01x02 - Frost Bound

[bunniefuu]

[dramatic music]

- This is so cool.
Check it out.

♪ ♪

It's a big piece of seal skin.

Seal fat soup, that's
what's for dinner tonight.

- Got a little hare
for a snack today.

Feels right, man.

- I want something where I
can be safe from polar bears.

Being out here this time,
it's a lot different

than being out here
the first time.

I am officially tapping out.

♪ ♪

narrator: Six of "Alone's"
strongest participants

are about to face
their biggest challenge yet.

- I didn't agree
to do "Alone" again

for a suffering contest.

Oh, my God.

narrator:
With just a few supplies,

they'll push
their skills and bodies

farther than ever before.

Starting later
than any previous season,

and with less time to prepare,
they'll arrive just

as the fierce
North Atlantic winter

is about to begin.

- Winter's my colleague.

Winter's here.

narrator: They'll battle
howling winds, constant rain,

and North America's
most fierce apex predators.

- You're not going
to fight off a polar bear.

It's going to eat you.

narrator: Survive 50 days,
and they'll win their share

of half a million dollars.

- It just doesn't
get any worse.

narrator:
This is "Alone: Frozen."

♪ ♪

[ice cracking]

♪ ♪

- I don't think anybody
ever sees themselves

not making it to the end,

but I don't look at this
as me quitting.

I look at this as me starting
a new chapter in my life.

♪ ♪

- This season
we're starting a lot later,

which means we're gonna be

beginning our journey
in winter.

And we're in
one of the most wild

and remote places on Earth,

so it's going to be
real serious

from the moment
we hit the ground.

My last view of people
for a while now.

There it goes!

Oh.

Oh, wow.

- 'Cause the weather is
gonna be harsher here.

Winter is here.

It's only gonna get worse.

That's it for seeing people

for hopefully 50 days.

A pretty remote spot.

And the sun is going down.

I don't have any time
to even get ready

for the night time, really.

- The wetness will be
a real challenge

for us this season.

It just seeps into your bones

and makes it really hard
to stay warm and dry.

Very easy to get hypothermia.
Very easy to get frostbite.

I cannot underestimate
Labrador.

Well, this is it.

[chuckles]

Here I am again.

♪ ♪

God, it's beautiful.

I'm from
the East Coast of Maine.

I feel a real kinship
with being here.

♪ ♪

I feel like
I'm walking into a land

that I understand
a little bit better

and I feel connected to.

I was on season eight,

and I lasted for 21 days

before tapping out.

Even though
I was given nothing

but failures
and nothing but starvation,

I felt happy.

Ooh.

What ended my time
during the last season

was my inability
to procure food for myself.

I went in at 120 pounds.

I came out at 98.

Just super weak.

I just couldn't
physically keep up.

I am officially tapping out.

♪ ♪

I really felt like a failure.

[sighs]

Thinking about
all that I gained from it,

all that I learned,

and then to be given

that experience again
is stupefying.

It feels like an honor.

♪ ♪

Obviously, I leave
behind my husband again.

But my husband
is 100% supportive

of me in this.

Thinking back to season eight,

I would say I have nothing
but unfinished business.

I felt like
I had barely gotten started,

and my time was over.

For me, this season,

I really want to win the show.

♪ ♪

Right now,
there's no time to waste

in not eating

'cause winter is coming.

As soon as we landed,
I could see

all kinds of clamshells
scattering this beach,

and where there's clamshells,
there's clams.

My survival strategy
this time

is to just eat
as much as possible,

to eat like it's my job,

and if I have to eat clams
every single day for 50 days,

so be it.

♪ ♪

- Check out
my beautiful little beach.

Wow.

This is really different
from season six.

It is sparse.

It is a whole lot
of bare rock

and teensy little trees,

but this time,
I am on the ocean,

so that already is
a very exciting difference

from season six.

Amazing.

I was the runner-up
on season six of "Alone,"

which was the first season
in the Arctic.

I was out there for 73 days.

My time in the Arctic was,
hands-down,

the most powerful experience
of my life.

To have the opportunity
to test my lifetime of skills

and see what it's like
to live 100%

on just what I can make
and do and bring in,

most profound physical,
mental, emotional,

spiritual experience
of my life.

