I Want To Be Alone: This Season vs Other Seasons

[dyna]

EACH contestant gets a belt knife (better take a kukri instead) a sleeping bag and a ferrorod, that does NOT count against the team's  10 items. They are also just given a 20x20 tarp, which season 3 guys (apparently, from the list published) did not get, which was a horrible handicap for season 3.  The guy having to find the other guy is in a WORLD of hurt if he doesn't do so on the first day, given only those 3 items and his clothing.

[dyna]

Assuming that you each  know to take a Cold Steel kukri, oilcloth and wool sleeping bag (so you can dry it out with hot rocks) and the biggest ferrorod available (those 3 things do not count vs the team's 10 picks)  Then the other 10 picks most likely to help you are: Cold steel's shovel, modified to have a REAL saw edge) a modified Leatherman Crunch multitool (with a Silky saw blade to be held in the visegrip) a 5 qt skillet and lid (Amazon) the 25 TREBLEHOOKS and 300 yds of line (90% of it to be the heaviest line possible) to be used on small log rafts, baited for gulls and ducks, with a 3 lb drowning rock tied about a foot from each hook.  Take a big roll of duct tape, one of Chief Aj's slingbows, with the 6 arrows,  4 of them to have  4-tined fishing heads, which can be converted to being 32 fishhooks)  one 5 lb ration of gorp, another of pemmican, a PARACORD gillnet and a PARACORD hammock. The last 2 are to be unraveled, the outer sheathing removed and the single strands woven into  400 ft of 6 ft wide, 3" mesh netting.  2 of you can get that done in a week and then it can be used to seal off an entire small cove, trapping every fish therein and easily feeding both of you for a week or more.

if you know to carbo load before you go, the 5 lbs of food will give you strength for a week. So, IF you get together soon, and IF the one staying with the gear gets busy finding water and making netting, you can be feeding yourselves just fine in a week. As you make 40 ft of such netting (each) per day, hang it as a gillnet, so that each day, you gather more and more fish.

[MostlyContent]

The food rations have been reduced to two pounds this year.  Not sure if that would change your choices.  :)

[simplyme]

Quick note that the sleeping bags are supposed to be synthetic:

"1 Multi-seasonal Sleeping Bag (should be a minimum of a -10 degrees Celsius rating and synthetic)"

[rmontro]

Here's a note for those following the Alone Time podcast.  Their show on last week's episode has finally been posted.  Took 'em long enough.

[Tighthead]

I wonder if the producers are regretting the 10 mile choice. Watching those guys bushwhack isn't just boring, I find it actually annoying. 

Will be interesting to see how they fare when they are together. The hiker will be exhausted and hungry. Pressure will be on the other one to have a camp and some food set up. 

[ramble]

I agree! The hikers are not something I'm enjoying watching, and the waiters are mostly being shown waiting, and talking about waiting. It's not too interesting either. This entire season isn't working for me yet. I'm trying to give it the benefit of the doubt until all the teams are together, but it just feels off at this point.

When the Southern brother waiter talked about missing his family and struggling, but knowing once his brother got there it would be better it drove the point home for me. It won't be internal speculation of making it alone or pondering life, it will be two people talking, pushing each other to go on or pulling the other out. I was immediately drawn in to the first season of Alone because of the alone aspect. The idea of facing all the perils of survival and facing it with very little human interaction was something different and often thought-provoking. So far this season is dragging and honestly pretty boring. It makes me strangely sad. 

[ProfCrash]

The Producers had to know that it was going to take forever and people were going to be struggling. They know the terrain and what it would do to people.

It is a stupid format, people at camp are not preparing the way they should be, the Dad is waiting for his son to get there to work on the shelter? What the? How stupid is that. You are at your strongest now, you should be building camp and doing the really hard stuff while you still have the most energy and residual benefit of food. So build your damn shelter.

Just not happy with the format. The hiking is boring and the people at the camp are boring.

