[dramatic music]
[gunshot]
?
male narrator: In one of the most brutal
survival challenges ever,
three strangers will try to endure
30 days in the wild
with only one resource:
a fresh kill,
its location marked
by a single flare.
- There it is.
- That flare goes up,
and we're gonna have to go as fast as we possibly can
to get to that animal.
?
- How far away do you think that flare was?
- I don't know. Maybe a mile, man?
- Oh, my God.
narrator: They have no tools...
- This is a huge challenge.
I've never been in the woods without a knife,
and without it, I feel naked.
narrator: Just the clothes on their backs.
- My plan is using every part of the animal
to give me the leverage to survive
in this harsh environment.
- If we don't start within the hour,
this thing's gonna go bad.
- Gotta be close.
narrator: Do they have the stamina
and ingenuity to survive?
?
[flies buzzing]
- Holy cow.
- That is a big critter.
- We got a long afternoon ahead of us.
- We have to work on him quick.
He's gonna spoil very fast.
- I've never seen a musk ox in real life,
so walking up to it,
I was surprised it was actually
bigger than I thought it would be.
Impressive beast, for sure.
I mean, this thing is gonna be a challenge.
?
- There's three of us on this team,
and we don't know each other.
We have different types of skills and training,
so we're gonna have to be fast and communicate well,
so that we can move forward as a team.
We gotta get something to cut.
- All right. Let's do this.
- When I go looking for a rock to make a knife,
I'm looking for something that I can
very quickly break that will hold a sharp edge.
[rocks crack] The best kind of rocks--
when you hit the two rocks together,
you'll hear that snap sound or crack sound,
just like someone dropped a pane of glass.
But this is a huge, huge animal,
and to try to cut this thing open with stone tools
is gonna be horrendously difficult.
?
I broke one out.
Got some good sharps on it.
- This'll work.
- Everything is more difficult when the tools
that we're normally used to using are unavailable.
I think I picked up my survival skills
through a lot of varied experiences in life,
from riding freight trains
and traveling around the country.
My brother Jordan won "Alone" season six in the arctic,
and he killed it out here.
I'm here following in my little brother's footsteps,
hoping to do the same.
I normally start in the chest.
- I do too.
- This thing is pretty hard to reach.
- [grunts] Oh, no.
- God.
All right.
- It's really hot. The sun's out and beating.
The animal is gonna spoil very quickly,
and I'm talking starting within a couple of hours.
We're racing against time something fierce.
"Ticking clock" is not the word.
More like a ticking time bomb.
?
- [grunting]
- Wow, she's thick, eh? - Yeah.
As a hunter, something that I take very personally
is to respect that animal.
We have a full musk ox
that gave its life so that we can eat,
so my determination is to preserve
as much as we possibly can.
There are a lot of tools that we can make from the animal,
whether it be making a bow drill,
making rope or cordage.
There is a level of ingenuity,
a level of engineering in trying to figure out
what different parts of this animal we could use
to make those tools that we're going to desperately need.
?
- I think we should do a gutless quarter.
- Yeah.
?
- Predators are gonna be a big issue,
so we have to quarter it off without exposing the gut,
so we don't expose the scent
because the second we crack it open,
it's like a dinner bell.
?
My expertise is military survival training
and emergency medicine.
I served 24 years in the military,
and to truly be tested on your skill set,
there's no better than a primitive challenge
and trying to survive in the arctic with no tools.
- The ball joint's up here.
Right in there. - Yeah.
- I would cut through here. - All right.
- Just cut through this piece here.
- All right.
- It's gonna loosen the whole leg.
My skills include flintknapping,
fire building, primitive living,
and primitive survival.
The main reason I'm doing this is
to honor the legacy of my father--
to be able to use the knowledge
that he passed on to me.
It just goes without words.
I don't-- nothing I can say.
I know he's watching down right now,
and he's just as proud as proud can be.
Almost got it.
?
Yeah, baby! - Whoa!
- All right.
- All right, I'm gonna take it down.
- All right.
?
- We just set the rocks on the meat
so that it holds it under the water
and to help it cool all the way through.
?
My biggest concern is the meat spoiling.
That meat is what we're gonna depend on
for the next month while we're out here.
We only have one shot at this.
