♪ I came on "Alone," ♪
♪ And I thought it would be easy ♪
Each day gets colder.
Each day gets darker.
The wolverine got my fish bait.
Each day it gets harder to frickin' keep my hand away
from that damn button.
[bleep].
Huge whitefish.
In the old box you go, my buddy.
Oh, look at that. Look at that.
Can't get in.
I got the best food security I had since I come here.
Sassy got to go hunt for herself now.
Oh, no.
They are starting to mold.
When I see the first spot of mold on my moose jerky,
my heart just sinks.
This is the threat that says,
you may not have a food supply.
That is a sad thought.
I'm not tapping out.
I'd rather die.
Here goes nothing.
Whoa!
Holy [bleep].
This is the harshest location possible.
We're 125 miles in the Arctic Circle.
Ha!
Never had an environment
make me feel like a complete amateur before.
Everything is against us out here.
Mother Nature went and bitch-slapped me.
Looks like I got grizzlies and wolves as my neighbors.
Holy crap. They're just hunting the shoreline.
Mother Nature is about to dim the lights on us.
We're heading into total darkness.
Hey, bear.
The cold and the dark
is going to sap people's souls.
It really makes you wonder if it's worth it.
There is no camera crew. There's no support system.
I'm completely alone.
Yes!
People go in one way...
Stop bleeding.
And they come out entirely different.
This is the most difficult survival challenge
in the world.
Hoo, hoo, hoo.
$500,000, that's completely life-changing money.
It's beautiful.
Whoever can thrive the longest...
Out here you ought to be afraid of me.
Whoever can push through...
Wins.
I hope I made the right choice coming out here.
Look at that, guys.
There he is again...
pine marten right there in the tree.
Hey, little buddy.
I was just heading out to do some fish lines,
and this guy's sitting right here on this tree,
just sitting here looking at me.
He likes to growl at me.
Pine marten-- very cute, cool animals.
You're not allowed to kill them,
but they're very cute and cool.
They do create a lot of racket.
Hard to sleep through sometimes,
but it'll be worthwhile for them to be there
if they're getting after the mice.
So--
Whoa, whoa.
This bank is treacherous...
very slick after this latest snow.
There's a lot of snow cover,
and snow cover is not good for ice.
I'm hoping that it's still safe.
You'd never believe it, but as cold as it is,
this ice still has a bunch of water on top of it
under the snow.
So I'm not messing around in areas over there
because I can see open water.
And it's, like, cold.
You'd never believe it.
I've never seen anything like it in my life--
cold but not good to ice-fish.
We can get to these sets right here.
Let's check them.
I feel a weariness that you just never feel in life.
No matter how hard you work at your normal jobs,
it doesn't touch the weariness that you start to feel...
after this many days.
There's no fish.
Hey, the bait's gone.
At least there was some activity.
Want to go thaw out some bait by the fire
so I can hook it better.
Let's cover this up a little bit.
I imagine there's contestants out there
that did a lot more economical work than me
at the beginning...
you know, didn't put such big logs in their shelters
and saved a lot of energy and strength that way.
I imagine that that's the case
and they are probably in a little better shape
than I am.
The bait's still there on that one.
Nothing to show for it today.
I'm getting ice clumped all in the bottom of my boots
from this open water under the snow.
Check it out.
That's not really cool.
It's not good for ice fishing.
It's not good for walking on. It's not good for anything.
Getting the bottoms of my overalls all soaked and frozen.
I've got one toe on my right foot that's super painful.
It was painful all night.
So I think there's some frostbite on it.
So I'm going to check it.
It's nice and warm in here,
so I'm eager to look at this toe.
Let me take a look.
It's not blackened. It's "grayened."
I would call it more like frostnip, not frostbite.
Good. Good, good, good.
Let me prop my feet up on a good piece of wood...
here by the blazing fire.
Yeah.
It's not hardly even enough to do anything,
except it'll peel a little bit later on.
That's not bad at all.
So we're going to warm these guys up,
these toes right here.
Doo-la-loo-loo-loo.
It's all good.
Ooh-wee!