I would wish
an experience like that

for every human alive.

In the last couple of days,

I started to really feel
the effects on my body

and really felt like
I was starting

to approach a cliff edge.

I'm feeling pretty discouraged.

The day I decided to leave,

I knew that it was getting
very, very close

to when I was gonna be
getting pulled.

I knew that there was
a medical check that day,

and I knew that I wasn't
gonna be able to pass it.

I've loved being here
with every fiber of my being,

and I don't really
want to leave,

but my body's done.

♪ ♪

I've prepared for
the coming season of "Alone"

by making a bunch of
my own gear to be out there.

Amazing, handmade boots.

When I went last time,

there wasn't anything
really important to me

that I was leaving behind.

A lot of my assets
in being here

are also some of my
greatest sorrows in life.

Not having someone
that I miss so much,

not having
a family depending on me.

And now, I've become
used to a life lived deeply

with another person
who I really love.

My sweetheart Taylor,

whose time and presence
is really valuable to me.

And I am leaving him,
and it's going to be hard

and it's going to
take all of my skill

to make this come together.

But if I can pull it off,

then this is gonna be
very well worth

the extra effort
it's gonna take me.

Holy crap.

There's a water bottle.

Hell, yes.

One of the first things to
greet me being a water bottle,

pretty dang exciting.

Like, really exciting.

Portable water is huge
in a survival situation.

Huge.

♪ ♪

I would love
to harvest some food,

but my priority right now
is not in fact dinner.

It is finding shelter location
for tonight

because the sun is almost down.

It is late in the day,

and I don't know anything

about this area
besides this beach

right in front of me,

so it's time to do
a little exploring

and then work on getting
my temporary shelter up.

♪ ♪

- It's kind of
a unique area.

I don't even have time

to see what the resources are.

I'm just going to find
a spot

between a few trees

and set up, temporarily,
my tarp.

Throw my sleeping bag down
and hope for the best.

I don't want to see
any polar bears tonight.

♪ ♪

The motivating factor for me

was to have a second chance.

I want to see
if experiences I've had

in the last few years,

if I can make it a lot easier
this round

and not struggle as much.

Well, we're sailing.

Yee-haw.

I was on season three
in Patagonia,

and I went 51 days.

Got my homemade comb.

♪ ♪

I'll try to get the knots out.

It was very difficult
at the end

because I hadn't eaten
for quite a long time.

I fell in the lake.

Oh, no, no, no, that's cold.

Oh!

I got to get to the fire.

Ow, my feet.

After that day,

I just went downhill

and realized
that I had to tap

because I wasn't
thinking straight anymore,

and I just couldn't warm up
after that.

Hypothermia set in.
No fish for a week.

Just every time I get up,

it's like I'm going to faint.

I just got no energy,
just done.

Well, I can't say that
it changed my life completely

because I've spent
most my life in the bush.

I drink right out
of these creeks.

They come right out
of the Rockies.

So now at almost 59,
I'm twice as old

as almost the rest
of the competitors,

but with age comes wisdom.

I won't be as anxious
this time

because I've been through it
once already.

Still be a challenge,

but now, I think
I'll be more prepared to deal

with the challenges a little
differently this time.

♪ ♪

I will feel safer
in the trees here.

♪ ♪

The only concern that I had

when I found out
where the location was

was the polar bears.

When they grab a hold
of you at night by the leg,

it's not going to be pretty.

That is a very primitive

setup of a tarp
if I can say so myself.

I mean,
I just slapped it together,

but it'll do for tonight.

Tomorrow is a different day.

♪ ♪

Got to get firewood.

Sun's going to go down soon.

This year,
even though we know

we're only supposed
to go 50 days,

conditions are gonna be
wintertime.

So we know
it's gonna get cold

and the plants
are gonna die out,

and it's just not gonna be
an easy goal no matter what.

Can't even predict
the weather here.

♪ ♪

Oh, boy.

So there is bears around,
I guess.

♪ ♪

So the bear, I can see,
came through here,

like, just recently.

Sure be something
if a 1,500 pound polar bear

came walking up the beach.