[ClareWalks]

They really could have done with a much shorter hike, if they're insisting on this format. Ten miles is absurd. Five miles would have done just fine.

[cooksdelight]

I hope they are not already filming this concept for another season.

[simplyme]

I kind of like this as a one-off. I got a bit tired of seeing people sitting alone talking about how hungry they were and how much they missed their families. So far I've gotten to see more terrain and how different people handle it, which is interesting to me.

Granted, I'd like to see more from the campers setting up camp, but we're only like 9 days in. A lot of people hadn't made huge progress on a permanent shelter at that point last season. I'm going to see how it goes from here.

[SRTouch]

6 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

The Producers had to know that it was going to take forever and people were going to be struggling. They know the terrain and what it would do to people.

My guess is this season is all about reducing costs. No more exotic South American locale. Introduce the team and a 10 mike hike - through terrain where contestants are lucky to travel a mile a day. When the hike is finally completed, the the team will be trying to get enough food from the same area where single contestants were struggling to exist for two season. Maybe, just maybe, the remaining teams will all reunite, but then, at least judging from some of the previews, we'll be treated to teams bicker as they starve. I'm thinking it will really take something new for the season to last a month - like maybe someone actually having success hunting.

I'm with the others who have not been impressed so far this season. I'm finding the hike a major disappointment. In previous seasons one of the highlights, at least for me, was the beautiful scenery. Maybe the producers thought we'd get more of the Island beauty from the hikers, but so far the hikers camera work is more apt to cause motion sickness than exclamations of how beautiful things look. Not really blaming the hikers, they have more than enough on their plate just completing their hike without playing cameraman/director. Poor editors, they're having to watch hours and hours of this stuff, and if what we're seeing has us reaching for Dramamine, just think of the editors.

thoughts on this week's episode moved to Margins forum where it should have been posted 

Edited June 30, 2017 by SRTouch

[Whyyouneedaname]

so glad to finally see someone has made it to camp. I was getting tired of watching people hike thru that rough terrain. May have been the walking with the camera but it wasn't good for filming IMO. Anyway, hopefully we can see some of the team survival now. I do hope the guy with the back injury is okay, he looked like he was in intense pain. 

Edited June 30, 2017 by Whyyouneedaname

[rmontro]

14 hours ago, ramble said:

I agree! The hikers are not something I'm enjoying watching, and the waiters are mostly being shown waiting, and talking about waiting. It's not too interesting either. This entire season isn't working for me yet. I'm trying to give it the benefit of the doubt until all the teams are together, but it just feels off at this point.

Well, the waiters aren't just waiting, they're injuring themselves lol.  I agree the hiking isn't as interesting as I was hoping it would be, although it looks very difficult.

Hopefully things won't get worse now that the teams are starting to get together (like it suddenly becomes drama central).  I am interested in seeing how having two people affects the survival aspects though.  Will they be able to find more food together?  Or will they starve out that much quicker because they have to share the resources?

[roamyn]

You can't blame the producers that the waiters aren't doing anything (minus Brooke).

Yes, they can be blamed for casting the young kids who can't hack it, but why isn't anyone else working on their shelters or food sources (Shannon was working, too).  That's really on the contestants.

[mylesdogga]

What do you think about this idea?

It seems to me that everyone who's partner has tagged out so far has felt that they could have stayed and won the competition.

They're obviously the stronger of the pair, and the one who is more dedicated and fit for this task, so why not bring them back on their own to compete against one another!

[Canada]

I agree that some of these people should be allowed back again, if they want to compete again on their own.  Some of them were royally screwed by their partners!

[rainsmom]

It seems like, since this show is called "Alone," that if partners tap, the remaining person should have been left to compete ALONE -- maybe without the other person's items, if they tapped before they reunited. 

[humbleopinion]

Looking at the full cast think Brooke, Dave, Sam,Jesse, Jim would have made the cast in the old format...they have the enthusiasm for the adventure.