Oh, what a breakfast this is going to be.
Yeah.
I showed this before, but I just...
Look at that-- fresh grouse liver.
Right done the belly. Look at that.
And now...
I'm going to check the hooks.
I'm pretty happy with getting the grouse.
This land has been so good to me.
You got to kind of coexist with nature.
And that's what I try to do when I'm out on the land.
And so as long as you can coexist, you're good.
I never spoke about it much on camera,
but I've been thinking about this for a nice little while.
What am I going to do on his birthday?
'Cause I've seen it in the past
that people have a difficult time.
Their loved ones, their birthdays
and certain occasions-- they struggle with it.
So, you know, I got to find a way
to make this as positive as I can.
So...
The first catch.
Okay.
Oh, [bleep].
Sorry.
I sees a fish. I don't know what it is.
I think it's a whitefish, but he's not in it very good.
Not in it very good at all.
Oh, my God.
Oh, [bleep].
I sees a fish.
Oh, my God.
I got to be careful here.
Ah.
Oh, my God.
Oh, [bleep].
I got to get--
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Oh-ho!
Is that a connie?
No F-ing G. I think that's a connie.
Ah!
Holy merciful.
Oh, my God, look at that.
Oh, my God, I can't believe it.
That's like--that's like the dream.
I'm going to enjoy this.
I'm going to love every moment of it.
Look at that. Isn't that beautiful?
That's a beautiful fish right there.
The way I see it is, I got to move in milestones.
I'm going to go to 85,
and then I'm going to go to 95.
But I got to find a way to get to each one.
But I don't mind looking too far ahead
because I want to win so bad.
I'm just going to go until they pull me.
This is the kind of stuff I was meant to do.
And to be a part of it now, I'm just overwhelmed with joy.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, when I embarked on this whole adventure,
when I left,
this was like the dream-- to catch a connie.
Oh, man. Mwah.
Yes, sir.
Liver replenishes the body well.
Whitefish liver is probably really good for you.
And so that knowledge I took with me as well.
And she is a cold one.
Boy.
Is this zoomed?
Holy crap, look at those wrinkles.
That's not good.
Wish I hadn't seen that.
Zoomed right in on my wrinkly eye.
I look like hell, man.
Oh, God.
I just didn't recognize myself in that.
So we're going to check
the burbot stick trap.
Then we're going to go ice fishing.
Hoping like hell we got something out here.
A couple days ago, I was down to the bottom of the barrel.
I was out of food.
And then, finally, I could fish on the river.
And within an hour, I had a 30-pound pike.
I cried a little bit when that pike came in
because I was done.
Start with this one.
When that thing hit the ice,
the weight of the world dropped.
And I was like, holy crap, dude, we're back.
Boy, I think there might be a fish on that.
Burbot alert, baby.
Yeah, dude.
Baby.
Let's check this out.
We'll be down here fishing a lot today
'cause that's not enough food.
We need big numbers of food.
Nothing on that one.
I don't want to fall behind again on food.
We'll get our fish processed.
I need to make sure that I get as many fish
as I possibly can,
get them in my body, get them frozen,
and get them stored,
because it's the only thing
that's going to keep me warm through this.
All right, I'm out here wearing my rally cap.
And we are going to get
our hands on a really big pike, I think.
That's a good chunk... right there.
I've learned the biggest pike out here
will not touch anything unless it's humongous bait.
This is going to get some attention.
Okay, I'm going to watch for that
because the food's on the line.
Go out there to that hole.
Let's just do some jigging,
see if we can get an inconnu in the back here.
I'm just bouncing it off the bottom.
When I feel the weight of the fish,
I'm going to lift really hard.
I'm so excited, thinking about that...
Big stick right there in front of me moving,
signifying a large fish on that.
And then I'm going to catch it without swearing one time.
And I'm not going to say, holy F,
holy [bleep], mother[bleep],
any of that...
unless it comes off.
Then I'll say whatever I want.
Oh. Ooh.
Well, there's a fish down there.
He hit it right there.
Holy crap, he just walloped it.
That's big.
.
Got him.
