[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- The bird trap was triggered. No birdie.
If I go another week without catching anything,
it's gonna be really freaking hard.
- [bleep]. That was way over there.
I don't know what to do about my shot,
but it's gotta change
or I don't have much time left.
- I just need to last a day longer
than the other contestants.
You don't have to outrun the bear.
You just have to outrun your friends.
My plan right now basically is to fast for 20 more days.
Isn't that insane?
- Any other day
that spruce grouse would be dinner,
and he's gonna get away with it 'cause we're going home.
I came out here to burn my candle down to the wick,
and I got 52 days out of it.
I'm pretty proud of that.
♪ ♪
- I can't wait to have this place try and break me.
narrator: For the first time on "Alone,"
Ten participants fight to survive
in the hunting ground
of the world's largest land predator...
- Oh, my God, where'd he go?
Those are bear.
- I heard a big animal.
- Hey, bear.
- Oh, no. [bleep]
- Sometimes you eat the bear...
- [exhales]
- Sometimes the bear eats you.
narrator: Battling merciless conditions...
- This is some hard-core bushwhacking.
- Why does it have to be such a struggle every night?
- I hit it. I hit it. I hit it.
- I feel more alive every day I'm out here.
Ahh. - Here comes the rain again.
- Labrador, you're not gonna make it easy for us, are you?
narrator: In complete isolation.
- The most dangerous thing out here is myself.
- Look at that!
- The cold ground is just pulling
all the warmth from me.
- How many days can this go on? - Very, very hungry.
- Feel like I'm hitting a wall.
narrator: Last one standing wins.
- Only gonna get harder the longer you stay out here.
♪ ♪
- Oh, no way.
Got another one.
[chittering]
[whack]
Rungu, I'm grateful for you, bud.
Now that's what I call a good frickin' morning.
This looks like a male, a decent-sized one as well.
So I'm still in the game, still in the game.
All right, let's gut this little guy.
Here we go, in between his shoulders.
Rungu did it again.
Brings back all those good memories.
This Rungu is the first one I've made.
The two that I've had prior to this
was when I was living with a Maasai
and they were gifted to me.
You got some tough skin, buddy.
When I first dropped in Kenya,
I spent every moment with the Maasai.
I traded my clothes, traded my shoes,
got rid of everything.
Got my machete, had my goat-herding stick,
and I went full on in and they taught me.
There you go.
I felt something magical run through me
when practicing those traditions.
♪ ♪
So one of the biggest reasons
why I want to do what I want to do,
not only take care of people--
but being a bridge between the medical world
and the traditional world is
to give back to Indigenous communities.
When we looked at communities of people who got the bad deal
out of every single country that was colonized,
it's the native people there.
And they deserve a louder voice.
They deserve better care.
All right, you sweet little guy...
Want to make sure I'm getting all the brains and stuff.
Don't want to waste that part.
♪ ♪
And much-deserved painting of Rungu.
Here you go, buddy.
Warpaint.
♪ ♪
They've changed my life
on multiple different levels.
It's only right to give back.
♪ ♪
All right, Rungu all painted up with his kill.
Thank you.
♪ ♪
A[wind whistling]
♪ ♪
- I just have to do this.
♪ ♪
Angels on Blueberry Hill. [sighs]
[grunts]
[chuckles]
It's wintertime.
Whoo-hoo!
[chuckles]
♪ ♪
I think we're gonna get colder
and more snow in the next few days,
so I definitely want to button up the shelter.
Here we go.
Karie Lee's excavation service.
Oh, wow.
I want to build a cob oven
because there's dry grass here, clay.
There's even a little sand.
Okay, I think that's good.
Let's make the form.
Got some rotten pieces of wood for the clay to stick to.
So I'm gonna bundle up a bunch of wood
and then pile the cob up all around it
and light it on fire.
And the fire will dry it in place.
I feel the cob oven would be really important
because the clay is gonna be able to hold heat.
