S08.E02: Open Season

[ProfCrash]

S08 E02 · Open Season

Jun 10, 2021

New

More participants begin their fight against the land's harsh conditions and its abundant grizzly population; one survivalist builds a unique shelter, while another tests their might against the treacherous waters of Chilko Lake.

[ProfCrash]

Going stream of consciousness tonight. 

LOL “I can feel the judgement coming from the internet.” I like her PhD focusing on the use of Stone Age tools. She is different and could be fun to watch. I am loving watching her build the pit house. But my god the calories it took. 

Loving all the insect eating. Grubs, ants, crickets. 

The Bears are freaking me out. So many Bears, it seems like everyone is running into Bears. 

I laughed when the dude was drinking from the stream and the safety warning came up. 

Oh my god, another person without a farro rod. At least he has a decent explanation, he sucks with a farro rod.

And a boat that took a day to build instead of the entire time the salmon were running!

Loving seeing the fishing.

I like this group. None of them stand out as annoying or show boating and they seem to be qualified. Excellent

[GreyBunny]

I loved this, a much more capable group! I like the pit house but I was worried at first how far she was from the beach or where the water table was, thinking back to Rupert’s disaster from Survivor. She seems to actually know what she’s doing and got a great start. Props for her tenacity, I quickly get annoyed just digging holes for my garden plants.
 

5 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

Oh my god, another person without a farro rod. At least he has a decent explanation, he sucks with a farro rod.

I thought that was amusing and he’s actually good with the bow drill.

[Melina22]

Wow, these people are amazing. So resourceful, tough and skilled, all in different ways. 

I really like the two women we met here. When they first introduced the British woman, I didn't think much of her chances, but was I wrong. I couldn't believe that she dug an entire pit house with a stick! And then the shot of her carrying the log on her shoulders then somehow anchoring it in her house! 

I really like Michelle, but I worry that weight loss might take her out. She has so little weight to lose. 

7 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

The Bears are freaking me out. So many Bears, it seems like everyone is running into Bears. 

Yes!! Are these people even human? How are they not running and crying and hitting the buzzer when confronted with grizzlies? Especially when it's the middle of the night, they're lying exposed in little tarp houses, and they're all alone without a gun. They seem at worst mildly concerned. 

I still can't figure out why the show runners weren't afraid of losing contestants to bears. One death and the whole series is over forever. I still feel like there must be precautions we aren't seeing. 

Next to the bears, I cringe the most watching people going out in the choppy, freezing water in rickety, tippy boats. So dangerous. 

I love watching Alone, but whenever we're out walking in the woods here, I look around and know for certain that I couldn't survive one night alone there, let alone weeks. I'm in awe of the mental and physical strength and resourcefulness of these people. 

[LennieBriscoe]

I thought for sure that boat would capsize because...drama! But it stayed afloat! Now we will be treated to some fishing scenes! 

And seeing that trout caught with the net was cool!

But grizzly bears near the shelters, grubs and insects as food, and inspecting "scat" with worms---Aaaaack!

Dr. Stone-Age sure found the perfect showcase for her life-long acquired knowledge and skills! She truly walks the walk! 

Guy with five kids? I don't  see him lasting, double Middle East deployments notwithstanding.

Next week: "I think I poisoned myself." I'll bet she did, too. Might be our next Tapper. 

Random idea for a new show as we were informed of all the calories and weight lost: "Alone: 600-Pounds."

[ProfCrash]

3 hours ago, GreyBunny said:

I loved this, a much more capable group! I like the pit house but I was worried at first how far she was from the beach or where the water table was, thinking back to Rupert’s disaster from Survivor. She seems to actually know what she’s doing and got a great start. Props for her tenacity, I quickly get annoyed just digging holes for my garden plants.
 

I thought that was amusing and he’s actually good with the bow drill.

He was good with the bow drill, so was Hippie Dude. But it takes longer to start a fire using the method and it is more hit and miss then the ferro rod. It will also burn more calories to start the fire, which is less important now but will look different in a month. Imagine being cold and tired and knowing that you have to get up and take 30 minutes to start a fire as opposed to 5 minutes.

