

I loved the numbers, and I look at,

like, risk analysis or probability analysis

on where you invest your calories.

Pretty straight.

Some people invest their calories

into really fancy shelters.

Some people invest them into really fancy firepits.

Some people invest them into whatever it is,

but where's the priority?

♪ ♪

For me, it's investing in food systems.

All right. Think, Colter. Think, think, think.

If I can build a boat that I can use every day...

♪ ♪

Perfect.

I think it's gonna give me an edge

and an advantage over the rest of the contestants.

[branches cracking]

♪ ♪

Okay. Now I just need that paracord.

When it comes to building a boat,

I have absolutely no *bleep* clue.

♪ ♪

But I've boated my entire life.

I've canoed, kayaked, powerboat.

I used to have sailboats and dinghies so, like,

I know about boating. I know about physics.

Yeah, this will be the back.

Pretty great, that'll be the heaviest part of the boat.

♪ ♪

Getting' there.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I strung up bolete mushrooms last night,

and one is gone.

So I'm guessing I got robbed by a squirrel this morning

or last night.

Awesome.

Good.

Competing with nature.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

I can't just live on bolete mushrooms.

Need to get some food.

Need to catch a fish.

Time to drop a trotline.

♪ ♪

All right, like I said, I think we should--

or I should...

make a few flies,

three of them, set up a trotline,

and then I can get back to work,

and it can fish for me,

and then right before dark or sunset, I'll go pull it.

'Cause I'm old--oh, wow.

♪ ♪

You can see everything.

I'm burning calories without calories coming in,

and that's concerning.

So my plan when it comes to gathering food is,

how can I do it without the least amount of effort?

♪ ♪

If I was a fish, my gut would eat it.

So passive fishing using a set line, or a trotline,

will give me a tremendous advantage

because I don't have to hand-fish the whole time.

[with Irish-Scottish accent] It's not pretty.

[normal voice] Oh, I apologize.

I tend to speak with a horrible Irish-Scottish accent.

It's my inside-head voice.

[with accent] I don't know why.

It's just...

that's what happens when I'm alone.

So you're just gonna have to bear with me.

[normal voice] I'm sure you'll judge it and be like,

"It's the worst ever."

I mean, I am Irish and Scottish, so--and German.

♪ ♪

So I'm allowed.

♪ ♪

[wind whistling]

♪ ♪

All right. Let's go set the trotline.

♪ ♪

I'm not a professional angler.

I didn't grow up with a father

that taught me hunting or fishing.

Come on.

But at 16, I joined the military,

and I saw combat twice in the army,

and what I take away from combat

is that it's a heightened level of stress

that you become accustomed to.

♪ ♪

So fear of death or fear of facing the enemy

don't faze you anymore.

♪ ♪

So out here, whether it's weather or starvation

or a bear or whatever it is, it's not an issue for me,

'cause I have a warrior's heart.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[rustling]

[low growling]

♪ ♪

- Pretty certain--sure I just heard a bear.

♪ ♪

Good lord.

♪ ♪

[wind whistling]

♪ ♪

So what I heard last night was indeed a bear.

See the back foot pretty well here.

But, you know, hopefully it doesn't come back very often.

It was the middle of the night.

When I'm zipped into a sleeping bag,

wearing nothing but my underwear,

is not when I really want to have a bear in camp.

♪ ♪

Because of the bear situation,

I need to get the pit house pretty sorted.

I am just gonna push hard.

♪ ♪

Stairs.

I need some place where I can securely leave my things.

♪ ♪

Once shelter is done,

then it's all toward gathering.

It's gonna be food, food, food, food.

♪ ♪

Now I have to dig the center posthole.

[scraping]

This is actually not how pit houses

are normally constructed archaeologically.

They normally have four posts in the middle,

but if I were to do that,

there would be no floor room left,

so there's gonna be a center post.

♪ ♪

So this is the beam, I foresee,

for a big center pole.

Takes a lot of energy.

I can basically just feel my body eating the calories.

♪ ♪

It's a big gamble, calorically speaking.

♪ ♪

[grunts]

God, that's got to weigh 50 kilos,

if not more.

I do feel like I'm losing weight

a little bit, though, already, which is not ideal.

[grunts]

This is gonna be the tricky part.

Whew.

But I just need to focus on this.

If I don't just focus on this, it'll never get done.

[exhaling sharply]

♪ ♪

[grunts]

[sighs]

If you put too big rocks in,

then they don't actually lock together very well.

These small ones, when you pound them, put sand in them,

then we pour water on them, et cetera,

then everything locks in nice and tight.

[tense music]

I am under no illusions that this is going to be

an easy experience.

Physically, you're gonna

be pushing your body to the limit.

You're gonna be tired, you're gonna be hungry,

and because you're hungry, you're even more tired.

Beautiful.

There's always something that you've done right.

There's always something that's okay.

So deal with the one thing,

and focus on the thing that feels good.