And because it's enclosed I could burn fur,
which is really sparky, but it has a high BTU rate.
Ooh, yes, it's gonna be a cold night tonight.
♪ ♪
So what we do,
we take the cob, make little patties,
and we're just gonna pat it on.
I want to stay a long time
because I want to see
how spiritually deep I can connect with the Earth.
Ah, jeez.
But you spend so much time out here
taking care of your survival needs--
the shelter, the fire, the food--
the time that you have to actually just be
is very limited.
This is taking longer than I thought.
I'm getting there.
♪ ♪
Here's my chimney.
♪ ♪
Instead of going out a wall,
I'm just gonna have the chimney come
straight up out of the ground.
Hopefully it'll draft correctly.
Not too close to the shelter, standing upright.
Ready or not, let's cob it up.
♪ ♪
I've actually done a brain test of the four quadrants,
and I discovered I'm a frontal-brain thinker.
My strongest point is visionary creative,
but my other hat,
which is totally the other side of the brain,
is I'm also very analytical.
♪ Mmm mmm mmm ♪
I'm gonna be so happy to have a wall
so it can retain some of the heat in here.
♪ ♪
And I'm discovering with myself
that when my logical brain takes over and I think,
"Okay, now this morning I need to do this,
I need, I need, I need,"
things don't go as smoothly.
Yes, the clay is perfectly packable.
♪ ♪
[blowing]
♪ ♪
Whew.
I did a good job layering in that wood.
I can hear the clay sizzling.
Oh, we have breakthrough.
♪ ♪
See, we got a total blow-out down there.
♪ ♪
The cob oven is falling apart.
My problem now is I'm gonna have to get more clay,
but the clay is dry.
It's not gonna stick.
I'm gonna have to haul up some water and get it wet.
And it's gonna take more energy and more time
when I should be out getting food.
♪ ♪
I should probably just tear it down.
♪ ♪
A lot of work. [sighs]
That was a [bleep] waste of time.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I'm dressing inside my sleeping bag.
I know it's exaggerated, but why not stay warm,
preserve calories?
And also, dressing up inside a sleeping bag
gets your blood flowing, that's for sure.
It's my yoga. [chuckles]
Because I'm fasting, I need to be
extremely strategic about my energy
♪ ♪
and maximize the return of my effort.
♪ ♪
Almost done, almost done.
♪ ♪
But it's all a big bet.
First drink water.
♪ ♪
So this is wet snow.
As soon as it touches your body,
it turns into water.
Perfect hypothermia weather.
I'm not gonna spend too much time outside.
I'm just gonna grab some water.
Just seeing the snow makes you feel colder.
It's like, oh, [bleep]. It's getting real.
It's gonna be quite challenging.
♪ ♪
Survival is brutal,
but it doesn't have to crush you down.
We can do unbelievable feats
when our mind and our body
and our soul are working together,
and when we just have that willingness
to give it all for our families.
It's so powerful.
I'm gonna put some sticks on my roof
because I don't want a huge snowfall to come
and my tarp to sag too much.
But that's it, not gonna do too much.
I like to work with the weather, not against it.
I think you should do like the animals
and just hunker down.
♪ ♪
When you're in survival mode, it's so easy to understand
what is truly important in life
and how simple life can be.
♪ ♪
And then it teaches you
the importance of being present,
enjoying the moment,
even if it's really challenging.
♪ ♪
Because if you cannot do that,
mentally, you're not gonna be able to survive.
♪ ♪
All right, work is finished here.
[exhales]
It's way better.
But right now the calm before the storm.
♪ ♪
- Just wanted to show you
how on the outside this shelter looks pretty big,
but really it's just the 1 to 2 feet of insulation.
So this is all I get.
Everything's pretty compact, but very functional.
It's a lot colder than yesterday.
Just looking at, like, places that I can pack some more moss.
So let's see what's in the outside--outside world.
♪ ♪
Plan for today,
I'm gonna grab some spruce boughs
for the front of the shelter.
