[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I am officially tapping out.
No amount of glory is worth harming yourself
to the level that starvation can do.
- Yes! Oh, thank you, fish.
I am all in right now on fish.
I'm going to spend a lot of time on this boat.
- There's so many reasons I want to make a pit house.
They are incredibly efficient at keeping in heat.
- I'm not living up to what I want
to live up to as a survivalist.
I am officially tapping out.
Family is more important then my ego.
I want to be driven by what's in my heart.
♪ ♪
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's 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.
- It's circling around my shelter.
Narrator: Bone chilling cold.
- Winter is 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.
- Ahh!
- 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?
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[birds chirping]
- [whispering] I just shot a buck.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
oh, my god.
Oh...
♪ ♪
[breathes deeply]
♪ ♪
oh, my god.
♪ ♪
I killed it.
Yeah!
♪ ♪
mm. Whew!
Hunting is something that I've done my whole life.
But I've always had support,
I've always been able to bring things.
But to do it completely on your own, self-supported,
just from what the land provides,
that's a different story.
♪ ♪
backstraps tonight!
I'm going to go ahead and drop the guts right here,
and then drag him away.
Cut those hind quarters off and take those.
[dramatic music]
this location is different
because there is a major predator here.
So I have to get this thing gutted,
I have to get it quartered out,
I have to get the usable, good meat,
because the last thing that I want to do
is have to deal with a bear coming in here
and wanting to take this kill.
♪ ♪
I don't have my pack, so I have to start shuttling the meat
in stages back to the shelter.
[panting]
oh, man, first load done.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- checking myself here real quick.
I don't remember having any gray in my beard
before this started.
Maybe a little.
[tense music]
I haven't seen any deer.
But every morning, I pick 100 onions,
rose hips, and cranberries.
I'm just working on foraging
'cause that stuff's gonna go away when the snow comes.
♪ ♪
mmm, mmm.
Plants, man, they provide.
♪ ♪
oh, there's my onion friends.
Be with you shortly.
♪ ♪
cranberry hole.
♪ ♪
tiny, but sure are tasty.
♪ ♪
these cranberries have been in this hole for almost 3 weeks.
Still are good.
[tense music]
it's calories over comfort right now.
Every spare minute I have has to go
to trying to acquire calories.
♪ ♪
moderation, eat 'em in moderation.
I have to pick onions.
♪ ♪
I don't know when they disappear.
Unfamiliar with the land.
All right, let's go.
♪ ♪
if they disappear and I don't have 1,000 or more,
that's a big shame on me.
It's almost like harvesting out of the garden,
which I would be doing right now if I was at home.
I'd really like to start community farms
in rural alaska.
I want to use the money that I could win
to expose people to wilderness
and wild places and intact ecosystems.
Two thirds of our planet lives in urban areas,
which is fine, but it's hard to get a population
that care about wild places like this
if they've never been in it.
♪ ♪
so, for me, winning the money
means being able to start my dream of a school or a camp.
I want to build that.
I like this foraging business, man.
Sitting on my ass picking calories.
Keep doing it.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- close up of my face.
Look at those cheek bones.
Seriously sunken in.
Look at that brow.
Look at that skull structure.
You think that that's not,
like cro-magnon or like early human?
Those high ridges.
[exhales sharply]
it's a tough skull.
Trust me, it's a tough skull.
[dramatic music]
it's getting dark.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna head up and check my lines.
♪ ♪
I would like to believe there's a fish on my line.
♪ ♪
tell you what, I miss my family.
♪ ♪
the struggle for me is the value
that I place on my responsibility
to be a dad, since I didn't have a dad.
♪ ♪
when you don't have that resource,
especially for boy stuff,
you kind of learn from another kid.
But there was no heart in it.
That's what I think is interesting for me.
Not having a dad that has a passion.
I feel like my passion is my family.
Maybe that's because of my own upbringing.
♪ ♪
super exciting.
♪ ♪
we all come from a struggle.
At some point, we all struggle, no matter where we come from.
♪ ♪
big fish.
♪ ♪
easy, big fella.
[suspenseful music]
come on, come on.
♪ ♪
[bleep]!
No!
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[bleep]!
♪ ♪
[bleep].
Damn it.
[dramatic music]
that was a huge bull trout.