I do not want
to see a polar bear.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- All right,
I have my ridge pole

and my tripod up,

and they are not
the most beautiful,

but they will serve
for the first night.

♪ ♪

It is so dang damp

that I want to get everything
under cover.

This environment is one
where we're gonna be exposed

to gale-force winds,
horizontal rain and snow.

It's an area
with really intense weather,

really unpredictable weather.

The challenges of this place

are going to be firewood
and tinder

because it is wet, wet, wet.

♪ ♪

A wet, cold climate is way
more intimidating to me

than a dry cold.

Wet cold is a really different
kind of cold than dry cold.

It's way more penetrating,

and it can just really
sap you a lot more.

It's good for tonight,
maybe tomorrow night,

but I do not want to be
in this thing

when it starts raining.

I am planning on
hanging the tarp

so that some of it comes
underneath the shelter

and I can be putting
my sleeping bag on the tarp

rather than
on the moist ground.

I am ready to bed
down for the night.

You are not going
to believe this.

The aurora borealis
is happening.

♪ ♪

They are what greet me when
I step out of the shelter.

This is a very good sign.

I feel so blessed
and so welcome here.

♪ ♪

- So last night,

I just camped here
on the beach.

Here's my little setup
over there.

I woke up
in the middle of the night,

and I looked out,
and the aurora was out,

and it was so cool.

That was really neat.

I haven't seen that
since I lived in Alaska.

It's a gorgeous day today,

but with weather coming in,

I really need to make sure

I've got a weatherproof place
to sleep.

So I need to get
my shelter sorted out.

♪ ♪

One of our big challenges
will be

not just the cold weather

but the very high humidity
with high winds.

When you're
in very wet conditions

coupled with cold
and high humidity,

you can get frostbite
quite easily,

so you're going
to be constantly tasked

with keeping dry.

Finding a camp
that has all the things

that you need
but it still has good access

is such an important priority.

♪ ♪

In Labrador, there are lots
of black bear

and polar bear,

which is very alarming.

What do they say?

Black, fight back.

Brown, lie down.

White, good night.

The last thing
in the world you want

is a polar bear
knowing you're there.

So I need to build my shelter
fairly quickly

for protection
against the weather and bears.

Okay.

Well, I found a spot...

That I think would be suitable
for a shelter.

[saw scraping]

Missing my chainsaw right now.

♪ ♪

Last season, I was so fixated
on shelter, shelter, shelter

that I was burning through
so many calories,

so I just have
a different mentality now.

My strategy is to keep it
simple and small.

The smaller I can make it,
the warmer it will be.

♪ ♪

That should do it.

Yeah, nice.

The shelter design
is very simple.

So it's basically a center
ridge line support beam

that falls to an A-frame.

♪ ♪

It's completely covered
to the ground

by the tarp on either side.

That's the right height for me.

Yeah.

And there are ribs
that are internally attached

to the support beam
across the center.

[exhales]
Two down, a million to go.

All right, let me go check
on the fire real quick.

I'm hearing
something over there.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

It sounds big.

♪ ♪

I'm gonna go just take a peek.

♪ ♪

Oh, my God.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I'm hearing
something over there.

♪ ♪

Sounds big.

♪ ♪

I'm gonna go just take a peek.

♪ ♪

Oh, my God.

Please don't be a bear.

♪ ♪

[bleep]

Just the water.

It's really up.

Dang.

Holy mackerel.

That was kind of scary.

I don't know.
I'm nervous about...

my shelter situation.

♪ ♪

I'm hoping that this weather
continues right now,

but I don't know,
those clouds.

I need to make
my shelter pretty strong.

I want it sturdy enough

that it can withstand wind

and take on some snow

because Labrador
has some big storms

and can get
a dumping of snow.

The weather can change
in a moment,

so you just have
to be prepared.

♪ ♪

- Now the weather got
a little nasty.

It's kind of windy out.

I've been sleeping
just on the ground,

not feeling great
about it either,

but the lean-to,
even though it's--

it's not really security
in a sense,

but it does make
you kind of feel better.

And hope for the best
as far as the bears go.

[laughs]

That's for sure.

♪ ♪

We're not very far
into my stay here,

and I'm already going hungry.