I want to bolster this side.
The wind comes this way.
There's a draft that comes this way.
So let's make this better.
It's been dreadfully hard to poop.
It's a bittersweet experience being
the first physician out here.
I'm more aware of what my body's doing.
Like, just constipation out here can be
very, very difficult.
And just forcing that crap out of you--
know what you can do out here for a hemorrhoid,
that's helpful because the pain of that
could take someone out.
♪ ♪
Got these big boys.
And the body consumes on a priority basis.
There are preferences for energy.
I've burnt through the blood sugar,
burned through the liver stores of sugar,
burnt through all the fat,
'cause I can just feel skin on my stomach.
And organ fat, that's probably very depleted
'cause I can suck in now.
Before I couldn't even do that.
All righty, add a little more.
I think we're pretty golden.
But I'm very grateful that I know what I know.
It's been helpful to not only evaluate a true emergency,
but to take care of all the small things that's happened.
I wouldn't have been able to do that if I didn't have
the training, the knowledge, and the skills
that I have gained over the years.
There are some boughs there, too, that I want to get.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna use you guys.
♪ ♪
Some nice long boughs.
♪ ♪
Okay.
Let's see if I can get this guy.
♪ ♪
Whoa-- [bleep]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[exhales]
Let's not do that again.
♪ ♪
Getting weaker and balance is getting off.
The mind's not as sharp.
My body is kind of declining, you know?
♪ ♪
[crow cawing]
[sniffs]
Too far for me.
♪ ♪
All right, I just need to take a break.
A long break.
Oh, that feels better.
Who knew breaking some twigs with my hands
and some boughs in that's--
that's a day for me, you know?
That's all I can do today.
That's what it feels like.
♪ ♪
[slurping]
Mmm.
I think it's tough for anyone out here
that has a limited food supply.
♪ ♪
I have a winter's worth of reindeer moss,
a handful of cranberries,
and there's one piece of grouse left.
But I've been saving that for American Thanksgiving.
That's gonna give me a huge, huge boost
for the mental game.
[gulping]
Crazy, you know?
♪ ♪
Body is constantly changing...
♪ ♪
Telling me what I can and cannot do.
♪ ♪
I think one activity a day is
all I'm gonna be doing from now on, you know?
♪ ♪
You don't need to push every single day.
That's what I need to kind of hammer in,
'cause I'm pushing hard, you know?
♪ ♪
Too hard.
♪ ♪
- Oh, my gosh, a gorgeous day.
Frigid.
It snowed more last night.
I was just about to fall asleep, and I heard this...
[scratching]
Actually it was a--[scratches] like that.
♪ ♪
And then there was like-- that's not a bear, is it?
The sound sounded like it was very, very large,
but I don't know. [chuckles]
It's hard to say.
I don't see any footprints in the snow,
but I wish I knew what it was.
Anyway, the cob oven's not working,
so I'm going to set that aside.
But I'm amazed how much energy I have
just running off of berries.
This piece of fruit leather here is
at least a quart of berries.
I can carry this in my pocket when I'm walking around
and just nibble on it all day.
So this is really super nutritious and, like I said,
I can walk around with it in my pocket.
♪ ♪
But just eating berries is not enough
for you to win "Alone,"
so I'm gonna go check my traps
and maybe see some snowshoe hare tracks.
Please, please, please!
♪ ♪
I'm so excited to, like, get this far in the journey.
It's hard work.
But this is where my drive just keeps
pushing me to go forward.
In the past few seasons,
the person who won is
the person who gets the big game.
And here the only big game that we're allowed to hunt
is the bear.
I'm prepared and ready to do that,
but I haven't even seen a bear.
I'm just setting all these traps and wandering around.
This is about as close as I can get to hunting a bear.
So it snowed in the trees,
which is awesome for tracking.
Except when you want to check your traps.
There's my ribbon for one, but where the heck is my trap?
