06x01 - Icebreaker

[bunniefuu]

In "Alone's"
coldest location ever,

ten participants fight
to survive the arctic.

- The arctic is one of
the most physically demanding

places on earth.
- So freakin' cold right now.

Battling
sub-zero temperatures...

- This climate's harsh.
It's extreme.

It's mean. It's got teeth.
- Get caught out here

in a whiteout,
and you're in trouble.

Vicious predators...

- Just heard something big
moving back there.

Me against the wolverine
right now.

And isolation.

- There's nothing to fill
that void.

It's just you left alone
with your thoughts.

How long will they endure?

House is on fire.

- I'm scared
but I don't want to tap.

- This is the most unforgiving
landscape I've ever seen.

The last one
standing wins.

- This environment will
strip away everything

and anything
you thought you had.

- We're all getting dropped
off in one of the most

cold and unforgiving
places on Earth.

It's happening!

I'm alone!

- The arctic
is freakin' extreme--

negative 40 wind chill,
five hours a day of sunlight.

It's the type of environment

where one mistake
could be deadly.

- Uh, there they go.

- This is absolutely nuts.

- We're getting
this opportunity

to go somewhere people
haven't been before.

It's a rough,
ragged, jagged place.

- The landscape is so vast
you can just tell

there's just a lot of bounty,

but a lot of scarcity
there, too.

- There's lots of resources
but once the snow hits

and the temperatures
are starting to dip,

that's gonna go away
real quick.

- The predators are
a serious concern.

They're just ferocious
animals here in the arctic.

- Whoa.

The arctic is
the top of the world.

There's lynx, moose,
grizzly bears, wolverines.

It's dangerous.

Look at that.

Time to grow a pair,
boys and girls.

Let's get to work.

Just like that, you're alone.

Tell you what.

As soon as that
helicopter leaves...

it gets quiet.

Got to find me a little place
where I can just

set up something
for the night.

Okay, what the?

They forget something?

They did!

I forgot something!
My hat!

Yeah, they brought
it back to me.

Canadians.
Thank you.

Ah, I can't--
I can't guarantee I would have

got the same appreciation
if I was back home.

That's how you start a fire.

I am a self defense instructor

and I'm doing this because
I'm seizing an opportunity

that's completely
in my wheelhouse.

A lot of people have
a load of formal training.

They go to these
bushcraft schools,

but for me, it was something
that was always just kind of

fed to me slowly
throughout my life

from my great-grandfather,
grandfather, father--

all hunted, trapped,
fished and worked

with very primitive
skill sets.

This is something that
resonates in my bloodline.

Always be mindful
of where you set your tools.

You lose them,
you lose the game.

Why am I doing this?
Respect?

Absolutely.
Money?

Absolutely.
And that's because

I grew up in a environment
where this sort of

living practices
were just out of necessity.

As a kid,
my family was homeless.

We've lived in a van
in a mall parking lot.

My father stole potatoes
to feed us in the van.

So now that I have my family,

I better be doing those things
that are going to dictate

the future
of my family's well-being.

My son Tristan's only
2 1/2 years old...

Whoo-hoo!

And I'm gonna be gone

longer than my daughter
has been alive.

The biggest thing
I'm gonna miss is the time.

To my loved ones,
when I say good-bye,

I'll be telling them
I love them,

but it won't be good-bye.

It's just gonna be
for a little while,

and I know that
when I come back,

I'm bringing home
the win.

Fortunate to be
put atop this

large rock formation.

So that gives me
a pretty nice field of view

to kind of scout from.

Getting food right away
is extremely important,

so I'm going to hunt
the first few days,

'cause lake's gonna freeze,
winter's gonna roll in,

and as the calories begin
to dissipate from your area,

you know, you become less
and less enthusiastic

about the process.

There's scat right there.

Lots of it.

Looks like I just missed
the meat truck.

I believe a fear of predators
is a legitimate concern,

but I'm going to be
trying to bait them in

using gut piles.

And I'm talking bear
and wolverine

or whatever else it may be.

I'm not necessarily
scared of them until

it gets to the point where
we're all hungry and looking.

You know,
I don't want to die out here,

but it's a very
real possibility.

Accidents happen.

You can see how steep these
rock faces get here.

It's just that easy.

These crevices here...

they're all in these
rock formations.

See, that's a mechanical
injury waiting to happen.

I'll have to make a mental note
because the longer I'm out here

and the snow builds up,
if I plan on using these rocks

as any mode of travel
from one spot to another,

it can be
fairly treacherous.

This is home.

I gotta make this
work for me.