It's attached using some of my snare wire.

We're past all the really tough stuff.

♪ ♪

As solid as.

Brilliant.

Super happy. Super excited about that.

That's just great.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I really want a cheeseburger right now.

I'm a big fan of cheeseburgers,

so I'd like to just catch a cheeseburger

right out of the lake right now.

That'd be excellent.

Ahh!

That's not good.

[tense music]

I really don't know how I'm supposed to fish in this.

♪ ♪

It's just a frustrating location

to try and get a line out.

♪ ♪

This wind is ridiculous.

I want to see what the shoreline looks like

further up here.

I need to explore and see if I can find any deeper spots.

♪ ♪

I'm starting to get hungry.

Yesterday I was fine.

I'm starting to feel it a little bit today.

♪ ♪

I definitely need to keep working on the cabin,

but I'm still just trying to explore the fishing options.

♪ ♪

Getting this shelter done is a massive calorie draw.

Right now, I'm just burning on stored energy.

I'm needing fish.

♪ ♪

[grunts]

♪ ♪

I have walked and walked and walked and walked.

I'm gonna head back.

♪ ♪

Oh, *bleep*.

Looks like there's some weather moving in.

♪ ♪

I'm about to get caught in a gnarly storm.

♪ ♪

That's looking bad.

[dramatic music]

That point way out there, that's where my shelter is.

Looks like I've got a *bleep* walk home.

♪ ♪

Oh, right in the gun barrel of the wind!

[wind whistling]

This is some monster water for a lake.

It'd be a long time for someone

to come rescue you with these waves.

This is insane.

This is like hurricane winds.

You don't want something bad to happen right now.

Holy *bleep*.

♪ ♪

Oh, *bleep*!

I have to time it and then make a run for it!

♪ ♪

This is crazy.

Should have been working on the shelter.

♪ ♪

I'm gonna get back,

and I'm gonna have a little tarp tent.

No warmth, no hot shower,

no hot food,

and, for my efforts, one old crumpled soda can.

[groans]

♪ ♪

Today was a huge reminder that I need to stick to my tasks.

I need to get the cabin built.

To come back wet, cold, and tired

and not have a real structure just is not--not fun.

[rain pattering]

[wind whistling]

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- [groans] Wow.

I can't tell you how good it feels

to sit in this chair.

It's super weird. It's like...

♪ Ah ♪

[sighs, laughs]

Okay.

Get going with the shelter.

[light music]

♪ ♪

Long-term shelter is gonna be over here,

up here on top of the hill.

It's pretty high up.

Look at this view. Seriously?

Can you even freakin' believe that?

I mean, my God.

♪ ♪

My plan is to build two tripods

and just use paracord to lash them,

and then I'll put the support beam on top.

Super sturdy.

And this is done.

This will allow me to hunt and fish more

and focus on food.

Okay.

Tripod, let me remember

how to do a clove hitch.

[tense music]

In survival, you are looking for protection.

The lake is gonna be ferocious,

so I need to be up and away.

I don't want to be down on the beach.

I don't want to be exposed to the winds,

exposed to the weather.

♪ ♪

There we go.

Walking up and down the hill to get my water

is gonna be a physical challenge,

but I feel like it's worth it

to have that kind of windbreak.

♪ ♪

That's pretty--pretty good,

and that's a nice line.

♪ ♪

Come on, baby.

Doug's brother Mike has Down's syndrome.

Whenever he's, like, playing a video game,

he'll say, "Come on, baby."

Oh, God, that's heavy.

He can't speak very well.

Whew!

Mike lives with us for part of the year.

♪ ♪

The prize money is significant.

That would allow him to live with us full-time.

We don't have children.

He's really our heart.

It would be money well-spent.

♪ ♪

Would you like to take a tour?

It won't take long.

Here's the inside.

Still got some tying off to do,

but, oh, my God, look at that.

So beautiful.

Okay.

And we're done.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- All right.

*bleep*. Holy cow.

I just dropped my knife facedown,

and it just stuck in it and didn't make a hole.

Holy!

What an idiot.

First thing I did is drop my knife.

Oh, that's so funny.

Oh, my God. I just did it again.

But it didn't-- it didn't do anything.

You can see the outside, but good God.

Colter, it's the worst time to drop your knife.

Get that knife away.

Golly.

♪ ♪

Now the last step.

I gotta put my ribs into there

to stretch out the tarp

to the bottom of the boat to hold its shape.

There's some good willows and alders here.

Will they hold? I don't know.

My worry is that too much of the weight

is gonna go on these.

These aren't supposed to be necessarily structural.

They're supposed to hold the tarp and give it shape.

Will the laws of physics be on my side?

[sighs] We'll see.

[tense music]

If my boat is unsafe, I'm out of here.

I'm gone.

Oh, crap.

That's not right.

Need to come from the other side.

I'm just gonna be like, "Everyone else has built

a boat on this show and I'm gonna be swimming?"