And this one's a trail,
and it's way in there,
and there's no squirrel.
Super challenging.
There's three traps right here.
No squirrels.
That gives you an idea what I'm up against.
Like, oh, my gosh, traps are getting buried.
All righty.
♪ ♪
Here's one, and no squirrel.
♪ ♪
Okay, let's go on.
♪ ♪
I'm keeping my eyes out for polar bears.
I don't want to be surprised.
♪ ♪
This is mine.
This is site two.
But where's the trap?
[birds chirping]
Hey, chickadees, can you tell me where my traps are?
♪ ♪
The snow in places is over my knees
and it's a lot of work to move through the snow.
Okay.
I think I just have to move slower.
♪ ♪
I'm looking for my ribbons.
♪ ♪
They're probably buried under the snow.
♪ ♪
Ah, there it is. It's buried in the snow.
Okay. Gotta fix this one.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
It's discouraging and it's frustrating.
♪ ♪
But I don't know where it is.
Because one squirrel is another day
that I'm able to be here.
Ah, damn.
I think that's it.
Okay, I'm gonna go back
'cause my hands are frozen.
♪ ♪
I'm feeling like I'm not good enough
to come home with a meal, and that's embarrassing.
♪ ♪
I think I'm kind of over the squirrel trapping.
It's a lot of energy
and it's not really producing much.
And the snow's--the snow is covering most of them.
♪ ♪
I guess it's a challenge to see
how long we can live on berries.
I mean, I got a lot of berries.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
I'm a little discouraged, yes, for sure.
Still hopeful.
♪ ♪
The snow is beautiful.
The moon's out-- at least it was.
So I think it's gonna get really, really cold.
So that's why I'm racing to find food.
I can't quit trying.
So I'll see you in the morning.
Okay, have a good night.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- This is the view from my window inside my shelter.
As you can see, it's pretty stormy outside.
Wet, cold, and windy.
[chuckles]
It's a trifecta.
[chuckles]
There's this saying,
"There's no such thing as bad weather."
Well, today is the exception of that saying.
Today is bad weather.
No matter what clothes you wear,
this is not a good day to be out.
♪ ♪
Right. I'm gonna do it.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna go out and get water.
Really crazy weather.
[chuckles]
Man, I keep thinking that there's not many people left.
I don't know.
The landscape has considerably changed.
All this snow has made travel difficult.
♪ ♪
This is a harsh place for survival.
Harsh place.
♪ ♪
[wind howling]
- I have to do the inevitable.
I have to go pee.
And I might as well get water while am at it.
[wind blowing]
Ooh. Oh, my.
♪ ♪
You know, I have to say
that wind is not my favorite element.
Wet, slippery snow.
Wow, look at those trees.
♪ ♪
Yeah, snowing sideways.
It's getting harder to get around.
It's getting a bit overwhelming.
♪ ♪
- In the military,
this is the weather that I'm trained in.
Cold weather warfare is
the bread and butter of the Canadian force.
Gotta learn how to thrive in it,
gotta learn how to defend it.
Ooh. Check it out.
I got a little walking stick
that'll be good firewood for our journey up the hill.
Call me crazy, but I swear I'm hearing grouse flapping.
♪ ♪
I've been in complete whiteouts
in the subarctic before
where you can't really see in front of your face.
♪ ♪
It can be pretty scary.
♪ ♪
Three steps uphill and I need a break.
[chuckles] [sighs]
♪ ♪
- Survival.
♪ ♪
The party goes on.
It's crazy how long this has been going on.
And it just hasn't stopped.
All the trees-- everything is moving
so strongly with the wind.
Pretty dangerous.
You better practice your resilience or just tap out.
There's no [bleep] up here.
Pretty much staying in my-- my shelter the whole day.
You know what would really suck?
If your shelter collapsed.
♪ ♪
That would [bleep] suck.
♪ ♪
[branches rattling]
- That's a strong wind.
♪ ♪
Everything's more complex when it's this cold.
