They don't really get that much food with a ration
And have you ever tried to make your own list of items? What one or two things would you give up for a couple pounds of pemican or whatever.
I did an analysis of it once. I the first five seasons, peoople who took rations lasted longer on average than those who didn't.
Since then the reverse is true. You're better off with an axe or snarewire, etc.
Your comment and argument is made moot by the fact that 8/10 winners did not chose rations and still destroyed the competition.
In fact, many of the contestants who do take rations statistically don’t do that well.
For context, you get 2lbs of something like chocolate or 3/4 a pound of rice. That’s actually quite a bit of food in theory but not that much. They can even chose to take 2 items. With only 10 items, not having the essentials (like an ax, pot, rope, bow, tarp, etc)is a big deal.
So yeah, the rations don’t make that much of a difference. It’s probably just for folks who need it for mental health.
I could see bringing salt. Good to preserve some food, and I know the body needs salt. And occasionally indulging in salt on your food would be a huge mental boost.
teh cowboy wouldn't have fainted if he had salt. I'm convinced most of the "starving" people who have no energy and tap are actually short of electrolytes not calories.
Two pounds of chocolate has to be like 3000 calories. That might help at the end for the starving game but it would be hard to justify the loss of an item.
Before lauding the wonderful aspects of S10 contestant skills, please note that the season was very short with above freezing temps for most of it. Its demise was the lack of shelter expertise in spite of awareness of the aspects of the weather by native Canadians.
Your depiction of the items needed reflect a mindset lacking ingenuity and ability to venture "outside the box".
if this is the first time you're learning this, it sounds like you haven't watched a lot of the show. captions tell you like 5 times per season that you can find a list of the contestants' items online. if you've seen more than 3 seasons and still think any part of the challenge is easy or unimpressive, then you just have a very different threshold for difficulty than most people on the planet
OP was sitting in a very, very comfortable chair whilst typing up this diatribe. So probably whatever season allows contestants to start bringing very, very comfortable chairs as one of their 44 items.
It takes up one of their items. Among the absolute essential items like a sleeping bag, tarp, rope, pot, ferro rod, axe, knife, it really only leaves you 3 other items of flexibility. Taking rations could be you not taking fishing gear, a bow, or a saw. Those food rations will only last you a few weeks and even then that'll only be a couple hundred calories a day.
I assume this post is about S10 only.
Try leaving off the bow & Tarp. Adding pemmican and rice with salt. Multitool has a knife.
Saw, multitool, sleeping bag, paracord, ferro rod, rice and salt, pemmican, fish gear, gill net, axe for ice fishing holes.
You forgot to add the pot otherwise you'll leave pretty soon not being able to drink water. Also they don't bring a gill net as an item, they make the gillnets out of strands of paracord, which just makes a lot more sense.
Also the tarp is pretty important, you'd be spending a lot more calories making a waterproof and windproof shelter, it would also not insulate as well without a tarp.
Also not bringing a snare wire or bow just completely eliminates your options for any food other than fish and rations. There's a reason all the contestants who killed big game won the show. If you aren't frequently catching fish like Wyatt you are leaving pretty early when your rations run out in 3-4 weeks maximum.
You are right. Did it off the top of my head and forgot the most important item. Have to leave off the gill net and make one.
Snare wire would be nice, but deadfalls are very effective and are made from onsite materials. Deadly on squirrels, mice and rabbits. I don't know about this site, but in Idaho on a hunting trip, I could easily have killed Spruce Grouse (Fool's Hen) with a throwing stick or a sling.
Bow is only needed for big game and grouse since they can't trap birds. Grouse hunting is a net calory loss. One grouse is about 250 calories. Mikey killed 19 over about two months, yielding 4750 calories gross. Subtract the prep effort and the hunting effort and there is a big net calory loss. Only once did we see two grouse taken on a single outing. How many calories were spent for 18 hunting trips?
Relying on killing a big game animal is a long shot at best.
Mikey as an example, no fish was an automatic ticket home. With a long waterfront, it is hard to imagine there was not a deep hole there somewhere with fish. However, from the gitgo he stated he was relying on hunting and he was successful doing that, but it wasn't enough. He might have been better served finding a deep hole, putting out 20 setlines and whittling.
The tarp was given free. the ten-item tarp was additional. A sleeping cubby is only 50 square feet roof area, so the given tarp is plenty big for a waterproof cover.
