narrator: In the wild, the right skills
can make the difference between life and death.
- [groans]
narrator: Now some of "Alone's" best competitors
are taking on a new mission.
- This is, like, some Indiana Jones-type stuff.
narrator: They'll have just three days...
- Whoa! narrator: And limited tools...
- Here's the fun part.
narrator: For a build challenge
devised by one of their own.
- Time is ticking.
narrator: At stake for the winner...
- Whoo.
narrator: Bragging rights.
- You guys have your work cut out for you.
narrator: Tonight's challengers--
Amós Rodriguez,
58-day survivor from season seven...
- I won't go down easy.
narrator: Clay Hayes, 74-day survivor
and winner of season eight...
- Yeah!
narrator: And Jordan Jonas,
77-day survivor and winner of season six.
- Yeah!
narrator: Let the challenge begin.
- Don't try that at home, kids.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Hi, I'm Britt Ahart from seasons three and five
of "Alone," where I lasted 35 days the first time,
and came up runner-up the second time,
lasting 56 days.
Look at that. One cast. Boom.
And I've issued a challenge to Jordan, Amós, and Clay.
I've also sent them the tools.
And after they complete their build,
I get to pick the winner, so let's see how they do.
- Let's get in here and see what we have.
- Kind of excited to see what's inside this thing.
- Oh, yeah. The envelope.
♪ ♪
- "Your challenge is...
build a bone-dry smoke-free shelter."
- Oh, my gosh.
- All right, I have three days to do this.
"You may only use the tools in the box."
What did Britt give us to do it with?
Oh, a multi-tool.
A must-have for sure.
Paracord, that's useful.
♪ ♪
And a saw blade.
We're gonna have to be extra careful with that.
And...
♪ ♪
Britt...
where's the axe?
No axe.
Oh, man. All right.
- "To complete this challenge,
"you must fit one person, stay dry in the rain,
remain smoke-free inside when a fire is lit."
Challengers are Amós, myself, and Jordan.
- It's definitely gonna be a challenge.
- A dry shelter.
- The timer's started.
- All right, let's go do this.
♪ ♪
- All right, so my first line of business here
is gonna be trying to find a location.
I want to go and see what the landscape
has to offer and how we can create
a smoke-free, bone-dry shelter.
Oh, ho, ho, look at that.
Exactly what I'm looking for.
Good sandy ground,
so I should be able to dig a nice fireplace here.
But first, I'm gonna go ahead and turn this saw blade
into a saw.
All right.
So I want to attach these two arms on my bucksaw.
♪ ♪
I've actually never built a bucksaw before.
I've just never found myself in the woods with a saw blade
and no saw.
♪ ♪
Tighten that blade up.
There she is...
a little bucksaw.
Well, the saw seems to be working all right.
There you have a digging stick.
I'm gonna dig a little trench
and make some sort of a rocket stove.
Well, I've never done a rocket stove before,
but, hypothetically, you should be able
to start the fire on one end,
and that heat should be drawn through the ground
and up out the vent on the other end,
and that way, you're heating that space in between.
I wish I could find, like, a big hollow log
for a chimney.
See what I can do with what I have.
♪ ♪
That might work as a chimney.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna seal up the top of this smoke funnel,
bury it in really good, and we should be good.
♪ ♪
Looks like a grave.
With much respect and much honor,
here lie Clay and Amós' hopes for victory this week.
All right, enough screwing around.
I got to spark this thing up and see if it even works.
♪ ♪
See if we can get her to draw.
♪ ♪
Oh, check it out.
Big news--smoke coming out of this chimney.
Pretty weakly, though.
♪ ♪
See the smoke coming out of the ground?
Still have it coming out the front, too.
That makes me think it's not gonna work.
Yeesh, didn't have good enough airflow,
but I'd love to keep tweakin' with it,
but time is of the essence, so the pressure's on now.
♪ ♪
- I'm thinking about doing a lean-to
kind of on this hill.
Most of our weather comes from the west,
so the wind's gonna be coming off this way,
and then I've got these two big trees here.
I think I can just tie a pole up
and then put two of my uprights here
and then lash my other poles to that.
A lean-to right here will shelter
a huge space underneath.
The first order of business--
build a bucksaw so we can start cutting materials
for our shelter.
Gonna be a lot of work to get this done.
Knowin' Jordan, he's already found a cave somewhere,
and he's, like, done.
♪ ♪
Nice.
I need a couple of pretty stout poles
for my uprights.
♪ ♪
[grunts]
I want to tie that top.
Let's see if I can get up here
without killing myself.
♪ ♪
It's a lot of weight on that little pole.
♪ ♪
Don't try that at home, kids.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- [breathing heavily]
♪ ♪
- [panting] So I got to start on the structure ASAP.
I think this is a pretty good spot
for the round dome shelter.
