- I don't wanna leave, but I need food.
Dang, no fish.
- Challenging place, challenging the rain,
Challenging the food.
- Being out here this time is a lot different
Than being out here the first time.
- When things aren't within your control,
It makes it pretty hard to deal with.
- Hello, it's greg.
- This is mark. - This is amós.
- It's callie. I am officially tapping out.
I'm leaving with a heart full of gratitude
With all the things that this land has taught me.
- I wonder who's out there, braving the storm
With me.
This is one of those days that we were warned about--
Completely crazy, life-threatening weather.
[wind blowing]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Narrator: Six of "alone's" strongest participants
Are about to face their biggest challenge yet.
- I didn't agree to do "alone" again for a suffering contest.
Oh, my god.
Narrator: With just a few supplies, they'll push
Their skills and bodies farther than ever before.
- Oh. Narrator: Starting later
Than any previous season and less time to prepare.
They'll arrive just as the fierce north atlantic winter
Is about to begin.
- Winter's about coming.
Winter's here.
Narrator: They'll battle howling winds, constant rain,
And north america's most fierce apex predators.
- You're not gonna fight off a whole bear.
It's gonna eat you.
Narrator: Survive 50 days
And they will their share of $1/2 million dollars.
- It just doesn't get any worse.
Narrator: This is "alone: Frozen."
♪ ♪
[ice cracking]
♪ ♪
[wind blowing]
♪ ♪
- As you can imagine,
Definitely not my preferred entry and exit strategy.
Ah!
To keep the crazy wind and snow from driving in the door,
I've had all built up with bows,
Crawling back and forth under.
It gets me coated in snow and drenched and cold,
And it's very daunting.
So I decided to work on the entranceway.
♪ ♪
This is gonna be one of my uprights
For my entranceway ridge pole and support.
Well, it's a breaks, cuttin' trees.
♪ ♪
And don't wipe out the camera.
I have worked so hard in my life
To overcome the conditioning that I had as a young girl
That told me I wasn't capable.
I was thinking safety out here,
'cause an axe cut...
Is a tap out, and we don't want that.
[laughs]
And so being a teacher and sharing skills like this,
It feels so fulfilling to get to provide a role model
For young women, to show them
That they're capable of anything.
Okay, that is the last one,
And I think that's appropriate, 'cause holy cow.
My hands are freezing.
And now it's back to whiteout conditions,
Because it's labrador.
Mm-kay, that latched,
And now it can get set up.
Okay.
♪ ♪
Let's see.
♪ ♪
There.
[grunting]
♪ ♪
Yes!
Check it out.
Wow!
All right. Excited--I'm super gratified.
I'm gonna get some more treetops
And then some more bows, and this is gonna be pretty nice--
And then getting the door in? Yeah.
Man, this is gonna transform life.
♪ ♪
- I wanna get out. I wanna be able to hunt today
And check my snares, and get out there
And just feel, you know, good.
[blows]
[fire crackling]
Yeah, so hopefully, this will draft up and out.
Somehow, it, like, comes around and, like, blows back in.
It's, like, this terrible, like, reverse cycle.
I don't know what's--
That's--that's my one major complaint, I guess--
Would be just smokey.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
My next milestone is day 40. You know, pretty major, major
One for me.
You know, I hope I can make it.
I hope I can continue doing what I'm doing,
And getting enough food.
And it has occurred to me,
I would be the first female winner.
That might be significant to some young women.
That, you know, might inspire them.
We have certain people that feel more connected to you
Than to other participants.
I mean, it's the same with me.
I remember watching woniya, and I just was, like,
Really inspired by woniya and really touched by her
And how she was on the land.
I'm feeling okay, physically, you know?
Obviously, just think about food all the time--
Obsessed, really.
You know, having an actual red-meat animal
Is really important, I've found,
And it really makes a difference in my physiology.
I will be trying to eat some berries as I'm moving,
Just to get a tiny bit of calories in me,
'cause I really am very hungry.
♪ ♪
I don't think any of us is like, "yeah, I love to kill."
But when you're starving and you get an animal,
There's an honor in the connection.
It is powerful, the level of gratitude you feel.
Holy [bleep], it's a grouse.