♪ ♪
my jacket's wet.
♪ ♪
I saw that it was just barely hooked on the nose.
[tense music]
son of a--[bleep]. Dang it.
♪ ♪
I saw him slip off right when he got in the shallow water.
God dang it.
All right, we're gonna set it again.
♪ ♪
that's a meal for a few days.
That's so many calories.
I could start to replenish stored fat.
It's just such a blast to your time spent.
♪ ♪
so I've got to figure this out.
Can't let that happen again.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I just got back to camp with the last load.
[sighs]
I don't think I've ever-- I know I've never--
I've never reacted like that to--
to killing a deer or an animal.
But there's--I don't know, being out here and...
♪ ♪
being--having the fish situation be what it is
where it's just, like, staying
maybe just a day or two ahead,
you know, that's all I can do is stay a day or two ahead.
It's just, it was kind of--
that was worrying me.
That was stressful.
And to have all of that just poof,
lifted off your shoulders is like...
♪ ♪
that is a beautiful sight.
[tense music]
[sighs] man.
♪ ♪
I have to get all this stuff cut into strips.
Gotta keep it from spoiling.
Gotta keep a bear from taking it.
♪ ♪
backstrap.
♪ ♪
that's the rib meat.
♪ ♪
tenderloin.
♪ ♪
that's dinner tonight.
Heart.
That's always the first thing.
You gotta eat the heart first.
I've got to take it all back there and hang it now.
♪ ♪
there is a real risk of having meat
hanging in your shelter where there's bears around.
I want to make sure that it's up off the ground
and protected, because that is my future.
♪ ♪
never had to haul meat so far without a pack.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[grunts]
♪ ♪
yeah, that'll work for now.
Revamp it later.
Man, that deer heart is gonna be good tonight.
[dramatic music]
the first meal of any deer or elk that I ever kill,
I always eat the heart first.
It's just kind of a significant thing to me.
♪ ♪
buck heart fried in buck fat.
Man, oh, man.
[tense music]
there's the end of the heart.
♪ ♪
oh, my god.
♪ ♪
mmm.
Oh, my god, that's good.
Whew!
That may be the best thing I ever ate.
Thank you, young buck.
Thank you, thank you.
Mmm.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[rain pattering]
- mm...
Having a slow, slow morning.
It's windy and rainy, cold.
Kind of set it out where my goal is, like, 100 days,
so I'm 23% of the way there.
Every day is just one more percent.
I put that goal out there, mm,
but food, I need food to get there.
I need to get some passive fishing going,
so I think I'm gonna build a fish trap.
[wind whistling]
before I get to work, it's breakfast time.
[tense music]
all right, shelter, see you tonight.
♪ ♪
my little breakfast cranberries, have a few.
Gonna stop by ol' cranberry hole.
♪ ♪
this fish trap, I'm pretty excited
about catching fish for me passively, 24/7.
Lots of excitement.
♪ ♪
ooh.
Something has been here.
♪ ♪
something big.
♪ ♪
tore up my fire pit.
Ate my cranberries.
Hey, bear!
I think we had a bear.
That ain't to squirrel moving those rocks.
Ate half my cranberries.
Oh. Any good ones left?
Smell them and see if I can smell the bear's breath.
[tense music]
I'm worried about bears, but I need to get calories.
I am building a fish trap today.
♪ ♪
god, it'd be sweet if this works.
Some passive fishing.
♪ ♪
last year there was a land slide
that blocked the chilko river,
so now it's made it inaccessible
for the salmon to reach the lake.
Got a little system going here, guys.
Migratory bears are showing up to get fish,
and there ain't fish there.
Now they're hungry and they're moving through your territory.
Those bears probably scare me the most
'cause they're the least predictable.
Oh, that smell.
Hey, bear!
I just caught wind of something.
[dramatic music]
it's a little unnerving to know,
like, what are they gonna turn to, skunk cabbage?
"alone" contestants?
These bears aren't gonna come here and turn around and say,
"oh, the fish aren't here" and back out of here.
They're gonna stay here,
and they're gonna get desperate.
Ah it looks fantastic.
There's the entrance,
this comes out and there's the trap.
Fish go right in, can't get out.
I'm gonna tie it on and go get it in the water.
It's gonna be a producer, man.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- here we go, setting the fish trap.
