Alone
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Another one bites the dust. Do some of them have fresh water close by but others dont. If this is the case some people are disadvantaged from the off.
I'm sure that decent fresh water is available within a short space. The thing to remember though is that they are there in October when the rivers and even tiny creeks have been flooded with salmon - and ALL Pacific salmon die after spawning. Add to that giardia are now present everywhere. That's why it's so vital that water is properly filtered or better yet boiled before drinking. So anyone who couldn't make a fire or drank water that was not collected from rain is in trouble. Giardia (beaver fever) is pretty nasty and we had a big outbreak here when floods removed filtering sand from the water intake for the municipal water supply. Even the amount of chlorine they add here didn't kill the stuff. Can giardia cause symptoms like that - you bet, and worse! You know when someone is about with a growing case or even after some treatment because the gas produced is pretty stinky. Someone may be going home to sleep in a tent for a while. People who quit earlier and who couldn't start a fire might just be taking home some passengers! There is also the aspect that lack of coordination and/or paranoia are a huge early symptoms of giardiasis.
I was even careful to pack lots of pop/ bottled water when I went out with grand-kids who don't favour hot drinks like geriatrics (I am one of the few people to use a Kelty Basecamp as a day bag..), and was darned careful how I placed the bottles and cans to cool to avoid contamination. I sterilise cups etc.., washed in stream water.
I didn't like the title of the show - "Stalked" because of course every unhunted critter in whose territory you are, is going to come and check you out at close range and that's what the trail cameras are showing. It can be pretty unnerving, but it may not be malicious. Because workers at a local plant feed wildlife, then even on a local coast trail I've had first foxes show up for handouts and then when coyotes displaced the foxes, those too would eat out of your hand. The latter shocked me because I'd only experienced coyotes in places where they are hunted. But there is the rule that while people even in a hunting or fish camp are pretty secure sleeping by firelight, don't ever walk out of the light, at least in grizzly territory. I was surprised to find that info even in George Leonard Herter's book, but I have more recent knowledge of how bad things can go. At the same time I've known tree planters who camped by a salmon creek and who had MANY bears pass right by their camp at night while they were snoozing around a fire. Cougars, lynx and bobcat are total carnivores so they don't make noise when stalking, only when casually looking around, so I'm not taking the snapped twig and pictures as a threat. Nevertheless what lover of pistols doesn't love the old Colt Ad where the cowboy is sitting by a fire at night - and "Snapped twig - Colt - Confidence!". Great stuff and advertising but when you are sitting by the fire with a real (elephant - no prejudice I love them) gun which will shoot through the bones of any griz, even if it's been careful enough to bring armour - just what are you supposed to do with that at night?
I think we have one more about to go down, then things should get really interesting
I was even careful to pack lots of pop/ bottled water when I went out with grand-kids who don't favour hot drinks like geriatrics (I am one of the few people to use a Kelty Basecamp as a day bag..), and was darned careful how I placed the bottles and cans to cool to avoid contamination. I sterilise cups etc.., washed in stream water.
I didn't like the title of the show - "Stalked" because of course every unhunted critter in whose territory you are, is going to come and check you out at close range and that's what the trail cameras are showing. It can be pretty unnerving, but it may not be malicious. Because workers at a local plant feed wildlife, then even on a local coast trail I've had first foxes show up for handouts and then when coyotes displaced the foxes, those too would eat out of your hand. The latter shocked me because I'd only experienced coyotes in places where they are hunted. But there is the rule that while people even in a hunting or fish camp are pretty secure sleeping by firelight, don't ever walk out of the light, at least in grizzly territory. I was surprised to find that info even in George Leonard Herter's book, but I have more recent knowledge of how bad things can go. At the same time I've known tree planters who camped by a salmon creek and who had MANY bears pass right by their camp at night while they were snoozing around a fire. Cougars, lynx and bobcat are total carnivores so they don't make noise when stalking, only when casually looking around, so I'm not taking the snapped twig and pictures as a threat. Nevertheless what lover of pistols doesn't love the old Colt Ad where the cowboy is sitting by a fire at night - and "Snapped twig - Colt - Confidence!". Great stuff and advertising but when you are sitting by the fire with a real (elephant - no prejudice I love them) gun which will shoot through the bones of any griz, even if it's been careful enough to bring armour - just what are you supposed to do with that at night?
I think we have one more about to go down, then things should get really interesting
I'm glad they have thought of the members of their audience with short-term memory loss... must be handy to be reminded where Vancouver Island is every two minutes! 
Had a bout of geekery and did some Earth-Googling.
Now if the programme's map is to be believed, these are the locations of the contestants,
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zH9xGCJ-vEyw.kWvDRYlZzpMc&usp=sharing
Some of them are curiously close to villages.
Now if the programme's map is to be believed, these are the locations of the contestants,
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zH9xGCJ-vEyw.kWvDRYlZzpMc&usp=sharing
Some of them are curiously close to villages.
Quite close to each other in some cases. So close they will be able to hear the screams of there fellow contestants if they are getting mauled by a squirrel.
If you mean Winter Harbour, then village is a bit of a stretch. Fishing outpost is a more likely description.
You also need to remember that they are in a contest, not a true survival situation. If they bushwack through 10km of forest to Winter Harbour resort and bum some matches and a salmon burger, they aren't going to win the money...
There is active logging all over in that area, so if they so chose they could have contact with other people. Then the show wouldn't be called Alone though would it. It'd be 'some guys who we dropped off and then they hiked out again'.