Holy [bleep], holy [bleep], holy [bleep].
That's an inconnu, I think.
Got you.
Yeah!
Baby.
Yes!
That's what we needed, man.
Right there-- that's days of food.
That's two or three days of food.
Plus, it's a greasy inconnu. You cannot beat that.
We need as many of those as we can get, big fat.
I hope there's more of those down there.
We're going to eat good tonight.
That's such a good feeling.
That brings us from the three days of food
we had in the cache to...
over a week now.
If I had one more, I'd feel a lot better.
Oh, yes. Oh, yes, baby.
Ah!
Dude.
Oh, yeah, man.
Thank heavens.
Oh, what a great day.
Thank you, Northwest Territories.
We've replenished the coffers today--
beautiful pike, big inconnu,
and a burbot.
Oh, that's a lot.
That's a lot of meat.
We're into the heavy winter, and I'm just grinding.
I found the pattern that works,
found the lure that they like.
Everything is going good.
We're back.
We're back to right where we were at.
All the things that I planned
about what I'll do with the money
is all back into play.
I've always wanted a campground,
and my parents have always wanted a campground.
Being around campers
and being able to work with my mom and my dad
and having a campground that all my sisters can go to
and we can all hang out
and have family gatherings and stuff--
what a dream come true that would be,
which is totally doable, dude, with that kind of money.
There's a good dinner.
The rest, up top.
Make it easier to go for when we're hungry at night.
I know where the fish are at.
We just got to nail them.
And I'm going to take home the gold.
I haven't seen a moose in forever.
I wonder where they all went to.
I don't know where all the moose went to.
I thought they'd come down into these lower lands right now,
but...
I saw them earlier, but now they seem to be all gone.
I bet they went over to Jake's place and he shot one.
I keep thinking about Jake.
I think he's still out here,
and I think he's killed a moose.
And I think William's out there somewhere.
Go home, guys.
Let's go.
Going to gather up some firewood.
There we go.
I'll haul this over to the shack.
I know my main work is done.
My shelter is built. It's very snug.
But this weather is not cooperating with me.
It's snowing a little bit.
I'm gonna chop more firewood each day than I need.
And I want those cold days--
if I can't get out or if I'm sick or injured--
I want to have firewood sitting there.
It is too cold for me. It is too cold for me.
I've got a big old stack of firewood here,
a lot more than I'm going to burn today.
Got more firewood piled outside.
Got more firewood piled around the back.
Got more firewood piled under there.
So pretty much inside for the day now.
I've got to kind of be careful not to do too much of it
in one day and leave nothing for the next day,
take away all sense of purpose.
But I was just sitting here tossing around in my mind,
what will I do?
And I think I'll do--
try to do some art on some birch bark
and dry out the ice off these pants
that I used out there to chop.
If I put my boots and feet right here and lean back...
That might thaw the ice off of them right there.
So I'm trying to imagine this art piece,
'cause I only have two good pieces of birch bark left,
two or three.
And I can't just doodle around on them like on scratch paper.
I've got to kind of have it in my head
if I want to put it on the birch bark and keep it.
I'm thinking of an art piece to represent...
my experiences here...
Something contained in the silhouette of a bear,
kind of fanciful, with its fur coming out a little,
incorporate somehow the river...
Moose antlers...
And four words--
"let there be life"...
'Cause that's what I found here.
Ah, very hot now.
No.
I just melted my boot pretty badly on the toe.
I just melted it pretty badly. .
I was laying there, and I was feeling it every so often.
Oh, my goodness, that is so not good.
No.
I don't think it's ruined...
but it's very...
damaged on the toe and weakened,
and it could get ruined very easily.
I have to be very careful.
This bit's fine.
That was so close.
If I had to wear the muck boots out here,
my first pair of boots that I wore through the fall,
I'd get frostbite in one day.
Ain't no question.
All right.
I'm going to get out there and test out these boots.
Can't afford to be doing that kind of stuff.
While I'm out here, I'm going to check a few fish lines.
I think it'll be okay for a while.
But that's the kind of accident
that can stop you from keeping on living out here.