I've been cutting willows for the frame,
but I got to get going.
Time to make the structure.
♪ ♪
One of the structures
the Natives in this area used is the wigwam.
No rope, no paracord.
Only willows.
And look how flexible this material is.
I basically twisted them around each other
so they put tension.
It might not look like much from the couch...
[grunts]
But I think it's gonna be a decent structure.
♪ ♪
Yeah, this is good.
Plenty big.
That's a grapevine.
Think I can swing on it?
[laughs]
[upbeat music]
I'm too old to be playing like this.
♪ ♪
[laughs]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Got a new day here.
I'm gonna try to cut my losses.
I wasted a lot of time fiddling with that rocket stove,
so I'm gonna go to plan B-- build a fireplace.
♪ ♪
I'd like to be a little farther along than this.
Sometimes you got to know when to hold 'em
and know when to fold 'em.
Okay.
I think I got enough rock around here.
I just need a ton of clay.
I'm gonna check the creek.
Usually you can find clay in these swampy areas.
♪ ♪
So this is it--my best hope.
♪ ♪
[groans] I feel something.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah.
Whoo, whoo, whoo.
Looks pretty clayey to me.
[sighs]
Think it'll do.
A little masonry.
Now we just have to work our way up.
♪ ♪
What if we incorporated this?
Line it in clay.
♪ ♪
Might as well put a little rain hood on there.
♪ ♪
So there we have it--
our little standalone chimney.
All right, so now I'm gonna build my actual shelter finally
after that.
Time's pushing, so it's gonna be intense.
[tense music]
- About time to start putting the cedar bark down.
♪ ♪
Damn it.
Don't have enough bark to cover the whole thing.
A lot of materials to collect,
so I think what I'm gonna do is just save time--
try to throw some boughs up here on this
and just see what they do.
♪ ♪
All right, so I've got two different species of fir.
So this one right here is grand fir,
and this one is Douglas fir.
What I'm looking for is these grand firs,
because the needles on these things are oriented
in a flat plane,
whereas on the Doug fir,
the needles kind of go all the way around the stem,
and so these grand fir tend to shed the water
a little bit better than these things.
So all boughs are not created equal.
[grunts]
I think they're packed in there pretty doggone tight.
I want to test the waterproofness.
♪ ♪
[groans, laughs]
♪ ♪
So that's pretty much leaking like a frickin' sieve.
That didn't work.
I'm gonna have to collect more cedar
and pull all this off, restack it.
That's what you get for being lazy.
Trying to do it without the right stuff.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- The structure I did yesterday is really good,
but to make it waterproof, I will need to thatch it.
Lots of work ahead.
Got to get these grasses and lots of it.
♪ ♪
Okay, so I have a lot of this grass.
So we can have a lot of layers to shed water in there,
lots of insulation.
Make a big bundle.
♪ ♪
So that's it. Making bundles.
I got to hustle today, man.
♪ ♪
[grunts]
Okay.
Starting from the bottom up so the water sheds properly.
♪ ♪
That's gonna work, I think,
if I can manage my time properly.
I gave myself a big challenge...
Getting a workout.
By picking this type of shelter.
There's so much material.
Just a sucker for punishment, I guess.
[exhales deeply]
I feel like I'm a little behind.
Tomorrow's gonna be pretty hard core, man.
♪ ♪
- Final day to get the shelter ready.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna make a little tripod.
It's gonna be something like this.
All right.
So what type of shelter is this?
It's a Russian hay shelter. [chuckles]
You can use the tension of these sticks
to hold this all together.
All right, so the frame is up.
Shingles, what are we gonna use?
These giant skunkweed leaves.
This is not the layer I'm fully relying on
for waterproofness.
That'll be the grass.
♪ ♪
Voilà.
Beautiful.
I want to hurry and get the next layer on,
which'll be thatching, so between the two,
I should be hermetically sealed
in there against the water.
♪ ♪
- I think I'm doing okay.
For the fire, I think I'm gonna do
a Dakota fire hole.
♪ ♪
Maybe I just need to do a trench
and then line it with rocks.
It's just gonna be a lot of work.
[exhales sharply]
♪ ♪
[pants] Almost there.
Made it. [groans]
♪ ♪
That's the last one.
Well, I'm pretty happy.
I have a good fire tunnel.
I think that will work.
And hopefully the draft of the wind
will make a really efficient smokeless fire.
[sighs]
I'm gonna need to go to the chiropractor,
the massage therapist,
and have them fix me up.
But right now I have to finish this roof.
♪ ♪
I got to get cracking.
♪ ♪
- I tested my roof yesterday, and it was leaking,
so I was able to find a lot more cedar bark
to do one layer on the whole thing.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
Bam, that's all of 'em.
It seems to be holding up, so fire...