Time to clock in.

Okay.

Here we go!

Here we go.

I don't know what the best way
is to deal with this thing.

Just...

I can carry it like
a big baby or...

Argh!

I love a challenge.

I love being pushed
to the ultimate limit.

And it's hard in this world
to find that

in a real pure state,
and nature is the only place

that I've ever found that
you can be free to be you,

no matter what.

That was a little heavy.

I think my life has been
geared towards this moment,

and...I'm not here to prove
what women can do,

I'm just here to win.

You ready to go fishing,
big guy?

I'm a wilderness guide
and commercial fisherman.

I've spent over 20 years
living primitive survival.

I'm tough.

I'm powerful in who I am.

When I was learning
primitive survival skills,

all I wanted to do was
go live in the woods.

One day, I just decided
I was gonna go and do it.

My friend and I--we were out
a total of a year and a half

near Vancouver Island
living off the land.

I know what
it's like to suffer.

We were starving and cold.

And so we figured out what
the truth of survival was

and then we thrived.

We hunted two bears.

We caught one
in a primitive deadfall

and snared one
and then speared it.

I know what it is
to face big, huge animals

that are trying to k*ll you.

These kind of skills
and things

that I've lived through
is what's really gonna push me

beyond other people.

I wanna get to another level,

and it's gonna take a lot
for me to get there.

And I think there is some
suffering I haven't felt

that's really gonna
push me forward.

And I'm ready for it.

I'm gonna spend a lot of time

just walking around
and exploring my area,

harvesting as much as I can
because in a couple weeks,

as soon as the
weather changes,

everything is
gonna be gone here.

Oh, but looksy-here.

Mushrooms.

Yes!

Ugh.

Mouse poo.

Mushrooms poo-ed on by mice.

Like, did you ever think
someone would wanna eat that?

This is the arctic, folks.

That is the most grossest
thing ever.

Like some of these are just
almost making me throw up

looking at them--
there's so much poo on them.

Like, I don't know
if that's even healthy.

Those--that's just gross.

- I hear something.

Holy.

Oh, my God.
There's a lynx.

There it is.

Oh, my gosh.

It's looking right at me.

I'm just gonna pretend
I don't see him.

There he goes.

Oh, my gosh.
I just saw a lynx!

Ah, he is not on the menu
though, unfortunately.

That must mean I have hares
around here.

He wouldn't be here
if there wasn't hares.

I wanna go follow.

Let's see if I can find
his tracks.

He is so camouflaged.

I know he's right in there.

He's probably hunkered down,

looking at me somewhere.

He knows I'm following him.
I'm not gonna chase him.

It wastes more energy.

Damn it.

Okay, so I've run into...

my first problem
of my first day here.

There is a squirrel
with the spruce trees here.

I had a clear shot--missed,

and right there is my arrow.

I guess this is the reason
I brought my ax with me.

I'm not here to impose myself
on the environment.

I'm here to be
as interdependent

with it as possible.

And there she is.

Still in good shape.

I have a real deep spiritual
connection to being in nature,

but I also have
a very intellectual,

trained perspective as well.

We need zucchini,
summer squash.

- Yeah.

- Let's do some of the venison
with rosemary.

- Yeah, I think
that's a great idea.

- I am
a permaculture designer,

homesteader,
biologist, carpenter--

kind of a jack of all trades.

I've spent a lot of time
in the wilderness

ever since I was 19.

I started as a park ranger

and I had a lot of time
for weeks on end

completely by myself
and those have always been

super formative times
in my life.

I'm doing this because
I'm a homesteader

without a homestead.

I have a very strong drive
to build my own house,

and that's financially
out of my reach right now.

But I don't want
to fantasize about life.

I wanna--I wanna live it.
I know how to work hard.

I know how to use
my body and my hands

and my brain altogether.

And I'm out here
for the long run.

I don't have any loose ends
untied at home at all.

I've just got the most
supportive girlfriend

I could possibly hope for.
- Be safe.

- And barring
medical accidents

or something like that,

I think I'm gonna
do really well.

Okay, so I have a plan
for tonight--

for sleeping tonight.

I...am gonna get my fire going.

And I'm very confident
it's not going to rain tonight,

so I am gonna sleep out

under the stars tonight.

We're allowed to bring
ten items out.

And I did not bring
the ferro rod out with me.

That could be a spindle
right there, potentially.

I'm very confident in
my fire building skills.

I worked for a lot of years

in a temperate,
cold rainforest,

and I can build a friction
fire in those conditions

any time I like.