I also think that the drill method requires that the materials are pretty dry, so that they generate friction and can hold the embers. I am not certain how easy it will be to keep the materials for the drill to stay dry enough. If the fire goes out and water collects on the bow drill, it is going to make the process harder.

I just think that it is an interesting choice that has traditionally bit contestants in the ass. I understand their logic, we just have not seen any contestant who has tried to win without a ferro rod get all that far.

We also have never seen a pit house before so that should be interesting. I also thought of Rupert's disaster but I think she has a far better understanding of the process and location selection. She was digging into dirt and not sand so I suspect that she is far enough back but we shall see. I am going to be curious to see what she does for a fire pit. I am not sure that what she did was any more labor intensive then building the log cabins that other people have done.

[Melina22]

1 hour ago, ProfCrash said:

I understand their logic, we just have not seen any contestant who has tried to win without a ferro rod get all that far.

I agree with your reasoning, but didn't we lose a couple of people after they lost their ferro rods? 

I thought the pit house looked ingenious. I just wonder how they fare in torrential rain? Isn't she the one who said she lived for several YEARS in a primitive house? 

[ProfCrash]

2 minutes ago, Melina22 said:

I agree with your reasoning, but didn't we lose a couple of people after they lost their ferro rods? 

I thought the pit house looked ingenious. I just wonder how they fare in torrential rain? Isn't she the one who said she lived for several YEARS in a primitive house? 

Hippie Man was the dude who lived in a primitive hut for 8 years but that was on a tropical island.

Several people tapped out after losing their ferro rod but I seem to remember at least one contestant who choose not to bring a ferro rod and ended up tapping early because of issues with fire. I could be wrong, I don't rewatch so there are somethings that are more vague memories and potentially wrong.

[Melina22]

22 minutes ago, ProfCrash said:

Hippie Man was the dude who lived in a primitive hut for 8 years but that was on a tropical island.

True, but definitely one of the women did too. She said it really fast so it was easy to miss. I think it was the British woman. Why can't I remember anyone's name? It looked like she basically lived in a dugout. But it flashed by so fast I got zero details, and I'm too lazy to go back and try to find it. Still, I got enough info to realize both women are way tougher and more serious about wilderness living than I initially thought. 

[ProfCrash]

5 minutes ago, Melina22 said:

True, but definitely one of the women did too. She said it really fast so it was easy to miss. I think it was the British woman. Why can't I remember anyone's name? It looked like she basically lived in a dugout. But it flashed by so fast I got zero details, and I'm too lazy to go back and try to find it. Still, I got enough info to realize both women are way tougher and more serious about wilderness living than I initially thought. 

I missed that. Stone Age tool women would make a certain amount of sense but they didn't show pictures of her house and there were a tone of shots of her hiding things, working with stone age type tools and the like. I would have thought that they would show a picture of the house. The other woman maybe? She said she taught classes on surviving and the like to high school kids.

[OoogleEyes]

Who knew that you could get a PhD in prehistoric animal skin processing and...technology?

I am really enjoying Theresa and yes, I am judging you being awesome!

I think that Nate never shaved after leaving the military. 

Tippy canoe and Colter too!

This appears to be a pretty skilled group, and I am looking forward to the season. 

[ProfCrash]

9 minutes ago, OoogleEyes said:

Who knew that you could get a PhD in prehistoric animal skin processing and...technology?

I am really enjoying Theresa and yes, I am judging you being awesome!

I think that Nate never shaved after leaving the military. 

Tippy canoe and Colter too!

This appears to be a pretty skilled group, and I am looking forward to the season. 

I have not looked it up but I would guess her degree is in History, Anthropology, or Archeology and her specialization is Stone Age tool usage.

[humbleopinion]

Randy Champagne’s ferro rod rolled into a fire and burned up, another was lost to the tide when Joe Robinet on Day 3  set it on a log at the beach  without a bright piece of paracord tied on it to make it standout among the pebbles

Colter made the calculated risk to have an additional tarp to make his boat in need of an outrigger instead of a fire starter. His mom, a super fan begged him to take a ferro rod but her boy is stubborn.
Maybe Colter could have started a fire in case his boat sank he managed to swim to the shore wet and freezing cold… but it was all or nothing with him….

