Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪

Oh.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

One split second takes everything away.

What is that?

[animal squealing]

It sounds like something in distress.

So I'm getting my vitamins and minerals,

but I definitely need protein.

Whoo! Okay.

I'm not planning on being out here

and not being comfortable.

Building a shelter here will work really good,

but heading up and down

that hill every day will be a real challenge.

♪

♪

Today, spirits are good.

I'm gonna heat up some water right now.

My pot has this delicious

continual undertone of fish.

♪

I call it "a-fish-a-tay."

♪

Mmm.

The undertones of scales

and fish guts is...

Perfection.

♪

Mmm, mmm.

Mm-mm-mmm.

♪

Okay, my friends,

I'm feeling super motivated today,

so I'm gonna work on my permanent shelter.

♪

The design for this shelter

is kind of like a makeshift cabin.

We have our main structure here.

The roof is gonna come down and attach to ridgepoles

that go along there, which, debris walls

will then be built up right along the edge there.

I think that weather is a really big part

of this journey,

and I've heard, you know,

in certain areas of Patagonia,

the wind can blow, you know,

100 miles an hour for a week straight.

That's brutal.

I'm really hoping to be able to create

a really comfortable home space

so I can escape the elements.

All right, let's get to work.

We're gonna take two posts

and hammer them in,

and then we're gonna fill this inside with debris.

If I had to kind of peg down

my survival philosophy or strategy,

it would be, uh, creating a home,

you know, is gonna be the environment

in which I will-- I will thrive.

So the debris is gonna act as an insulation, too,

for the walls.

I'm kind of going opposite directions

so they kind of lock together.

♪

I think I really learned to love

to do projects like this from my mom.

♪

She kind of instilled, in both me and my brother,

a sense of creativity and beauty.

♪

I'm gonna wait to move in until I'm fully done

'cause I don't want to move into a half-finished home.

All right, yes.

Yay.

First wall done.

♪

He would go just like this, no matter what the song.

[laughs]

No matter what the song was

or what the tempo was or whatever,

he was just like this.

He was content, too, 'cause he knew

he was getting it.

He was--the first time on the dance floor,

and that was my little man right there, cutting it up.

I laugh so hard every time I think about it.

I'm in the middle of the woods laughing at myself doing it.

He's so funny.

That one was for you, Campbell.

He knows how proud he makes me. I tell him all the time.

♪

It's a brisk day. We're sliding into winter.

Food's gonna be getting scarce for everybody.

I caught my first fish, a nice 14-inch rainbow trout.

Fresh fish is key for my plan going forward

to try and survive,

hopefully thrive, as long as I can,

so it's time to get to work.

♪

I'm gonna cut it up and chum the water.

It's really odiferous, and that smell wafts around,

and it brings around the animals that want to eat.

I'm gonna put this little heart on my hook

as well, just to sweeten the deal.

Be still, my beating heart.

It's crazy.

I guess that's what happens in the ER

when they compress your heart; it tries to pump back.

♪

I can scatter the chum on the floor out there...

♪

Maybe I'll get some luck today.

♪

I put out several more fishing lines

all around this cove.

♪

I can still see my chum scattered

on the floor out there.

[water splashes] Oh.

Success.

Success!

Whoo!

Uh-huh.

♪

See how pretty that is?

Look at that. Beautiful, beautiful.

I see splashing down there by my line again.

The fish keep coming.

Number three.

I just can't stop laughing.

Maybe I've cracked the code on fishing.

Ready, guy? Thank you very much.

♪

My chum idea is working...

like magic.

If I continue catching fish like this

and I can't eat them all, I got to figure out a way

to preserve them for longevity,

in case times start getting thinner.

♪

I'm just gonna get this fire going,

just so it doesn't go out.

♪

It's a little smoky in here, but the more smoke, the better.

I just kind of want to mask any scent in here.

Hopefully, I don't have any visitors,

but who knows?

♪

I'm gonna get ready for bed.

