For our members not familiar with it the TV show Alone is a survival show.  Ten contestants are chosen for their bush skills. They get to pick ten survival items then are dumped at a beautiful but challenging location alone.  The last man or woman standing wins the prize, usually half a million dollars but sometimes a million.
     The locations are always in areas where it gets cold.  The contestants are dropped off in the Fall and have to endure as Winter encroaches.  Consequently it becomes a starve-a-thon. The contest can last ninety days or more.
      I'm just about done watching the entire series again and there's something I don't understand.  I don't recall anyone attempting to make wine.  Why wouldn't you make wine?  It's easy enough to do and would give you at least some sort of nutrition once Winter hits.  Contestants are allowed to use any trash they find.  So find some old bottles or jugs, mash up your berries and/or fruit, bottle the juice, and put the bladder of whatever sort of animal you can kill over the top of the bottle to allow for expansion as the yeast works.  In a couple of weeks you have crude wine.  It could mean the difference between winning and losing.
     Also I don't recall anyone processing acorns.  Acorns don't hide, run away, or attack you if you miss your shot.  You don't have to go tromping through the woods all day hoping to find them.  They are right there, easy to gather and relatively easy to process.  Cut them in half, peel them, and boil them from four to ten times depending on the variety of acorn to remove the tannins.  Then you can either dry them and make flour or leave them halved and bake them.  Now you've got a lasting food source.  As long as you keep it dry it shouldn't spoil.  Yet no one has done this. 
     These contestants are experts with mad bush skills.  I can't comprehend why they wouldn't make wine or process acorns.

Also, they're not alone, since there is a camera crew with them.

slingbadger wrote on Sep 12^th, 2024 at 6:21am:


   The contestants aren't 100% alone but they just about are.  They are given cameras to video themselves and also an emergency radio to tap out with.  Their only human contact is when the crew stops by to bring fresh batteries for the cameras and to give them a medical check.  If a contestant has lost too much weight or has generally deteriorated too much they will medically tap him or her out.  But other than that they are completely alone. 
     Another thought about wine... unless you hit a major bonanza it would be difficult to find enough of just one kind of fruit or berry to make a decent batch of wine out of.  Therefore I'd make a mixed berry/fruit wine.  Anything that would ferment would go in it.  I would make Choke Cherry, Blueberry, Huckleberry, Raspberry, Blackberry, Grape, Persimmon, whatever wine.

   Another thought on Alone.  All of the contestants have great bush skills.  There are no amateurs here.  Since it's for the long haul many contestants feel the need to build elaborate log cabins.  Instead of feeding themselves decently they spend the first couple of weeks building what is usually a really nice primitive cabin.  Then they're too burned out to continue and they tap. 
   To heck with that.  I would build a teepee.  We used to make them as kids.  Put up a tripod and fill it in.  I could make one livable in one afternoon. It would be small and easy to heat.  Of course I'd keep improving it throughout the competition.  You can't have too much insulation and a stone fireplace and door would be essential once it got really cold. 
     Once my primary teepee was complete I'd build a spare.  Stuff happens.  They catch on fire, trees can fall on them, floods, etc.  Once on Naked and Afraid a couple's shelter got struck by lightning while they were in it.  They tapped the next morning.  But anyway, a spare would be a must. 
     I absolutely wouldn't burn myself out by sawing, chopping, and carrying heavy logs.  This is a starve-a-thon.  Waste no calories.  Camp smart and easy. 

   I'm watching Season 6 now.  They're in the Canadian Arctic and it's Winter.  One of the contestants, Nikki, snared a rabbit.  Obviously food would be extremely scarce in this scenario so she wanted to make optimum use of her catch.  She cooked and ate the dead rabbit's stomach contents.  Gross or brilliant?  In that situation I would totally do that.  It might be the only way to avoid Scurvy.  Little things can be the difference between winning and losing.

   During the same season early on one of the contestants gets a moose with his bow and arrow.  You'd figure he's got it made and will probably win. 
    He eats lots of moose meat and almost nothing else.  He's shocked when the staff shows up and does a weight check.  He lost thirty pounds since the last check.  Moose is  super lean. Eating nothing but he was starving.  Go figure.

Jabames wrote on Jun 27^th, 2025 at 3:25am:


You have superior skills.  That would definitely work in your favor.

There's another thing about Alone that I don't get.  Many of the contestants' struggles are around the water.  The water is ice cold and the air temperature is freezing.  They fish on dangerous slippery rocks or expend a lot of energy to build fishing piers.  Sometimes they have to wade far out into the freezing water to set a gill net or fish trap.  Or swim hundreds of yards into the icy water to retrieve mortally wounded game. 
    As one of my ten survival items I'd certainly choose a pair of insulated chest waders.  Doesn't that really seem like a no brainer?  That single item would solve a multitude of problems.