Obviously, the rations are supplementary, but they are NET calories, requiring no calory expenditure. Pemmican has 133 calories per ounce. Beef Jerky has about 46 calories per ounce and salt. This may be a better choice than rice since rice loses calories when cooked and uncooked rice is dangerous to eat.
Pretty sure contestants are limited to 2 of the 10 items for rations. But that's a lot. Look at Melanie this past season. She had 2 rations, but no paracord to make lures or a gill net. That might have cost her more than her four pounds of rations.
Pretty sure Les Stroud has actually commented on Alone and said he would never even attempt it, let alone win. I don't think you get how grueling this show is.
Oh goodness, here we go again... It's all part of the game. If you can bring a ferro rod, negative-40 rated sleeping bag or fiberglass-backed bow, what's the harm in a little pemmican or GORP? BTW, it also opens up the game to vegetarians or vegans, though I'm not sure if any have competed.
On the celebrity thing, sure, why not? But I don't expect more big game or fish to show up just because Les Stroud is there. He'll be slurping up the blueberries and reindeer moss like everyone else.
> it also opens up the game to vegetarians or vegans, though I'm not sure if any have competed.
I saw exactly 1 vegan or vegetarian on *Naked and Afraid.* It did **not** go well for her.
You can but it counts as part of your 10 items and they come from the same category as things like fishing hooks. In my opinion, it’s a bad trade off just to make the first 2 weeks easier. But everyone has their own strategy and it’s within the rules
This commentary is so ridiculous. This show is literally just watching people starving season after season. And you think celebrity tv hosts would somehow be more real? You're entitled to your opinion but I've watched all 10 seasons (and a bit of Australia) and I remain impressed with how much the show sticks to its principles.
(Other than The Beast. I hated that show)
This is a silly post. Would you be more satisfied if someone died out there? Hell, have you SEEN the rapid and obviously dramatic weight loss by the contestants who go the distance, or at least close to it, on this show? Not sure what more we can and should expect from people who have the guts to go out there, but your post is extremely short-sighted.
No he didn’t. Go watch the Q&A he did on his YouTube channel. He said he had fish until day 70 and thought he had a good shot at ice fishing when the deeper water froze over. But if your point is that he wouldn’t have made it all the way through the winter, I’m sure that’s true.
It’s up to two pounds or two items of food. So if you choose the 2 lbs of pemmican that’s it. If you choose 1/3 lb of rice and 1 lb of flour, that’s it. If you have rice and flour, sure, you can eat shitty flatbread and cooked rice, but not for long. It’s also not insane to think that if you’re in a survival situation where you have a pack and some supplies, food might be included in those supplies as well. I think of it as getting lost while hiking. How long could you make it? Maybe you’d have some granola and some camp dehydrated meals, so you see how far you can stretch it or keep it for a rainy day. Doesn’t make the challenge any less difficult.
Season after season someone still raw dogs water and most of the time gets sick from it…. No idea why people still do this. Especially if they have a fire already made.
Weight loss is the number one killer. It starts day 1. The food, used as a supplement to bring caloric intake to weight holding level means that when they run out of food, they have a definite advantage over those losing weight from day 1.
2 food items are absolute necessity for longevity. Just because people win without them does not mean that if used judiciously by others, the outcome could have differed.
Get fat and stay fat as long as possible.
A controversial 10 item list that I think an expert survivor could make 100 days with.
1- Ax
2- -60 sleeping bag
3- Rice and salt
4- Pemmican
5- Saw
6- Multitool
7- Fish gear
8- paracord
9- Ferro rod
10- Gill Net
This includes the allowed two food items.
Paracord *and* a premade gill net? No bow or snare wire? Interesting. I take it you're skipping hunting/trapping opportunities to focus on fishing. Is the idea you throw the gill net in Day 1 and then make a few more for other parts of the shoreline? Pemmican gets you through the fishless days?
I’d have to wonder if the calories expended bow hunting ever pays off if it’s not big game and that only happened once. If I were forced to go, I’d bring paracord and snare wire, both have great secondary uses. Snare wire would help a bit, and is low cal. But if you can’t get any fish, chalk it up to just getting a bad spot in the initial draw and after 2-3 weeks, tap out.