Because of that, I'm gonna
rely on the wood materials

that are here which I've--
I love what I'm seeing.

And that's gonna
free up my ability to,

you know,
bring a gill net, for example.

Notches full of dust,

if you can get it hot enough.

And the wind is picking up
and blowing my ember apart.

The sun has gone
behind the hills.

Hmm.

Just does not keep smoking.

What's the deal?

That is a disappointment.

I might just call it a day

and not plan on
having a fire tonight,

That's super disappointing.

I hope I don't regret
not bringing a ferro rod.

Gained so much weight
for this show.

I'm up to 225 pounds.

Phew.

I don't typically wear this
when I'm hunting,

but I think I will
for this excursion

because I'm just
scouting right now.

A lot of my plans
revolve around big game.

If I can harvest
a big game animal,

it will sustain me longer
than anybody else out here.

I'm gonna nock an arrow
for the hike

'cause that's how I roll--
one in the chamber.

And then I'm gonna start
whispering because...

if there's something to eat
close by,

I don't wanna be
talking to you...

when I take it.

Let's get in the woods
a little bit

and see what we got.

That's just beautiful.

It's some magical woods.

Yeah, I promised my
granddaughter, Lilly--

I told her
I was going to the North Pole

just to make it easier
to explain where I was going.

And told her I would--she
asked me to give Santa Claus

five hugs for her,
and to bring back

some reindeer hair
so I'm gonna do my best.

I know that fat b*stard
lives around here somewhere.

Oh, yeah.
Did you see that thing go?

My occupation is
full-time hunting guide.

Hunting is my thing.
That's what I do.

That's what I'm good at.
I'm 55 now.

I think my age and
my life experiences

are putting me
in the right spot to win.

I will miss my kids.
I'll miss my grandkids.

I wanna be a hero
to my family because

when you get older, your kids
find out as they get older,

that Daddy has feet of clay
and he's not Superman.

And so, now I get a chance
to do something a little

superhuman that most people
don't get to do.

I'm very competitive.
I wanna see.

I wanna see, can I do what
I've done in the past

but on an extended period
of time and film it all?

It's a huge challenge and
the macho-man me is like,

"Bring it on."

I would really like to get
the first big game animal

on "Alone."

Oh, golly day.
How much meat a moose would be?

We got tracks right here,
and these aren't that old.

There's probably a bear
in this area.

There's a trail right there.

You can tell it walked
right through there.

I'm gonna set up
a temporary camp right here.

Um...

And I want one
that's easily defendable.

I'm just making a tree fence
a little bit...

I mean, granted, there's--

a big moose could walk
right through that,

but it's just
a slight deterrent.

I'd put an arrow
through the thing

before it gets to that point.

Just basically wanna
slow the critters down.

Right there.

There's nothing pretty
about it.

It's k*ll or be k*lled.

If a bear is aggressive
and coming after me,

I need to get more aggressive.

And you have to move
with bad intent.

You stab until
there's nothing moving.

The bears up here are much
bigger than in the lower 48.

The black bears--
um, a young one,

three year old--
it's 250, 300 pounds.

Just by our camp--
uh, base camp.

I just heard something
take a step.

Let's just listen for a minute.

What I'm gonna do is clear out
some of this brush.

I'm blocking this off
and if they come back,

I'll be able to stand up
and sh**t.

If I hear something,
see something,

say something,
I'ma do something.

I'm gonna k*ll some animals
and eat 'em.

- That squir

- That squirrel
is warning everything

within earshot that I'm here.

He's gotta be the first to die.

I think I'm gonna make
a few squirrel poles.

So I don't have to hear that
all the time.

As part of my gear,
I selected 20 gauge wire,

which is more than enough to...

hang these guys off a noose.

As I make the noose,

I want to make it obviously
for the size of smaller game.

And by having this snag wire,

the animal goes through it.

It gets caught on their fur,
and that's how they--

it increases the odds
of them getting caught.

It should look like that.

So that whenever the animal
comes through...

it gets snagged on the wire,

and then it just rolls off.

There's my first squirrel pole
leaned up against the tree

that they were barking
at me from.

Let's head back
and make some others.

Oh, man.
Look at this.

That little dude.

Sitting there enjoying
his breakfast in the sunshine.

Let's take a shot at him.

You're not gonna
believe this.

Come check this out...

Look at that.

Right through his ears.

Not a bad shot.

Head back down
and process this guy out.

Probably eat him and then
use his guts for fish bait.

So, tomo--today's starting off
on a pretty good start.

- I just been getting drizzled
on a little bit.

It stopped,
but I really hope the--

the rain holds out.