I'm gonna do, like, a semicircle
rock reflector wall to push some of the heat back
into the shelter.
Hopefully the smoke goes the other way.
I just don't know if I have time to do that.
- So I got to hustle.
Try to hurry up, man.
♪ ♪
- Thinkin' really what I need is a front door.
♪ ♪
Time's tickin'.
- I don't know how much more I'm gonna have time to do.
- I feel pretty confident.
I'm not sure about the fire, but...
I guess we will know tomorrow on test day.
♪ ♪
- Three days ago, I issued a challenge
to Amós, Jordan, and Clay
to build a bone-dry, smoke-free shelter.
I sent them some paracord,
a multi-tool, and a saw blade.
The criteria for the shelter is that it must fit
one person comfortably, stay dry if it got rained on,
and stay smoke-free when they light their fire.
Let's see how they did.
[upbeat music]
- All right, it's testing day, and I'm excited.
The first thing I'm gonna do is get this fire going.
♪ ♪
This isn't a very smoky fire.
So just to see what the smoke's gonna do,
I'm gonna throw some pine needles on this fire.
♪ ♪
Oh, ho, ho.
That's some smoke right there.
All right, so the smoke is coming right in here,
and it just...
[tense music]
Yeah, it's, uh, gettin' a little smoky.
[bleep].
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- I'm gonna throw some pine needles on this fire.
All right, so the smoke is coming right in here,
and it just...
Yeah, it's, uh, gettin' a little smoky.
[bleep].
But not too bad.
If I'm laying on my bunk...
♪ ♪
Yeah, that's more than I want to breathe at night.
♪ ♪
So the takeaway is, don't burn wet pine needles.
All right, now comes the true test.
♪ ♪
I'm a little nervous about this one.
♪ ♪
I don't see any leaks.
But now, of course,
I just want to see how far I can push it.
[grunts]
[upbeat music]
Ooh, that's so nice.
I'll say that passed the test.
Well, I like it.
We'll see how it stacks up
against what Amós and Jordan did.
[light music]
- Beautiful, beautiful place, man.
♪ ♪
I mean, water is just beading out.
I can see it. Look.
This will handle a storm, no problem.
Look.
And let's check that.
And nothing dripping here, man.
Challenge, check.
♪ ♪
Okay, here's the shelter.
It's really big, guys.
Look, my feet are on that side.
Plenty of room to stretch.
So here's the super-efficient fire.
♪ ♪
Yeah, look at that.
Smoke coming from the chimney.
Really awesome.
I know Clay and Jordan are amazing builders,
but I think this is a good entry, man.
♪ ♪
[percussive music]
- All right.
The shelter's all ready.
♪ ♪
And I don't know if it looks a little small
to you from the outside,
but I just want to make sure you realize,
you can sit up in here fully.
So this is just perfect for one person.
Okay, might as well start a fire.
♪ ♪
There, you can see that draft hit,
sucking the fire right out of the chimney.
It's nice and clear in here.
It's doing great.
So here we go.
♪ ♪
Look at it dripping off.
And not a drop comes through it.
All right, I hope you liked the shelter.
Come visit anytime
and live dry and warm in that fine abode.
[tense music]
- You guys all did a great job.
Everybody took a really cool and a really unique approach
to attacking this challenge.
So what I liked about Amós' build...
♪ ♪
I liked the dome construction of his shelter.
I loved his use of grasses
to keep the water going down and out.
I also really liked his Dakota fire hole.
Jordan's build was really cool.
♪ ♪
The way he took the piece of bark to further help funnel
that smoke away was really cool.
I loved the way he used the skunk cabbage
because not only will that keep the water out,
it creates such a nice seal inside
that it'll keep your heat bouncing around on the inside.
For Clay's build,
I thought it was smart how he made his lean-to on the slope.
You don't have to have such an extreme grade,
and you also don't have to have as much material,
and the cedar shingles,
that's fantastic for shedding water,
but there was the factor of the smoke.
I think there was a little bit too much
to call it a smoke-free shelter.
I mean, they were all solid builds.
But since Clay didn't check all the boxes
because his shelter was supposed
to be totally smoke-free,
it comes down to Amós and Jordan.
But if I had to pick my winner...
[suspenseful music]
I got to pick Jordan's.
[light upbeat music]
I'm kind of a "work smarter, not harder" type.
So, yeah, it's more like something that I would create
because of the ease of the construction,
the lightness of the materials,
and all the heat coming directly out
and all the smoke going right away,
that was very cool.
Congratulations to everybody, but good job, Jordan.
- Oh, man. All right. Well, there you have it.
Thanks, Britt. I really appreciate the vote
and Clay, Amós,
predictably awesome shelters you guys built.
Yeah, thanks. Hope you guys all enjoyed it.
♪ ♪