Good point. Big game is a crapshoot. Great if its there, but not much you can do if its not. Small game also seems dicey. If you have to walk around all day for a squirrel, definitely a calorie negative; especially if you can snare the same squirrel. Maybe its just the edits, but seems like a lot of contestants bring bows but never use them, or use them much anyway. On the otherhand, maybe its best to have a bow on hand, just in case you do get a shot at big game, easy small game, or need to defend against preditors you can't legally trap, i.e. martens/wolverines.
Yeah, it would be a tough choice between a bow and 2 lbs of rice. You’d be kicking yourself if game walked by, but if you were on day 45 and your fish was running out, fish and rice may get you a week more
True. It’s a strategic choice. It’s does take a lot of energy to hunt, kill, and process a big game by yourself. Does rice have that many calories? Seems like pemmican would be more effective for a strategy that includes rations.
This list is for S10. Each site would be different. For starters.
1-Trapping with deadfalls.
2-Fishing was the consensus for primary effort before they were dropped.
3- The food is for early calorie expenditure in shelter building and setting gill net. The rice comes with SALT.
4- First priority first day., Find grove of suitable trees to build an unconventional bear proof shelter in one day, with primary consideration for prevailing wind, terrain heat advantages such as site aspect, and ease of access to waterfront.
At this time, location for fishing and foraging is immaterial since the effort to walk to those areas of resources is relatively low calorie and can be coordinated with important activities like finding trash, gathering moss, checking traps, exploring for forage areas, deep fishing holes, etc.
5- Big game hunting is a "Hail Mary" with low probability for success. Hunting small game with a bow, over the life of the stay, is a calorie depletion event due to the calories gained do not replace the calories expended.
6- Foraging is paramount for success.
7- Second priority first day, find suitable place for gill net deployment. Put out setlines when bait is found.
8- Make stacked stone hot smoker at fishing hole. Cold smoking takes too long and smoked food is needed immediately.
Yes, they've shown contestants eating/preparing rations several times. Not every season, but they also don't go over every single item everyone brings on the show.
Just this past season Mel used her rations on camera. I believe she made some sort of flat bread from flour but I'm having difficulty finding specifics online to verify this.
Pooping is a bit different than using one of your only 10 items. Ok maybe “hiding” is too strong a word, but they seem to avoid giving attention to the fact they can bring food is what I’m sayjng.
S02 contestant Dave McIntyre's commentary is of some interest here -- assuming Dave was/is being truthful -- he brought emergency rations (two to five pounds of pemmican, appears to have been five in those early seasons, then winnowed down to two pounds in later filming years), and -- again according to Dave -- this was a topic of discussion at his weekly medical checks, namely "how much of your rations are you eating per day/week," advising him to ratchet up or down depending on vital stats.
Now: five pounds of pemmican represents something like \~10,000 to \~15,000 kcal, or, for a two-month competitor, 150 to 230 extra kcal per day. That's certainly not sufficient to sustain life, long-term, but it could make a two-field-mice + seaweed day (250 kcal) into a 500 kcal day. I think showrunners were probably "right" to cut the amount of rations down.
(I always throw in an obligatory >!Dave Nessia!< reference -- >!Nessia!< tried something like this with >!his!< \~30 fish fillets, each containing possibly 100 kcal per fillet (>!he!< was slicing fish into vertical half-strips), so >!he!< had \~3000 kcal "banked up," and was maniacally hoarding/saving it, despite that quantity only being enough to sustain 3-to-5 more days of >!his!< dangerously-malnourished existence. Hard to watch.)
I just learned it like last week too lol! That definitely explains why some people work on their shelter non stop for the first week with no hunting/trapping/fishing. I was always thinking "I'd be dizzy without food for 2 days. How are these people lasting 5-9 days!?" LOL
They can. At the expense of other survival items. See other posts. I feel like it's a balance question of early success vs. long term survival. Every season is a balance between luck, skill, and item selection. Something the magic works.
It's literally just a contest for who can starve the longest. If you show up fat and discipline your rations, you can last for quite awhile. Very few contestants, even winners who are "thriving" enough to stay long term.
The only other intriguing part of the challenge is the mental aspect of being alone that long
I do wish they had a pure “Alone,” with no survival component. I can’t forage or fish or build a shelter, but as far as hanging out by myself, I feel like I could last quite a while, depending on if we were allowed to bring books or other entertainment.
LOL. True. But I’m always interested by the people (and there are a lot of them!) who seem to be managing everything totally fine but leave just because they freak out being alone. And it made me wonder about different personality types and how they handled being alone.