♪ ♪
I have no idea how deep it is.
All right, trap, catch some fish, please.
Fish trap in.
That's my buoy.
It didn't sink. We're good, man.
Let's get the boat put away.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- is there a point in getting out of my sleeping bag?
Mm.
My lips are okay and I can still smile so it's alright.
My shirt needs a wash though.
The reason I want to move into the pit house,
'cause then I can wash clothing
even when the weather is nasty
and then I can dry it over the fire.
Yep, really, really ready,
really ready to move into my house.
♪ ♪
all right, before I move in,
I need to get this fireplace area sorted.
With the tarp over the smoke hole,
I'm not really sure how this is gonna work out
ventilation-wise, so this is kind of a test.
♪ ♪
so far it's a smoke house.
♪ ♪
it's pulling all the air in from over there,
just bringing the smoke inside.
I have to figure out a way to temporarily open
part of the smoke hole up top.
Let me just go--
I'm gonna grab a pole and see if I can do that.
It's not calm here very often.
It's very, very windy,
and I have drafts around my door.
So when the wind comes from the north,
my fireplace does not function well.
Potentially that actually made it worse.
♪ ♪
this isn't working. I can't move in.
This is not gonna be good for my lungs.
Smoke inhalation over a long periods of time
can make you feel utterly rubbish.
It's low level carbon monoxide poisoning.
But I can't completely not have a fire.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- good morning.
It's about five degrees colder today, noticeable.
I'm gonna drink some hot water
for my morning wake up, hot like coffee.
[slurps]
wow, that's warm.
Holy warm. That's really hot.
Might as well go back in for seconds, though.
Just dumb enough.
[slurps]
yep, just as hot as the first time.
[tense music]
all right, back to work.
♪ ♪
first thing's first.
Let's remedy the fishing situation
so we don't lose another fish.
♪ ♪
I'm just gonna evenly space these around it,
and just keep sectioning it down
until we get to the desired size of the net we want.
♪ ♪
awesome.
It's a good start.
♪ ♪
fishing, it was almost what's for breakfast.
I would say I'm in one of the worst of times.
I'm not catching any or killing any food.
♪ ♪
this is the longest I've ever gone without eating.
♪ ♪
well, task one has been completed.
I'm happy with it.
It should serve its purpose.
Perfect.
It works.
[wind whistling]
[waves crashing]
get to test out our net.
♪ ♪
I'm always optimistic about tomorrow.
♪ ♪
but I find myself very thin
and concerned at how much weight I've lost.
I know that physically I'm in a dangerous place.
All right, I think I got a fish.
I don't know how big it is, but it's moving the line.
Oh, wow.
[bleep] here we go.
Whoo-hoo.
♪ ♪
there was a bull trout
with this 12-inch rainbow in his mouth on the hook.
I'll take it.
You can see his teeth marks.
So this guy was food.
That's crazy.
It means the fish are back.
I'm sure happy to see 'em.
It means we're still in the game.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [panting]
well, there's no flies on it, so good,
I'm just gonna leave it.
It's kind of a race now.
I have got to get my deer meat dry so I can preserve it.
I'm gonna have to build a smoke house.
Here's what I'm thinking, let's do a log cabin style.
It's going to make it stronger, simpler.
I have to build a smoker that's pretty sturdy.
And I know I can't build something
that's going to stop a bear.
I mean, they're so incredibly powerful.
But I can build one that'll slow one down long enough
for me to hopefully come outside and deal with it.
♪ ♪
man, I'm glad I brought this saw.
It was a last-minute item.
I don't have the advantage of cold weather like they have
with other big game kills in past seasons,
where you can just leave whole quarters out here.
In order for this meat to dry out enough to keep,
you have to reduce the moisture content so low
that bacteria and things like that won't grow.
I think my shoulder is gonna feel this tomorrow.
I gotta get this done.
Ideally what you want to do is dry those quarters,
and it creates a rind on the outside and protects them.
In relatively warm weather,
they'll be good just hanging for days.
Stringing this wire in there
so I'll have a place to hang that meat.
Gonna chink the cracks.
♪ ♪
all right. I'm gonna do the roof.
Now I just need some moss.
♪ ♪
I think once I get all this done,
I'm gonna have to start just chilling a little bit.