Theresa, the Stone Age expert is using the show to put a spotlight on her life’s work. She is the anthesis to Rose.
Michelle, who had the bear swimming at her is a primitive expert and teacher. Thin and petite.

Jordon is a carpenter by trade caught 2 miles from his camp as the waves crashed against the shore needs to build a pier to improve his fishing prospects.

Nate caught a nice fish with his trotline….he was looking wane….

Nate has a wife and 5 kids waiting at home for him to win and other than Biko, whose gf is expecting twins and is a man who seems to thrive on attention may be affected the most by the loneliness and time away from them.

Edited June 12, 2021 by humbleopinion

[HurricaneVal]

It is interesting to me to see how Production chose to split up the "groups" of castaways into their episodes.  We've seen them all now, and it looks to me like they put the kookier ones in the first group, and more serious or thoughtful contenders in the second group. 

I've also done something I rarely do for these shows:  I've actually read the online bios.  (Thank you to whoever linked to them in the first episode thread.)  The bios give a lot more context to the assumptions we make based on what we see and hear in the footage. 

For instance, when Matt said he lived in a primitive house for 8 years, we (myself included) scoffed that was on a beautiful Caribbean island, so how hard could that be?  When actually he did that in the Pine Barrows of New Jersey where presumably the conditions were a bit harsher.  Not Arctic harsh, but not Margaritaville either.

Michelle was the one who lived for a time in a primitive semi-subterranean dwelling, not Theresa who we would assume to be the one.  Though I believe I also heard Theresa mention she had experience with them.  Theresa is an interesting woman.  Lots of experience in olde tyme tanning techniques, starting from an extremely early age, and one of her degrees is in "Experimental Archeology" which seems to uniquely suit her for this challenge.  She seems to have the primitive "Home Ec" type living skills necessary for this survival, but her bio is very shy on describing any actual hunting experience or passion, so I'm thinking she's going to get hungry.

My perusal of the bios has now confirmed my original opinion of Tim as a "Cabelas Hobbiest Survivalist" so he was never a contender for the long haul.  Ditto for Rose.  Nate is a bad-ass with a Navy and then seriously bad-ass Army career.  Ironically, he got extensive EMT and cardiovascular medicine training from the Navy, so he might have been able to help Tim.  (Eh, never mind, Tim needed to tap.  He was never going to go all the way.)  Nate impresses me, but then this line from his bio gives me concern: "In joining the show, Nate hopes to perfect his own survival skills and to learn more about what makes him tick."  The former gives me questions about his readiness, but the latter gives me dread.  It seems those castaways who think they can use this show as their personal vision quest go off the rails.

Biko is a whackaloon.  Apparently he LARPs (live action role plays) and thinks that prepares him for this.  From his bio: "Biko loves the Norse gods and following in the old heathen ways. He spars with sword, axe and shield with like-minded friends, and loves building, welding, and forging with his own hands."  So.....being on this show fulfills his Viking warrior fantasy?  AWK-ward.  His fiance is also expecting twins, so I figure he'll be annoying for a while, get weepy, and tap out.

[ProfCrash]

20 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

It is interesting to me to see how Production chose to split up the "groups" of castaways into their episodes.  We've seen them all now, and it looks to me like they put the kookier ones in the first group, and more serious or thoughtful contenders in the second group. 

I've also done something I rarely do for these shows:  I've actually read the online bios.  (Thank you to whoever linked to them in the first episode thread.)  The bios give a lot more context to the assumptions we make based on what we see and hear in the footage. 

For instance, when Matt said he lived in a primitive house for 8 years, we (myself included) scoffed that was on a beautiful Caribbean island, so how hard could that be?  When actually he did that in the Pine Barrows of New Jersey where presumably the conditions were a bit harsher.  Not Arctic harsh, but not Margaritaville either.