Time to chop through the river again.
Better put my hand through the loop.
Don't want to ever lose this ax in the water.
Hmm.
Hey! A fish!
Yeah!
Whoopee!
Wow! Yeah! Thank you, God!
I got a fish finally!
Yeah!
I'm happy.
This small fish is going to be absolutely welcome
in my house.
I'll take most of the meat back to camp and eat it.
I know that I could go longer by just rationing it,
but I'm going to eat it.
I need it so badly.
First thing I want to do is get the fish where it'll thaw out.
I'll place it right there on a little board.
The smart thing is to ration a bit,
but it's hard to start rationing,
because I'm starting to starve a little bit.
I'm real hungry.
Start to do my little artwork piece.
Every night I'm dreaming about food now.
I've dreamed about it for a long time,
but the dreams are getting really intense.
Now I'm, like, starting to steal food in my dreams,
and that's different for me.
All right, let me turn the fish.
I look up at God, and I say,
I've asked You for food, and You've given it to me.
If I stop eating and start to ration,
is that just a lack of faith
that there will be food there for me tomorrow?
And I'm caught right now in that question there.
It's a private question. It's faith within me.
I'm dealing with that.
But I'm just working it out each day...
trying to follow my instinct.
This is cool.
Okay.
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
I tell you, another...
Maybe I'll make a fireplace right there.
I know as the daylight dwindle here,
the cold is going to get more intense.
And so I want to build a fireplace.
Up on the bank here, there's a nice little rock.
That will reflect heat back on me
and help me warm up late in the evening
just before I go in the tilt for the night.
Heat up my clothes, make sure I'm dry,
so that when I go in my shelter,
all the heat radiates off my body and clothes
into the sleeping bag, keep me warm through the night.
That's good.
Yeah.
I don't think had any snow last night, for a change.
Usually you get a little bit of snow.
Yep, nothing unusual,
but today just the same old routine stuff.
But...
As it gets colder and colder,
you want to be a little more protected all the time
from the cold and the elements.
And so this lean-to will keep the snow off of me,
and I'll get the heat reflecting back
from the rocks.
I prefer to do that than have an internal fire.
Internal fire is quite risky.
Every time you light a fire,
that dries you up a little bit.
And so as time goes on, it gets more dangerous
and dangerous and dangerous for catching a fire.
We'll wire that extra good.
I built igloos, slept in 'em with my son all night long,
and it was minus-35 outside with windchill.
Building this lean-to reminds me of my family.
I look at my picture every evening
and just hope everything is going well.
I'm sure it is, but you never know.
Good morning, everybody.
So last night, I got woken up two times
by something on top of the shelter
getting into our fish reserves.
Look at that.
It was that damn marten.
He was up here getting himself a snack.
Got into that big boy.
I'm surprised that thing did so much damage.
Look at this.
The thing was freaking sliding up and down right here.
This place is relentless, man.
He was over here digging all night,
looking around,
trying to figure out a way to get up here.
Now, that would be a frickin' problem.
Let me tell you what...
Big problem.
Every bit of food I have I need, man,
to make it to the end of this thing.
It's hard to keep safe.
No matter what you do, no matter where you have it,
there's something coming after that food.
This place is wild.
The only thing you can do is frickin' hang stuff
high in the trees.
That's the only place safe, I've found.
You can't get away from it.
Did that marten just come back?
That piece of was just right here.
Where's my big fish at?
Oh, my God.
He's just dragging my fish away, dude.
Oh.
You mother[bleep].
Frickin' battle.
Constant battle trying to keep what I got.
Trying to diversify my storage.
Can't let your guard down out here, man.
Damn animals coming from every angle--
wolverines, martens, lynx, grizzly bears.
Yeah, I need another storage bag.
At least it wasn't a wolverine, eh?
I know we're in the homestretch here.
I'm gonna figure out a way to wrap that fish up in this
and hang this up.
The hard part is not knowing when the end is.
The people that are still here are truly something else, man.
You got to be damn tough and damn stubborn
to still be here doing this right now.
I don't think it's coming in there.
I'm going to get that hanging.