♪

[wind blowing softly]

[trees rustling]

[branches breaking]

[leaves rustling]

[branches breaking]

♪

[trees rustling]

♪

[trees rustling, muffled deep breathing]

♪

[animal chuffing]

♪

[branches breaking]

♪

There's definitely something outside.

[trees rustling]

♪

Hey!

♪

[deeply] Hey!

[boar squealing]

[dramatic music]

♪

[trees rustling]

♪

[branches breaking]

♪

Hey!

♪

[deeply] Hey!

♪

I think it took off.

It sounded like a wild boar.

♪

I just don't know how aggressive

the males can be in the winter.

Hopefully, not too aggressive.

I heard they're quite territorial,

but, hopefully, uh,

hopefully, I get one before it charges me.

I hope it doesn't come back tonight.

♪

Last night was crazy.

I have to go pee. [chuckles]

I didn't want to get up in the middle of the night

and run into something.

Yikes.

This is only about 10 meters away from my shelter.

Fresh scat.

♪

I'm pretty sure it's a wild boar,

and I don't feel completely secure in the shelter

right now, just with the tarp.

What I'm gonna do is work on just really securing

the outside perimeter of the shelter today,

so if there is something out there

that is trying to get in as a predator,

I will hopefully have a bit of time to react.

♪

Safety is my number one concern.

I have children and a husband.

♪

Some of these are heavy.

Well, hopefully that animal doesn't come back tonight.

♪

That's pretty good.

Nice X for "Do not enter."

♪

Okay, so, uh...

Just for my own reference,

a pace count is when you figure out

how many paces it takes you

to walk a certain amount of distance,

so if I step with my left foot,

I go one, right foot is none, two is my left foot.

You get it? So a full stride.

67 strides is 100 meters for me,

so I can count from here back to camp;

it's gonna give me a good estimate

of how far I am from camp.

Just gonna help save calories.

I am seriously the laziest survival person

in the world.

♪

You have the people that are gonna come out here

and work super hard

and make all this stuff

and go above and beyond, in a sense,

and it's just against the overall goal of this.

♪

Co on, you know?

That's what knocks them people out.

I just want to win so bad,

be the last one.

Hopefully, one day, I'm sitting here--

like, day 52 would be nice.

That's a nice number in my head,

and they come in, and Brooke's with them,

and they say, "Hey, you're done."

Man...

It's so far away, though.

So far away right now.

♪

I'm from Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania.

Currently, I consider myself a full-time bushman.

I think I'm most proficient in trapping

and just the overall art of being able to resource

what I have at the time.

These are possums, skunks, raccoons.

I really feel like I'm at a crossroads, you know?

I lost my job, and I always had this passion

for the outdoors and survival and bushcraft.

I was always like, "Why do I do all this stuff?"

And it just, like, came to a head

when I had this opportunity

to go and prove myself now here in Patagonia.

♪

I'm leaving behind my wife, Brooke,

and my two-year-old son, Jax.

So you gonna miss me when I'm gone?

-Yeah. -Yeah?

-Is Daddy gonna win? -Yeah!

-Yeah. -Yeah, right?

At times I feel, "Eh, maybe I'm being a bad husband

or a bad father by doing that right now,"

but me doing this and being successful

benefits all of us.

♪

I want to win so bad,

it can almost take your breath away.

I have a lot of ideas and things I want to do

with my life,

and I always did, but I just always felt

I fell short a little bit

because maybe I didn't have the resources

or I didn't have the capital.

♪

So that's a huge driving factor for me.

♪

Man...

I could cut trees at home.

I'm usually pretty good.

Lack of calories are rocking me,

that's for sure.

♪

All right, let's do it, push through.

♪

And that's...

how you fell a tree.

♪

Bam!

Rainbow trout up in this bitch!

Look at that.

Went down to check my line.

I was a little bit pessimistic, but I went down.

I gave it a tug, felt a tug back.

I was like, "Oh, hold up.

Oh, hold up."

[singsong] Gonna hLook at this guy.onight.

He was like, "Please, Britt, eat me.

I know you're hungry."

Look at that. It's a good, uh...