Just looking at the roof,
the structural boughs I added--
It's strong. It's doing its job.
[sniffs]
On the beach, the wind down there is whipping.
Whoever is beach side or, like, close to the water, man,
I do not envy you.
I'm really happy to be deep in the forest.
♪ ♪
- I decided I'm gonna spend the day
just getting firewood.
'Cause, really, that's all I need to hunker down.
♪ ♪
Yeah, we like wood that breaks easy.
Oh, my gosh, it's deep.
♪ ♪
You just don't know what's underneath your feet.
♪ ♪
[grunts] Okay.
♪ ♪
Yay. It's free.
♪ ♪
Man, this is a workout.
♪ ♪
It is definitely getting chillier.
The wind has picked up.
I gotta get this wood inside
or it's gonna be buried by tomorrow.
Defeat the whole purpose of getting it today.
♪ ♪
[grunts]
[bleep]
♪ ♪
I think I'm gonna call it a day.
I think I'm gonna make a fire...
[sighs] [sniffs]
And just rest.
Whoa.
♪ ♪
You all right?
♪ ♪
Told you, winds are coming.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Well, good morning, everyone.
Still snowing pretty hard.
Feeling it. [sighs]
I'm really cold and really hungry.
♪ ♪
I'm boiling moss today.
Right now I'm relying on moss to get me through for food.
And I think that's only gonna go so far.
Coming out.
But since you have to boil it several times,
I think I might as well use that trash water,
the oxalic acid water, to freeze up the outside.
Oh, yeah, soak it in.
Soak it in, fellas.
Make this a moss ice castle.
♪ ♪
In the military,
to increase insulation and protection
we made our shelters out of big logs,
filled it with gravel, debris, all sorts of stuff,
but then at the end,
when we packed all the snow in,
we would throw water on top of it
to freeze everything together.
♪ ♪
Yeah, get on there.
In Arctic warfare, we make things
that stop heavy weight, like, artillery rounds,
basically bazookas.
So I'm gonna do the same thing here.
'Cause it's no joke running into a black bear,
especially over here.
They're at least two times my weight,
more aggressive and hungry, just like I am.
♪ ♪
It's really hard.
Just down to the creek, 15, 20 feet, and coming back
is difficult.
So kind of tells you where I'm at.
[sighs]
Keep going.
This is an incredibly personal journey for me.
Like, the past seven years
I haven't stopped pushing for one goal,
to become a doctor,
and that requires a lot of sacrifice.
You study, you do research,
try to impress people on clinical rounds.
So you show early, you stay late.
You feel like nothing else matters.
You sacrifice your own health, mental and physical,
spiritual sometimes.
Let's go.
You sacrifice relationships that should mean more to you,
but you don't even see it
because of how hard and how long you've worked
and how that turns into a habit.
All righty, one to two more.
♪ ♪
So after seven years, I come home,
I don't even know my family members.
♪ ♪
Forget about the friends that I used to have.
I don't know where I fit in.
That's not right.
Almost there.
Being out here, I realize I can't be that selfish.
It has to be about people I care about.
♪ ♪
Got a nice full pot of moss right here.
So after this, I'm hoping to right some wrongs
and be a better me.
♪ ♪
- Oy.
Ha.
I just fell through the ice a little bit.
No worries.
♪ ♪
We just passed this crazy storm.
I don't think I've ever experienced
so much continuous wind ever.
♪ ♪
There was so much wind that some snow got into my shelter.
Right now I need to hydrate-- never-ending yeoman task.
I make an effort to drink sketchy water
during my everyday life.
♪ ♪
Man, I'm thirsty.
And I've been drinking water straight
for 10 years in the wilderness.
So I feel quite confident
that even if my immune system is down,
I can still keep some immunity.
Think I didn't bring enough water last night on my pot
for the night and the morning.
♪ ♪
Because I'm not boiling water,
I don't need to make fires daily.