That little prick was probably inside my shelter.
I should have been more careful to begin with.
I'll never get another chance at this.
I'll just do exactly what I've been doing.
Unless a big hiccup comes, I should be able to win this.
I'm going to start crafting some game pieces.
I need 4 dice
and 18 little figures.
The pieces are all done.
I call this game "Trial by Fire."
Okay, here goes.
We're going to play this game.
So all these little player dudes--
we line them all up randomly into two groups.
They're divided into two tribes.
Oh, my tribe.
My tribe kind of is the best.
It's kind of cool.
So I've got this guy Trevor on my tribe,
who is annoying.
But Randy-- he's kind of trustworthy.
But this guy named Timber-- I really like him.
He's kind of cute.
You each get to roll a number...
and that number...
will count as a vote against the person in that number slot.
6 has a vote against him.
The player with the most votes is number 6.
So that's the player on the chopping block.
I'm so devastated and disappointed
in these people.
Huh, I--
Fire represents your death.
We're going to throw you in the fire.
No! Aah! Krrrr!
And that, ladies and gentlemen,
is how Trial By Fire is played.
All right, time to go do stuff.
I'll try to put the gill net out there down under the ice.
We got to stay proactive.
I don't have a lot of faith in the gill net,
but I have to try everything.
Things weighing on my mind are--
how much time until there's nobody else out here?
And having no way to know,
I have to get in my mental space
of getting down to business.
I cannot stay here on the power of fun.
All right, the ice is finally
cleaned up a little bit.
So...
I am setting my gill net,
and it's extraordinary
to finally be using it on day 72.
My gill net is not the best.
I don't think it's very much the right size,
but we'll just see what we can do with her.
Her? We should name it.
Betty, Betty the gill net.
I have a plan that'll help me line it up right.
One of my biggest things that I want from this
is that this experience will be my 40 days and 40 nights
in the desert, if you will.
Okay.
I've come to a point where I am not sure
exactly what's next.
But if I understand how my life has worked...
and how I've received the most clarity of vision,
it's going to happen for me in the wilderness.
That's where I'm living my purest life.
All right.
And pull it through that hole.
Yes, yes, yes.
I think I'll tie it on about here.
Phase one--success.
We got the pull string under there.
That's good.
Now we got to hook up the net.
I've spent so much of my life trying to marshal life's chaos
into something manageable.
And I will not do that here.
A story like this has to be told naturally.
I have no parameters here.
I just have one thing.
I just want to see my family living a life
where they're well.
And any life can transpire after that,
even if it doesn't match up
with what I dreamed I'd be doing.
And that's the truth.
This is not going to work.
Oh, well...
All right...
time for me to head to camp,
hook up the fire, boil tea, boil water, thaw some fish,
chop some firewood, do all that fun stuff.
And let's go.
It's the middle of the night sometime.
My feet--
I've lost all feeling in my right foot,
half the feeling in my left foot.
I don't know why I've--
I guess I just don't have the circulation left to keep them.
So I've got to do something here
to try to get the circulation back in my feet,
get back in my sleeping bag,
and try to get out the rest of the night.
I've had frostbite before,
and if that's what this is, I'm in trouble.
I don't know what's wrong with my feet.
Even in my sleeping bag, I'm...
losing all feeling.
Feel it.
Yeah, it feels real cold to the touch, real hard.
I can't feel my fingers on my feet.
I don't want to go home because of this problem.
If I can't keep them warm inside my sleeping bag,
inside my boot liners,
I might have problems.
Last night for me was truly miserable.
I bet I slept maybe one hour.
And it's my feet.
I just can't keep them good.
I don't think it's a temperature problem.
I think it's my circulation just won't go.
My legs are just like, no, no circulation.
So I was just--
It was a pretty miserable night, to be honest.
But I'm going to boil my tea for breakfast
and trust I'll have a good day.
That's my plan.
Just keep it going.
I'm going to go in and get the tea boiled.
It must be past noon, but the sun has not yet shown itself.
All right, let's get this going.
Let's get this plumb going.
I'm going to be proactive and change the situation.