If we mess up and the meat goes bad,
we're gonna have a real rough time
surviving out here.
?
Oh, [bleep].
I think it's bear.
Look fairly fresh.
We're definitely gonna have to keep an eye on our meat.
We're definitely concerned about predators.
A bear could smell this meat from two miles away,
so anything that's been here within the last few days
is probably sniffing around and planning on coming back.
?
We got four or five hours till dark,
and we got one leg off.
- I think--I think we'll get the first shoulder off.
- Yeah.
- And we need to really focus in on
getting the four quarters off today,
and take them down to the water.
- Yeah.
?
This musk ox is the hardest animal
I've ever attempted to process.
I was just thinking, like,
who was the last guy to skin a musk ox in this area
with a stone?
It's probably been a while. [laughs]
So that's kind of cool.
You feel connected to the past in that way,
and it's like, yeah, this is challenging,
but it'll humble you too.
?
I think surviving in the arctic
will come down to being able to adapt
to unexpected situations.
The arctic is super intimidating.
The weather is intense. The bugs are intense.
The predators are intense,
so we're gonna have to be efficient
in everything that we do.
?
- [grunting]
- Yeah!
Way to go.
- [grunts]
?
- So now that we got the quarters out
and they're down in the water,
we have to get the insides or the guts out
as quick as we possibly can
to get the body cooled down in order to prevent spoilage.
both: Okay.
- Just pull that-- get it out of the way.
- Yeah.
My goodness.
We have meat and innards and bones and the skin.
That's just ringing the dinner bell
for all kinds of predators to come in.
Grizzly bears and black bears,
lynx, wolves, wolverines--
all very fierce and aggressive predators.
- I guess that's it.
We'll grab this fat and this heart and head down
to where we're gonna set up camp for the night.
- Sounds good, man.
- All right. - All right.
- It's been a super challenging day.
I'm ate up from bug bites and my hands are sore.
Got a few nicks from gripping rock knives,
and it's been super tough.
- We got a lot accomplished today, but it's late.
Sun's gonna go down. The three of us are exhausted.
So our focus tomorrow is gonna be on just getting fire.
?
- No fire. No shelter.
?
Temperature's cooled very, very fast.
And that cold comes in really hard.
?
And we're exposed to predators.
There's not gonna be a whole lot of sleep tonight.
?
[flies buzzing]
- [sighs]
[bleep].
Something stole one of our legs.
?
[bleep].
?
- Yo.
- Something took one of the legs,
and there's no lead-in tracks,
and there's no hind prints
where he's standing and pulling it out.
?
- What?
?
I mean, it was definitely a bear.
He found our stash in the water.
- If it's a bear, then he's not gonna leave.
- No, but he was here before
and there was footprints on the beach.
- There's the bear. - [bleep].
[grunts]
Ah!
I wanna hit him
because that's how he's gonna be fearful.
- Let him know that we're dangerous.
?
- Ah!
?
- [grunts]
?
Bear's right over here.
I see him right now.
- Do I need to go south?
- I mean, he stopped right here and kept running.
He ran 'cause he was scared. He'll be back in an hour.
- Oh, without a doubt.
?
- We gotta get these legs out of the water.
The bear knows where they're at,
and we gotta bring them closer to where we're working.
We just want to consolidate,
so we only have two places to cover.
We have a long time to be in here,
and the more he's here,
the more we have to worry about our meat.
Dude, he's right there.
- [bleep].
Ah!
?
Hey, bear!
- [grunts]
[both shouting aggressively]
- All right, hey.
Be super quiet for a sec.
[panting softly]
There--he's up there.
?
He went right that way, and he's, like,
obviously not particularly scared of us.
- [sighs] [bleep].
All right, let's just keep going with the plan.
He's gonna keep circling.
?
So what do we want to do next?
- Properly set up camp. - Yeah.
- Yes, yes.
- Yes.
- Right now, our priority is to get fire started
because it's just as bad to let your meat spoil
as it is to feed it to a bear.
He's definitely coming back, so we want to make a presence,
and I think getting a fire started
will help us with that.
?
- Getting a fire started without tools
is really challenging.
We have to make cordage first,
and then try to figure out with the bow drill.
- We're just gonna gather this
and start to find some good fire boards.
