The History Channel’s Alone season 10 takes place in the survival series’ most remote location to date: islands throughout Reindeer Lake in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Season 10 features 10 talented survivalists, with episode one – airing on June 8, 2023 – showcasing five of the new season’s competitors. The activities featured in “Game On” begin with the group being dropped off on day one and continue through day six.
Each competitor is allowed to bring just 10 survival items as they attempt to outlast their fellow survivalists in an environment that’s home to black bears, wolves, and moose.
Key stats about the area, courtesy of Alone episode one:
-The lake covers 2 million acres and is a thousand feet deep at points.
-There are 43,000 black bears in Saskatchewan.
-All participants get bear spray and a tap out device in their safety pack.
-The average low temperature is 14 degrees.
Luke Olsen, Age 39, Maui, Hawaii
Day 1 – Luke owns Dichroic Images, a glass art business, and also keeps busy teaching ancestral skills at Pono Outdoor. Luke’s the youngest of 11 children, and his parents wrote the bestselling book Outdoor Survival Skills and launched multiple survival schools. He considers himself a problem solver who thinks outside the box.
Luke spots fresh bear tracks in his area right away, and confirms he’s encountered black bears in the past. “There’s no fear from me. I am an alpha to them,” says Luke.
Luke also finds a game trail fairly quickly as he’s looking for berries, firewood caches, and shelter locations. He walks with a purpose, and it’s so hot that he takes off his shirt while scouting the area.
It’s not long into his first morning that he shoots a grouse on his first attempt. His approach is that if you have a shot, take it.
Day 2 – Luke’s camp is just feet from the lake, and the shifting wind overnight sent ash onto his sleeping bag. It now has a few holes and smoke burns, courtesy of his fire. His beach is windy, and this won’t be his final camp location. However, before setting up a new shelter, he’s going to find more food.
Luke believes you can survive bad shelters, but you can’t survive starvation. He gathers wild blueberries and notes that there are big game trails in his area. However, he thinks that just randomly coming across an animal happens more often than following a trail and burning calories.
He can pick berries and do “still hunting” (walking quietly through a habitat) at the same time. And as he’s collecting berries to store up, he spots a black bear not far away. It didn’t notice him and it’s moving fast. Luke decides to see if he can stalk it.
Luke’s close enough to smell the bear when he takes his first shot and misses. The bear remains nearby, and he attempts a second shot. It also misses. As he’s searching for his arrows, he reveals that he thinks someone is going to get big game this season. And that, of course, will be a game changer.
Survivalists are allowed nine arrows, and Luke’s already lost one on day two.
Luke’s 10 Survival Items:
Block of Salt
Sleeping Bag
Cooking Pot
Gill Net
Snare Wire
Bow and Arrows
Multitool
Saw
Fishing Line and Hooks
Shovel
Alan Tenta, Age 51, Columbia Valley, BC, Canada
Day 1 – Alan’s shirtless, stripped down to his underwear and taking time out for a swim when we first see him in the wild. It’s 70 degrees, but the water temperature’s a chilly 55.
Alan’s a high school teacher who’s been preparing for outdoor survival all his life. He’s passionate about bow-hunting, loves fishing and bushcraft, and feels like he belongs in the wild. Alan’s lived in areas similar to this location, so he thinks he might have a home-court advantage.
Alan plans on using the grand prize to pay for his kids’ education if he wins. He’s hoping to use Alone to find out just how far he can push himself. And if he wins, he’ll be the first teacher to do so.
Alan weighs 259 pounds, gaining 40 just for this competition.
His first task is to make a fishing plug, which is a lure designed to mimic baitfish. Alan’s a proficient fisherman and has come prepared with multiple options for making lures to catch pike and lake trout. The sun’s almost setting when he catches his first lake trout and thanks it for its life.
The fish is full of roe (unfertilized eggs), and Alan plans on cooking it as soon as he sets up a camp. At 7:48pm, Alan’s got a fire going and cooks his roe which he admits looks disgusting. It makes him gag, but Alan knows how important it is to his survival.