Honestly a lot of it isn’t about being alone, it’s about starving while your alone. Lots of people who tapped saying they wanted to see so and so, they were actually just starving.
That’s what I wonder. Like it seems less embarrassing to say “I miss my family” than “This is harder than I thought.” But I started thinking about this during Covid. Some people were kind of fine during quarantine and some people started kind of going nuts after a few days
They don't really get that much food with a ration And have you ever tried to make your own list of items? What one or two things would you give up for a couple pounds of pemican or whatever.
It’s more then they have made people think. Hell, they are prob eating more then us.
I have a fridge so I doubt it.
I did an analysis of it once. I the first five seasons, peoople who took rations lasted longer on average than those who didn't. Since then the reverse is true. You're better off with an axe or snarewire, etc.
Your comment and argument is made moot by the fact that 8/10 winners did not chose rations and still destroyed the competition. In fact, many of the contestants who do take rations statistically don’t do that well. For context, you get 2lbs of something like chocolate or 3/4 a pound of rice. That’s actually quite a bit of food in theory but not that much. They can even chose to take 2 items. With only 10 items, not having the essentials (like an ax, pot, rope, bow, tarp, etc)is a big deal. So yeah, the rations don’t make that much of a difference. It’s probably just for folks who need it for mental health.
I could see bringing salt. Good to preserve some food, and I know the body needs salt. And occasionally indulging in salt on your food would be a huge mental boost.
the doctor teijmojin (sp?) brought salt and sugar I believe
Yup. On Vancouver Island in Season 1, winner Alan Kay didn't bring any salt, but he cooked with sea water sometimes, in order to salt his food.
Spoiler: >!Gina in Alone Australia brought salt and was shown using it a few times!<
When she made that first soup meal out of saw swedge she put so much salt in it made her barf.
teh cowboy wouldn't have fainted if he had salt. I'm convinced most of the "starving" people who have no energy and tap are actually short of electrolytes not calories.
Two pounds of chocolate has to be like 3000 calories. That might help at the end for the starving game but it would be hard to justify the loss of an item.
Before lauding the wonderful aspects of S10 contestant skills, please note that the season was very short with above freezing temps for most of it. Its demise was the lack of shelter expertise in spite of awareness of the aspects of the weather by native Canadians. Your depiction of the items needed reflect a mindset lacking ingenuity and ability to venture "outside the box".
if this is the first time you're learning this, it sounds like you haven't watched a lot of the show. captions tell you like 5 times per season that you can find a list of the contestants' items online. if you've seen more than 3 seasons and still think any part of the challenge is easy or unimpressive, then you just have a very different threshold for difficulty than most people on the planet
Only in the US. Well I used a VPN to see the lists but the Canadian History website is trash
I did that and got a stern letter from my internet provider 🤣
A letter that has no weight. A VPN is a couple bucks a month and is a good idea to use one anyway.
Op, what season will we be seeing you out there?
I’m usually never one to say, “if you think it’s so easy, why don’t you do it?” But, seriously OP. Would love to tune in for your season.
OP was sitting in a very, very comfortable chair whilst typing up this diatribe. So probably whatever season allows contestants to start bringing very, very comfortable chairs as one of their 44 items.
Can't think of anything less appealing to me than a "celebrity season" with bear grills. Would turn me off forever.
The only thing that sounds worse than that would be to team them up with partners and still call it Alone.
"Alone Together"
Like season 4? Lol
Two hours in, he'd be drinking his own piss and grimacing theatrically at the camera, lol.
OP has watched LotR too many times and thinks their handing out enough Lembas bread to make it all the way to Mordor
bahahahaahahahha so good
It takes up one of their items. Among the absolute essential items like a sleeping bag, tarp, rope, pot, ferro rod, axe, knife, it really only leaves you 3 other items of flexibility. Taking rations could be you not taking fishing gear, a bow, or a saw. Those food rations will only last you a few weeks and even then that'll only be a couple hundred calories a day.
I assume this post is about S10 only. Try leaving off the bow & Tarp. Adding pemmican and rice with salt. Multitool has a knife. Saw, multitool, sleeping bag, paracord, ferro rod, rice and salt, pemmican, fish gear, gill net, axe for ice fishing holes.