Whenever you're feeling really down, cold,
like...
The elements are just getting to you,
change the elements.
Make warmth. Make fire.
Make water. Make tea.
Do something.
Good. Good.
Fire is very good.
It's a tough day.
I'm not afraid of tough days, but...
I can only push my body so far.
I'm eating each day...
but not much.
And now I just can't keep warm.
I just can't keep the feet warm.
My body feels like it's betraying me and breaking down.
I might have to cut off a few toes.
That'd make me gruesomely attractive--
some serious scars, appendages cut off
because of frostbite,
craggy, crinkled face.
Looks better on TV than it does from here at the moment.
You're back on your couch--
"You can do it, you can do it, you can do it."
I'm telling myself the same thing.
I'm not feeling the warmth.
There's a fish. Come on up.
Oh, it's getting dark already.
This beard's a pain.
Maybe I'll trim it up a little bit,
so if I drink water, I don't get, like...
It doesn't get soaked, you know?
It's hard. I don't want to cut my lip.
Somebody right now is looking at this, saying,
oh, please cut this part next.
It's driving 'em insane.
That helped.
You can feel the difference.
All right, you guys, look at this door.
It's been falling apart for days.
And I'm worried about it breaking more
and becoming, like, nonexistent.
For me to be going into the coldest weather
of the year with that is sad.
I don't remember even how the hell I built this,
but I know that I need pine boughs.
And I could probably steal some pine
off this roof of the shelter.
Daylight is dwindling, man.
Start with that.
With four hours of daylight, I have very limited time
to go get fish and get firewood.
And then it's back into the cave.
I'm just going to load that whole bunch of boughs,
tighten that stick back on, and I think we're good.
At night, you got 20 freakin' hours of darkness
to sit in.
I've gone the last, like, 30 years of my life
without being bored, until I got here.
I'm always busy.
My ADD is always kicking.
I always got something going on.
I've always had undiagnosed ADHD.
Even in school, I knew it.
My attention span is just not there.
I never could sit through a class
unless I was extremely interested in it,
unless it was an art class or something.
And I get so bored with jobs quickly.
Well, better than it was.
No matter how stimulating it is,
if it's the same thing day in and day out,
I'll be quitting.
Prepare for dinner--
all I got to look forward to, really.
If my head's not in it, I won't be able to do it.
It's just what I'll do.
Now the boredom sets in.
It's just something I got to fight through here.
There is a clear-- absolute clear reason
why...
the harshest sentence you can get in a prison
is solitary confinement...
because it's hard on you, man.
There's no better-- there's no worse punishment
than your own self tearing yourself apart
for things you did wrong.
There's no worse punishment.
Strange, isn't that?
Isn't that strange?
I mean, I thought the cold weather
was going to knock people out, but it hasn't.
Whoever's out here is tough as hell.
We're going to bear it with each other until...
one of us caves.
I don't know if there's two or three left now.
Somebody's got to cave, though.
It is not going to be me...
I don't think.
It better not.
I don't see myself caving, but I...
don't know.
Who the hell knows?
I didn't really think it was going to go this far.
I mean, this is a nasty place.
What was that noise?
There's a huge animal just outside.
I don't know what the heck it was.
Got me panicking about my food storage.
I'm gonna string my bow.
Something could very, very easily come and get that food.
That's what I'm worried about.
And it could be anything, is the problem.
I don't know if it's the right decision to go out there,
but I got to go check.
I see something in this tree over here.
What the hell is that?
Oh, my God.
That's a freakin' marten.
off, marten.
Get out of here.
It didn't get my food up there, thank goodness.
Trying.
That can't be what I heard, though.
I heard something much bigger than that.
I have till day 80's worth of food hanging up there.
We just got to protect it.
The marten's right back at it, dude.
There's so many nagging things that you got to stay on top of
to make it out here for this long.
Stay away from my food.
It just drives you wild.
There he goes.
The end could be any one of these days.
I could get a med check tomorrow,
and that might be it.
Go back in.
Dub Paetz might be the winner of Season 11 "Alone."