♪ ♪
I have some little projects that don't really
require a big expenditure.
I've been working hard, burning a lot of calories.
♪ ♪
but I have to protect this meat.
I'm not about to give this up to a bear.
♪ ♪
all right.
This thing is gonna be perfect size
to fit all this meat.
I just need a fire.
♪ ♪
started with some of this pine,
and then I'll put that alder on there.
Oh, look at that. Bam.
Now, that's just cool.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- so not gonna lie.
Yesterday after the rain when I got up that morning,
I had left my pot lidless,
and it had collected that 2 inches of water.
It wasn't very light out when I was drinking out of it.
And when it did get light,
I swear there were squirrel turds in my water.
Not gonna lie.
I think I drank squirrel poo yesterday.
Hopefully there's nothing wrong with it.
But I didn't get sick.
♪ ♪
what to do today?
Well, I'm getting lighter by the day,
so I got to build up my caloric intake.
Plan is to build a fishing rod and reel.
Being able to cast out quite a ways,
might be able to pull a bull trout a day.
♪ ♪
that's gonna fit into there.
I think that the fishing rod and reel might change things,
put more gas in my tank.
Trying to, you know, open this belt up some more.
♪ ♪
so after seeing the size of the bull trout,
I think it's advisable to use the 15-pound test,
if I'm gonna throw that big minnow lure on.
I need that extra fat back.
Otherwise, it's gonna be a daily battle.
All right.
I think we should do a double wrap to a single.
I definitely don't want to go anywhere.
My desire is to stay here the longest.
That's what I want to do.
But I always miss my family.
Let's see how well it winds.
I miss cooking them dinner.
I miss hanging out with my boys.
Miss my wife.
I need to stay positive and stay healthy.
I want to see this through for them.
♪ ♪
I'll tell you right now, if the fish keep coming,
I am not going anywhere.
♪ ♪
can't get me out of this game.
No, sir.
Okay. Here's what's happening.
When you're out here
going through this type of situation,
you pay attention to your body,
and about 2 hours ago, I started feeling nauseous.
♪ ♪
so we're gonna just see.
Just gonna let it play out and see what happens.
♪ ♪
that water I drank concerns me.
♪ ♪
but that would be crazy.
I mean, it's squirrel poo, I guess.
But I don't know what a nut, mushroom,
seed-eating squirrel would carry.
♪ ♪
probably nothing, though.
♪ ♪
probably nothing.
Just a symptom of starvation.
♪ ♪
mm. [sighs]
this, too, shall pass, I guess.
♪ ♪
I need to get my fire going again.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
[groans]
[coughing, retching]
♪ ♪
[groaning]
[belches, sighs]
[bleep].
[groans]
well, that's [bleep] special.
Son of a [bleep].
Now I have the shakes.
That's awesome.
♪ ♪
that concerns me.
I can be as optimistic as I want
and as stubborn as I want, but this is troubling.
♪ ♪
I know my body, and my health is important to me.
[grunting]
and I'm not interested in battling
whatever it is that's going on in my body right now...
With also being on a starvation diet.
♪ ♪
it's more important to me to be healthy,
so I do apologize if I let anybody down that...
But I'm not gonna get sick or put my body
in any harm for anything.
So I wish I could have gone longer,
but 24 days is my limit.
♪ ♪
[beeping]
hi.
Um...
I'm officially tapping out.
I'm done.
[spits]
I'm out. I'm done.
Just like that.
[solemn music]
♪ ♪
- you seeing this weather?
This is the day when it happens.
♪ ♪
the second I tap out, it starts snowing.
♪ ♪
- how you doing, nate? - Um, I'm all right.
Emotionally, I'm all right.
I've got waves of nausea still.
My body's in a process now
where I think it's slowed everything down,
including heating itself.
So it's enough for me to know my priority is my health,
and I'm not gonna compromise it.
♪ ♪
my family rely on me.
And I have to remember that it's not about me.
So I have to stay healthy, and I have to recognize that.
And I'm conscious of my body.
♪ ♪
life, when you're mission-focused,
it's like a train on a track.
And I've just been on the tracks.
I've been so mission-focused on the homestead
and getting my family in a comfortable place
that I've neglected other places,
my family, my kids.
I gotta give my kids more of me.
♪ ♪
this provided me a station stop on my train.