[sighs]
Oh, no.
Oh, [bleep].
[sighs]
Oh, thank god.
[sighs]
[heavy breathing]
Holy [bleep].
Dang it.
All right.
Okay.
[exhales deeply]
I mean, the head's off.
I cut the head off. It's dead.
It's just in its last, you know, throes.
That was intense.
That was really intense.
Holy crap.
[sighs]
Thank you, grouse.
Thank you, land.
[sniffles]
[sighs]
♪ ♪
This kind of meat is major.
♪ ♪
Like, this will-- this is real food.
[sniffles]
♪ ♪
[sniffles]
♪ ♪
This--this could get me through.
The grouse returning-- this could get me through.
♪ ♪
[sniffles]
This was my chance, and I didn't blow it.
I succeeded when I really, really needed to succeed.
[sighing]
It's a good day for the tiny, little hunter in me.
♪ ♪
God, it's so heavy. It's wonderful.
I'm so excited.
Yeah, I mean, you look at that back end, and you're like,
"whoo, all right."
That's a lot of meat.
This is so important right now,
Because, you know, when you're at the tail end
Of your reserves, you know,
You really can't afford to be losing any more weight.
Two weeks is a long time, so this just makes me feel like--
Aw man, maybe I can make it, you know?
Maybe I can do it.
You know, my stomach is, like, making, I swear to god,
A purring noise right now.
[laughs] that's really funny.
If I can keep maintaining and eating, then fingers crossed
I can see this thing through.
It'd be amazing to cross the finish line,
And hopefully, with--with a friend,
With whoever's still out there.
Amazing.
Just absolutely amazing.
[wind blowing]
♪ ♪
- The wind is really picking up out there.
So no idea what that means and what the day holds.
I feel like I'm just on the edge of enough muscles
To make it through doing what I can to trap rabbits,
But these conditions are gonna be rough for that.
So I might have to let that go for a couple days.
We'll see.
Never know what it's gonna be like
When I step out that door.
♪ ♪
All right, and now out into a very snowy world
To check the trapline.
♪ ♪
Oh, my gosh, if there is something in the trapline,
That would be so amazing.
That would be, like, such a love song
That labrador could sing to me right now.
Wow, would I ever feel that. Just sayin', labrador.
Whoo. More snowy here, my goodness--
Knee-deep.
I felt like the resources were really limited
In the northwest territories.
Now I see that I was wrong-- that it was actually
Incredibly abundant up there.
The issue for me was that
I didn't have the best tools with me
To take advantage of the resources that I had.
It is pretty dang wintery out here, folks.
[laughs] pretty dang wintery.
So I had to work my butt off
To figure out how to catch game with paracord
And fishing line, but game was abundant.
Here, I have all this snare wire
And zero sign of any game.
So I'm feeling defeated to have all of the things
I need to catch small game, but no sign of them.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[rabbit squealing]
Sorry, I'm sorry.
- Sorry, beloved.
Ugh.
Oh, my goodness.
I don't know how long you were here.
[sighs]
But I'm so grateful for you. [chuckles]
Wow.
Oh, my goodness.
Whew.
Well, that was intense.
[sighs] there was a rabbit
In my snare. It was caught by the leg.
I mean, I had to kill it by hand, but with the axe
And then wring its neck.
I'm sure you probably heard it screaming,
But I have a rabbit to eat.
I set off to walk the trapline, and I said that if I have
A rabbit then I'll really know that labrador loves me,
And that I'm paying attention, labrador.
And sure enough, for the first time in many days,
I have a rabbit to eat.
What a unbelievably tremendous gift.
[wind blowing]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Today was crazy, because the weather has been so weird.
This is how it looks out right now.
We've got flowing snow.
This is a lot, you know?
But there's a level of excitement there,
When you're getting this close, you know?
But there's also a level of, like, trepidation too,
'cause it's like, "oh, my god," to be so close and to not,
You know, potentially not cross
The finish line, it just makes it
Even more painful, you know?
Everything's encrusted in ice--
♪ ♪
I'm leaving just a tiny bit of the bottom of the door open,
But I can hear the snow is hitting the doorway.