Michelle was the one who lived for a time in a primitive semi-subterranean dwelling, not Theresa who we would assume to be the one.  Though I believe I also heard Theresa mention she had experience with them.  Theresa is an interesting woman.  Lots of experience in olde tyme tanning techniques, starting from an extremely early age, and one of her degrees is in "Experimental Archeology" which seems to uniquely suit her for this challenge.  She seems to have the primitive "Home Ec" type living skills necessary for this survival, but her bio is very shy on describing any actual hunting experience or passion, so I'm thinking she's going to get hungry.

My perusal of the bios has now confirmed my original opinion of Tim as a "Cabelas Hobbiest Survivalist" so he was never a contender for the long haul.  Ditto for Rose.  Nate is a bad-ass with a Navy and then seriously bad-ass Army career.  Ironically, he got extensive EMT and cardiovascular medicine training from the Navy, so he might have been able to help Tim.  (Eh, never mind, Tim needed to tap.  He was never going to go all the way.)  Nate impresses me, but then this line from his bio gives me concern: "In joining the show, Nate hopes to perfect his own survival skills and to learn more about what makes him tick."  The former gives me questions about his readiness, but the latter gives me dread.  It seems those castaways who think they can use this show as their personal vision quest go off the rails.

Biko is a whackaloon.  Apparently he LARPs (live action role plays) and thinks that prepares him for this.  From his bio: "Biko loves the Norse gods and following in the old heathen ways. He spars with sword, axe and shield with like-minded friends, and loves building, welding, and forging with his own hands."  So.....being on this show fulfills his Viking warrior fantasy?  AWK-ward.  His fiance is also expecting twins, so I figure he'll be annoying for a while, get weepy, and tap out.

Thanks! Good to know about Matt nut NJ is still different then further North climates. Better prep then I had thought though.

hhehehe on the Cabelas Hobbiest Survivalist, that seems to fit. Rose strikes me as worse because she appears to be a big game hunter survivalist wanna be. I can see Tim wanting to test his hobbiest skills but Rose seems to be more interested in glamping and killing things while claiming to be a survivalist.

ummm LARPing might be fun for folks but has not a damn thing to do with survival. At least Theresa is honest that she has an academic background and is interested to see how that plays out in this environment. I am curious as to her hunting/fishing/food gathering background. we saw a lot of images of her tanning and using primitive tools to skin and prep food, I assume that she caught that food but we did not see her hunting or trapping anything. Either way, we saw that she had skills that I can see transferring, all we saw of Biko was playing loud music. At least, that is what stood out to me.

[qtpye]

2 hours ago, OoogleEyes said:

Who knew that you could get a PhD in prehistoric animal skin processing and...technology?

I am really enjoying Theresa and yes, I am judging you being awesome!

I think that Nate never shaved after leaving the military. 

Tippy canoe and Colter too!

This appears to be a pretty skilled group, and I am looking forward to the season. 

 

1 hour ago, ProfCrash said:

I have not looked it up but I would guess her degree is in History, Anthropology, or Archeology and her specialization is Stone Age tool usage.

 

40 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

It is interesting to me to see how Production chose to split up the "groups" of castaways into their episodes.  We've seen them all now, and it looks to me like they put the kookier ones in the first group, and more serious or thoughtful contenders in the second group. 

I've also done something I rarely do for these shows:  I've actually read the online bios.  (Thank you to whoever linked to them in the first episode thread.)  The bios give a lot more context to the assumptions we make based on what we see and hear in the footage. 

For instance, when Matt said he lived in a primitive house for 8 years, we (myself included) scoffed that was on a beautiful Caribbean island, so how hard could that be?  When actually he did that in the Pine Barrows of New Jersey where presumably the conditions were a bit harsher.  Not Arctic harsh, but not Margaritaville either.

Michelle was the one who lived for a time in a primitive semi-subterranean dwelling, not Theresa who we would assume to be the one.  Though I believe I also heard Theresa mention she had experience with them.  Theresa is an interesting woman.  Lots of experience in olde tyme tanning techniques, starting from an extremely early age, and one of her degrees is in "Experimental Archeology" which seems to uniquely suit her for this challenge.  She seems to have the primitive "Home Ec" type living skills necessary for this survival, but her bio is very shy on describing any actual hunting experience or passion, so I'm thinking she's going to get hungry.

