Tanstaafl

Pic #3, that door behind Whit's head is pretty warped, sure sign of photoshop. Did she resize her whole head or just shop the hair? Pic #4, okay I'll bite, who's picture is it? It looks nothing like Whit except the joker mouth.

Food for thought - as many have speculated Le Blur was not born in France, or is not a French citizen. This would explain the strange accent he has (if we are actually hearing his natural voice). It would also explain why he would need a visa to travel from France to the U.S. I know that there was no travel allowed from the EU to the US at the time due to Covid-19, but let's pretend. I'm not a linguistic expert (although I did pass two years of High School French thanks to a French teacher who took pity on me) but I am Canadian living in our nation's capitol, and have a sister who taught French for 25 years. I also oversaw a small bilingual call centre for our regional airline and we had agents from north Africa, central Africa, and the Caribbean, along with native Quebecois. Believe me Le Blur's mother tongue is not French. My guess is that Le Blur is from north Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) but the French did have a world spanning empire so he could also be from central Africa, the Caribbean, south Pacific, or southeast Asia. Heck he could just be some random Moldavian dude who lives in France and worked for TLC - we know how they like to deceive us. IIRC the EU opened up travel from the U.S. fairly early and naturally hWhit would assume that it worked both ways, which it did not. The whole Le Blur canceling and then trying to stealthily appear in Bar Harbour to surprise hWhit is nothing more than producer shenanigans to explain why LeBlur was a "no show". I admit that I cringe watched the episode, by that I mean non stop cringe from Whit. That girl went through a different emotion every minute she was on screen. And talk about sibling rivalry! Run Hunter. The only surprise for me was when she had her talking head and she said that she wanted to touch Le Blur, I was sure that she was going to say that she wanted to smell him. Random thought, since the purple isn't really working for Heather what about a robin egg's blue?

According to the closed captioning Glenn said "Cathy's dead". Thankfully I have my DVR set for 15 minute jumps so I didn't have to rewatch more than a minute to get to the right part.

If it was airport to airport the helicopter would be fine for night flights. Basically any commercial helicopter operating in the area would have the necessary instruments for IFR flights (Instrument Flight Rules). The might even be able to do night VFR (Visual Flight Rules) if it's airport to airport but anything off airstrip requires that you be able to see where you need to land, and that means daylight. At that time of the year as they showed there is very little daylight, so a small window of 5 - 6 hours. The only other way in would be by snowmobile and I'm not sure where their main camp was located. It's possible that production/medics could get to them by snowmobile but it would likely be a much longer route along the shore, and that would have it's own perils. In late November the shoreline and the bays are probably frozen solid but if you have a river or stream emptying into the lake there could be thin ice, slush, or even still open water - not something that you want to chance in the dark. I do think that the 4 day delay between Woniya tapping and the helicopter coming for Jordan was probably the time needed to get his wife up there, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was at least one day of bad weather where the helicopter couldn't fly.

I thought that it was a satisfying end to the season but like many I was hoping that Woniya would beat the odds and be the one to outlast the guys. It wasn't that surprising to see Nathan's shelter burn. From previous episodes it appears that he used a tarp wrapped around a few tall poles and pine boughs insulating the bottom level. The pine boughs will dry out within a few weeks, especially the ones closest to the heat of the fire, and they will go up like a torch if they catch fire - exactly as shown. In hindsight he should have removed the bark from sapling and staked his bottom level, and then piled pine boughs outside of that for insulation. I do feel sorry for Woniya, I think that she went just as far as she could and she really didn't have any food source other than small game. Likely she knew that her situation was only going to get worse and I think that she made the right call. Jordan was doing well especially having got the moose, then the wolverine and then being able to supplement his diet with an occasional fish. The pike was a good size but there are a lot of bigger ones out there along with some really big lake trout. I am somewhat surprised that they didn't catch more fish actually. I can recall a few times fishing for trout when we weren't catching anything and we would just cruise the shore to any weeded area and there were always small to medium size pike. Congratulations to Jordan but I do think that he was optimistic thinking that he could have lasted until January 20th. I looked at the weather data for last year and it got seriously cold in late December/early January - into the -35C and even -40C on some of the overnights. Overall he deserved the win and he is the only one to get aq big game animal. Well done! I don't see any wrap-up episode, maybe we will be lucky and they will put something together. I would really like to hear more from the contestants and get their thoughts.