Borderline: Pete(too old), Ted( his determination is shaky)

Don't think the Wilkes brothers would have done the show unless it was the team concept, the bonding opportunity tipped them to leave their wives and kids.

[roamyn]

3 hours ago, humbleopinion said:

Looking at the full cast think Brooke, Dave, Sam,Jesse, Jim would have made the cast in the old format...they have the enthusiasm for the adventure.

Borderline: Pete(too old), Ted( his determination is shaky)

Don't think the Wilkes brothers would have done the show unless it was the team concept, the bonding opportunity tipped them to leave their wives and kids.

I think Shannon would've too.  

[qtpye]

So which one do you guys prefer:

• Allen pontificating about the heartbreak and joy of life. or
• The Baird brothers complaining about their big butts

[dustoffmom]

I'll take Allen every day of the week!  That's a no brainer here in my world.

[Canada]

Ugh, the big butt conversation was so ridiculous.  And then the argument over placement of the bait in the crab trap.  Is this the best we're going to get from them?  If so, they can stay off of my screen!  I can't believe how immature the pair of them are.

[ClareWalks]

I would seriously buy an audiobook of Alan reciting The Raven.

[simplyme]

I like big butts and I cannot lie...

...but I'm making an exception for the Baird brothers. They're big asses, all right, and it isn't attractive.

[qtpye]

Maybe we should call them the Big Butt Bros.  The only thing I like about them is

their hair.  I love different colors of red hair.  It looks like one is a strawberry blonde and the other is more russet colored.  Yes, I notice some stupid shit. 

[roamyn]

On 7/17/2017 at 2:19 PM, qtpye said:

So which one do you guys prefer:

• Allen pontificating about the heartbreak and joy of life. or
• The Baird brothers complaining about their big butts

I'll even take more of Jose's pig headedness (& big headedness), over the Butt Brothers.

Or Larry's ranting at mice.

[walnutqueen]

Uncensored fucking Larry rants?  I'd be SO in!  I'd want one for my outgoing phone  message. (Sorry, Alan - your soliloquies are a close second).

[dyna]

About the only thing that 2 lbs of rations (for 2 guys) is good for is bait for the fishhooks, on small log rafts, set for gulls and ducks. This season is going to be ridiculously short, under a month. It's obviously set up for married couples to win, since everyone else has to split the prize money, and a couple would be doing so anyway.  The thing to do is catch some fish and waterfowl, use their guts to bait 1 or more  bears within  10m of a tree platorm/blind, about  20 ft up, and arrow them.  But first you have to spend several days, constantly boiling off seawater, so you'll have the several lbs of salt needed to assure that your smoke/curing is safely preserving tht  100+ lbs of fatty bear meat.

Edited July 24, 2017 by dyna

[ProfCrash]

No one out there is hunting a bear. While they have been spotted by many a contestant, spotting one and killing one is a totally different thing. You need to have a bow and be a damn good shot and have a safe place to be taking that shot from. You have to have the ability to preserve the meat and a place to store what you have preserved. You would need much more then several pounds of  salt to preserve a bear, try hundreds of pounds. That box of salt you can buy at the grocery store? That is four pounds. And you try to boil off enough water to get to that amount of salt. And you have to be able to do something about all the predators that are going to be attracted to the smell of blood and guts.

The folks out there are going to survive on edible plants, ducks, shell fish and fish.

I don't think that the Brooke and Dave are at an advantage because they are married and will share the money. $250,000 is a lot of money and would help the vast majority of these folks families enormously. Hell, it would help my family a lot and we are in a pretty darn good place financially right now. I couldn't last more then a day out there so I would never apply but $250,000 is a lot of cash.

[stane]

after season two, the bear canister was no longer an option. No gear lists were posted for seasons 5 or 6. The gillnet was cut from 150 sq ft to 50 sq ft and mesh size was reduced from 2" to 1.5".  The ration size was cut from 5 lbs to 2 lbs, too. They keep making it harder, cause they want the show to be OVER with in 2 months and never last 3 months.