I don't know. That's a good maybe 2 1/2 pounds.

Now I got food. Now I got bait.

My chum idea works.

I keep chumming. The fish keep coming.

I'm working on a way to keep my fish refrigerated,

'cause I obviously don't want to eat it all at one time,

so it's a nice little depression

that I can lay my fish down in there,

and I'm gonna allow the water

to continue flowing over it to keep it cold.

Put this here so they don't float away,

so there's one.

♪

There's two,

and then all I'm gonna do with these...

I'm gonna seal it off kind of like a grate

just to keep anything from getting down into it,

keep them from washing away.

I'm loving this... kinda bamboo stuff.

It's awesome.

It's so multipurpose.

♪

And it's all submerged, completely refrigerated.

My goal now is to get them out of the water

and get them in here as quick as possible

so they stay alive till I'm ready to eat.

Then I won't have to clean them till I'm ready.

I've got so much fish.

I can't believe it.

Day ten ending on a...

♪ High note!

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

♪

So what we're gonna do now

is gather some stones for the hearth.

I'm feeling a little chilled,

so I want to get my blood going.

Um...

so we're gonna start the day by moving rocks.

♪

It feels like winter is definitely nigh.

I'm definitely excited

that my permanent shelter is coming along

because it's taken me a little bit of time.

♪

Okay, so we've gathered

quite a bit of stones here.

We're probably gonna need at least double this,

but we're gonna start...

Building the hearth,

because as they say,

"Home is where the hearth is,"

or, "Every hearth needs a home."

♪

"Every home is a hearth."

I don't know what they say,

but they say something about homes and hearths,

so I trust them, whoever they are.

We're gonna take a break

from this part of the project,

give my back a break.

♪

So now what we're wanting to do is fill in these sides,

so I'm gonna take more bamboo,

lash them together,

and then weave some debris.

It's looking very tiki hut.

Ah, yes, will you join me

for some piña colada in my tiki lounge?

♪

If I can get this done today,

I will feel...

mighty accomplished and happy.

♪

Oh, my gosh, I am very excited to move in.

This is gonna be so good for winter.

♪

♪ A hula-hu

♪ A hula-hu...

It's such a tiki lounge,

minus... the sunshine,

the mai tais,

the tanned men giving me back massages,

and, um...

everything else that comes with a tiki lounge.

It's--pretty much the only thing that makes it

a tiki lounge is the bamboo, so...

at least we got that going.

Now we're stoked.

♪

[birds chirping]

♪

I wonder if I'll see a glimpse of the sun tomorrow,

if it was behind all that haziness and cloud and stuff

or if it just doesn't ever come

onto this side of the lake.

I can see over there in the mountains through the trees

that it's back that way.

♪

We'll see.

Whew.

Starting to work on my trail to my--

where I can make my upper shelter.

Gonna have to come along here

and then go up and switchback and switchback.

There's about, uh-- I don't know--

I got to go up about 100-- 100 feet or so

to get to where I'm gonna make my shelter.

Winter is coming.

I have to get my shelter built.

♪

[abrupt rustling]

When you step on that bamboo as you're going downhill,

you might as well step on a Slip 'N Slide.

It's a little on the dangerous side,

right here.

Coming along here and down this,

that goes down, like, 20 or 30 feet.

I'll have to put a railing up...

I think I'm gonna try and build a retaining wall with bamboo

and jab some bamboo in and then weave bamboo across,

which is, like, called wattle fencing,

so I should be able to fairly quickly

get a passable trail

that I won't be able to slide off

down the hill right there.

♪

So I've dug it out now, and it's a nice flat pathway

and a little bit of fence to bounce off, should I stumble.

♪

I got a lot done,

but, man, this is gonna take a long time.

♪

♪

So beautiful.

So happy to be here.

Be really cool to go up there,

but it's also extremely steep.

Just kind of have to wait and see.

First priority, before I do any big trips,

is to get my shelter built.

♪

Draw...

my circle.