My perusal of the bios has now confirmed my original opinion of Tim as a "Cabelas Hobbiest Survivalist" so he was never a contender for the long haul.  Ditto for Rose.  Nate is a bad-ass with a Navy and then seriously bad-ass Army career.  Ironically, he got extensive EMT and cardiovascular medicine training from the Navy, so he might have been able to help Tim.  (Eh, never mind, Tim needed to tap.  He was never going to go all the way.)  Nate impresses me, but then this line from his bio gives me concern: "In joining the show, Nate hopes to perfect his own survival skills and to learn more about what makes him tick."  The former gives me questions about his readiness, but the latter gives me dread.  It seems those castaways who think they can use this show as their personal vision quest go off the rails.

Biko is a whackaloon.  Apparently he LARPs (live action role plays) and thinks that prepares him for this.  From his bio: "Biko loves the Norse gods and following in the old heathen ways. He spars with sword, axe and shield with like-minded friends, and loves building, welding, and forging with his own hands."  So.....being on this show fulfills his Viking warrior fantasy?  AWK-ward.  His fiance is also expecting twins, so I figure he'll be annoying for a while, get weepy, and tap out.

Thank you for posting this.

I knew I heard the hippy guy say he lived many years in a winter climate but I thought I heard wrong when everyone was commenting about the Virgin Islands, which is where he lives currently.

Theresa is very exciting to me as it is very interesting to see how an Academic handles this challenge. Her pit house is the first of its kind on the show.

I was so impressed with all the people on the list...until I got to Biko.

It is like saying that I have the ability to be a great warrior because I played Legend of Zelda or Skyrim. 

Does anyone know why they did away with the million-dollar prize for those who can go past 100 days?  

I imagine they thought that it would take many seasons for anyone to go that long and then Roland won it all last season.

 

[Quilt Fairy]

This is definitely a more appealing group of contestants than we saw last week, with potentially the skills to go all the way. 

Did anyone else notice that Theresa went from American accent to English accent to Irish accent, sometimes within the same conversation?  That was weird.  Her pit house looked amazing when it was up, but I couldn't help but think about all the calories it took, and we didn't see her getting food in any fashion while she was building it. 

[ProfCrash]

Just now, Quilt Fairy said:

This is definitely a more appealing group of contestants than we saw last week, with potentially the skills to go all the way. 

Did anyone else notice that Theresa went from American accent to English accent to Irish accent, sometimes within the same conversation?  That was weird.  Her pit house looked amazing when it was up, but I couldn't help but think about all the calories it took, and we didn't see her getting food in any fashion while she was building it. 

She did say that she was born in the US and lived her for a significant amount of time. I would guess that she has spent a good amount of time in Ireland or with Irish academics as well as with British Academics based on her area of study and has adopted some of their language patterns. It is kind of like the Italians I lived with. they spoke English with a British accent, because there are a lot of British English teachers in Italy, but some words have a very American accent because they learned it through our TV or movies or talking to Americans. I fluid accent was weird but cool at the same time.

[humbleopinion]

 

2 minutes ago, Quilt Fairy said:

Theresa…Her pit house looked amazing when it was up, but I couldn't help but think about all the calories it took, and we didn't see her getting food in any fashion while she was building it. 

Theresa had a food ration as one of her ten items so perhaps that was the food for her days digging…

Glad to see foraging…

Nate and his Bolete mushrooms…nice side dish with his trout….

Michelle harvested the bunch of wild onions and picked rose hips….her shelter is twice as big as Nate’s who is twice the size of Michelle.

[rmontro]

3 hours ago, Melina22 said:

I thought the pit house looked ingenious. I just wonder how they fare in torrential rain?

I kept thinking we might finally have our first female winner this year.  Theresa's pit house was really sharp, it makes sense that it would retain the heat better.  I think she's the one who is worried about poisoning herself though?  It would be a shame to lose her like that before seeing what she could do.  Michelle is also well skilled and she's so small, her caloric needs shouldn't be too great.  That could be a huge advantage for her.