I haven't eaten
anything today,

so I should get out
and get some mussels.

About halfway
between this rock escarpment

and the shore
is the best mussels, I find.

♪ ♪

My family,
they were outdoors people,

but the survival
and the things,

I developed on my own
through reading.

At about 12,
I bought a book,

Bradford Angier, "How to
Stay Alive in the Woods,"

and I started reading
that book

and became fascinated,

so I practiced
all those skills

on the acreage where we lived.

And after that,
it just became

almost an obsession,
I would say.

Even to this day,

I'm always trying to come up
with a new idea.

You know,
you can never learn too much,

and you're always learning.

So here I am, going to be 59
in a couple of months,

and I'm still trying
to come up

with fishing ideas, traps.

It just never ends.

That's all good,

but I got to get something
more substantial

than just mussels.

So I got to try fishing.

try mussels for bait.

♪ ♪

I'm the kind of guy
that I rely heavily on fish

when I venture on my own.

If I'm not catching fish,

then I really struggle,

but I think there's gonna be
a lot of fish in the ocean.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Now I'm snagged.

♪ ♪

Or it's kelp again or seaweed.

♪ ♪

The kelp grows out

just about as far as I can
throw my hand line out.

♪ ♪

This is about
the worst fishing spot

I've seen in my lifetime.

The tide is
starting to come in,

but fortunately, I got
those nice big mussels here.

Time to boil up my mussels

and keep these muscles up
with those mussels.

♪ ♪

And where's the pot?

And this is going to be
over my boots soon now too.

Look it,
the tide's coming in now.

I seem to have put it down.

Remember when I was
trying to find the bait?

[sighs]

Man, I tell you.

♪ ♪

If I lose that pot,

I won't even be able to have
my mussel soup

in the morning.

I can't make my teas.
Can't boil water.

There's just a lot
of things I can't do now

if I don't have that pot.

These are the kind of things
I always end up doing,

I'm telling you.

♪ ♪

I don't see why I would
do something so stupid.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I put my pot down.

I went and did
a bit of fishing,

and now I can't remember
where I put the pot.

So I've been going through
the scenes on the camera,

trying to identify the rocks,

and I think this is the rock,

but I don't see
the pot anywhere.

I might have left it.

Then the tide come in
and swept it away.

♪ ♪

This is about as bad of--

♪ ♪

It just doesn't get
any worse than this.

♪ ♪

Can't catch fish.

I'm getting anxious
about what's gonna happen

in the future here

because it keeps putting me
back into Patagonia

where I suffered so bad.

♪ ♪

It's just an overwhelming
kind of a feeling

that you're not in control
of your own situation.

♪ ♪

Okay,
I think I see it over here.

Thank goodness, here it is.

Hang on to that pot, Greg.

♪ ♪

- It is a chilly,
overcast morning.

So today is the day
I'm going to start working

on my permanent shelter.

It's going to be
a serious push.

It's going to be
a lot of work,

and I know
that weather is coming,

so definitely have
a fire lit under me

to get that shelter done

before that weather comes.

♪ ♪

I have been racking
my brain

thinking about
how in the world

I am going to build a shelter

that is secure against
the intense weather

we're getting here.

There's not
a lot of building materials.

So walking around,

I came upon a spot
with a rock edge

to one side,
and a little hollow

just on the down slope side
of it.

I think I'm going
to use this spot

and actually build
against the rock cliff.

If you haven't noticed,

it's gotten
a little wet and windy,

but you gotta work

with the conditions you got.

Using this rock
is going to give me

two walls of a shelter,

which is going to cut in half

the other material
that I need.

My hands are really taking
a beating right now.

I'm nervous
about this environment.

I feel less connected
to this place than I did

to the Northwest Territories.

It's feeling harder
than the place I was before,

and that place
felt freaking hard.

♪ ♪

I only have
two and a half sides,

basically,
of my shelter completed.

I managed to get
the tarp over it,

and eventually I'm going to do

a combination of logs and sod.

My hand is really
bothering me with tendonitis

from all of that digging
by hand

and chopping
and all of the things

that are required
for daily life here.

♪ ♪

I am ready to get
under shelter and protected.