It forced me to stop and take a break
and look at my life
and remember what's most important.
And that's what I did.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- good morning.
Let's read my personal rules list.
Carry bow always for potential game/threat
any time you're out.
Be aware. That's a good rule.
Wear gloves any time I'm using a blade.
Keep track of all critical gear.
And last but not least, don't push the [bleep] tap button.
Trying to keep that one going.
[tense music]
sounds pretty calm out there, so I think I'm gonna get up
and go try some fishing.
♪ ♪
wonder if there's any fish hunkering down
in my fish trap yet.
♪ ♪
it's worth checking my fish trap, right?
Maybe something's hiding out in there.
♪ ♪
I definitely expected to have some fish in me by now,
'cause back home, I'm a pretty big fisherman.
♪ ♪
but out here, it's, like-- it's different.
I haven't been able to catch one fish.
Please have fish in there.
♪ ♪
you don't have no fish in there.
[sighs]
oh, well.
Gonna try something different.
♪ ♪
it's funny, when I was gearing up to come out here,
I wanted lure fishing to be my last resort fishing.
I didn't want it to be, like, my main fishing thing.
So it's kind of funny to find myself in this situation.
♪ ♪
trying not to get mad, but it's hard.
Hard not to get mad when things don't work
all the time.
Normally, I love fishing.
It's relaxing, it's fun,
but fishing out here just frustrates me, man.
♪ ♪
but so much rather be doing this than my old job.
I mean, there's no comparison.
Breathing in fiberglass, building trailers all day.
My dad thought I should bring a photo of my old work.
He was like,
"that'll give you more incentive to not leave."
totally right, man.
But I'm a fighter,
and I'm gonna hang on as long as I can.
♪ ♪
I got one.
♪ ♪
come on, baby.
Come on in. Come on in, baby.
Yes. Yes.
[bleep] yes!
Beautiful rainbow trout.
Thank you for your life, fish.
Thank you.
Oh, yes.
Finally, a decent meal.
Oh, that's so exciting.
[tense music]
caught my first fish.
[celebratory shout]
♪ ♪
oh, I'm gonna eat fish today.
That's so awesome.
Thank you, gods.
Thank you, chilko.
♪ ♪
it's time to get this sucker rolling.
I can't tell you how excited I am to eat a sizable fish.
Gonna be tasty, my friend.
I'm gonna have my first protein out here.
It's a morale booster, and hopefully it's a turn
in my ability to get food out here.
♪ ♪
that's gonna be a decent meal, right there.
Super stoked.
♪ ♪
I gotta say, it kind of sucks to be constantly, like,
stressed about my surroundings while cooking,
'cause these grizzly bears will just walk right up
and take what's yours,
'cause they know they're big and bad.
So I try to make a lot of noise while I'm cooking fish.
Oh, yeah! Fish, baby!
Smells like breakfast over here.
I normally scrape out the spine.
But out here, I'm eating that black stuff.
I'm sure it's got some kind of nutrients in it that I want.
All right. Here comes my dad's favorite part,
the sucking out of the eyes.
Here it goes, dad. This one's for you.
Let me see!
That was something my dad used to do when I was a kid.
When we'd catch trout and cook them up,
he would suck out the eyes and yell,
"let me see," which of course would freak me out as a kid.
But now I do it for him.
Well, hello, little trout brain.
Do you mind if I eat you?
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- going to wash my hair with hot water.
Hope I get smell of smoke off me.
Oh, man, that feels lovely.
Yeah.
Sometimes the little things in life
make everything better.
♪ ♪
I'm so tired of the wind.
The wind direction is southwest in the fall.
It's from the north in the winter.
If it's from the north most of the time this time of year,
I'm in a real pickle.
♪ ♪
so all right. We're gonna push today.
We're finishing the fireplace.
[grunts]
so I'm gonna keep on with the rocking all the way up
to where I think approximately where the posts will be.
Yeah. I think that'll help a lot with the smoke.
So we are gonna set that in sand.
♪ ♪
try to actually make the chimney narrow
a little bit here.
See if that helps.
I need a nice, long-ish big one.
♪ ♪
that's spot-on.
Fireplace and the chimney, they're incredibly important.