That's part of my strategy.
I'm trying to be as efficient as possible.
It's funny because everyone is like, "You need a fire."
but I did 100 days in the winter
and I realized you cannot sustain a fire all the time.
So you're gonna be cold at night anyways.
The Inuit have barely any fire
because they only use oil in some small lamps.
♪ ♪
So I decided not to have any fires
unless I need to cook anything.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna go before my stomach explodes
from drinking so much water.
[burps]
♪ ♪
I think today I'm gonna patch up my door, man.
It's so open.
And then after that, the walls.
Right now, I don't mind it too much
because my shelter is cold.
♪ ♪
But once I really start using my stove,
I want to trap the heat.
♪ ♪
Pretty good.
♪ ♪
Now I'm gonna patch the holes in the walls.
I know about this 80/20 rule.
You can get 80% of the benefit from 20% of the input.
Okay, I'm gonna put a little bit more.
I try to follow that rule,
but because I'm fasting,
my body is getting slower, so everything is just harder.
[exhales]
I'm getting tired.
So I'm gonna drink some water.
♪ ♪
It's not easy.
Today I did a considerable amount of work
for a person that's starving and not eating at all.
Every calorie counts.
I need to be very, very strategic and efficient.
You should be resting and sleeping.
♪ ♪
It's not good. It's not good.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Looks like a beautiful wintry day.
And this is how I get rid of all the ice on my pot.
Just bang it.
♪ ♪
Today, four fingers, but this ice is weak.
It's not clear blue ice.
Not as strong as, like, pure clear ice.
[grunting]
Four fingers.
Let's see how much that is in my multi-tool.
A little under 3 inches.
Maybe in a couple days it's gonna be 4 inches.
And once it's 4 inches,
I'm gonna start walking on it for sure.
I could walk on it already, I think, but...
we're not gonna risk it.
And I need an ice chisel, so--
Every season has its advantages.
And when you have ice, walking is so easy.
I could go to different spots in my side
and burn less calories.
I'm trying to choose a good pole for my ice chisel.
It has to have good weight,
but at the same time it shouldn't weigh too much.
♪ ♪
The ice chisel really lets
you test the ice as you walk,
every step or every several hundred feet.
If you cannot break the ice easily with an ice chisel,
then it's safe.
This one seems all right.
♪ ♪
Having a strong hunger pang right now.
♪ ♪
I'm fasting, but my strategy is
I'm just gonna hunt, trap and fish if I can
because it will be easy to preserve.
You just freeze it.
So I'm gonna save all that protein
for when I'm gonna eat.
[exhales]
So I'm so excited to make my ice chisel.
♪ ♪
That's good.
When I was six months in the forest with my partner,
it was a struggle just to get into the wilderness.
It would be nice if I could finish it today.
♪ ♪
And because I feel very responsible for other people,
I was taking a lot of the workload on myself.
So by the time we were at our spot, I was already spent.
It's hard to work with partially frozen clothes.
We had rations,
but very, very quickly
I got to, like, POW skinny.
One day I fainted twice and that really scared my partner.
♪ ♪
So I learned that nature can rip your head off.
And now if I could sum up my strategy,
it would be to not bring a knife to a gunfight.
♪ ♪
And these opportunities are so scarce.
So I'm gonna honor that
by giving it all I have to stay in the fight.
♪ ♪
Moving on.
♪ ♪
So here's the genius of this axe.
The chisel's gonna go through here.
I want this to look like this.
♪ ♪
So I made a hole.
♪ ♪
We are getting there. Very close.
♪ ♪
So now my axe goes all the way through.
♪ ♪
This is a nail that I found, and I use it for leverage.
Okay.
♪ ♪
And that's that.
♪ ♪
It's done.
It's looking good.
Yeah, I like it.
♪ ♪
- The bottoms of my pants
are frozen shut.
I can't get my feet in them.
[chuckles]
Okay.
♪ ♪
I only have so much really dry firewood,
so it's hard to start a fire.
