‘Alone’ Season 13: One World Championship Contestant Taps Out in Episode 1
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Alone Season 13 premiere.]
Who will be the Alone world champion? History Channel’s survival series returned for its 13th season on June 17. And for the first-time ever, the show has enlisted a group of 10 survivalists from around the world to compete for a life-changing $500,000 prize.
Contestants for this “world championship” season come not just from the U.S. and Canada, but also from Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Wales, and Slovenia. They’ve been dropped in a remote part of the Beaufort Delta Region in the far north of Canada’s Northwest Territories. This frigid and rugged zone in the Arctic Circle will test them all in unexpected ways, as seen in the season premiere, “Worlds Collide.”
Meet the ‘Alone’ Season 13 survivalists
Episode 1 introduces five of the season’s 10 survivalists. Jacks is a 40-year-old wilderness instructor from New York. Pedrosa is a 40-year-old military vet from Portugal. Will is a 37-year-old dad with from an Iñupiaq family in Alaska. Nero is a 40-year-old Army vet and wilderness instructor from Australia. And David is a 31-year-old project manager from Washington State.
For all five, the days after the first drop are a mix of exhilarating and intimidating as they marvel at the natural landscape while also making plans for how to survive by relying on their wits and what the land provides. (Alone contestants can bring a limited selection of survival tools and supplies to support them on their journey.) There are some early victories. Several contestants kill small game, and progress is made on their shelters, which range from simple tarp tents to more elaborate log cabins. Will scavenges some nails from old boards and fashions a berry picker, and Nero finds a glass bottle with a cap that will allow him to venture further from his campsite as she hunts and forages.
But soon after drop, reality sets in. Jacks – who is grieving the loss of her mother – has a meltdown after rain gets into her temporary shelter and soaks her sleeping bag, a situation that could jeopardize her future in the competition if she cannot dry it out and have a safe, and warm, place to sleep. Things get even worse when she loses a sweater, one of the few items of clothing she was allowed to bring with her. Meanwhile, Pedrosa quickly loses all his small game arrows. But it’s David who struggles the most.
“I think I’m willing to sacrifice a lot more than most people,” David declares early on in his Alone journey. He left behind his wife and their two young daughters, a 1½-year-old and a 3-month old, and he misses them fiercely. But he believes winning the $500,000 will help them all, so he tries to remind himself “that this is a temporary experience.”
David’s head is not in the game
However, it quickly becomes clear that David’s head is not in the game. He’s a traditional bow hunter, but all of his attempts at hunting go nowhere.
“It’s so unlike me to miss shots like that,” he says, after failing to kill a grouse.
Back in his tent, he reflects on his situation.
“A challenge like this is really dependent on your life circumstance … the guilt associated with my burdens on everyone else is significant,” he says, adding that he doesn’t want to miss out on his children growing up.
“I do worry if I’m good enough as a father, every day. I come from a line of fathers that were kind of absent. It’s very damaging to grow up without a father,” he adds.
David wonders if his desire to win Alone is about doing something for his family, or if it’s really about putting himself first.
“Man, I f*cking miss my wife and kids,” he says on day 3. “I am not in the game right now … I don’t want it.”
David taps out, becoming the first Alone Season 13 contestant to exit the competition. Nine other survivalists remain. Who will go home next? And who will prove their mettle as a survivalist? Find out when new episodes of Alone air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on History Channel.
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