Colter was talking about how if his boat failed it might cost him the $500k.  I was thinking it might cost him his life.  If it capsizes out in the middle of the lake in the colder weather, he's dead.

How can you be so bad at a ferro rod but so good with a bow drill?  Because he is good with a bow drill, no matter what he says.  He got fire three out of four days, I've seen experts on these show do much worse than that.

[ProfCrash]

I wonder Colton will add outriggers to the boat, that would help with the balance, right? He got the boat together pretty quickly and i am not sure that the outriggers would need to be be water proofed or just sort of add ons that will help with the wobble.

[rmontro]

58 minutes ago, ProfCrash said:

I wonder Colton will add outriggers to the boat, that would help with the balance, right?

He said he was going to add outriggers.  It would be really interesting to see someone who actually makes the boat approach work, and get extensive use out of it.

He said his strategy was to put his energy into the boat, but that he had never built a boat before.  You'd think that if was betting so much on his boat, he would have practiced making one ahead of time.  Maybe they only get short notice when they're accepted onto the show though.  I know they have a training boot camp.  I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted to give away his strategy there.  

[ProfCrash]

I guess I need to listen better because I missed a few things. hehehe

For someone who never built a boat before, he seemed to do a bang up job. It works and it didn't take weeks of work, unlike the last big boat build attempt.

[Jeanne222]

I love this show and it creeps up on me Thursday evenings as a wonderful surprise.

One of my granddaughters recently received her Bachelors in Sustainable Living.  She did her internship in Hawaii sleeping in a hammock in a tree.  Quite interesting. 

I am amazed at what they can do.  Eating bugs, going through bear scat and watching fish being cleaned is not my thing but I'm sure other naturalists love watching all of that. 

I'm thinking fire might not be a problem once they get their fire pits going in their shelters.  Don't they keep it going all the time?

That handmade boat scares me.  The water is freezing and no life vest.  That's almost like a death wish.  Surprised they are letting him do that.

[madmax]

Theresa's pit house was awesome!  And she did that in just a couple days!  I just hope she can get some hunting and fishing done.

Colton, I think, was the one who said he lived alone for a long period, in addition to being the only person living on an Alaskan island.  He has potential.

The others seemed good.  But there's still too many for me to remember their names.  I'll get there...

I wonder why they don't set up snares, traps, fishing lines almost as soon as they get there.  All the time they're building their shelters, they can be passively trying for food.  Maybe they do and they don't show it?

[rmontro]

43 minutes ago, madmax said:

I wonder why they don't set up snares, traps, fishing lines almost as soon as they get there.  All the time they're building their shelters, they can be passively trying for food.  Maybe they do and they don't show it?

It's hard to believe, but food is actually fairly low on the survival hierarchy of priorities.  Short term, at least.

[ProfCrash]

23 minutes ago, rmontro said:

It's hard to believe, but food is actually fairly low on the survival hierarchy of priorities.  Short term, at least.

We saw one of the guys set up a fishing line with a plan to check it after he worked on his shelter. I suspect that there is more of that happening then we see. They tend to focus on shelter for the first show or two because it is the big thing that the contestants focus on.  This year is interesting because there seem to be a bunch of different approaches to shelter. 

[Blackie]

It seemed like the storm only came to Jordan's part of the lake. And then when he was talking about getting away from the beach and the lake, I thought they were fore shadowing the flooding of the pit house. I hope not , Theresa is really interesting (and was wearing mascara the first day??)

 

4 hours ago, Jeanne222 said:

The water is freezing and no life vest.

 

I'm surprised the show allows it!! If you want to build a boat you should have to bring a PFD as one of your items,

 

8 hours ago, humbleopinion said:

Theresa had a food ration as one of her ten items so perhaps that was the food for her days digging…

 

 

Do they show the lists on the website? or did she say that.

[humbleopinion]

7 minutes ago, Blackie said:

Do they show the lists on the website? or did she say that.

History channel Alone show website.

Theresa goes through her 10 items, she calls the food item her emergency ration.