So that's kind of the first time it's been snowing,
You know, into the shelter, and I think it's just gonna be,
You know, another one of those nights in.
Everything's soaked, and you just kind of deal with it.
That's all.
You know, I'm just taking it one day at a time.
♪ ♪
All right, good morning.
I had some real trouble with my eyes last night.
The smoke was--
From the fires really, really bothered them,
And, like, closing them,
Especially my left eye,
You know, super red, inflamed, and even closing them--
You know, I tried rinsing with water,
And it was really painful, and the conifer smoke is--
It's super acrid. It's got lots of pitch in it.
You know, it's tar-based, so it's just not--
It's not good to be inhaling into your lungs
And not good to have in your eyes.
So I'm hoping my eyes clear up,
You know, as I get some fresh air and get out and my tears,
You know, start forming, and--
I don't--
I've gotta be more careful, I guess.
[sighs]
So my eye hasn't gotten any better.
I've got about half visual acuity in my left eye.
Everything's hazy.
So--but when I look right now, everything's blurry
Out of my left eye.
There's this haze-fog blurriness
To my whole field of vision.
You know, you don't wanna screw around
With your eyesight.
And, you know, this is not-- this isn't good.
♪ ♪
I had always made a promise to myself
That, like, if you think
Something's wrong with your health or your welfare,
It's not worth damaging yourself,
And I promised my husband that.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
I am scared
That I am causing damage that will be irreparable.
Yeah, let me just look here.
♪ ♪
It does look a little swollen,
You know, a little puffy and...
I don't know.
Honestly, I gotta start a fire. It's so cold.
But--
Just sitting there.
So now my eye's hurting again.
But I'm, like, freezing.
So I've got to-- got to have a fire.
♪ ♪
My eyes are stinging again
Because of the smoke.
Yeah, I mean, they look wicked bloodshot
And-- [sighs]
God.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
I don't know.
♪ ♪
I don't know what to do.
♪ ♪
It's a little scary...
To have something like this
Happen to one of your senses.
You know?
I just not--not feel...
Confident that it's safe.
So torn between needing to take care of yourself,
But also wanting to go the distance, you know?
♪ ♪
Tough situation for me.
♪ ♪
It's hard to, you know, accept that about yourself,
And it's like-- [sniffles]
Um...
♪ ♪
That you're not quite enough for the task.
♪ ♪
[sighs] oh, god.
♪ ♪
[phone ringing]
- Yes?
- Hey, this is michelle. I'm gonna tap out today.
[wind blowing]
I'm not the strongest or the best.
♪ ♪
I'm just me.
And, um, I'm enough for myself. [laughs]
♪ ♪
Which is kind of a revelation. [chuckles]
For some reason, I thought I wasn't enough, you know?
And now, in this moment,
I feel, like, freed from that--
To feel like what I am is enough--
Like a weight is off, you know?
♪ ♪
[helicopter whirring]
♪ ♪
My eyes have been stinging and stinging
And just in so much pain for hours.
Like, they hurt. Both my eyes are killing me.
So I just feel like--
You know, my dad's an optometrist.
[laughs] he was always, like,
Really a stickler about the eyes.
So I know that they're-- they heal easily,
But I know that they're damaged easily as well.
I feel like-- [sniffles]
If it is the smoke,
It's not gonna get any better for the next 12 days.
It'll just get worse, and--
♪ ♪
Yeah, I just don't-- I don't wanna risk it.
♪ ♪
And I am proud of myself. That's what I wanted.
I became a hunter out here,
And that was one of my big goals,
And I wanted to be able to feed myself,
And I did that.
♪ ♪
So...
♪ ♪
I feel like the land and I
♪ ♪
Held the dance going. [chuckles]
♪ ♪
And uh...
♪ ♪
It's hard to--hard to leave.
♪ ♪
I feel like, all in all, I have had a lot of success,
Which is--feels really sweet,
'cause last time, I--I had so little success.
Everything felt like failure,
And here, I feel like I've been able to do some things
That I really wanted to do,
And I felt like I belonged.
♪ ♪
Some places have power in them,
And this place is-- I feel very old and wise
And wild.
And I feel like I'll-- I'll have it inside me always.