♪

I want to make what I call "stacked debris walls,"

which means I need some vertical supports,

and I need two sets of those,

so there's an inner wall and an outer wall,

and then the space in between gets filled

with debris for insulation.

♪

And I've noticed that there's a lot of

tall, thin saplings,

and I'm gonna try weaving the walls together,

which I'm finding awesome,

because I like to weave baskets.

♪

I live in Edna Bay, Alaska,

and most recently,

my job has been in construction.

I started in survival skills at a really young age.

My strong suits are in shelter and basketry.

I imagine I'd make something like this when I'm on the trip.

It'd be use--very useful to have a pack basket.

Doing something creative makes me feel better,

and so I expect I'll use that as a tool

while I'm out there to keep me

in the mind-set of going the long haul.

I've always wanted to spend up to a year

in the woods, doing survival skills.

I feel like the closest adventure

I've had is when I hiked

the Pacific Crest Trail through Washington State,

and it was just over 500 miles.

I feel like that was a really good precursor to this trip.

[ducks quacking]

I'm leaving my boyfriend at home, Tyler.

I'm leaving his family.

I'm leaving them behind,

yet I have all of their love and support.

♪

What I want my experience to be is that I am out there

loving and enjoying as much time as I possibly can

and being the person that never taps out.

I don't foresee there being a point, like,

"Oh, I've experienced everything

I want to experience,"

because part of what I want to experience

is being that last person.

♪

I want to create a home,

hopefully one that is really strong

and will withstand as long as I can be out there.

♪

Strength test.

♪

If it rains for days,

I can hole up in here and stay dry.

♪

I'll start leaning up rafter poles

and gonna add some small branches,

and then I'll put debris on top of that.

♪

Adding debris will also help my shingling effort

'cause it'll be more things for rain to catch on.

♪

♪

My walls are strong,

strong enough to climb on.

♪

Home sweet home.

Oh, [bleep].

[dramatic music]

♪

My shelter roof collapsed.

It was really disappointing.

That's a lot of hard work

that I'm gonna have to do again.

Really starting to feel the energy drain.

♪

Think I'm just in a low spot right now

and hoping that it doesn't last too long.

♪

It seems like every time I...

Settle--settle in,

kind of feel really peaceful

and--and still,

I touch base with that part of me

that's missing.

Missing Tyler...

and missing being able to reach out

and call my family and friends.

♪

And I just feel sad that I can't share this

with them right now.

♪

[sniffles]

The best I can do is...

reach out energetically, spiritually,

and... pass my love on

and try to pass on that I'm doing good.

Sad at the moment,

but... just to be expected

with being out here on my own.

[sniffles]

♪

[birds chirping]

♪

Be nice to have some coffee.

Yeah, can I have a large coffee with cream,

three packs of sweetener,

and, uh...

bacon, egg, and cheese on a croissant,

two sour cream donuts...

Man, I can't wait till that day again, phew.

I can tell I'm hungry already today.

♪

It's cool out,

and, uh, I know I need to fix some of my lines.

I'm gonna go down by the water--

so it's gonna be even cooler down there--

and work this morning.

♪

If I would catch a fish, it's gonna be huge.

♪

I have the lines out by my camp,

and honestly, they never really produce too much.

They get so crisscrossed and tangled.

I don't know what it is.

♪

Now, what's that?

There's something on this line.

There's definitely a fish on here.

I can see him out there, and he is tangled.

♪

I'm hoping,

from working it a little bit at different angles,

I can get him loosened up.

I'm a big guy.

You know, my body needs a lot of calories

to trudge forward,

and they usually say, in the survival world,

you know, the big guys are the ones

that always tap out first because their bodies

can't sustain itself plus a workload.

Start working, and my hunger pain's

hitting me a little bit.

It's like that agitating hunger pain.

♪

I can see where I'm hung up,

but, uh, now it's just totally binded up.

♪

I'm just gonna go in for it.

[serious music]

I'm a little hesitant because, you know,

all you need is to go under and get that cold water

in your ear, and you're shot,

but I honestly have never went this long

on this minimal food.

It's eating at me inside that that fish is out there.