Fall is probably coming to a close here,
and winter is coming, and it is gonna get colder,
and I want to have a fireplace with a chimney,
and all sealed up so that when it is cold
and the weather is atrocious,
we can sit all nice and toasty warm in our house.
♪ ♪
and we can go there.
Is that tightened? Yeah?
We happy? We're happy.
I think I might just steal some of these rocks
just to make the chimney, because they're really
unnecessary where they are right now.
I have a well-managed,
but fairly strong component of ocd.
I have very specific routines.
And to feel like I have not completed a thing
makes it very difficult for me to move on from that.
So that makes "alone" an absolute juggling act,
both mentally and physically.
That works.
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
This is the inside.
When all of this rock heats up,
it's gonna reflect a lot of heat back into the house,
you know, overnight even after the fire dies down
or even dies out.
And here is the chimney.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
oh, I can tell there's a much better draw now.
The flames are staying lit of their own accord.
Fantastic. It means that I can go and move in here.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- moved everything out of the tarp
and into the pit house, which is where I now am.
Feels really nice to have worked in here all day,
and just crawl in bed.
Not have to faff about with going back and forth
between two different shelters.
This is my new reality.
In my adult life, this is the first time
I have had my own home.
I have never lived anywhere where it was just me.
It's me inside and out, and it's solely mine.
If I wanted to do projects,
I could do projects till 2:00 a.M.
There's no one to keep awake but me.
It's warm enough in here to actually stand up,
take all of my clothing off normally.
Crawl up into my sleeping bag on my nice raised bed.
Uh, yeah.
So...Okay.
Good night, camera.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- good morning.
That was probably the most restless night
of sleep I've had.
That wind is brutal.
It's a good indicator for what's to come for winter,
so I want to make sure that I get this door done.
♪ ♪
the cold weather is coming, so I definitely need
to get this buttoned up pretty good here.
♪ ♪
man, this wind.
It's not usually windy right here.
I hope that that's not
what this winter is going to be like.
I think I'll just make that door a triangle shape,
so at nighttime I can put up against it.
And I'd really like to have that frame nailed,
'cause I'm gonna be moving it all the time.
Let's see if there were any other nails
that I could salvage.
He did have a nail.
And so did that guy.
[tense music]
the longer I'm here, my life back home
weighs so heavy on my mind.
My life changed so much 4 years ago.
Someone had broke into my little store
and stole a lot of stuff,
and so I suffered a really big loss.
At the same time, my marriage was ending
and my son went away to college.
Everything that I knew, being a mother, and a wife,
and my store just kind of came to a screeching halt.
So I thought, "what am I gonna do?
I don't know who I am anymore."
it was like someone kicked me in the stomach.
♪ ♪
this is a good, solid frame
using those old nails.
That's pretty cool.
Now pine again.
♪ ♪
I think I'll just start filling that in.
♪ ♪
I'm very purpose-driven.
And to just exist without a great purpose
wasn't something that I was gonna be able to do.
So I just started doing what I loved.
So it became my quest to teach the next generation hunting,
hide tanning, and why it's beneficial to our environment.
♪ ♪
if I wouldn't have started to do something
that I felt so passionate about,
I would have been in really bad shape.
I think maybe that's how I have to feel
about this challenge that I have taken on.
Being on "alone," I can do this.
There's no reason that I can't.
I'm just gonna put that wire up there.
And then it will just kind of hang right there.
So at nighttime it will help block that wind a little bit.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- look at that. That is just gorgeous.
[shimmering tones]
♪ ♪
a double rainbow.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
[tranquil music]
I don't know what I did to deserve this.
♪ ♪
look at that. That is just unbelievable.
It's right there.
Can almost reach out and grab it.
This is something that I've always wanted to do.
I've always wanted to see if all of these skills
that I've spent my life developing
could actually see me through
a real-life wilderness survival situation.
Nature is amazing.
And it's a test of will
when you grind against having not enough to eat,
and in total isolation from your family.
Those things suck.
But suck is the price you pay to be out here.
You don't get that sitting on your couch.
I don't know if I've ever seen one so spectacular
and so close-looking.
Beautiful.
I've studied stoic philosophy for years.
And you can know these things logically.
But until you go through a time of struggle,
you can't know it in your soul.
Right now, that deer is everything to me.
But it's not going to last forever.
I want to win this thing, but that is a long way away.