The fact that I don't have a ferro rod
or anything to start a fire with
means we have to start thinking back
to how primitive man survived,
and looking at the resources of the land
to accomplish this mission.
?
So what we're looking for is the shoelace on the inside.
And this is a small one. This will split right here.
- To go and dig out the spruce roots,
strip them, and then braid them together
is very, very time consuming,
and they don't last very long.
?
- Let's do this.
?
Nate, you need to use the whole string.
Go all the way.
?
- We're having one guy hold the bearing block
and the footboard, and the other two guys
just operating the strap until we get an ember.
- Keep going.
Nate, you gotta pull it further your way too.
- Oh, [bleep].
Char is what we want.
That's what's gonna push an ember out.
- This woodsy stuff is a little dryer,
but it'll warm up.
The wood around here is really dense.
It has really small growth rings
and doesn't really work,
but we've been doing over 100 spins with this spindle
and haven't got a fire yet,
so that puts a lot of tension on your cordage,
and the cordage tends to wear out pretty quickly.
?
- Let's sand it.
We'll sand it down to that first ring.
- Uh-huh. [distant huff]
- The [bleep] was that?
?
- The bear.
- Get out of here!
[shouting]
?
- He's right there. - [grunts]
[bear growls]
- I heard him.
- We gotta get the fire going.
- Once we have fire,
that's like having a fourth man in our guard.
- The bear's a threat to our survival out here,
but we also know fire is paramount,
and it's potentially putting the entire mission at risk
if we can't succeed at it,
so we've gotta keep on driving until there's flame.
?
- We keep having the problem with the cordage wearing out
before we get enough heat.
We really need a lot stronger cordage.
[bleep]
?
This is pretty miserable.
- I think we should see if we could utilize
musk ox hair to make stronger cordage.
- Yeah. We should try it.
?
The hair on a musk ox is so coarse and strong that
hopefully it won't break every two tries.
?
- We're on a time crunch to get the meat processed.
Without that meat preserved properly,
the harder it is gonna be for us to last
the time we need to out here.
[wood squeaking]
?
- That should be-- - That's good.
Oh, she's going.
Yep, yep.
It's gonna be all you, Rob.
I'm just going straight over.
?
It's all you.
Yeah.
That's lit. Come on, Rob.
- Oh, my God.
Come on, Rob. Come on, Rob.
- [blowing]
That's it. - A little more.
?
- There's fire! There it is!
- Set it down. Set it down.
?
Yes.
- Put it on there. Get it going.
- We have fire.
There you go, bear.
- We're on now.
- Yay.
?
Good job, buddy. [both laugh]
- How hard it was?
Well, that changes the game.
?
- Today's day three.
We woke up. Immediately jumped on fire.
It's been 48 hours since I've had anything to eat,
but we've got a lot of work to do.
There's an entire musk ox to--
to finish processing and smoke out.
?
- What we're hoping to do is build a smoking rock
so we can quick dry the meat.
Quick drying it will make it last a lot longer
and the smoke will kill all bacteria that's on the meat
while preserve it quite a bit longer.
?
When using primitive technology
or primitive skills, you have to--
or he had to, at that time--
just look around and see what he had around.
There was no fancy ropes. No fancy knives.
He had to go on the fly
to build and use everything he had.
?
- I'm just trying to get as much of this
sliced up and smoked as we can today.
We'll get this big tendon off of here.
That's the one thing about musk ox.
It has a lot of tendon in the meat,
but I'm cutting as much off as I can,
so that we can maybe make some fishing line.
?
- Every step of the way, there's difficulty.
?
Every time we take open a new muscle
or you're trying to pull a tendon,
your blade is dull, or you hit bone and it dulls,
and you have to re-flake your rock.
My fingers are beat up as well as the hand.
I keep re-injuring some on the palm.
That's what happens when you work with rocks,
and not knives with handles.
?
The carcass could be a potential problem for us.
It's a feast for a predator,
so the plan is to-- is to burn it.
- Nice.
We pulled everything we could off--
the hide for clothing,
all the organs, and then of course,
all the meat and the proteins.
?
Burning the carcass is gonna allow us access
to other harvestable items.
We can pull the skull, bone from the vertebrae.
We can pull the ribs and use those for tools.
?
