New TV Survival Show - Alone

Currently watching the first episode. I have some catching up to do! I like the idea of a survival last man standing type of competition. It should be good
 
2d_edge said:
Mitch Mitchell posted his farewell video on Oct 14, 2014 and a recent video in a Alone Premier Party with his family and friends.
That's about 7 months from Oct 2014 to May 2015. Did he tap out before 7 months?

The same thing with Joe Robinet and Wayne Russell, did they last in the wild no more than 7 months?

Is the competition still on with participants still in the wild?
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I'm pretty sure it's already all finished and everyone is just sitting on non-disclosure agreements.

Just finished watching episode 2. Without spoiling it, it seems like some of the guys are settle in a bit more. One guy's big flub up could cost him the competition.

Enjoying it so far, much better then the other 'reality' survival shows on these days.
 
Yeah I'm really liking this show alot. Episode 2 was even better. I'm rooting for Joe Robinet but dang buddy hold on to that firesteel!! I can't judge him though...cold, wet, hungry....I'd probably misplace a bunch of things during my scramble for food and shelter.

What other knives/gear did you guys notice tonight? You can see Wayne's knife pretty good for a few seconds and I thought it was a Survive! GSO but the pommel looked a little different. *EDIT: Nevermind, I just watched the videos above and its a Becker BK2.
 
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It looked like the chopping up the slug used a Condor HD Kukri.
 
jonnyt16 said:
Yeah I'm really liking this show alot. Episode 2 was even better. I'm rooting for Joe Robinet but dang buddy hold on to that firesteel!! I can't judge him though...cold, wet, hungry....I'd probably misplace a bunch of things during my scramble for food and shelter.
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I think Joe will do fine even if he doesn't find it; now that he has fire (in episode 2), things like charcloth can be made, or materials dried for tinder and baseboard for friction fire.
He can do a mean bowdrill...saw him in action on Peche Island. :)
 
Second guy looked like he was ready to cry when they picked him up. Just 2 days like a weekend camping trip. They're getting weeded out quick.
 
Gotta give props to Mitch though. That guy is fearless. I don't know if I would have had the guts to cross that frigid water in a makeshift plant raft thing like he did.
 
I'm surprised it worked. Good work. I'm sure he'll stick around for a while. Wonder about the guy who lost his ferro rod. Guess you don't need a fire to survive but it makes it more tolerable for sure
 
I wonder if there is flint in the creek beds, should work for fire starting. Bow drill and other friction based fire starting methods doesn't look very promising in that environment. Overall I enjoy the show.
 
Final Option said:
I wonder if there is flint in the creek beds, should work for fire starting. Bow drill and other friction based fire starting methods doesn't look very promising in that environment. Overall I enjoy the show.
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Traditional flint and steel with natural tinder is more difficult than friction fire in most cases. Those guys have it tough. The crazy high humidity means that anything close to "dry" will be constantly wicking moisture from the air. A ferro rod is about your best bet. Rotten luck for Joe.
 
I missed the first 2 episodes and am catching up now. The sympathy for Josh earlier in the thread is mystifying. The contestants were told what region they'd be in for the show and apparently Josh didn't do any research as to what would be there with him. Also he looked as if he was going to bust out crying as the boat was pulling away from him. He clearly hasn't spent much time alone in life, nor did he think that part of it through. That said, it should be an interesting show.
 
Caught about half of the latest episode. I remember stepping on those Banana slugs out on the island and slipping on them like a lawn sausage. I find it interesting that they seem edible.
 
There is no flint on Vancouver Island , the local Indians used the bow drill to start fire . In the areas where driftwood collects with a decent solar exposure there will be western red cedar , you can get surprisingly dry pieces by splitting some pieces . If not fully dry keep inside your shirt for as many days as it takes to get dry .
 
Given that most TV shows rely heavily on social media, I suspect each of the folks that have existing youtube channels will all be doing a gear review as the show goes on. I'm guessing they would all be checked for info about the show. For these types of low budget shows, they rely heavily on non-traditional marketing, and I'm guessing that social media presence was also a factor in selection.