♪ ♪

- I thought this canvas
tarp was going to be good,

but now my down-filled
sleeping bag is wet.

Oh, that just irritates me.

You buy an expensive tarp,
and it leaks.

I got to try
to dry things out.

This is ridiculous.

I'm going to have to use
the black tarp

that's for the camera gear,

and then bring the camera gear
into my shelter,

get a fire going inside

so I can try to dry
some stuff out

because I don't think that this
weather is going to let up.

I think it's going to
just keep raining all day.

That's what it looks like.

♪ ♪

Look at how wet
my sleeping bag is.

It's just weighs a ton.

Of course, it's down-filled.

So now, I'm going to have to--

I hope I can dry it out.

♪ ♪

This is much harder
than I thought it would be.

The mental struggle
is extreme.

That's what I'm finding
the hardest

is just mentally dealing
with the failures.

And I do have to be careful.

I'm not 30.

A lot of my friends,

they've been telling me
for years,

you know, you're getting
too old for that.

You're just going
to damage your body,

and I guess it's true,
but you get stubborn.

And it just reminds me

of someone
like Mors Kochanski,

and last time I saw him,

before he died there,
he was in a wheelchair

but you could still
talk to him,

and he'd tell you
stories for hours,

and it was like he just wished
he could have got out

of that wheelchair

and headed off in the bush,
you know?

And I guess
I'm that kind of guy.

I just don't know
when to quit.

Oh, there's no room
to work in here.

Oh, boy,
and every tree you touch,

you're just getting showered.

Let go off my hair, now.

Oh, man.

♪ ♪

I'm getting really frustrated.

♪ ♪

Wet, tired, hungry, cold.

♪ ♪

I find this very déjà vu-ish.

It just brings Patagonia
right back to mind.

♪ ♪

It brings a lot of
anxiety with it too

because think that, "Oh, man,
I got to do 50 days again."

And I remember
how much I suffered.

Took me three months
to recover from that,

and that's what's got me
a bit nervous too.

As you know,
in Patagonia,

hypothermia
was my enemy there.

I don't need
that again either.

♪ ♪

Wet, wet stuff.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- The sleeping bag
isn't too bad for wetness.

But it sure took forever
to dry that sleeping bag out.

Boy, that was a worry.

A real worry, I can tell you.

So let's get breakfast.

There's not much
to these little mussels.

I'm going to have
to try today

to set up a trap
for these seagulls

that come through in low tide.

So today, that is
one project I'm gonna do,

is try to set up a trap

and catch one of the seagulls

so maybe I can have some meat.

Let's go build us a bird trap.

♪ ♪

As far as food goes,

can't catch fish,

but you're going to see
that I've developed some ideas

to make it easier on myself,

so I don't have to struggle
for food as much.

When they bite,
the trigger comes back,

and put the bait further
from the trap itself,

and then I want to run snares
at the bottom,

loops at the bottom

where the seagull's
gonna be stepping,

and hopefully his feet
are in one of the loops,

so when he picks the bait,

the trap goes off
and tightens the snares

around his legs,

is the whole idea
of this trap.

♪ ♪

You see how we got our mussel,

our trigger.

♪ ♪

I always like
trying new ideas,

but whether it works
or not we'll see.

You never know with your ideas
unless you try.

♪ ♪

- My plans for today...

hopefully this
rain will hold off,

but regardless,

I'm going to go
collecting food.

I'm hoping
there's just gonna be

tons of mussels
and periwinkles

and little crabs,

and so I'm just gonna
fill this whole sucker

and kind of have
a big feast today.

♪ ♪

I got to say, it's a real
shock to the system

to do this.

Dang, that's cold, wet.

So hopefully, I'm adjusting,

but hopefully, I can also get
a lot more food

so that I don't get
to that point

of, like, dizziness
and fatigue

like I did in Chilko.

That's where
I got a clam last time,

so just hoping for more.

I could see
these little divots.

I could tell
where the clam holes were.

My mom was raised
on a farm in Maine.

She was of the mindset

that kids should play outside

and get dirty
and have adventures,

so I had
that free-range childhood.

Mussels.

♪ ♪

I had a lot of unscheduled,
amazing time

in nature,
as much as I wanted.