Little bit deeper than I thought. Whew!

All right.

So let's do this.

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

I really want to get in there and get out.

I don't want to be in there any longer than I need to.

♪

♪

[panting, gasps]

[grunts]

♪

Holy camoly!

♪

Oh!

Got my fish.

Man, oh, man, talk about invigorating.

♪

I'm almost happy that I had to go through

the last couple days with no food,

because it made me realize

that I can be out here for days without food.

I just want to win so bad

that it almost makes you feel sick.

♪

There's nine people between me and $500,000.

♪

I'm gonna stay here

with every last ounce of energy

and stamina that I have,

every last bit of

mental endurance that I have,

and I'm just not gonna give up.

♪

I just can't quit and leave here.

That'll haunt me the rest of my life.

♪

[mimicking punching noises]

Chicka-chicka-wah! Chicka-chicka-ah!

Chick-chick-ah! Ahh!

Whoo-wah!

Hoo, hoo, hoo, hah.

We'll do a little bit of this

and a little bit of that

and a little bit of this and a little bit of that,

a little bit of this and a little bit of that,

little bit of this, a little bit of this,

and a little bit of this.

[vocalizing indistinctly]

You get the point.

We're gonna do some of that.

♪

My shelter is coming along great.

I'm super happy with the progress.

We started on the hearth, which is coming together.

We made hangers

so we can hang our clothes.

A cozy bed.

We also built a shelf.

Tonight, I'm moving in.

This is a momentous moment.

It's been a lot of hard work,

and I'm proud of the work I've done,

and I'm gonna go get my stuff,

and I'm gonna organize.

I'm going to...

take some coals from this fire

and move them to my other fire

so I don't have to make a new fire.

♪

First fire in the new shelter.

I'm so grateful for life.

I'm grateful for a warm fire,

for a cozy cabin, tiki lounge.

It feels good to be warm inside a home.

I'm so happy.

A home is everything to me.

I'm a total creature of comfort,

and I love making home.

I'm a homesteader, so having a permanent space

like this is...

it's everything.

♪

♪

Oh, man.

It is, like, so sunny out today,

like, over there

and across the way

and on the mountains.

I'm feeling so tired.

I need food.

I'm gonna head down, check my fishing lines.

I just thought of something.

So the shadow there in the distance,

that's--I think that's the shadow

of the mountain behind me,

blocking the sun from hitting me.

♪

I will not be receiving sun

at my location the entire time I'm here.

It works its way around behind me,

shining on everything else.

Kind of bumming me out.

It's like sitting there and watching a pepperoni pizza

at the other side of a crevasse,

and you can't get to it.

♪

And it's getting cold.

[sighs]

♪

But I can see the sun right there.

♪

Some parts of this are so hard.

♪

All right, so I noticed the sun

is coming through the tops of the trees back there,

and it might even be hitting on top of that hill

that crests over to where I want to put my shelter,

so I'm hoping there's a little glimpse

of the sun up there,

a spot where it's coming through the trees,

and it's not just hitting the tops of the trees,

and I might be able to soak up some rays for a minute,

so instead of sitting around and waiting for the food energy

to hit me, I'm packing up,

and I'm gonna head right up there

and see if I can't catch some rays.

♪

I'm hoping I can get up there before it slides away.

♪

Oh, man.

This is a hike.

♪

Come on, just a little further.

♪

Oh, there it is.

There it is.

There's the sun.

Oh, thank God.

♪

It's the first time I've been able to stand

in a ray of sunshine,

even the littlest one, for days and days now.

♪

That feels good.

[inhales deeply]

I've been a vegetarian against my will.

I'm curious how much weight I'll actually lose.

I've got a fox taking the bait out of my snares.

Unless I get the fox, I won't get the pigs.

-So there's a-- -a duck out here,

and I'm gonna try to get a head shot on him.

[slingshot thwacks] Got it!

This is the first day I've really felt alone.

I talk about getting out of here like I'm in jail.

I don't really know how much longer I can keep going.

[water sloshing]

♪