Alan credits his father, who passed away at age 72, with instilling in him this passion for outdoor life.
Day 2 – It’s dusk, and a great horned owl has been circling him for a while. Alan can’t figure out why and when it lands on a nearby tree, the owl’s absolutely stunning. Alan shares a very personal story about his relationship with owls, revealing that after his father’s death, he and his brothers had weirdly close encounters with owls at about the same time.
He recalls something his mother said right before he left. She said, “Al, wait for your dad to show up.’’ Alan is very obviously moved by the appearance of this owl, given what his mother told him.
Alone notes that owls are thought to be embodied spirits of the dead in some indigenous traditions.
Alan’s 10 Survival Items:
Ax
Saw
Ferro Rod
Fishing Line and Hooks
Bow and Arrows
Sleeping Bag
Cooking Pot
Paracord
Snare Wire
Multitool
Lee DeWilde, Age 59, Huslia, Alaska
Day 2 – Lee’s strategy is different from Alan’s or Luke’s, and he’s busy working on his first shelter. He’s got the roof done on his tent structure and works on laying down boughs as insulation and bedding material.
Lee is half Koyukon Athabascan (they refer to themselves as Dene) and was born in a cabin in the woods. He’s one of 14 kids, and their home was so remote that he didn’t see another community until he was 15.
Lee’s from a big fishing family but in the winter, his family’s main foods are cow moose and bear.
His survival philosophy is shelter first and then food. After getting enough calories, he’ll work on building a long-term shelter. He makes a fishing rod that he admits isn’t pretty. A short while later, he hears something big and notices something’s making a bed with a bunch of sticks. It could be a bear; it’s definitely not a beaver.
He notices something in the water and freezes so as not to draw attention. It’s a river otter, but he can’t get to it without a boat. At least the appearance of an otter is a good sign that there’s fish nearby.
Lee owns an air charter business and is competing in Alone so he can purchase a larger airplane.
Day 3 – He slept better than the previous two nights, and today’s mission is to make a raft. Lee’s planned food pecking order is fish first, moose second, and small game third. Fish will help with his body fat since he’s got a very slender build. The raft’s essential in helping him make his way around the water in this area.
Lee built rafts as a child and isn’t using a tarp as many contestants have done in the past. Lee’s raft is made of logs, and it’s stable enough to hold his weight. His first task is to find the perfect spot for setting a net, which is a great method of fishing because it’s a low-calorie expenditure.
He makes it to the spot where the otter was fishing and it’s fairly deep with a rocky bottom. He determines the best spot to place his net and also locates an excellent spot for casting.
Day 5 – Lee heads off on his raft and sets his net in place. He then returns to the shore to fish and reels in a decent-size lake trout. He eats the unfertilized eggs raw and after sticking the fish on the fire, he rows back out to his net. His net brings in a pike, so he has plenty to eat for dinner.
Lee’s 10 Survival Items:
Paracord
Sleeping Bag
Cooking Pot
Ferro rod
Fishing Line and Hooks
Bow and Arrows
Snare Wire
Multitool
Axe
Saw
Jodi Rose, Age 45, Worland, Wyoming
Day 2 – The fourth participant to be featured in the first episode is Jodi, and we catch up to her as she’s overjoyed to have found a bed of reindeer lichen. She dubs it “mattress moss” and is ecstatic she’ll be comfortable tonight.
Jodi comes from a family of homesteaders who were successful at living off the land. She describes herself as growing up feral and free, and is a talented tracker and hunter.
Jodi retired from being a special education teacher after her fifth child, and she moved on to cattle ranching. Unfortunately, she suffered traumatic injuries after a horrifying farming accident in which she was thrown off a piece of equipment and severed everything in her leg. She suffered from depression after the accident, but something told her to start fighting for her life – and she did.
Three years later, she was finally able to take care of herself. Jodi calls her stubbornness her special skill and believes she can win because she doesn’t quit anything.
Jodi sets up a temporary shelter with her tarp over the mattress moss. She plans on building a cabin strong enough to last the -60 degree weather and has located the perfect location. There aren’t any dead trees to fall on her, firewood’s close by, and it’s not on a game trail.