Maybe there's a pot of gold at the end.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- nate, thanks for joining me.
- Thanks for having me. It's good to be here.
- You were a corpsman in the navy,
which is essentially a medic.
You seem to really understand your body and what it needed.
You know, when did you realize that you were near your limit?
- I always had an idea. I mean, I've been thin before.
My experience as a wrestler-- I know, I've been fasting,
and I've lost a lot of weight
and been below 3 percent body fat in the past.
So I knew my limitations in my mind.
But I also have a stubborn side,
which likes to take on that challenge
and push myself as far as I can possibly push myself.
And I pushed it.
I pushed past it until I got sick.
[coughing, retching]
and then that was the end for me,
where I knew I had gone beyond my red line
where I was comfortable taking my body.
- I learned a lot of new ideas watching you out there.
Your creative problem-solving was brilliant.
Let's talk about that pier.
That was an engineering masterpiece.
- I mean, I went through a whole bunch of different
design ideas and how to put it together.
But ideally, I didn't want to use any of my cordage for it,
'cause I knew it would take a lot of cordage
to hold something together like that in those waves.
So I just decided to peg it and build it that way.
What the [bleep]?
[bleep].
I mean, I failed a bunch of times on the shoreline
before I tried to carry the second attempt out.
But, I mean, for me, failure, that's the process.
- Yeah. It's the only way you can make something work,
is by making a ton of mistakes.
- Right. - How did it feel
to finally have that pier in place?
- I was super excited, 'cause I had put so much into it.
And I saw so much potential in fishing beyond it.
Perfect.
- You found some really creative ways
to make yourself more comfortable out there.
That bed spring mattress was awesome.
- I've had two spine surgeries in my life.
So my back is a concern of mine.
It's great normally, but the second you start losing weight
you start to lose a lot of the fat pad
that you're used to having.
And that's your comfort when you're lying down.
So I figured the best way to remedy that would be
to make a suspension bed.
Oh!
- That thing was sick.
It must have been just so nice and, like--
- changed everything. - I bet it did.
[laughter]
so let's talk about your mental game.
"alone" can be a real challenge for people,
not just physically but mentally.
How did you think that your military training
and your experience was gonna help you on the show?
- I think my military experience,
or just my experience over the last 3 decades,
it involves deployments and being away from family.
I've been there before, so I know
that my separation from home
and that trusting my wife will take care of the house,
and not having to worry about my kids,
and stuff like that,
that alleviates a lot of stress.
Challenge is can you be alone?
♪ ♪
oh, I think I can be.
But this game is just a little bit different
when it comes to that, 'cause you are isolated.
You don't have that conversation piece,
except with yourself.
So it really does force you to search yourself
and try to figure things out.
So it wasn't that I had
a tremendous advantage in that sense.
It's just that I've been through the process before.
But what I found was the hardest part was that,
when I was in the military and separated from family,
I didn't have a choice. - Mm.
- It was an obligation and I was there.
I couldn't just go home.
And being out here, you had that freedom.
I had the opportunity to get on the radio
or the phone and say, "hey.
I'm gonna go back to where I'm comfortable."
so that was a challenge for me.
Almost completely convinced myself
that it was perfectly fine to tap out this morning.
What a weird day.
- There's a lot of long, dark nights in our shelters.
- The rainy days were the hardest.
You're in your thoughts and in your head most of it.
It was a struggle.
When you're out there,
you start to put things in perspective.
I know that if I talked to my wife,
she'd be like, "you're done."
my life's just always been this fast-paced
mission completion and stay focused on the tasks.
And I never really take time to pause
and think about what's going on.
You know, you just make quick decisions and try to adjust.
So this really slowed me down and let me take pause
and think about my life and what's going on.
- Nate, it was a real pleasure meeting you.
I learned so much from your journey out there.
Thanks for sharing it with us. All the best.
- Thanks.
- Man, it's freezing.
[bleep].
♪ ♪
- I think I'd like to start
bringing rocks up for the fireplace.
♪ ♪
oh, [bleep].
- Oh, [bleep].
There are bear tracks right through camp.
That little bastard.
I have to be prepared to engage a bear.
- Oh, there he is. Right there. [bleep].
Get out of here! [air horn blares]
there is a point that this is not worth it.
♪ ♪