- Yeah. Cheers.
- Cheers, dude.
- Oh, yeah.
- It tastes like liver.
?
- Biting into my first piece of musk ox,
I know why they call it "musk" ox.
It definitely tastes like a musky ox.
- Musk ox is probably the worst meat I've ever eaten.
[laughs]
Probably burning more calories chewing this stuff.
?
As soon as the sun goes down,
the temperature drops very quick.
It's a harsh environment.
We have to get shelter built
if we hope to survive out here the whole month.
?
- I'm going to dig out the hillside a little bit,
and try to put in a stove
so that we can stay warm at night,
'cause we're sleeping on the ground,
and it's like sleeping on ice.
?
When it gets cold up here, it gets cold.
It doesn't take a little while.
It doesn't do it gradually.
So when it decides to go, it goes.
As a survivalist, I just believe in being prepared.
- We're building debris shelter,
where we set a ridge beam and then ribs alongside that,
and on that, we put the spruce boughs.
- Wanna throw debris up against it
to kind of make what looks like a pup tent,
and then cover that whole thing now with Sphagnum moss.
It won't be totally waterproof,
but it'll definitely be a lot warmer than what we have now.
- The whole goal was to do an earth berm shelter,
just to try to get the earth to protect us
from the wind and cold.
We take spruce boughs, and we break them down,
and set them up so we have beds
and a fire inside.
The cold is coming.
If we don't have ourselves prepared,
that's gonna be a huge danger.
?
- Last night, it started to rain.
Yay and wah-hoo.
The extreme cold is very prevalent
up here in the arctic, and how it winds a guy down is,
if you don't keep dry and warm,
you're gonna freeze pretty quick.
?
- We're smoking the hide.
Get it really clean in there.
Then we can use them as bedrolls.
It's a good insulator,
so you're not laying directly on the cold ground,
sucking your heat out of you,
burning calories all night.
?
Wouldn't sleep on anything else but a musk ox hide.
- See? Comfy bedrolls, boys.
- These are nice. - Holy cow.
It's nice.
- Love you guys. [laughs] - Love you guys.
Good night. - [laughs]
?
Got almost all the meat dried.
Our next goal is to process this lard that we've been storing.
?
- Is that the fat?
- Yep. - Beautiful.
?
How's it smell?
- [sniffing]
?
- It smells the same as it did when we got it.
- Fat contains a ton of energy,
and the musk ox is not particularly
fat in the muscle,
so we really don't get a lot of energy out of it,
and you can kind of feel it drain you after a while.
?
- We really need to renr our fat,
so we're making saucepans.
?
With any pottery out here in the field like this,
it has stones and different debris in it,
and what happens is that in the firing phase,
that stone could have water in it,
and that'll overheat, and that water will burst,
and it blows the whole side out of your pot,
so you really gotta knead all the air out
'cause the air will do the same thing as a stone.
?
- Still pretty wet, eh?
- Oh, yeah, it's super wet still.
- This saucepan is tremendous if it's successful.
?
[saucepan crackles] - Wow!
- [bleep].
- You all right? - Got a lot of water on me.
Well, that's dangerous.
?
Pottery's been a bit of a learning curve.
So we took these vertebrae bones from the musk ox,
and I think crushing them up and using them in our clay
might give us the pottery we need out here.
?
Turns it into a really fine powder.
The calcium and what remains in the bones
bake into the clay and make it harder
than it would be without it,
so we can basically make bone china.
?
- We created a clay pot,
so we've rendered the remaining fat,
and we've rationed it out.
?
- I think we did pretty good.
- It was like a shot of energy to have that fat.
So now we can improve our situation.
?
- I am making a primitive hatchet.
I found this the other day by the lake.
We've been using it as a hand axe.
Nate found a piece of wood to use for the handle.
?
Your hand gets sore with all this type of work out here,
and so using something with a handle
makes a lot less vibration when you hit things with it.
?
This sinew's really strong cordage.
- Oh, yeah.
?
[wind whooshing]
?
Daybreak happened,
and the winds picked up out of the north
and brought a real cold chill.
?
There's no rendered fat left over from the musk ox.
Without fat, my brain's not gonna work right
and my energy levels are gonna be lower.
It's really hard to get up day after day
when you don't have any energy to start with.