What I need is some pitch.
♪ ♪
Slow and steady.
I have a history of adrenal exhaustion.
That happens a lot for people who go, go, go, go.
And it's like a bank.
You use up energy, you have to restore it.
♪ ♪
So this tree here has a bunch of pitch on it.
♪ ♪
And when you exhaust that, your life is hell.
♪ ♪
That was just dust.
I'm very aware of when I'm pushing that edge
because I've pushed it a number of times
and backed off.
And so now I'm taking things slow and steady,
kind of like the tortoise and the hare.
And we're gonna get to the very end.
[squeaking]
Oh, hey.
♪ ♪
Stay there for a moment.
♪ ♪
Oh, I see him. He's--he's under a big log.
♪ ♪
[dramatic sting]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Oh, my God. [chuckles]
Oh, my God.
I got a squirrel.
This is the first squirrel I've actually shot.
He's gonna look cuter roasting on my fire.
I got a squirrel! [chuckles]
Holy [bleep].
♪ ♪
It's been a good day.
I love squirrel.
Mmm.
♪ ♪
I'm in heaven.
♪ ♪
This is part of my dream,
to be thriving
in a primitive shelter that you built...
♪ ♪
Eating food that you killed.
[chuckles]
♪ ♪
Next to a warm fire that you made,
collected the wood, everything off the land.
♪ ♪
Yeah.
Now, if I could just get a squirrel every day.
♪ ♪
[chuckles]
♪ ♪
Yeah, then I'd really be thriving.
♪ ♪
Proud of myself because of what I've accomplished
and what I've learned and, you know, what I set out to do.
♪ ♪
Survival is not just about the skills.
It's about the attitude, the positive mindset,
being in a place of gratitude.
And while I'm out there,
I use those things primarily for my survival.
♪ ♪
I'm thinking, "Two more weeks, two more weeks."
And then, "Keep going. Two more weeks."
but I'm gonna need more food.
Yeah.
[blowing]
♪ ♪
- I'm gonna clip my toenails right now.
[clipping]
So important to take care of your feet.
So important.
Look at that.
They look like I need to go for some pedicure.
But I bet if I went for some pedicure,
the person would be like, "Um, we're gonna have
to charge you triple."
[chuckles]
♪ ♪
I'm gonna put more snow up in the sides
because the snow really, really insulates well.
♪ ♪
You can see that it's quite well-covered.
There's some ice, too.
Because of the wet snow, it started to freeze.
But inside it's, like, almost entirely covered in snow.
And look at the sides,
the bottom is pretty well-insulated.
Nature will do the rest.
Basically no wind will come through there.
Yeah, it's basically, like, 90% airtight right now.
♪ ♪
[wind blowing]
♪ ♪
The shelter is staying a little bit warmer,
I think, than the outside,
even though I don't have
absolutely any source of heat,
except my body heat, I guess.
I feel confident enough with no fire right now.
♪ ♪
I apply some lateral thinking to survival
and I try to combine all these strategies
from different Indigenous peoples.
♪ ♪
I dry all the things I need to dry
inside my sleeping bag with my own body heat.
♪ ♪
I've found ways to be without fires
for long periods of time.
♪ ♪
And I just follow my intuition.
♪ ♪
Feel content with the work that I did.
Feels like I'm really improving my shelter.
♪ ♪
It's almost as if I am the subject of my own experiment.
I'm not afraid... [sighs]
But everything is a struggle here.
It's tough.
I'm just curious about how far can humans go?
Um, who knows?
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I did a thing, guys.
See that?
Right there.
Kind of, like, in the middle.
It's like an upside down U now.
I didn't fall down and knock it out.
I was just chewing on a bone the wrong way.
I think one of the weird thing is
is if it falls out because you hit it or something--
Like, let's say if you're a hockey player
or if you just fall down and it hits just the right way
that it pops out,
you can actually put it back in.