Since we didn't have an intro show hopefully we will have a wrap show and perhaps some of these questions will be answered. Here's an idea for the producers. Have an intro show with each participant introducing themselves, name, age, husband/wife/kids. Have them explain their game plan and how they are going to achieve it. What takes priority and why, what do they plan to make and in what order, and why? I would also like to see post tap out interviews with each one, maybe as part of the episode following their tap outs. What did you get right, what did you get wrong, and why with $500K on the line did you have to tap! What could you have done differently? For the wrap show, take the final three and go in-depth What went right, what went wrong, and how did you try to fix any mistakes you made, Also what were you feeling or thinking when this or that happened. Why did you do...? I'll start, Barry why did you go out on thin ice to the island where there was open water to get a drink when all you had to do was chop some ice and let it melt? SMH.

I hate to see anyone pulled for losing too much weight and I do feel sorry for Barry to have it end this way for him. IMO this is one of the faults of the show and I would like to see it as more of a bush craft skills, living by yourself with no contact with the outside world type competition but I do understand why the production company does it this way to make a 11 episode show (or 12 episode if we get a wrap show). If only they started the competition in June the contestants would have a chance to stockpile food, build better shelters (but would they) and we would see a different side of what it means to survive "Alone". Of course asking a contestant to be away for 6 months from family would probably result in fewer contestants. The pro would be more, and I think more interesting episodes, but the con would be higher costs for production. I'm also in the camp that would like to see Woniya win. A three squirrel day! It is interesting to see her living off squirrels and hares instead of larger animals and fish. Has she even caught any fish (or did she bring any line/lures or net/paracord? I still hold my breath when the guys go out onto the ice, especially Barry going over to the island to get to open water. Barry - ice is frozen water, you just have to melt it to drink it. Going through the ice would probably be survivable if you could get out right away and get into your shelter, but if you had to get back from the island first I would have my doubts. I am impressed with making a gill net out of paracord and it must have been cold going doing it all outside. Neat how he carved the net stringer out of wood first. I'm looking forward to seeing who finally wins and how long they last.

I think that we have two episodes left. I'm really interested to see who wins it this year, they have all done well in different ways. And I bet that @cooksdelight would last a lot longer than she thinks out there!

There is a definite risk of storing food in your shelter. Bears in particular are reputed to have the best sense of smell of all mammals. Dogs are 100-300% better than humans, black bears are 2100% better than humans. It's recommended that campers keep food at least 100 meters/yards away from their camp, usually high up in a tree to discourage predators. As for a wolverine, it's sense of smell may not be as good as a bear's but it wouldn't be too far behind. And wolverines have been known to take on bears in a fight (and win, or at least not lose). It is fairly common for bears to break into cabins in the north to go after food and they usually trash the inside of the cabin while looking for any food. None of the shelters would stand up to a determined bear or wolverine. Both animals would be able to smell meat buried underground, wolverines will actually store food under snow. If you notice the landscape it's mostly rock, there is very little soil so finding a spot to dig down to any reasonable depth (even if you had a shovel) would be difficult. Jordan probably thought that he did enough to protect the meat and even with his improved defenses it wouldn't surprise me if his anti-wolverine measures don't work and he loses the rest of his meat. Wolverines are smart! Bears and wolverines know that winter is coming and want to eat as much as possible right now! Free meals are hard to come by. Hopefully the campers are not on the menu.

Auntie, I think that you've been getting into the "magic" moss. Unfortunately for the campers it only became legal in Canada on Oct 18th so none of the participants could add the 30 gram personal limit as one of their survival items.