I've gotta
build a shelter today.

I spent quite a few hours
trying to figure out

the bow drill scene out here,

and I haven't quite
done it yet.

Luckily, I trust
the water source out here

is clean without boiling it,
but I need to have fire.

Fire and shelter--
first order of business.

There we go.
Perfect.

Something visited last night--

probably a moose or a muskox.

They're not
by any means quiet.

What I'm probably mo afraid
of out here his moose.

They are one of those just
blatantly-aggressive animals

that will just
come and k*ll you.

I cannot turn off
my level of awareness.

Period.

This is not a place
where you're gonna get

second chances.

Okay.
Sweet.

I have a dry place
for tonight for now.

Damn it.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

I'm feeling like
I hear something out there.

It's gonna be a long night.

- Okay.

I just now returned
from a, um...

Several-hours-long
scout around--

um, this ridge behind me,

and around
the far end of the bay,

and, um, I found
two new species of tree--

a Scouler's willow,
and I think Aspen.

Both of these should be
really good bow drill wood.

I'm starting to get
a little bit weary.

I can't get a fire going.

Obviously, if I can't do that,

I can't survive out here.

That is really
producing dust slowly.

I need to widen up that notch.

I'm not wavering.
I'm still confident in myself.

This is taking forever
to make dust.

This opportunity is massive--
massive in my life.

I've got a lot
to accomplish out here,

so I'm gonna take it
one step at a time

and have faith that
if I just keep working it,

keep using my brain,
I can stay out here.

- Um, I got a fire going.

I'm not sure if I got footage
of it yet or not.

I, um,

went to move the camera
a few minutes after I got going

and saw that
the SD card was full,

but this is, uh,

probably
the most difficult fire

I've ever gotten in my life.

It did take a whole day.

I need to keep
this fire going.

Every time I don't,

it's going to be
a big expenditure of energy.

I gotta have
a long term strategy

that's better than that.

So that's that for now.

I'm gonna turn this off until
I get another battery in it.

- There are ten badass
participants this season,

but, uh,
we got some wood nymphs

and forest sages
in this group,

like, LARPing magic spells
or whatever.

But they're
really cool people,

and I like that they
feel things from the heart--

just not me.

But in honor of them,

I'm going to ask these trees
permission to cut it down

and to honor the life
that I'm about to take,

even though it's a Jack pine.

Huh.
We gotta do this correctly.

Hey, baby, how you doing?

You mind if I cut
your kids down?

That's stupid.

See?
Talking to trees is dumb.

They start talking back,
you better run the other way.

Four days without food,

so I am going scouting,

hunting, whatever
you want to call it.

See if I can hone in
on where I need to be.

Yeah, there's old trails
all through here,

but nothing
that looks real recent.

It's never what you expect.

And I've never been in
timber like this.

There's a little bit
of water back there.

We're starting
to get into a boggy

peat area.

That was a deep hole.

I got some stuff wet.

I didn't want to get wet.

But, exactly what
I've been looking for.

This is nothing but
wet and marshy.

Pretty freakin' awesome spot.

There's tracks
all through here.

We're gonna call this,
"Lilly's Bog."

I just named it
after my granddaughter.

And the route to get here
is called Eden's way--

named after my grandson.

Definitely gonna have
to get back to my shelter

and build a fire, but
I found my bog that I wanted.

Now I think I got a game plan
for tomorrow morning--

get up bright and early
and whack something.

I think it's gonna be
a prime hunting location.

Look, they had a shovel.

Nice shovel.

Well, I'm a lucky guy.

Carry on.

Yeah, this is the part
that makes you feel like

you're walking across
a bunch of dinner plates

somebody left on the floor.

Man, I need protein.

Berries and this tea stuff--

they're good for some people,
and it's okay.

Yeah, I need the vitamins
and everything, but meat--

you gotta eat--
I'm a meat eater.

Burn it on the fire,
crisp it up, and chomp it down.

That's what I do.
Oh!

Oh, no!

- Think I broke it?
- Holy.

I think I broke it.

Ah, I think I broke something.

I think I broke it.

No, no...

Ugh.

Oh!
Oh, no, no, no.

Boy, that hurts.

damn it!

Fell backwards,
knee bent the wrong way,

same way I hurt it in 1987.

Holy crap.
That hurts.

I've broken enough stuff
in my life.

I know the symptoms
of this and that.

You got to be kidding me.

I can't walk...

I can't...

Hello?
This is Tim.

I'm tapping out.

- Yeah, it's a good thin
I don't cry...

Here they come.