[GreyBunny]

13 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

He was good with the bow drill, so was Hippie Dude. But it takes longer to start a fire using the method and it is more hit and miss then the ferro rod. It will also burn more calories to start the fire, which is less important now but will look different in a month. Imagine being cold and tired and knowing that you have to get up and take 30 minutes to start a fire as opposed to 5 minutes.

I also think that the drill method requires that the materials are pretty dry, so that they generate friction and can hold the embers. I am not certain how easy it will be to keep the materials for the drill to stay dry enough. If the fire goes out and water collects on the bow drill, it is going to make the process harder.

I just think that it is an interesting choice that has traditionally bit contestants in the ass. I understand their logic, we just have not seen any contestant who has tried to win without a ferro rod get all that far.

We also have never seen a pit house before so that should be interesting. I also thought of Rupert's disaster but I think she has a far better understanding of the process and location selection. She was digging into dirt and not sand so I suspect that she is far enough back but we shall see. I am going to be curious to see what she does for a fire pit. I am not sure that what she did was any more labor intensive then building the log cabins that other people have done.

I think he’ll be all right. It may expend more calories, but past contestants have freaked out and tapped when they lost or destroyed their ferro rods, he’s not at risk for that, plus he can keep his bow drill and a supply of tinder in his shelter to keep it dry. 
 

As for the boat, my first thought was that it needs an outrigger and fortunately he figured that out right away. Once he has that he’ll be good to go. A spare paddle couldn’t hurt either. I was concerned that it looked like he beached it tarp-side down. I’d flip it and prop it up someplace to protect the tarp.

[madmax]

2 hours ago, rmontro said:

It's hard to believe, but food is actually fairly low on the survival hierarchy of priorities.  Short term, at least.

I can believe that, but taking an hour or so to set up passive food traps would seem a good use of time.  Even if they didn't work, it didn't cost much in terms of time or calories.  And if it did work, bonus!

[diebartdie]

17 hours ago, Jeanne222 said:

That handmade boat scares me.  The water is freezing and no life vest.  That's almost like a death wish.  Surprised they are letting him do that.

They are not letting him or anyone else do that. All contestants are required to wear the provided emergency flotation device (life vest when they do things like go out on a weird boat like that. The only one I can remember not doing that was Mitch back in season 1, but that was season 1 and many lessons were learned) and carry the emergency phone (at all times). https://elementbushcraft.com/alone-survival-gear-list-and-prohibited-items/

[mlp]

17 hours ago, GreyBunny said:

I was concerned that it looked like he beached it tarp-side down. I’d flip it and prop it up someplace to protect the tarp.

I was concerned that he left it so close to the water's edge.  I know lakes don't really have tides but it wouldn't take much for that wind to wash enough water onshore to start it floating.  I'd hate for him to come back the next morning and see his boat in the middle of the lake and out of reach or just gone.

[jackjill89]

Theresa's pit house is interesting... it's so close to the water though. I'll be interested to see how it works out. 

I was irritated by her fluctuating accent. 

[TVbitch]

Some impressive contenders, so far! The women came in pretty lean. I hope that does not cost them. So one lady's Irish accent comes and goes, and one of the guys just likes to talk to himself occasionally in an Irish accent. --You are making it even harder for me to remember who's who, people!

Does anyone have a little crib sheet they'd care to share? Here's all I have been able to retain so far: 

Theresa - Stone age tools expert

Nate - ex-military

Colton - Alaskan island dweller with superfan mom

[AZChristian]

11 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

Does anyone have a little crib sheet they'd care to share? Here's all I have been able to retain so far: 

Theresa - Stone age tools expert

Nate - ex-military

Colton - Alaskan island dweller with superfan mom

There's more info here.

(I'm 74; I can't remember what I had for breakfast.  LOL.)

[iMonrey]

This batch of contestants certainly did seem more capable than the first. The thing is . . . historically, the winner has always appeared in the very first episode. And last season I knew Roland was the winner by the second episode, because he was the only one featured in both of the first two. At least nobody was featured in both the first two this season. Maybe the show has gotten the message about their telegraphing formula.