These are always
the motherload.

♪ ♪

I more kind of wanted to be
like Laura Ingalls Wilder,

and my mom taught me
about the stars,

about wild edibles,

how to fish.

We grew a lot of our food,
and we canned,

and the connection
with food sources

was always big in our family,

so I feel really grateful

for this level

of clams and mussels.

So I have a ton of stuff,

chock full of nuts.

And I got some clams,
as you can see.

They're so delicate.

Look at the size of that thing.

Dang, look at it.

It's got barnacles
growing on it.

It's a monster.

I am definitely so grateful

for the food today.

If I can keep this going...

I'm going to make it
to 50 days

in better condition

than I was
at 21 days at Chilko.

♪ ♪

- The no food is not fun.

The wet bedding is no fun.

Knowing what's in the future

with the weather
getting worse,

all I've got is mussels
and spruce bough tea.

If there's any chance

of getting
some substantial food,

it would totally be
a game changer.

I hear birds, seagulls,

so I'm going to go check
that seagull trap.

Hopefully,
we'll have something

other than mussels tonight.

Oh, [bleep].

It looks like I didn't put
my trap high enough up.

So our trigger stick stayed,

but over here,

the one post

washed out of the ground,

and our trigger system's
sitting there.

I thought
it was up high enough.

I'm wasting my time now,
I think,

if it's going to come up
and just wash everything out.

A lot of work for nothing, eh?

♪ ♪

I anticipated there was
gonna be enough food here,

but I'm finding out different,

and it's very stressful

as just not being able to eat.

Not in bad health yet,

but it's only going to get
worse down the road here

with the resources that I see,

so it's stressful

thinking that things
can only get worse.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- So today started

by feeling really sick,

and that was kind of scary.

Felt weak, felt nauseous,

So I just drank
quite a bit of water.

I'm feeling a little better,

which is good because I still
have a lot of work to do.

So today, I need to really
get some firewood going

and bring it into the shelter

and just sort of store it
in all the, you know,

nooks and crannies.

♪ ♪

I'll just soldier on
for right now,

and hopefully it will pass

once I get working.

It could be hunger,

but I think it would be
more like stomach pain...

♪ ♪

Rather than nausea.

♪ ♪

- Man, I'm getting soaked.

I am pretty concerned
about my tarp.

Check it out.

Wherever you can see light

are spots that I've got holes

in the tarp.

Not ideal,
more where that came from.

Water, water, water.

That is not what
we want in a roof.

I've got to be honest,

this is so much
more challenging

than I figured it would be.

♪ ♪

- I wish I could have gotten
that bird trap set up.

The stress of not having

the food that I need is just--

I'm getting these
panic attacks,

these anxieties
that just pop out of nowhere

for no reason, stress.

♪ ♪

So this is much harder
than I thought it would be.

- Cold and wet and miserable,

and nearly hypothermic,

that's just not how
I want it to be.

♪ ♪

I'm thinking about
all of the things in my life

that I put on hold
and just disappeared from

to have this experience.

It's a really different
situation for me now.

I'm thinking about
my beautiful life at home.

I'm thinking
about my sweetheart a lot

and my family.

Never
in a million years thought

that I would be
considering leaving

as early as day six.

♪ ♪

- It's only day six,
but I'm really struggling.

This just brings me back,

kind of déjà vu-type situation
to Patagonia,

and I remember
how much I struggled

and suffered over there,

and I think
that's creating my anxiety,

realizing that I have to do
the same thing here.

I'm just not ready
for suffering like this again.

♪ ♪

- Sick to my stomach
right now.

♪ ♪

Just going to pause
for a second, whew.

My mind is, of course, racing,

thinking about
what this could be.

♪ ♪

I got to go get water.

♪ ♪

I don't know what's going on.

♪ ♪

- This is much harder
than I thought it would be,

and I keep getting
anxiety attacks.

- Oh, [bleep].
[coughing]

I just pepper sprayed
my bed.

- Yep, you just stay
right there cussing at me.

- Sometimes you know
you're getting close

to your edge...

But we can be
so mentally strong

that we just want
to keep going.

Oh.

[ice cracking]