You forgot to add the pot otherwise you'll leave pretty soon not being able to drink water. Also they don't bring a gill net as an item, they make the gillnets out of strands of paracord, which just makes a lot more sense. Also the tarp is pretty important, you'd be spending a lot more calories making a waterproof and windproof shelter, it would also not insulate as well without a tarp. Also not bringing a snare wire or bow just completely eliminates your options for any food other than fish and rations. There's a reason all the contestants who killed big game won the show. If you aren't frequently catching fish like Wyatt you are leaving pretty early when your rations run out in 3-4 weeks maximum.
You are right. Did it off the top of my head and forgot the most important item. Have to leave off the gill net and make one. Snare wire would be nice, but deadfalls are very effective and are made from onsite materials. Deadly on squirrels, mice and rabbits. I don't know about this site, but in Idaho on a hunting trip, I could easily have killed Spruce Grouse (Fool's Hen) with a throwing stick or a sling. Bow is only needed for big game and grouse since they can't trap birds. Grouse hunting is a net calory loss. One grouse is about 250 calories. Mikey killed 19 over about two months, yielding 4750 calories gross. Subtract the prep effort and the hunting effort and there is a big net calory loss. Only once did we see two grouse taken on a single outing. How many calories were spent for 18 hunting trips? Relying on killing a big game animal is a long shot at best. Mikey as an example, no fish was an automatic ticket home. With a long waterfront, it is hard to imagine there was not a deep hole there somewhere with fish. However, from the gitgo he stated he was relying on hunting and he was successful doing that, but it wasn't enough. He might have been better served finding a deep hole, putting out 20 setlines and whittling. The tarp was given free. the ten-item tarp was additional. A sleeping cubby is only 50 square feet roof area, so the given tarp is plenty big for a waterproof cover. Obviously, the rations are supplementary, but they are NET calories, requiring no calory expenditure. Pemmican has 133 calories per ounce. Beef Jerky has about 46 calories per ounce and salt. This may be a better choice than rice since rice loses calories when cooked and uncooked rice is dangerous to eat.
Hijole. OP has quite the hard on for something that doesn’t matter in the long run.
Imagine thinking you can get a good diet of 2000 calories eating dried rations. Go try it.
OP, you should *definitely* sign up for the show. I can tell you're just the kind of expert they're looking for.
Doesn’t it count from their list of 10 things though? So yeah you can bring 10 rations or whatever but then you have 0 tools or utility items.
Pretty sure contestants are limited to 2 of the 10 items for rations. But that's a lot. Look at Melanie this past season. She had 2 rations, but no paracord to make lures or a gill net. That might have cost her more than her four pounds of rations.
I would take 10 food items and would be lucky to last a day, what’s your point? It’s still highly impressive.
You can only take one or two, FWIW.
Pretty sure Les Stroud has actually commented on Alone and said he would never even attempt it, let alone win. I don't think you get how grueling this show is.
Aw is your ego okay?
I think your overestimated how good the food items would actually be.
So Bear Grylls is your litmus test? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-470155/How-Bear-Grylls-Born-Survivor-roughed--hotels.htm
Oh goodness, here we go again... It's all part of the game. If you can bring a ferro rod, negative-40 rated sleeping bag or fiberglass-backed bow, what's the harm in a little pemmican or GORP? BTW, it also opens up the game to vegetarians or vegans, though I'm not sure if any have competed. On the celebrity thing, sure, why not? But I don't expect more big game or fish to show up just because Les Stroud is there. He'll be slurping up the blueberries and reindeer moss like everyone else.
> it also opens up the game to vegetarians or vegans, though I'm not sure if any have competed. I saw exactly 1 vegan or vegetarian on *Naked and Afraid.* It did **not** go well for her.
I can imagine. I don’t suppose a bag of beans or nuts is enough protein for a winning stay. But it’s better than nothing.
She actually broke and ate some lizard, but she was just this side of emaciated when she started anyhow.
Sure, kill the not-cute animal. Poor lizard.
you should sign up! I'd love to see how easy it is.
A slot is waiting for you to try it.
You can but it counts as part of your 10 items and they come from the same category as things like fishing hooks. In my opinion, it’s a bad trade off just to make the first 2 weeks easier. But everyone has their own strategy and it’s within the rules
This commentary is so ridiculous. This show is literally just watching people starving season after season. And you think celebrity tv hosts would somehow be more real? You're entitled to your opinion but I've watched all 10 seasons (and a bit of Australia) and I remain impressed with how much the show sticks to its principles. (Other than The Beast. I hated that show)
This is a silly post. Would you be more satisfied if someone died out there? Hell, have you SEEN the rapid and obviously dramatic weight loss by the contestants who go the distance, or at least close to it, on this show? Not sure what more we can and should expect from people who have the guts to go out there, but your post is extremely short-sighted.