♪ ♪
- Ah! So this storm is pretty crazy.
I don't know if you can hear the wind, but it is so intense,
And it is totally destroying my walls.
So now I've got liquid seeping in through the walls,
Near where I have all of my dry firewood.
I made a spool for my yarn
To make it easier to get through these walls.
The wind is so intense,
It's pushed some of my insulation out,
And so the wind is coming in.
My plan to seal and insulate the back wall a lot better
Basically got squashed by the snow coming,
So now there's more gaps.
♪ ♪
So now my wind's just coming straight down the chimney.
Labrador doesn't mess around, people.
And the wind is so intense,
That the chimney isn't drying well.
It's blowing the smoke in here, so I've got wet wood
And lots of smoke.
So definitely not ideal.
Ugh, I'm just getting choked out by the smoke.
[wind blowing]
I'm getting quite the headache
From smoke inhalation, unfortunately.
I've experienced smoke inhalation,
But this is a whole different thing.
This is the first time that I feel like it's actually
A serious survival issue being out here.
So the only thing I can do is let my fire go out and crawl
Into my sleeping bag and hope I don't freeze to death.
My eyes are just on fire. The pain is pretty intense.
I can barely keep them open.
Looking forward to sleep-- hoping it's possible
My eyes are so bad.
I'm not sure how that's gonna work out,
And it's pretty uncomfortable.
Really concerned about my eyes.
Intense burning pain--
That could definitely take me out.
♪ ♪
The morning is perhaps not quite as dire as last evening,
But also, not great.
My eyes were just in excruciating pain
Most of the night.
Still hard to keep them open, and they're blurry.
♪ ♪
I didn't foresee myself getting taken out.
♪ ♪
Felt like it was just a matter of getting through it,
Not--you know, that if I didn't have any, like, major injuries
Or calamities, it was gonna be no problem.
This feels like both a major injury and calamity.
So let's rest a little bit, try to heal up.
Gotta have things be better soon.
All right, good night.
[chuckles] again.
[wind blowing]
Whew, wow.
Hello. [sniffles]
So I ended up going back to bed and slept
For hours and hours.
With my eyes doing way better, so that was really gratifying,
And I feel like I made the right call, for sure.
♪ ♪
They look and feel a lot closer to normal.
[inhales deeply]
I am ready to head out onto the ice.
So we'll see what has happened down at the lake.
Crossing my fingers that that will be
An amazing new calorie source--
Could be food for all the way to day 50.
I'm hauling this tree out with me so that should the ice crack
Under me, I have something to bridge the gap.
Ready for ice fishing, people.
♪ ♪
Definitely feeling the deep hunger in my body--
This hunger that just goes all the way to a deep place
In my core. I can't even describe
Physically where it is.
Who can resist delicious squirrel intestines, right?
♪ ♪
So much fuss and preparation to get out here,
And then a lot of sittin' around.
My body knows that it is really time for more calories
And more fat than I'm getting.
On season six, I had fishing gear at a spot
Where I was never gonna be able to catch fish.
Here, I have all this fishing line and zero sign
Of any fish. So it makes it more
Of a struggle to make it through
Without additional food for these next ten days.
I think I'm gonna call it for the day--
Disappointed, but with this wind, I better get off the ice
Pretty quick, because I don't wanna get too chilled.
Every day feels like a pretty major feat
To get through right now.
No question that this is the hardest experience of my life,
And all of a sudden, it feels like serious survival.
♪ ♪
- Day 41.
I'm starting to get that gone-cheek look
That's familiar from season six.
I don't like that.
I really didn't believe in my physical capacity as a kid.
I was in the girl scouts, and we sat around doing crafts,
While the boy scouts went on camping trips.
There weren't strong women in leadership roles
In outdoor skills-- hunting, camping.
You just didn't see it. It was kind of a given
That that stuff was boy stuff.
♪ ♪
Any of the skills that I have now,
I had to fight my way to those skills amidst people
Giving me messages that those skills weren't for me.
This life is not for the faint of heart.
I just hope to make it through these next few days.
♪ ♪
Day 48, my body and time are winding down.
My energy is low, people.
It is quite low, quite low.
