DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Alone the series

I'm glad you mentioned The Last Alaskans. I was really sad when they didn't come back for another season after Bob Harte passed. That show was genuine reality TV vs those other phony Alaska shows. I did like Life Below Zero.

I’m making it three days tops on Alone.

Alone is one of my and my girlfriend’s favorite shows. It’s an escape from most over produced TV. It’s harsh. It’s real.

Another one we like is The Island with Bear Grylls. It’s multiple people living on an island. No preppers or those with real survival skills. It’s about as real as it can get. The camera crew is also living in the same conditions. It’s hunt, or starve. Build shelter, or get wet. It proves remote tropical islands aren’t fun places to be stranded.
Though more produced than Alone its everything the show Survivor isn’t. No model/actor wannabes. No games. The drama is real. The starvation and stress… and good times… are real.

Is it a realisitic scenario that people in that situation would not travel to and enter and then leave civilization?

We all have personal traits. Being alone wouldn't be a problem for me. I would much rather be alone in a situation like that unless it was some sort of situation where security was a real threat where you felt you needed eyes open at all times. Two people end up having 2 ideas. Two ideas often create conflict.

I will check it out. So, 15 items....do you start nude when picking your items or do you really get 15 other items after you have been given items?

Is it any items or a provided list of items?

I think 2 of my items would be 2 dogs. They provide security and can provide food if it got down to the nitty gritty. At least 1 dog. Being able to sleep is critical in a crisis situation.

Ok....one you mentioned is a trenching tool. That was maybe about the 3rd on my list. My shelter would be partially underground and a earth berm to help provide some temp regulation. A lean-to isn't all that great if you are going to be there a good while.

A good tarp for water collection and overhead shelter would come in handy. Have as many multi-purpose items as possible.

She dug that hole for her put house with a stick and a deer/elk jawbone she found. No special tool or shovel.

I didn’t know about this season’s limitations. Barbless hooks are tough without an actual rod and reel. Trying to hand land a big salmon/trout on a barbless hook… not easy. Keeping tension on the line would be a challenge for sure. And no gill nets? Man without passive fishing it’ll be tough.

As to last season. Once he got that musk ox and had rock house built that guy could have completely ridden out the winter. Rock house was a genius move. So much thermal mass. Once the rock was warmed he could leave just a small fire burning to stay warm. Or be gone for hours and return to warmth. Even if his fire dwindled. That dude was hard as nails and had all the skills needed. He could have been dropped into the same wilderness in 1840 and done just as well.

I like Naked and Afraid.

The mind is usually the downfall. Most people give up before giving out.

What amazes me is when you see contestants that do not put equal effort into food gathering as they do shelter. They will sometimes spend 8 to 12 days on shelter alone without much thought at all to food. Then, once they're weak and run down it's like, "Well I guess it's time to figure out this food thing".

Another thing is, like this guy who went home on the latest episode. So you can fiddle around with making a pipe, notching initials into you shelter, but have zero firewood stacked up for the coming winter? Dude, you can fool around with the dumb crap when everything is frozen and it well below zero. Then you're stuck in your shelter with a lot of time on your hands.

I would never have tried to have convinced myself I could have seriously of competed on this show. The area I grew up in I may have done pretty well. I think I could have survived quite well. But I certainly do not have the ability to adapt to an environment totally foreign to me.

You on the other hand have a lot of experience under those conditions.

How often do the contestants meet with the show's producers to swap out batteries for the camera(s)?

I assume the show performs medical checks during this time from a liability standpoint?

Alone is one of my favorite shows, would love to do it. Once I found my spot, my shelter would get done ASAP, then food, food, food!

A few years ago, a guy got the boot because of his malnutrition status, even though he had a really nice stockpile of preserved fish to last him quite a while. I felt really bad for him as he was making what he felt were uncomfortable sacrifices (hunger) to stick it out long term. He really wanted to stay and broke down crying when they made him leave.

Dude had like 30 fish saved up but was also starving.

Fish is a great source of protein but delivers very little fat content. When your body is being stressed and fighting cold, it needs fat.

These were salmon. They have plenty of fat.

Saturated fats are much different than unsaturated fats.

His biggest problem is he had starvation brain. It’s known that people that starve to death often hoard food instead of eating enough of it to survive. Your brain fools you into playing a long game… one you can’t survive in the short term. After he was medically tapped out they went into it a little on the show.

Yes I saw it. I just wanted to point out the fact that fish, even salmon, doesn't have the fat of red meat and it isn't even close. Even some red meat is very low in saturated fats. If you are on a strictly fish diet under such type of survivalist living conditions, the amount you would have to eat to maintain any weight would be huge.

Many of the contestants run into that problem when all they’re eating is rabbit especially. Which is very low in fat. They go to bed full but still lose weight.

I agree. That fish trap was a hot mess. Too small. Seemed poorly constructed. Then add bad placement. The likelihood of it providing meaningful calories is next to zero.

Someone gets dear. I think that’ll come in this next episode. Who ever does that is in the drivers seat. Yes there’ll be work to be done to protect it, dry it, store it, etc., it’s still a game changer.

The one dude brought pink boxers. The first thing I though of was how many cloth/thread ‘worms’ he could make. A seasons worth.
The barbless hook this is tough. Unless a fish really swallows a hook keeping one on is a challenge. Barbless hooks can make set line fishing a little tougher too. Easier to spit or shake it given time.

They are allowed a five square mile area to inhabit.

I check for funnel points or shallow areas in a river and form a spear. Gig'em.