My Review of Season 1 of Alone has spoilers, so if you don’t want to know who wins, or what happened, stop reading. Otherwise, I analyze the mistakes and successes of the contestants.
Mistakes
Sitting Idle In Your Shelter
It was good when contestants tried to reserve energy and not burn calories, but sitting idle in your shelter is harder on your mental health than it is on your physical health. You need to have projects going to engage your mind, and so you’ve accomplished something at the end of the day. You should have a big list of projects of things to make that make your life easier. Spoons, spatula, salt, nets, traps, fishing equipment, weapons, tools, baskets. I could go on, but the point is that there is so many things that you could do to improve your life, which will improve morale instead of wallowing in self pity.
Losing your means to make fire, and not knowing other ways
One of the contestants loses his ferro rod and doesn’t know any other way to make fire. Knowing how to make and use a fire drill bow is a super basic survival skill, but they just gave up. Additionally, the ferro rod itself was black and blended in with the rocks. I would go with a larger ferro rod, like the one below, and then I would paint that wooden handle a bright neon orange. I would want that to stand out. Fire is heat, defense, and water purification.
Having food in/close to your sleeping shelter
A few contestants cooked and ate fish right in their shelter. Doing this caused some close encounters with predators. People became increasingly less clean, and scents linger, especially fish scents. This attracts bears, cats, and other predators. Relatively clean food is fine to eat in shelter, like seaweed, but you don’t want smells to bring in bears.
What was Impressive
Having a cooking shelter
As I mentioned above, eating in your shelter is a mistake. A couple contestants chose to not eat in or near their shelter. Allen, the winner, actually built himself a cooking shelter away from his sleeping shelter. I thought this was brilliant.
The Use of Gill Nets
This is a passive food gathering technique. You set it, and just walk by at low tide. Many contestants had issues with this technique because they didn’t know where to set their nets. Some people had great success with the gill nets. Some had little to no success. It’s more user error than anything
Survival Gill Net
Knowledge of grubs, seaweed, and other food sources
Most all contestants knew they could eat bull kelp, and one or two types of sea weed, but that was about it as far as plants went. Nobody tried to eat old man’s beard, there was very little mushroom collection, and there were many other edible plants that could have been eaten that weren’t. That’s not only calories, but nutrients that could have been eaten.
Additionally, only Alan ate slugs, though most everybody else ate the limpets. Mice weren’t utilized by everyone either. Just having some red meat would have been amazing after living off of seaweed and seafood, and the deadfall traps take very little upkeep once they’re built. You just reset them when they’re tripped.
Missed Opportunities
Not everyone was out checking the tide every day
Contestants on the show are allowed to use anything they find, or that washes up on the shore. There are so many possibilities of what could happen with that. If it were me, I’d walk a half mile to a mile of beach at low tide every day. There are so many things you could find that could make your life easier.
Fish Baskets
Alan made a fish basket, but he was the only one, and he only made one. Fish baskets can work, and can work well, but the surface area of his basket was extremely small. If you think about the gill nets, they were extremely large, but only caught one or two fish every couple days. He needed more fish baskets to be successful.
Food Preservation
Nobody tried to preserve fish, or any food. They could have made salt from the ocean, then salted, smoked, and dried the fish. Perhaps the main problem there was that nobody caught a surplus of fish, but without food preservation, none of the contestants could have lasted much longer than they did and maintained good nutrition.
Nobody tried to hunt a bear or anything else
Is it risky? Yes. High risk? No. Black bears aren’t extremely dangerous, and don’t have good long distance eyesight. I wouldn’t recommend trying to hunt a mama bear’s cub, but a yearling, or just a smaller bear? You’d have fat, and meat to dry. You’d be set for weeks. Additionally, there were birds, deer (though you don’t see many on the show), otters, and other creatures that could have been hunted, but weren’t that are less risky, but the thing is, the bears were coming close, and many people had a bow and arrow.
If You Like Alone…
If you like the show alone, you should really check out the show MeatEater if you haven’t already. It’s a show about hunting and fishing in today’s world, but its done in a way that’s honest and realistic. It’s not just a trophy hunter out hunting the biggest and baddest animals on the planet. They go and hunt for food, and then show how to eat the food, both in primitive ways, and with professional chefs. It’s incredibly tasteful and is one of the most popular shows on Netflix, though Netflix has dropped some of the earlier seasons. Luckily, we found a resource where you can Watch MeatEater Online Free, Legally! Check it out!
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