Survive 50 days and win a share of $500,000. That’s the setup for History’s Alone: Frozen. And by the end of season one episode seven, just two survivalists will split the pot if they can stick it out until the bitter, freezing end.
Episode six ended with Callie making a deal with herself, and episode seven opens with Callie learning her fate. “The Last Hope” takes us from 24 days left in the 50-day competition down to 18.
If no one makes it to Day 50, then the prize will go unclaimed.
Callie Russell, Age 34, Montana – Season 7, Survived 89 Days
24 Days Left: Callie made a deal with herself that if she doesn’t find any food in her snares, she’ll tap out. She gets up after spending the night outside her shelter under the stars, aware that she might be causing long-term harm to her body.
The mussels are making her sick so they’re no longer an option.
She heads out and is disappointed her first few traps are empty. Callie would like to stay but she’s not going to push her body to an unsafe place. Her last hope at food is her fish trap and she walks over the ice to retrieve her line. Her fate in the game hangs in the balance as the ice refuses to break and allow her to pull in her rope.
Callie finally tosses a rock to break up the ice, retrieves her trap, and it’s empty. Bummer. She really wants to stay and learn more about the wilderness and herself, but she doesn’t have any food. “It’s hard to accept when your heart and mind and soul want to keep doing something, but you’ve reached your physical edge,” says Callie.
We’re barely into episode seven when she officially taps out. Her knowledge of what happens when you push your body too far makes her extremely cautious. Even though it’s a lot of money, Callie is sure she’s making the right choice.
“I’m leaving with a heart full of gratitude,” explains Callie. Losing her brothers when she was younger taught her the value of life, and she describes the wilderness as “a mirror of truth.” She sees her brothers in it.
Callie chose her healthy body over money. She wants viewers to see this as a story of empowerment.
Woniya Thibeault, Age 45, California – Season 6, Survived 73 Days
23 Days Left: It’s sunny but the stream is frozen, and Woniya knows that means she has ice fishing in her near future. She gathers blueberries as she explains that making it through 50 days is all about playing it safe.
There aren’t any tracks by the stream but she’s happy about harvesting tinder and berries. Right after saying it’s about being safe she slices her pinky. It hurts but she doesn’t need the medics. She reminds herself to use gloves and she’ll have to take extra precautions when cutting up game so that her wound doesn’t get infected.
She wraps her wound and decides to eat a little bit back at camp instead of doing more work right now.
22 Days Left: Woniya finds fox poop outside her shelter and one of her snare wires is pushed out of the way. That means it knows about snare wire after being trapped in it once before (in episode five.) It was able to move the wire and eat all the bait.
Woniya’s plan is to try and figure out how to place the snare so that it snags the fox. She knows how to trap foxes and would be thrilled to eat one. Plus, it’s right next to her shelter!
Just as darkness is about to fall, she places rabbit leftovers in the trap and adds another snare in the middle of the trap – one the fox won’t expect. The second snare will be “more subtle and a different color.”
She hopes to outfox the fox.
21 Days Left: It’s 4:28am when a fox is heard in the trap.
Woniya gets up around 8am and she’s caught the fox. She describes it as beautiful and feels incredibly grateful it gave its life for her to eat. All her efforts paid off, and she plans on using its scent glands to draw in other foxes.
She heads over to put on her gloves since she sliced her finger and needs to keep it dry. She begins slicing up the fox and puts the testicles in the pot. They’re full of protein and cholesterol.
After skinning it she proceeds to gut it, making sure she takes care with the intestines. Salmonella and tapeworms can be transmitted to humans from the fox’s bowels.
Later, she cooks up the fatty bits. If its meat isn’t completely cooked, it can lead to trichinosis. She says a prayer while eating the fox’s heart, which is rich in vitamins and minerals.
20 Days Left: Woniya plans on thoroughly scraping the fox’s hide. She’ll eat the membrane and tan the hide. She sets to work setting up a scraping beam, making a smooth surface so she doesn’t put holes in the hide.
She loves the beauty and the strangeness of this world. “If you look deep enough this world is going to blow you over with all the crazy cool things from the microscopic level to the huge level,” says Woniya.
She sets to work scraping the hide, using a piece of steel she found five days in. She’s finding a lot of fat on the hide and places it in her bucket. Alone informs us fat is safe to eat for a month at room temperature after it’s rendered.