I thought for sure by now,
this competition would be over with
and I'd be home.
I thought it was going to be about 60 days,
and we'd be out.
I could be it right now.
Well, I'm worried that that marten won't leave
that food alone over there.
It's, like, right there.
It sounds so surreal to think that one of my family members
could be nearby right now.
And...
if I get a med check tomorrow, then I know.
I can be pretty sure that I'm out of here.
I hope like hell, man.
I hope and I pray...
that's true.
That'd be so amazing.
Well, well, well, happy birthday, William.
Dad loves you to the moon and back.
Oh, my, he knows where I wish I would be.
But I'm doing what I got to do here, I guess.
Sorry for all this, but...
but hopefully I'll be home relatively soon.
Yeah.
I'm gonna get up and go down and light the fire
and have some connie.
Yep, the fire will be a bit bigger than normal.
It is my boy's birthday.
Happy birthday, William!
I wish I was home, but I'm going to enjoy it out here,
and I'll make it all up to you when I get back.
Love you to the moon and back.
God bless.
This fire is for you.
Enjoy this day and...
think about you all day.
My boy's turning 12.
And here and now, this will be the first time
I missed his birthday.
It's tough, and I know he wished I was there.
Back home, three hours later, it won't be much longer.
He'll be getting ready for his birthday party.
And they're going to have a lot of fun.
They'll have the fire pit going.
His buddies will be over.
He'll have a blast today. Don't worry.
On his birthday, we always have this crowd of kids over.
And I enjoy just watching them playing in the backyard.
There's a lot to miss.
Can't wait to get back to see him, though.
He loves hunting and fishing and stuff like that.
For his age, really self-reliant.
He lights all the fires in the fire pit himself,
and kind of like a chip off the old block.
Wait. Oh, there it is.
The last head, see?
My last connie head for my boy's birthday.
Awesome.
Oh, this is going to be such a treat.
Before I left to come here,
William was getting a little worried.
Put that piece back in there.
Sit for a little while.
A special meal on a special day--
birthday dinner, and my dinner in honor of William.
Yeah.
Being out here all alone,
it's not easy for anyone with a family.
What a treat. What a treat.
So welcome to my entire existence.
It's pretty much me and the sleeping bag
trying to keep warm,
trying to burn as much time as humanly possible.
This sucks.
I just want a normal life.
But here I am in isolation...
in the Arctic
in what's now the middle of winter.
My life consists of being wrapped up
in a sleeping bag for as long as possible
just to pass time.
Sounds insane.
So...
that's that.
I feel like my family member's on the way here
or here right now, I hope.
Yeah, I just got a notification
a while ago that the doctor's visiting within an hour.
So I got to get my right socks on for the weigh-in
and just heat them up there a little bit.
Med check should be here any minute.
That is not good.
Healthwise, any concerns?
No, just cold, cold as hell.
Get tired easier...
each day that passes, I guess, but...
Okay.
In through the nose, out through the mouth.
In through the mouth-- - Oh, Jesus.
I'm throwing you off.
In through the mouth, out through the nose.
Do you know what toe I'm touching?
You're touching my big toe. I can feel it.
You do feel like you're able to manage it out here?
You're not losing sensation? - Last night I was okay.
And in.
Exposing the rib cage to me.
There we go. Okay.
Man.
That hurts so bad, dude.
When they came up saying I had a med check,
I was like, dude, this has got to be it.
No, it isn't.
It's back to woodcutting and freezing my ass off...
for I don't know how many more days now.
Oh.
I want out of here.
Oh, [bleep].
♪ Who wants to
♪ Live in the Arctic?
The cold out there is intense.
I feel like the end of my nose is going to get frostbite.
♪ It's not a nice place to live ♪
Whichever way you slice it, now we're in the endgame.
Somebody's going to win this thing.
I know there's only one or two people left, for sure.
Yes.
No fish.
The water level's dropped.
As time goes on, I'm getting more skeptical in my mind.
My heart's just frickin' pounding.
Throughout the long Arctic darkness, the bear sleeps.
I'll never have another chance at this kind of money.
This is for all the marbles.