Whichever one had the impressive military career (Nate?) said they were mentally prepared to be away from their family because of long stretches away. The difference is that he's not alone when he's away on tour. Big difference.

I don't have a lot of faith that any of the women can go far this season.

[Melina22]

18 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I don't have a lot of faith that any of the women can go far this season

Injuries or too much weight loss seem to do them in. Or have so far. The first is something that also affects lots of the men. The second, while being an issue for everyone, seems a bigger issue for the women, who go in smaller. I wonder if the different muscle/fat ratio of women vs men is also an issue that affects weight loss? (I'm just thinking out loud here. I have no actual data to back me up. I'm just wondering why we haven't had a female winner yet, given that we've had lots of outstanding female contestants.) 

[ProfCrash]

I believe two women finished second. One was pulled by production for health reasons. The other pulled herself for frostbite last year. 

[Quilt Fairy]

22 hours ago, iMonrey said:

The thing is . . . historically, the winner has always appeared in the very first episode.

Even in the most recent seasons?  Because IIRC it's only been in the last few seasons that they actively split the contestants into groups (for the purpose of editing the episodes, not the competition). In the beginning, they never went back in time and always edited the story so that time was always going forward.  

Anyhow, I hope that's not true because I like the 2nd group of people much better than the first, and they also seem overall more likely to go the distance. 

[ChristmasJones]

I am so happy this show is back!!! 

Are the producers and contestants certain that a grizzly would always be repelled by bear spray?  I can't imagine how scary it would have been to see the bear swimming into shore while you are getting caught up in the bushes.  I wonder what the clause looks like that says you cannot sue the show if you die while on it.  I wonder if the families talk about that before they go.  I also wonder if maybe the crew watches their GPS tracking device and if they notice an unusually long period of no activity (aside from their normal sleeping habits), they would go out and check on them. 

 

[ProfCrash]

I thought I had read that the Production staff is monitoring their GPS devices to make sure that people are active and that there are times that the contestants have to check in. 

[rmontro]

On 6/17/2021 at 3:47 PM, ProfCrash said:

I believe two women finished second.

Wasn't there a recent season (might have been last year) where two of the final three were women?  I'd say they have a chance.

[dranelittle]

On 6/11/2021 at 8:18 AM, ProfCrash said:

He was good with the bow drill, so was Hippie Dude. But it takes longer to start a fire using the method and it is more hit and miss then the ferro rod. It will also burn more calories to start the fire, which is less important now but will look different in a month. Imagine being cold and tired and knowing that you have to get up and take 30 minutes to start a fire as opposed to 5 minutes.

I also think that the drill method requires that the materials are pretty dry, so that they generate friction and can hold the embers. I am not certain how easy it will be to keep the materials for the drill to stay dry enough. If the fire goes out and water collects on the bow drill, it is going to make the process harder.

I just think that it is an interesting choice that has traditionally bit contestants in the ass. I understand their logic, we just have not seen any contestant who has tried to win without a ferro rod get all that far.

We also have never seen a pit house before so that should be interesting. I also thought of Rupert's disaster but I think she has a far better understanding of the process and location selection. She was digging into dirt and not sand so I suspect that she is far enough back but we shall see. I am going to be curious to see what she does for a fire pit. I am not sure that what she did was any more labor intensive then building the log cabins that other people have done.

you can start a fire by fire rolling a strip of your shemagh. Then bury your coals in the ashes to keep the fire "alive" for 12 plus hours,  youll only need to start ONE fire from scratch.  Once you have one fire, you can have charred punkwood and ashed tinder, which let you start fires easily, with just a shard, sharp rock and the carbon steel blade of your multitools knife.  You can make a big pump drill, which always give you friction fire, and does so easily. so the ferrorod is a completely wasted pick, IF you know anything. When you know to take the tarp and the duct tape, it's very easy to make dry bags for food storage, or for storing tinder and fire making tools, pine resin, birch or cedar bark, tinder fungus, fatwood. The duct tape easily ignites, too, if you make little "nest" out of narrow strips of tape. A small roll of tape will ignite a small pile of damp sticks, too

Edited January 29, 2022 by dranelittle