Jordan needs to work on his catwalk, far too much shoulder, pelvis forward, shoulders back, and work those hips! A shame about Nikki. I hate that it turns into a starvation challenge for most of them near the end. The only way around it would be to drop them in earlier in the season to allow them to stockpile food. At Great Slave Lake anyone with mediocre fishing skills should be able to stockpile a season's worth of food inside of a month, especially with a gill net. Barry seems to be doing okay mentally, having recovered from his early misplaced assumption that his wife would be out to see him last week. But I'm still not sold that he has the mental fortitude to make it especially when it turns cold. Woniya is doing great, two arctic hares! Any a very nice sleeping platform. I like how she continues to improve her shelter even though everyone must be thinking of the end game. Barry - do not walk on thin ice. Do not jump on thin ice. Do not throw boulders at thin ice trying to break it. Hint, under the thin ice is very cold water. Barry you can walk on water (when it's frozen), but the water under the ice is still liquid. Think drowning at worst, hypothermia almost a given if you fall through. I'm glad that we got the Halloween calendar marker at I think Day 52. I was assuming that they started 01SEP but it looks like they started 10SEP. Now that I know where they are on the calendar I've looked at the historical weather data and guess what? Well I won't give out any spoilers, suffice to say that it's the arctic (well sub-arctic actually) and in the fall it gets cold, and then colder, and then a little bit colder before it gets really really cold. Luckily our campers will have all tapped out by the time it gets really really cold. Can't wait to see how they handle the real cold when it comes. P.S. Barry - take your axe and chop a hold in the lake for water, or just ice as it has a lot more water per volume then snow.

I've done Atkins/low carb diets before and they do work for me. The problem is getting the proportions right to first lose and then maintain a lower weight. Unfortunately I love bread and chocolate! The body is designed to turn carbs and sugars into fat and when there is no intake the body uses the stored fat. Once most of the stored fat is used the body starts using muscle tissue and that will create problems. I think that most of the contestants generally know what will happen in this sort of environment and quite a few over the years have tried to bulk up before the challenge knowing that they will use up their fat stores.

I really don't think that they do that on this show, as shown by the number of medical tap outs we see. Now "Naked and Afraid" has a habit of the contestants finding food just before their extraction, and IIRC one couple was actually caught sneaking into production's camp and stealing food.

Yeah it is almost all rocky with just a few gravel or sand beaches. A lot of the drop off is very steep, down to a few hundred foot depth just yards from shore. There's a couple of shots of some of the cliffs in the area and you can imagine the sheer drop as the cliffs are 90 degree vertical. I think that a few of the locations selected for the contestants are places where the locals camp or where the trophy fishing camps have shore lunches which could explain a "found" frying pan. I believe that Jordan also mentioned finding an old lure that he cannibalized for parts. It's just a baby for that lake and they are quite often in the 15 - 30 lbs range or larger. Lake trout over 30 lbs are also quite common and it's one of the trophy fish that Great Slave Lake is known for along with arctic grayling. Northern pike are in almost all the northern lakes, both here and throughout northern Europe/Scandinavia. Just thought to add that for trophy fishing Great Slave Lake is catch & release. Because of the cold water the fish grow slowly but nothing really eats the big fish. I'd love to see their faces if they hooked a real big fish, or even caught one in a net. It could be a game changer.

Now it starts to get interesting. Who is in good enough physical and mental shape to go the distance? Barry's showing the strain. I'm not sure why he thought that this would be over in 40 days. I think that you have to prepare yourself mentally for it to go 90 days right from the start or else you are going to lose. Jordan needs to make a net like Barry did. Anyone who brought fishing line and paracord should have made themselves a net for when they catch a fish as it does you no good at all to catch fish if you can't land them. Most of what they are catching are in the 5 - 10 lb range and that can be a handful to pull up onto shore if you are a couple of feet above the water. I'm glad to see that someone finally rigged up a pole and "reel" for fishing, it's something that I would have tried to do right from the start and I would have like see a closeup of his "reel". This should make the fishing easier and he should be able to cover more area. I doubt that he will try fishing in more locations but everyone should be fishing the whole shoreline and marking out the best locations. Nathan catches another fish in his net, is that 3 or 4? I still think that he should be moving his net daily to different spots to see if any are better than his current location. He was amazed that he caught a northern pike! They should be everywhere in that lake, all you have to do to find pike is to find some weeds and you will find pike. Too bad about Michelle, she was having a hard time of it and I can see why she decided to tap out. It looks like fun and games ahead with another wolverine giving Jordan issues and the weather taking a turn for the worse. As mentioned earlier it's going to be interesting to see how the med checks, tap outs/rescues are handled once things freeze up. By my calculations they are in about mid-October so it's not really cold yet and the whole bay freezing up is pretty normal given a few days of below zero temperatures. I think that this is more of a tease but it will give those trying to live off fish something to think about. I'm looking forward to next week, it's still anyone's game but I think that Jordan and Woniya are still the favourites.