She’s going to make a scarf out of the hide now that she’s finished the scraping.
18 Days Left: Her current task is to retrieve water from her nearby freshwater lake. She brings her axe because it’s frozen over and notes her approach to the lake is pretty slippery right now. She moves some rocks around to make for a safer entry to the lake.
The storm clouds look ominous, and she uses her axe to break the ice, realizing she needs to hurry and get out of the high winds. Winds can gust up to 50 mph in this area.
She’s thinking a lot about her fellow survivalists and knows you have to focus on finding the beauty in the discomfort and not focus on the challenge and the hardships. The competition’s been brutally hard.
She makes it to her shelter as the freezing cold wind rocks the area. An intense storm has arrived.
Woniya stands outside in the horizontal snow and the crazy winds. She’s all bundled up as she heads off to check her trap line. She’s sure she can go the distance, but it’s tough finding her snares since they’re buried under the snow.
After half an hour outside she’s completely soaked. The snow turned to water the second it touched her. She makes it back to her shelter and her clothes steam from the fire.
Woniya confirms this is one of those days they were warned would happen in Labrador. It’s life-threatening weather.
Michelle Finn, Age 47, Maine – Season 8, Survived 21 Days
22 Days Left: Michelle admits she had a rough night because of long-term hunger. She’s been dreaming about food which makes it tough to sleep. Michelle needs more calories and decides to eat more clams and mussels today.
She uses her scarf as a fishnet to rinse everything and then heads back to the shelter and cooks them up.
Michelle knows that if she’d weighed 20 more pounds coming into the game, she could easily make the 50 days. But she’s so slight she doesn’t have weight on her bones to lose. However, she doesn’t know at what point she’ll lose too much and have to tap.
She cooks up 130 mussels and 50 clams. Alone informs us that mussels are nine calories each and clams are seven. She just ate 1,520 calories – thank you Alone for doing the math.
Michelle’s lost 16 pounds so far.
She heads out to check her traps and look for any game to hunt. She thinks the area feels like it should be full of animals, and after finding empty traps she finally comes upon one with a hare in it.
She feels an intense surge of gratitude mixed with shock and relief. The hare could be the difference between lasting the full 50 days or having to tap. She knows she’s at the point where she’s getting close to the finish line, but it’s hard to let herself dream.
Michelle skins the rabbit and it’s a large one that completely fills her pot.
20 Days Left: The ground is completely covered in snow as she heads out to do some hunting and check on her snares. A squirrel yells at her but she doesn’t take a shot. She hasn’t seen any hare or grouse tracks while she’s out on her hike and is feeling discouraged. However, she knows there are squirrels around.
19 Days Left: Michelle confesses she’s never even thought about trying to shoot a squirrel with her bow because they’re small and fast. They’re definitely not her first choice of animal to hunt, but she realizes she’s forced to. She’s decided she’s going to wage a war on squirrels.
She shoots one but it doesn’t die, and she puts it out of its misery.
Since squirrels are all that’s out there, she hopes it will be enough to allow her to go the distance.
18 Days Left: Michelle’s winning her war on squirrels and is proud of herself. She’s not a hunter and doesn’t have the experience but has been able to shoot enough squirrels to get some protein. She takes a bite and realizes there’s a difference in texture between the younger ones and the older ones.
Michelle points her camera out of the shelter and describes it as gnarly. She has to go out in it to check her snares, and she’s getting soaking wet from the moisture-laden snow. There’s nothing in her traps and it’s -1 out in the open, with the wind chill. This is the worst weather they’ve had so far.
Michelle loves the idea that this season isn’t about winning over other people, but instead, they can win together. It feels within her reach, and she doesn’t believe there are many survivalists still left in the competition. (She’s right.)
- Alone: Frozen Season 1 Episode 1 “50 Day Freeze” Recap
- Alone: Frozen Season 1 Episode 2 “Frost Bound” Recap
- Alone: Frozen Season 1 Episode 3 “The Edge” Recap
- Alone: Frozen Season 1 Episode 4 “Bone Cold” Recap
- Alone: Frozen Season 1 Episode 5 “Outfoxed” Recap
- Alone: Frozen Season 1 Episode 6 “On Thin Ice” Recap
- Alone: Frozen Season 1 Episode 8 “The Bitter End” Finale Recap