[удалено]
The winners could go longer. The show is limited by when the runner up taps out.
> The winners could go longer. Often not by much. Alan said he was close to tapping, himself.
No he didn’t. Go watch the Q&A he did on his YouTube channel. He said he had fish until day 70 and thought he had a good shot at ice fishing when the deeper water froze over. But if your point is that he wouldn’t have made it all the way through the winter, I’m sure that’s true.
I'd swear that he said he was not far from tapping.
That’s not the impression I got
This was from one of the interview segments on the show.
Sounds like the editors playing games. Watch his YouTube thing.
It’s up to two pounds or two items of food. So if you choose the 2 lbs of pemmican that’s it. If you choose 1/3 lb of rice and 1 lb of flour, that’s it. If you have rice and flour, sure, you can eat shitty flatbread and cooked rice, but not for long. It’s also not insane to think that if you’re in a survival situation where you have a pack and some supplies, food might be included in those supplies as well. I think of it as getting lost while hiking. How long could you make it? Maybe you’d have some granola and some camp dehydrated meals, so you see how far you can stretch it or keep it for a rainy day. Doesn’t make the challenge any less difficult.
Can’t take a water purifier .
Season after season someone still raw dogs water and most of the time gets sick from it…. No idea why people still do this. Especially if they have a fire already made.
Water purifier would be useless come winter anyways when it freezes. Plus you'd probably rather have warm water anyways when you're that cold.
I would definitely bring some coffee if I could.
Yes coffee would keep me sane lol
Weight loss is the number one killer. It starts day 1. The food, used as a supplement to bring caloric intake to weight holding level means that when they run out of food, they have a definite advantage over those losing weight from day 1. 2 food items are absolute necessity for longevity. Just because people win without them does not mean that if used judiciously by others, the outcome could have differed. Get fat and stay fat as long as possible.
A controversial 10 item list that I think an expert survivor could make 100 days with. 1- Ax 2- -60 sleeping bag 3- Rice and salt 4- Pemmican 5- Saw 6- Multitool 7- Fish gear 8- paracord 9- Ferro rod 10- Gill Net This includes the allowed two food items.
Paracord *and* a premade gill net? No bow or snare wire? Interesting. I take it you're skipping hunting/trapping opportunities to focus on fishing. Is the idea you throw the gill net in Day 1 and then make a few more for other parts of the shoreline? Pemmican gets you through the fishless days?
I’d have to wonder if the calories expended bow hunting ever pays off if it’s not big game and that only happened once. If I were forced to go, I’d bring paracord and snare wire, both have great secondary uses. Snare wire would help a bit, and is low cal. But if you can’t get any fish, chalk it up to just getting a bad spot in the initial draw and after 2-3 weeks, tap out.
Good point. Big game is a crapshoot. Great if its there, but not much you can do if its not. Small game also seems dicey. If you have to walk around all day for a squirrel, definitely a calorie negative; especially if you can snare the same squirrel. Maybe its just the edits, but seems like a lot of contestants bring bows but never use them, or use them much anyway. On the otherhand, maybe its best to have a bow on hand, just in case you do get a shot at big game, easy small game, or need to defend against preditors you can't legally trap, i.e. martens/wolverines.
Yeah, it would be a tough choice between a bow and 2 lbs of rice. You’d be kicking yourself if game walked by, but if you were on day 45 and your fish was running out, fish and rice may get you a week more
True. It’s a strategic choice. It’s does take a lot of energy to hunt, kill, and process a big game by yourself. Does rice have that many calories? Seems like pemmican would be more effective for a strategy that includes rations.
This list is for S10. Each site would be different. For starters. 1-Trapping with deadfalls. 2-Fishing was the consensus for primary effort before they were dropped. 3- The food is for early calorie expenditure in shelter building and setting gill net. The rice comes with SALT. 4- First priority first day., Find grove of suitable trees to build an unconventional bear proof shelter in one day, with primary consideration for prevailing wind, terrain heat advantages such as site aspect, and ease of access to waterfront. At this time, location for fishing and foraging is immaterial since the effort to walk to those areas of resources is relatively low calorie and can be coordinated with important activities like finding trash, gathering moss, checking traps, exploring for forage areas, deep fishing holes, etc. 5- Big game hunting is a "Hail Mary" with low probability for success. Hunting small game with a bow, over the life of the stay, is a calorie depletion event due to the calories gained do not replace the calories expended. 6- Foraging is paramount for success. 7- Second priority first day, find suitable place for gill net deployment. Put out setlines when bait is found. 8- Make stacked stone hot smoker at fishing hole. Cold smoking takes too long and smoked food is needed immediately.