As for the early edits, this type of show struggle early on to cover the most while spread thin. I would also suspect that for the first while most of these folks would not be prioritizing filming as much as getting set up, so I suspect as they got into the groove, the filming and therefore usable footage would get much better. Really risky from a production standpoint, low-budget productions usually don't go for open ended competition. Interesting to see where it goes, and where it might get to.

One thing from those two videos, it really seems like the gear you know is better than the gear you don't. Interesting ways that they view gear, to Joe, the ax is critical, and his cherished possession. To Wayne, its a "nice thing to have". It makes me wonder how Wayne is going to do, having four of his ten being cutting tools, seems like that stacks a lot of resources in one area.

I'd probably last.... about until I couldn't hear the engine of whatever was leaving me behind! I'd like to think I could handle it, but reality and my ego have very little overlap. pretty cool for these guys to try, and I like how its just straight up, I feel like naked and afraid is too much a gimmick.
 
I wonder how Matt from Dual Survival would fair in these conditions. I think he has the knowledge plus he has the proper mindset. It is not about conquering nature it's become part of it.
 
I started thinking this over in the ax sub, but I figured it fit better here.

On the topic of guys tapping out. I work as an activity instructor doing adventure activities, high-ropes courses, canoeing, hiking, that kind of stuff. Mostly with kids, but adults come along as well, often teachers, sometimes parents, and I've done some work with the general public. Not extreme sports by any means, but stuff that does scare people (and is designed to).

I've seen a lot of tough guys crumple on a little zipline, even though they are in a harness, and on a rig that is rated and easily capable of carrying tonnes of weight. I've seen guys lock up six feet off the ground on a climbing wall, or start to hyperventilate while standing on a solid log 20 feet up. Again, with harnesses, ropes and supervision, safer than crossing a street. Its not uncommon to get this sort of reaction after the person has done an activity that is objectively more difficult or frightening.

None of them expected it, and I think that's the key here. You can never tell whats going to set off that adrenaline rush, and when its something that feels little or silly, it can really break people's confidence in themselves. A lot of people go through a lot not feeling fear, or when they do, its a thing they feel is valid, or somehow worth their feelings. So when a little bear gets your heart racing and you think that you should have just kept cool, it can really disrupt everything, make you question yourself, and ultimately if its not a mindset you have practiced, it can be really hard to get back from there. I tell people all the time that fear is a natural thing, but Frank Herbert was right, Fear is the mind-killer, you have to be familiar with it to defeat it.

I didn't see the episode, so I'm going second hand here, but I can see how it could easily happen to someone who was very confident. Fear and self-confidence are always in tension, fear as a natural reaction that keeps you careful, keeps you safe, but needs to be managed, and self-confidence which when backed up with skills and experiences doesn't get tested often. But when that Fear goes to 11 and doesn't gel with the self-confidence, the whole thing can break wide open. That's the worst place to be, because as I said, if you can't use your self-confidence to bring yourself back to a stable mindset, and you question your abilities to function, its not hard to talk yourself into leaving. I'm sure he regrets it, but that's life.


While we all know that fear has a fairly large physiological component, adrenaline can cause all sorts of reactions, its not always the same reaction every time. Those reactions can also start a feedback loop on the psychological side which increases the stress level. I can't count the number of times I've asked a kid what they are afraid of and the response is not falling, or equipment failure. Its that they can't catch a full breath, or stop their legs from shaking, or that their hands no longer work right. The only reason I get that from kids, is that they tell the truth, adults hide it, or don't try.

So you have someone who spends a day, maybe more, amped right up. Gear has been checked a hundred times, gonna be on TV, maybe the flight isn't so smooth, baby crying two rows back. Stress level is high. Gets to the site hears the boat or plane leaving, fear is there, but normal, maybe a bit up because its not home turf. There's lots to do, so no relaxation time. Decisions to make, each one takes energy. Thinking about priorities, trying to remember everything about the cameras, getting set up. Then the bears show up and spook him just a little. But maybe he's more tired than he thinks, and the reaction is stronger than normal. Confidence gets shaken and in that high stress environment, its not hard for me to see how it happens. This isn't some camp-out in the back yard, the stakes are high, some people feel that stress more than others. Stress, fear and excitement are all sides to the same die. Given time, or in a situation with no exit, he very well may have been able to get past it, and survive, there is no way to know. Because of the way I work and the training I have, I always give my clients an exit, sometime I even make them take it, as the alternative to survival is complete shut-down and you get into trauma territory, and there is no way to guess which way it will go.