Right here.
My foot's numb.

My--

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah?

Right there.
- All right, Tim, hold on.

- Yeah, we might have
a possible break.

I was going up on that ridge,
so to fall here is ridiculous.

I'm not an emotional guy,
but you just think about

all the other people that
wanted to be in my place.

What is it, day four?

This is ridiculous.

This is not how
I saw myself leaving.

I saw myself leaving
with my daughter

coming through
the woods saying,

"You did it, Pops.
You did it."

I like being the one
to pick broken people up

and carry them out.
I don't want to be the one

that's broken
and being carried out.

I was just now getting
into the land enough

to make plans to hunt.

I figured two weeks tops,
I'd have had my animal down.

And to go out before
I even get a chance

to build a ground blind
and do it--

that hurts immensely,
to not have that opportunity.

- So, I don't know how many
hours I spent in bed,

but it sure is nice--
a lot more than I do at home.

I think I've got
the fire thing figured out.

Man, I feel like
I earned it...

Today, I'm going to go
check on my gill net,

which I set yesterday morning.

This runs out
into the water.

Here, I've got
the end of the log

anchored securely.

I'm not sure if you can see

the net dangling
underneath there,

but it's perfect.

Okay, so I just got to
my gill net, and, um,

it looks like
there's a fish in it.

See that?
It looks to be large.

So...

I'm gonna pull it out,

and I'm gonna have
fish for dinner tonight--

and lunch and brunch.

Oh, that's definitely
a big old lake trout.

It's still alive.
Better give him the club.

Come on, you bugger.
Don't get out.

Ah, man.

Holy smokes.
Look at the size of that guy.

That is easily the biggest fish
I've ever caught in my life.

That is food for a week,
easily!

Look how monstrous it is.

Humility is the number
one thing you need to have

out here to learn and adapt.

It's just a fact of life.

Without it,

you'll keep getting
your a*s handed to you.

You see it move?

That heart is still pumping.

Crazy.

Ba-bum.

Nature is infinite.

It's infinitely abundant
as much as it can be

infinitely harsh.

That's half of a five gallon
gas can I found on the beach

about 2/3 of the way
filled up with fish meat.

That's pretty freakin' sweet.

If you go into nature
looking for fight,

you will get a fight.

You can't outfight
the infinite.

- The snow is coming down
and accumulating.

There's already about
1/4 of an inch of it outside,

and it's only been going
for 20 or 30 minutes, so...

The snow is blowing in
to every corner.

I think it's time to make
some walls for this thing.

Seems like snow is here early.

The cold here
is gonna be severe,

and I think
it's gonna come down to,

"How heat-able
is your shelter?"

If you a not able
to retain your body heat,

you will die very quickly.

Even if we get a big animal,

we still have to suffer
through the cold.

It just accumulated this much

just as I started
chopping the tree.

So I want to get this done
and then head back to camp.

- Ooh, it's really snowing.

That's my fish song.

Oh, it's blowing it already.

Man, it is so windy.

It's just getting all tangled.

I gotta go.

I'm not prepared for snow.

I certainly wasn't
expecting it

to come so soon.

I think there's
a lot of people here

that are decent at suffering,

but people don't live here
for a reason.

It's unforgiving,
it's dangerous,

and I think
the weather is gonna

make this harder than
any other location

ever done on "Alone."

It's gonna be awful.

- The temperature has dropped.

It's a vast area

that has the ability
to change quickly.

Barely keep my hands exposed
for more than 15 minutes

before they start to kind of
lose that dexterity.

It's hard to see.

Get caught out here
in a whiteout,

you're in trouble.

I can tell that
it's starting to accumulate,

and it doesn't look like
it's slowing at all.

This is gonna
complicate things.

I was not expecting
the arctic to, um,

roll on with the snow

as quickly as it has.

It's gonna be
a very, very long year,

and it'll be brutal.

I'm not sure any of us
are truly grasping

what a winter
in the arctic is like.

- This is the freakin' arctic.

It's gonna get real,
real fast.

- Everything about
this whole environment says,

you're not meant
to survive out here.

- Ow!

- There's a few of us
who are gonna

prove that statement wrong.

- Whoo-hoo-hoo!

- You've got predators.

You've got
treacherous terrain.

You've got
extreme weather patterns.

Holy.
House is on fire.

Can't get it out.

- The wolverine--I trashed him.

- My arrow jammed into my leg.
I need stitches.

- They don't tell you
how to handle

missing the things that
mean the most to you.

- My body needs some food.

- I could be filming
the way I die.

Oh, what do I do?

Oh,.