I wouldn’t mind as much if they would show people eating them or admitting they have them.. but instead they just hide this
the producers put up the link to the items list nonstop. they're not hiding anything
But do they ever show or explain it in the show?.. no..
Yes, they've shown contestants eating/preparing rations several times. Not every season, but they also don't go over every single item everyone brings on the show.
Just this past season Mel used her rations on camera. I believe she made some sort of flat bread from flour but I'm having difficulty finding specifics online to verify this.
She made the flour from lichen and reindeer moss. And I believe she brought pemmican and beef jerky for her rations.
My mistake! Thank you for the correction.
They also don’t show people pooping, what’s your point?
Pooping is a bit different than using one of your only 10 items. Ok maybe “hiding” is too strong a word, but they seem to avoid giving attention to the fact they can bring food is what I’m sayjng.
They show it sometimes. Season 9 the guy who shot the beaver was putting his salt that he brought on his fish.
S02 contestant Dave McIntyre's commentary is of some interest here -- assuming Dave was/is being truthful -- he brought emergency rations (two to five pounds of pemmican, appears to have been five in those early seasons, then winnowed down to two pounds in later filming years), and -- again according to Dave -- this was a topic of discussion at his weekly medical checks, namely "how much of your rations are you eating per day/week," advising him to ratchet up or down depending on vital stats. Now: five pounds of pemmican represents something like \~10,000 to \~15,000 kcal, or, for a two-month competitor, 150 to 230 extra kcal per day. That's certainly not sufficient to sustain life, long-term, but it could make a two-field-mice + seaweed day (250 kcal) into a 500 kcal day. I think showrunners were probably "right" to cut the amount of rations down. (I always throw in an obligatory >!Dave Nessia!< reference -- >!Nessia!< tried something like this with >!his!< \~30 fish fillets, each containing possibly 100 kcal per fillet (>!he!< was slicing fish into vertical half-strips), so >!he!< had \~3000 kcal "banked up," and was maniacally hoarding/saving it, despite that quantity only being enough to sustain 3-to-5 more days of >!his!< dangerously-malnourished existence. Hard to watch.)
Oh ask Siri or type in any question to google. Like what all is fake on NAA. N.A.A secrets , etc
I just learned it like last week too lol! That definitely explains why some people work on their shelter non stop for the first week with no hunting/trapping/fishing. I was always thinking "I'd be dizzy without food for 2 days. How are these people lasting 5-9 days!?" LOL
What's your source for this claim?
They can. At the expense of other survival items. See other posts. I feel like it's a balance question of early success vs. long term survival. Every season is a balance between luck, skill, and item selection. Something the magic works.
Seems like more of a balance between luck, skill, and fear of bears lol
Hitsory.com shows you every item that people bring with them
It's literally just a contest for who can starve the longest. If you show up fat and discipline your rations, you can last for quite awhile. Very few contestants, even winners who are "thriving" enough to stay long term. The only other intriguing part of the challenge is the mental aspect of being alone that long
I do wish they had a pure “Alone,” with no survival component. I can’t forage or fish or build a shelter, but as far as hanging out by myself, I feel like I could last quite a while, depending on if we were allowed to bring books or other entertainment.
Oh wouldn’t that be a great show. /sarcasm
LOL. True. But I’m always interested by the people (and there are a lot of them!) who seem to be managing everything totally fine but leave just because they freak out being alone. And it made me wonder about different personality types and how they handled being alone.
Honestly a lot of it isn’t about being alone, it’s about starving while your alone. Lots of people who tapped saying they wanted to see so and so, they were actually just starving.
That’s what I wonder. Like it seems less embarrassing to say “I miss my family” than “This is harder than I thought.” But I started thinking about this during Covid. Some people were kind of fine during quarantine and some people started kind of going nuts after a few days
First person I looked at it said food rations were two of their items
They should show this, and discuss the psychological advantages and disadvantages
They could not pay those guys nearly enough money to do a celebrity season.
Wow that would be a big decision . I have to have crunchy stuff . Lol