Alone

This is going to be a bit.

I'm scared to death right now.

I feel like I'm starving.

See ya.

Good luck.

I am not good in the head right now.

I have chills right now.

Some new technology to learn.

There's a learning curve to this.

The long wait is nearly over.

I'm ready.

Last year, I spent 56 days on Vancouver Island.

I don't know if life will ever be the same, but I don't regret going for a minute.

After seeing what I went through on the island, over 3,500 people applied to be on season two of Alone.

Basically, all I'm going to do is I'm going to cut off his legs and then eat him.

From these submissions, 20 were chosen to spend a week with survivors.

Survival experts and producers.

Participants will be evaluated physically and psychologically.

Their survival skills will be tested, and only the best will make it to the island.

In order to survive alone, you need three basic skills.

Shelter building, fire starting, and the ability to find food and water.

The assessment week begins with shelter.

It ranged 217 days a year on Vancouver Island.

So any structure you build must keep you warm, as well as dry.

The best shelters have pitched roofs that can shed water, and thick walls for insulation.

So the setups we're seeing are very interesting, everyone's coming at a different angle.

Some of it's strong, some people's approach is very strong, some people are very weak.

That's just a modified debris hut.

So, it's debris just means you scrape leaf litter off the ground,

I actually took some of this bark and used it as shingles in case it did rain.

At this point in the process, the best of the best are in the

running, and only the truly elite will rise to the surface.

This is what I call cozy.

Debris shelter.

Great job.

Exactly what we asked for.

I can tell you this from personal experience.

On Vancouver Island, shelter is life.

In the winter months, the average temperature on the island is 39 degrees,

and that means shelter won't be enough.

Fire building is absolutely critical for heat and water purification.

Failure, failure, failure.

It will not ignite.

In order to really last out there, you need to know how to start a fire with friction.

Great piece of bow wood here.

A spindle, you want to be fairly soft wood.

You want to have the pointed end for where it's going to go into your handhold,

and then you want to have it carved down here a little flatter.

This first thing I looked for was a nice light wood to make the board.

I know this wood here will probably work.

If I scrape this with my thumbnail, I'm getting a good dent, which means it's nice soft wood.

And soft wood isolates the heat.

This is a new skill for me, so.

That was my first hole right there.

By the time I got close to getting to an Ember, it burned through the bottom right there.

It could be the wood.

It could be the humidity in the air.

It could be so many different things.

The color of my dust is very dark.

And it's not a fine powder.

It's kind of a gritty dust.

And that's a good sign.

I bet I've done it a thousand times.

That's so awesome.

After having a good shelter and fire, you've got to find food.

And on Vancouver Island, if you can't catch small game or fish, you can't eat.

I caught a fish.

Participants must prove they can build a wide range of working traps.

Nibble, nibble, nibble, nibble.

Boom.

I definitely am going to make a fish trap.

I'm going to make an M shape out of sticks.

And the fish swim into the channel at the V of the M.

And then they don't have the sense to get out.

This is a South American fish trap.

This is an Arapuka bird trap.

And when the bird comes in, it falls.

And what you end up with is a live bird trapped in a cage.

I think it's really clever how you've managed to get that built so quickly.

He's built a Paiute dead fall, but he's modified it to make it easier to set.

Robins will cruise the ground, and they'll go for a wriggling earthworm under there like it's the last day on earth.

Perfect.

When a ground animal gets stuck in this, it strangles itself.

And you usually find them hanging.

And then you just simply pull them out in the morning.

And there's your food.

At orientation, the participants go through training with their camera gear.

I really had a hard time using the five cameras we were given.

By day two, I wanted to toss mine into the ocean.

Come on, man.

Do what you're supposed to do.

You hook your moleskin up.

Put it like so.

You see that?

No, just on your clothes.

You see where it is?

I kind of got it on the mic.

See?

My next thing is, Jose is already on it.

Put your good old weather covers on.

Once they're dropped off, each person will be totally alone.

There are no producers with them, and they must be ready for whatever they encounter.

There's a learning curve to this, you know?

The crew continues to teach the participants to use their cameras.

So the top handle actually has a separate slot that it moves into.

Okay.

Okay.

I gotta say, it was a lot to learn, and it was not easy.

I don't look at the viewfinder.

See, just look at what the... Look at how the line of the shutter thing.

Got you.

To me, that looks straight.

Okay.

I mean... Yeah, I got you.

Okay.

Cool.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

At the end of an intense week of observation and skill tests, including

camera training, safety briefings, shelter building and fire starting,

the final ten are selected.

These are the participants of season two of Alone.

I love you.

Can I have a kiss right now?

Are you going to miss me?

Yeah.

No.

I am.

I'm a stay-at-home mother.

I have two daughters.

Hi.

Hi.

Out in the field, I think that this would be a good night for me.

My other weapon of choice is going to be an ax.

It serves as a hammer.

It's going to cut my firewood.

It's going to cut my lodge Poles.

I love you.

It's going to keep me alive.

It's a really good tarp.

I think if they're going to give you a tarp as an option, you probably better take it.

I'm not like the normal person that would sign up for this show that's a

survivalist, that's a gung-ho about studying their skills.

I'm not that person.

My work experience have been a test of my own strength.

Hotshots are wild land firefighters joining the hotshot crew, and it's extremely stressful.

What I learned was that... Mental strength can get you just about anywhere.

Let's go check it out.

I'm the person that says, I can do this.

I might drop you down in the hole.

I grew up off the grid and learned many different skills or how to survive.

My kids, that's the big part.

Leaving the kids.

I mean, who would want to leave that face?

Who would want to leave that face?

I wouldn't do it unless my mom was watching my children.

So there you have it.

I want my kids to say, my mom did that.

Or I can do that.

There's no stopping me.

Why would something stop me?

I want my girls to grow up with a backbone, with a voice, with strength and courage to do what they want to do.

I may break.

I may thrive.

I may do something really stupid that gets me in trouble.

I don't know.

All right, I'm out of here.

The remote location of Vancouver Island will present enormous challenges for each of the season two participants.

And the endless hours on your own can be brutal.

But our next survivalist is looking forward to the solitude.

Just being outside in nature does a lot for my spirit.

You always come back feeling good.

You know, I call it like a Wilder high a little bit.

You know, when you get back, you're just like sort of floating in cloud nine for a couple of days.

It's great to have stability and a great house and all that sort of stuff.

But I've never really been a conventional type person.

The idea of like going to work from 9 to 5 and like having a regular job.

I'm more interested in the growth of the human spirit.

I have a girlfriend.

We've been together for five years now.

She's excited for me.

She's a little nervous.

So how long are you going to last?

I have a great relationship with my family, too.

They're super supportive.

They're really stoked for me.

I mean, they're definitely my rock and my support system.

He's going to do a great job out there.

Choosing a career of being a wilderness survival instructor, initially,

my parents are like, you could be doing anything else.

It's a great job for me.

Throughout the entire time, they've been super supportive.

This is sort of like a culmination of all of the years of training, all of the books

that I've read, all of the going out and doing it and getting in the dirt time.

It's about growth and sort of like figuring out who you are and what you're made of.

So I regularly do solo trips, but I haven't really spent more than just a couple of weeks, you know, alone on a trip.

That's the hardest part about this whole experience.

Wire for snares and for traps, for lashing and for cordage, I mean, wire is obviously super strong.

And it's also something that I can use over and over again.

Packed and ready to go.