TL;DR:
Its all armchair quarterbacking from here, but before anyone disparages folks too much, Fear is impossible to quantify and there is no way to know how or why someone will react. It has nothing to do with mental strength or skills or gear, sometimes circumstances come together that are just too much.
 
Rick Marchand said:
Traditional flint and steel with natural tinder is more difficult than friction fire in most cases.
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That is a really interesting opinion. No disrespect intended, not saying you are wrong, however I stand on the opposite side of that fence. In my experience Friction Fire aka FF requires a lot more effort than Flint and Steel aka F&S. From materials selection to processing to achieving an ember.

Here in the Upper MidWest there are at least 16 NUTs and dozens of natural materials that can be charred and catch a spark. "NUT" is a term I coined many years ago as a shorthand way of saying, "Natural Uncharred Tinders that will catch a spark in their uncharred state from flint the rock and steel yielding an ember". One such NUT, milkweed fluff, can be found and used immediately eight months of the year here. By flint I mean any quartzite rock in the Quartz->Chalcedony->Chert->Flint family. Which means you don't need "flint" per se. Granite, quartz, sandstone, agate, onyx and many, many more types of rock work. They have for me. I would be extremely surprised if there wasn't some form of quartz on that island. As for the char, any properly charred natural material will catch a spark from a ferro. Only certain ones will catch a spark from F&S. By the way, for those that may point out that the contestants do not have a tin - char can be made without a tin. For the steel many items may be used. For the contestants, their knife, axe, saw and fishhooks could work. I know that certain ones of each have worked for me. Producing flame with F&S starting with nothing but the steel is doable hereabouts more days than not. Starting with steel and char it can be done on any day.

Here is Paul from JungleCraft with a great article and vid about F&S. I have been doing the same things with the local materials here in the Upper MidWest for years.

http://www.junglecraft.com.my/index.php/category/fire/flint-steel/

While I have produced coals with friction fire aka FF, I do not consider myself to be very skilled at it. FF has been unreliable for me and takes a ton of effort. F&S takes very little effort.

Maybe which method one thinks is easier depends more upon that person's skill that the characteristics of the method itself. However I am fairly certain that someone equally skilled in both methods could make fire more reliably, more quickly and with less effort with F&S than FF pretty much every time and everywhere.

Interesting that the contestants in Alone had trouble achieving flame with a ferro. I have produced flame in wood fresh from trees in Spring with the wood still green, wet and literally dripping sap while I am processing it. Two keys: process it fine enough and know which species work. Some species just will not take the spark. Others seem to "want" to burn. From what they showed us in the first episode of Alone, very few were processing their tinder fine enough. Producing scrapings (coarser than dust, finer than curls) has worked best for me. Five strikes or less on a ferro with dozens of species of wood. Fatwood + ferro equals guaranteed flame. I've soaked a ferro and a chunk of fatwood in a bucket of water for two weeks straight, shook 'em of and had flame in seconds. Can't get any wetter than that. Makes me think the producers required a certain amount of drama from the contestants.
 
No disrespect taken, bud. I've been doing and teaching this stuff a long time. Long enough to know what works for some may not for others. I am somewhat familiar with the environment these guys are in, having backpacked/MTB'd Vancouver Island for a month in my early 20's. There is wet and there is WET... and these guys were WWETT!

I used to be much more active on these boards and have posted flint and steel, friction fire and ferro rod fire making with some difficult(sometimes silly) techniques and materials.

BTW... both a ferro and fatwood are completely waterproof, so soaking them in a bucket would be a poor example(or was that the point you were making?). I know at least one of the contestants found fatwood(There are a few species of pine on the island)... I hope he had a ferro.
 
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