Day 4 – Jodi spends a considerable amount of time and energy chopping down trees for her permanent cabin. She heads off to get water and finds more wild blueberries. Jodi reveals she’s been constantly eating reindeer moss, berries, and plant life since she arrived and is feeling full. It’s sustaining her even though it’s not many calories.
Jodi gained 70 pounds while recovering from her accident. She’s hoping that weight will help her stick around longer into the competition.
Shelter is her first priority, and she decided on a log cabin because it holds in heat. She also believes that if she’s comfortable, she’ll thrive.
Her father was a logger and fence builder, and she picked up her building skills from him. Although she knows exactly what she’s doing, she’s burning 700 calories an hour working on her cabin.
Jodi’s 10 Survival Items:
Bow and Arrows
Fishing Line and Hooks
Cooking Pot
Paracord
Multitool
Snare Wire
Saw
Axe
Sleeping Bag
Ferro Rod
Cade Cole, Age 27, Crowheart, Wyoming
Day 3 – A montage shows the progress of Cade as he builds his shelter, digs out a little of the ground, and uses his tarp as cover. After that, he heads out hunting and finds fresh moose tracks. Cade rolls up some birch bark and uses it to call a moose.
Cade’s been a professional hunter for over a decade and is an expert tracker. However, he’s never been in this sort of environment before. It’s much more difficult to find tracks on the ground, but he does spot where the moose have been eating. Cade also locates a tree the bull moose used to rub their antlers.
He’s making more noise while walking than he should and decides to shift his strategy. He sets up an area and takes a seat by the moose rub, waiting for something to approach. Cade uses his birch bark to do a moose call again and hears something coming his way. He spots an antler and realizes it’s a caribou, which Alone survivalists aren’t allowed to shoot because they’re an at-risk species.
Unsuccessful at his first hunt, Cade collects wild blueberries. Berries are all he’s eaten since being dropped off. His young son loves blueberries and would go crazy over his pot full of them.
Cade grew up hunting and loves the animals; they provide food for his family and help pay his bills as a hunting guide. The only downside is that being a hunting guide keeps him away from his family for three months out of the year. If he wins Alone, he wants to start a horse camp for kids with learning disabilities.
Cade made the decision not to gain weight before the competition. “I do not believe this is a starving competition. So, I’m going to hunt as hard as I can, fish as hard as I can, and I feel extremely confident I’ll come out successful,” says Cade.
Later that day, Cade spots a grouse and hits him with his first shot. He takes it back to his camp and cooks it over his fire, as he reveals the heartbreaking story of his wife miscarrying just days prior to the start of the Alone competition. She’s sick and he’s feeling guilty about being gone, but he views this as a chance to change their lives. Plus, she’d be very upset if he quit for her.
Day 6 – Cade works on his cabin and then watches the ducks swimming in the lake. He can’t get to them and they’re too far away to shoot, so he takes off looking for game on land.
He ate the entire grouse so he’s ready for bigger game. Cade spots a heavy bear trail and follows it. At 11:27am, he begins saying, “No, no, no, no, no,” repeatedly. He’s just realized his quiver came off his bow and doesn’t know where he dropped his arrows. Cade has no choice but to retrace his steps, all while thinking the $500,000 grand prize is slipping through his fingers because of this mistake.
At 2:41pm he still hasn’t located the quiver. Cade returns to his camp, devastated and upset that he chose to put all the arrows in the quiver instead of leaving a few behind at his camp.
Cade doesn’t have the body fat to last much longer without being able to hunt.
At 6:18pm, he decides he needs to dig deep and move forward. At least he’s built a decent shelter and a warm fire, and has a wonderful family rooting for him at home. He doesn’t want his son to think it’s okay to give up, so he’s not going to tap out now.
Cade’s 10 Survival Items:
Knife
Multitool
Shovel
Fishing Line and Hooks
Sleeping Bag
Bow and Arrows
Ferro Rod
Snare Wire
Cooking Pot
Bar of Soap
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