So it's kind of like a dislocated bone, in a sense.
You don't want to put it in water.
What water does is it kind of destroys
all the cells in the tooth.
So I'm lucky it was just a little superficial ding.
A little souvenir.
♪ ♪
All right, we are out, ready. Flag is up.
♪ ♪
And let's check some snares.
♪ ♪
I'm just gonna take it one step at a time,
go really slow.
♪ ♪
Don't see any tracks?
♪ ♪
Nothing really there.
♪ ♪
Okay.
♪ ♪
I still have a grouse.
Challenge for me is if these new limits on my body
will affect my ability to get food.
Taking, like, baby steps right now.
♪ ♪
All I can handle.
♪ ♪
All right. [sighs]
♪ ♪
A little short of breath right now.
♪ ♪
Just gotta wait till it passes a little bit.
♪ ♪
Oh.
I'm pushing past my limit each and every day.
♪ ♪
And, clinically, I know that I'm declining.
Structural integrity will go eventually.
It's just a simple calculation.
So I really gotta get more food.
Any squirrelies? Nope.
Phew.
[kissing]
Nothing.
Whoop.
♪ ♪
That was close. [sighs]
♪ ♪
All right, I think that's it.
I can't afford an injury right now.
♪ ♪
Let's go back to the bear hang
and get the last of the food.
The last of the grouse.
♪ ♪
All right, almost there.
♪ ♪
Let's go home.
♪ ♪
It's not American Thanksgiving,
but I'm gonna have to eat the last piece of grouse.
Hopefully this gives us enough energy
and morale to keep pushing on.
And super important, the last wishbone.
Mmm.
These guys are so precious to me.
Every time I make a wish, I get animal protein.
So these guys, I swear, are magical.
But today I don't want to ask for food.
I don't want to ask for animal protein.
Um...
I want to ask for something much, much more.
I wish that sharing this experience with my mom
brings us closer together.
I love her so much.
Even though she probably thinks I love her,
I know that she doesn't necessarily
feel it all the time
because of how absent I've been.
♪ ♪
I've had excuses-- medical school, work,
but it's all BS.
Could at least call her every day, you know?
Look at that.
With the grouse in there and some reindeer moss,
look at how much food that is.
♪ ♪
As a doctor, I saw that her health
was headed in a wrong direction
and I wanted to fix that.
So I got frustrated, angry at times,
and I just stopped caring.
Because if that's the way she wanted to live,
that's the way she wanted to live.
♪ ♪
But what she is going through is something
that I went through when I was living in my car.
That's being truly alone.
And that's--that's on me.
♪ ♪
I still have a few handfuls of this.
Might last me till tomorrow.
♪ ♪
Mmm.
When my mom sees this, I hope she can forgive me.
♪ ♪
The journey will be complicated,
but she's never gonna be alone,
not from now on.
♪ ♪
I have been so grateful
for how this experience has changed me.
I want to take that and light the world on fire
with the same juice.
That half million dollars won't fix everything,
but it will get me close.
♪ ♪
My stomach is full.
My heart is full with good wishes
to everyone, especially my mom.
♪ ♪
So, wishbone, you're going into my pocket.
I'm gonna keep you safe.
♪ ♪
I love you, Mom.
♪ ♪
And I'm gonna be right next to you
every step of the way,
no matter which direction you go.
I'll be there.
♪ ♪
How much is enough?
I think everyone's asking that question.
- Am I just gonna hunker down and conserve my energy
or push myself and go out and get food?
[bleep]
Don't cry, don't cry.
- This is my life now.
I get water and then I do nothing.
- Every day I'm pushing, and I feel
like I've been walking a line.
Let's go!
But right here--
right here...
I can push with that.
- I'm not down for the count.
My body will tell me when I'm done.
- Definitely reached the part of my journey
when I'm just, like, a little bit cuckoo.
[helicopter whirring]
♪ ♪
- Oh, my God, my heart's just beating so fast.
♪ ♪