And that could be the end of my experience

and the end of my life.

In Alaska, numerous people die

from hypothermic drowning in lakes

and in cold water just like this.

I have lost friends.

So I need to build a stable boat.

♪ ♪

Floorboards feel secure.

All right. Paddle time.

All right, log, want to be a paddle?

Let's see how it turns out of a solid chunk.

A lot more we can take out there,

but save it, Colter.

Go on the water, test the boat,

not your *bleep* paddle.

Oh, yeah. There comes the wind.

Just in time for the old test drive.

Yeah, that'll work.

Let's go. Get on the water.

♪ ♪

It's a little windy.

Not only am I going out

in a homemade boat that's untested

and first time I've ever built a boat, I'm going out on water

that can kick up at any moment and it's cold.

Well, she floats.

It is a high risk.

This could be a decision that costs me

not just the $500,000, but the whole experience.

All right, you guys, wish me luck.

Stay there.

She feels tippy.

♪ ♪

[muttering indistinctly]

♪ ♪

Ah!

♪ ♪

Easy now.

♪ ♪

Slow, steady.

♪ ♪

You got this, baby. Come on now. You got this.

♪ ♪

*bleep*.

Ah!

[breathing heavily]

Tippy as hell.

Definitely want an outrigger for this guy,

but it's working.

I did not think I would build a boat this solid.

This feels so good.

Yes! Yes, yes, yes.

I know I need outriggers, but the frame didn't buckle.

I haven't heard any cracking.

I'm not taking on any water.

Like, this is sweet.

First test is a success.

I'm gonna explore their bays.

I'm gonna go north. I'm gonna go south.

I want to fish off these points.

These points are usually good fishing.

Like, I think this boat's gonna pay off.

Boy, that'll wake you up.

Holy *bleep*.

Oh, man.

Excited!

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[birds chirping]

- Those squirrels got a mushroom.

Now watch where he stashes it

and then I'm gonna steal it.

[chittering]

Yeah, you heard me talking about stealing your mushroom?

I will.

All right. He's gone.

It's a bolete.

They stole mine.

I stole theirs.

♪ ♪

All right.

Just to get some protection from the wind,

I think I should do a permanent shelter

away from the shoreline.

And I'll probably just do a A-frame, center beam,

A-frame, like an old Boy Scout tent.

All right. Let's go build.

♪ ♪

I haven't eaten today, which is normal for me.

♪ ♪

Beautiful.

I'm limiting my energy on my shelter.

I'm not building a castle or a cabin,

just a place to sleep and store a couple things,

and if you have a smart heat system in there,

if it's just you and your body well-insulated,

I could heat a small space.

♪ ♪

I positioned my A-frame shelter

running from east to west.

I believe this spot will get about two hours,

three hours of direct sunlight through the trees,

and then fill it with spruce boughs

so that that also provides me some protection

And gives me some warmth from the ground.

♪

So basic frame is done.

As time goes on, I'm just gonna continue to log it,

and I should be cozy in there.

So I need to get something to drink...

And then go check our set line and see if we're cooking fish.

♪ ♪

It's still out there, floating.

♪ ♪

Look like it's moving?

♪ ♪

Just looks like it's bobbing.

Maybe we should pull it in and reset it.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

I got a fish.

I got a fish. Let's see if we can get it in.

[dramatic music]

Oh, *bleep*.

What are you doing?

Oh, my God.

What are you doing?

♪ ♪

Oh, my God.

Oh, yeah.

That is a bull trout.

Oh, my God.

Oh...look at that.

♪ ♪

Set line worked.

Told you.

Thanks, buddy.

I'll get you cleaned up down here,

farther away from camp,

and then we'll get you cooking.

[light music]

♪ ♪

It's a great day.

Trout line worked out great.

♪ ♪

My shelter is built.

♪ ♪

So everything is working out.

This was a choice of mine,

to do something that allows me to test my skill set,

test my determination and my resilience,

and it's, like, the best

problem-solving challenge out there.

♪ ♪

How do you survive by yourself?

Do you have the philosophy and the mental fortitude

to do that, to be alone and to keep yourself occupied

and be successful and start to thrive in the wild?

It's tough.

You have to make all the right choices

or deal with your mistakes.

♪ ♪

'Cause we're all gonna make mistakes.

We're all gonna overdo something

or underdo something,

and we're gonna have to fix and pivot

and continue to be resilient no matter the struggle.

But along that journey,

you're gonna learn from it,

and that's the best part about it.

What am I gonna find out about myself?

I like to think that I've figured most of that out...

[slurps]

But I think, to me, that's the biggest thing,

is to see if I am the man that I think I am.

♪ ♪

- My game plan is to try and swim across this bay here.

- Yep, that's *bleep* cold.

- I am so dizzy and nauseous.

I'm afraid that I poisoned myself.

- Oh, *bleep*, fire. Holy *bleep*.

♪ ♪

Hey, bear!

[bear growls]

♪ ♪