You also need to remember that they are in a contest, not a true survival situation. If they bushwack through 10km of forest to Winter Harbour resort and bum some matches and a salmon burger, they aren't going to win the money...
There is active logging all over in that area, so if they so chose they could have contact with other people. Then the show wouldn't be called Alone though would it. It'd be 'some guys who we dropped off and then they hiked out again'.
Juxtaposition is irrelevant with a 7k - 10-k ridge in between me and thee.
You are accustomed to cardinal directions in your environment. Up and Down trump any of those notions.
My valleys are so narrow that GPS is non-functional. There are no batteries in a really good compass.
Learn to use it before you must.
You are accustomed to cardinal directions in your environment. Up and Down trump any of those notions.
My valleys are so narrow that GPS is non-functional. There are no batteries in a really good compass.
Learn to use it before you must.
Quite close to each other in some cases. So close they will be able to hear the screams of there fellow contestants if they are getting mauled by a squirrel.
I'd pointed out earlier to look carefully at the logged off areas close by - and where there are logged off areas there are decent logging roads. The advantage of having the guys on tree farm licenses is that then they can legally cut conifers.
All said and done, though, with conditions in the mild range so far, the group of ten is now down to five after five days. I am shocked at that swift reduction, but it does make sense. Lots of people think they can make a fire in tough conditions, but really can't - and I was one of them when I was focused on hunting and fishing, and only ever actually made fires in better conditions. Lots of people have gone missing here, and it's almost always in the fall in mushroom picking/fishing/hunting time. That's when the search parties have no luck due to rain and the planes with infra-red trackers can't fly due to cloud. If you get incapacitated and can't walk out, then with a fire you could last for a few days until spotted from the air. While I've improved with tools and technique over the last twenty years for lighting fires in all conditions here, it has taken a lot of practise of various strategies and refining the tools to fit those strategies - all of which I could do because I live here. So I am curious as to how the remaining people do in the inevitable storms, since they live in places where they don't get to practise regularly in super wet conditions.
With no fire going yet to purify water and eating salty stuff - and the fall, I think I'm seeing the next one to go, unless he gets his game together, gets hydrated, has avoided giardia..
While we've seen some shots of heavy rain, in October it's pretty much guaranteed to see some storms with pounding rain which can go with no respite for days. If I was in their position then I'd sure have been busy so far in building a shelter which would withstand the rain and wind - I sure like Alan's with an A frame of vertical logs and then branches over the tarp to help with shedding water and help holding everything in place. I'm a little unsure of Sam's classic setup in the open, because open ground exposes you to wind which can be pretty extreme, and open ground can turn into a quagmire in minutes with the pounding rain they get there if it isn't on gravel. Even here at the end of a long channel, rain can fall so fast onto a road or parking lot that it can build up to 1 1/2" inches in depth, because it's falling faster than it can run off. So unless you've made a proper bed well above the ground...
So I wasn't expecting actual wilderness from seeing the clear cuts, but I'm still learning lots from the show and finding it interesting.
You can watch it here,
http://www.history.com/shows/alone/videos/winds-of-hell?m=5189717d404fa&s=All&f=1&free=false
if you can fool your browser into thinking you are in the USA!
That can be done with the AnonymoX addon, if you are using Firefox browser.
http://www.history.com/shows/alone/videos/winds-of-hell?m=5189717d404fa&s=All&f=1&free=false
if you can fool your browser into thinking you are in the USA!
That can be done with the AnonymoX addon, if you are using Firefox browser.
Cheers Gadget and Dewi...Just watched it, The bit where the cougar jumped on the guys back was hilarious.
Another one gone by day 7, and then things get interesting as days go by.
I kept looking but could see no evidence of a fire, so the guy was really pushing his luck, and must have had it tougher than most would believe. Once clothes become damp, then the chill really sets in, in that cold damp climate. It'd be interesting to know how he purified water.
So given the results so far 60% are out really because they couldn't light a fire or lost their ferro rod. With a fire, perhaps the ones scared by critters would have built up their confidence, and the one who got sick would have been OK.
I kept looking but could see no evidence of a fire, so the guy was really pushing his luck, and must have had it tougher than most would believe. Once clothes become damp, then the chill really sets in, in that cold damp climate. It'd be interesting to know how he purified water.
So given the results so far 60% are out really because they couldn't light a fire or lost their ferro rod. With a fire, perhaps the ones scared by critters would have built up their confidence, and the one who got sick would have been OK.
and bright sunlight 2 seconds later experiend that calgary rain sitting in my sons front room in turner valley
greenshoots
and bright sunlight 2 seconds later experiend that calgary rain sitting in my sons front room in turner valley
greenshoots
And actually that's something I've been thinking about. So far the only heavy rain was on the night of day 6. Otherwise they have had some clear days. But the real rain which doesn't stop should be around shortly.
The bit that is puzzling me is that we have someone who has lasted for many days and wasn't totally hypothermic or dead. So his shelter did work well enough to keep him alive and not totally soaked, but he'd have been a bit miserable. All the "Tom Brown" knife jokes aside, how could someone with a shelter fail to light a fire in that time? He had time to pound a few pillow cased sized loads of drier twigs to powder in that time and with some body heat, dry them out well enough to get a fire started. How could a person with a working shelter fail to get a fire started in days?
I'm reminded of a Ray Mears comment as to how he used wood from a cedar log which was under water during high tides to light his fires, when he was on the west coast. That only works if you split it fine and dry it out first - which I guess he forgot to mention. But for sure even sodden wood can be dried out.
We were on the Deerfoot during that short storm, and it sure took a while for people to slow down a bit... Exciting times!
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