♪ ♪
How moving and fulfilling it is for me to feel like
I could be the role model for young girls
That I wish I had had myself,
And that's part of what gives me my strength
To cross that finish line.
♪ ♪
There's a lot I didn't get to that I really wanted to.
But I feel like I have achieved
So much and fulfilled so many of my hopes and dreams for it.
I just can't-- can't feel bad about it.
[chuckles]
Thinking a lot about the others--
Wondering who all is still out here.
♪ ♪
Day 50, and what a gorgeous morning!
Oh, my goodness.
Today, I have achieved my goal.
Day 50, alone in labrador,
Getting pounded by weather. Oh, my goodness.
But, wow. Here we are.
Hard to wrap my brain around it all.
Whew!
So I want to make a stone sculpture
To give gratitude and pay homage
To the [indistinct] people who so warmly welcomed me
To this land.
♪ ♪
So happy with my sculpture.
♪ ♪
I have never seen a more beautiful, wild place,
And yet, I am so excited to be leaving it.
It's the helicopter. It's really here.
[laughs]
I can't believe it.
It's time to go face the world.
A whole different world than the one I've been living in.
All right, it's on.
♪ ♪
I'm about to see people again.
♪ ♪
Oh, my gosh. It's good to see you.
[laughs]
I can't believe it. I can't believe it,
That it's day 50. It's like a heartbeat.
It went so fast, and then it was also the longest 50 days
Of my entire life.
[laughs]
So there's just so much mixed emotion right now.
I feel excited to be going home,
And I'm gonna miss this place
And this life and this experience so much,
And I don't wanna do another storm out here,
And I still feel strong, and I can feel my body startin'
To go downhill and it just being harder to do things,
And I can see my cheeks getting more and more gaunt,
And I don't wanna do to my body the intensity
Of what I did last time, but it's still--
It's still bittersweet.
Yeah, I actually achieved my goal.
The last time in the arctic, I wanted to be there--
You are kidding me! Oh, my god!
[laughing]
[crying] oh, I wanted this
To happen so bad, and I didn't think it would.
- I have something to share with you.
You're the only one that made it to day 50.
I'm so proud. - [crying]
I really wanted to walk across the threshold with them.
- I know. - But I can't believe it.
I can't believe I made it. It was so hard.
It was really hard.
It is, like, heartbreaking and incredibly validating
That so many people who were so skilled
Weren't able to do it, and I was abler to do it.
It's just so much.
[laughing] it's just so overwhelming.
- It feels amazing.
- It feels incredible.
I'm so--like, I feel
So incredibly grateful
To be able to represent women in this way,
And to show the world that we are every bit as capable.
I've emphasized the heart and the connection and the love
And how much being in this place
Has been a relationship,
And I feel like that's something really special
That women often can bring.
To be an influence for young women, to be a role model
For young girls and show them what they are capable of,
To be a role model that I wish
I had had as a young woman--
It just--it's so powerful. It means so much to me.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
That young girl who had her nose in a book
And was the last person to get chosen for elementary school
Dodgeball teams just killed it on an
Internationally-recognized survival competition.
♪ ♪
My philosophy is one
That doesn't use the word "survival,"
Because I believe that the term "survival"
Is a fear-based approach,
And I prefer to think of it as wilderness living.
The wild isn't a place that's out to get me
And that I have to escape. It's a place that I belonged,
And so it's a "going-home."
That's the polar opposite of survival.
♪ ♪
And I am leaving here having shown the world
What I am capable of.
I spent 73 days living in the arctic by myself
On season six of "alone,"
And I just completed 50 days.
♪ ♪
That makes me the lone participant who has spent
The most cumulative days living in the wild
By themselves--
Not the first woman to do that,
But the first person to do that.
I have worked so hard in my life to overcome
The conditioning that I had as a young girl that told me
I wasn't capable.
For all of those young girls, for all of those people
Who didn't believe enough in themselves,
They get to identify with my journey
And see that they are capable
Of anything they set out to do.
♪ ♪
But there needs to be a first,
And that opens the gates to everyone to know
That they are just as capable as anyone else,
And I'm really excited to get to be
The one to open that gate.
♪ ♪
[ice cracking]