- We've been fighting off the cold
burning way too much energy.
?
I have lost weight.
Getting a fish the next couple of days
would bring those calories back in.
[bird caws]
?
- I'm making a fish hook
made out of musk ox bone.
?
You center tie it, and you set your meat,
and then I can pull it down and hook it
so that it travels through the water like this.
But when the fish takes it and swallows it,
the hook spins perpendicular to the line
and it gorges itself in the mouth of the fish
so that it can't come out.
- Everything is more difficult without tools,
so we're gonna have to improvise.
I'm really hoping to make some fishing line
out of sinew.
The way you process sinew is to basically
cut the large tendons and then dry them thoroughly,
and then you peel all that apart,
and you have a bunch of really little,
very strong strings.
Strip them into fibers,
weave them back together into strings.
?
- We're good to go fishing.
We do have all this meat here,
but your body can only use so much of it
without the presence of fat,
so fish is mainly fat,
and that's why we want to catch fish.
?
We decided to split up.
The wind may cause us a problem,
so we sent one guy to the south end
where it should be more calm.
Hopefully his chances are pretty good
to catch them there.
?
- So I've spun about 10 feet
of sinew cordage.
?
Some real thick sinew musk ox calf.
?
- Now let's use a bait.
I knew it was gonna be choppy. It's windy up there.
?
- Don't wanna get wet feet.
?
Feel a little bit tired, a little worn out.
Burn a lot of calories going up and down the hills.
?
If you're deficient on fat for a few days,
you'll notice a little bit of a rundown in your energy.
Your vision is going to get blurred.
Mental processing is not gonna be quick and sharp as it was.
You're not gonna understand and comprehend things.
?
- So I just hit the right opportunity,
and I put it right in front of their face.
?
- I think it's too choppy.
?
The arctic doesn't give you up anything.
Nothing comes for free.
Man, you gotta work for everything you get
and every ounce of it.
This morning was not successful.
When the waves are breaking, the fish are just not there.
?
- I've been at it for a little bit fishing,
and every next failure seems to hurt a little bit more.
?
- It's very, very important to our bodies
and to our survival out here that we catch fish
so we get that fat to keep us going.
Otherwise, we're just not gonna make it to the end.
?
- Ben and I headed out before sunrise
to try to find some lake trout.
?
[whispers] Just one fish.
Just show yourself.
?
[grunts]
Damn.
I'm exhausted.
Thriving takes a lot.
Food's the number one resource
in whether you're thriving or not,
and we haven't been able to land anything.
- Nate.
Nate!
I think I'm gonna head back.
Fishing seemed pretty hopeless at this point,
especially with the waters rough.
?
I would like to have any fat.
I'd probably eat one of my teammates
if I didn't like them so well.
[squirrel chatters]
- Hold on, hold on, hold on.
?
There is a squirrel. Dang it.
[squirrel chattering]
?
Oh, I see him.
?
Oh, dang it.
[squirrel chatters]
?
[rod thunks]
?
[squirrel chatters]
?
[stone thunks] Got him!
- Nice shot!
- When I hunt something,
I try to be respectful of the life I've taken
and use as much of it as I can.
It's a gift.
- Beauty. Way to go, Ben.
- It's a good size. - Little dude.
- Catch of the day is squirrel. Awesome.
I'll split across from back leg to back leg knuckles,
take it off, cut around the front feets,
around the back feets, around the whiskers,
nose, and everything else.
?
And then peel the hide off that way
so I can stretch it out so you can get it
as big as you possibly can
to use it for cordage or whatever you need it for.
There you go.
We wanted to get it done and finished and quick,
and get it over the top of the fire
so you can get a different-tasting meat
rather than just musk ox.
?
Hold him up there, Ben.
?
- Gotta look good. Golden brown.
?
- [mumbles indistinctly]
?
- Mm. - Oh, yeah.
- That's pretty good, isn't it?
- Different flavor.
- Difference between squirrel meat and musk ox meat
is musk ox meat right now is very dry,
very smoky, very chewy.
The squirrel is rather moist and not as stringy,
and it tastes just kind of like chicken.
- Look, the crispy brains.
The brains of animals have a lot of fat in them
and that's the thing we're kind of short of right now.
- You can't live on squirrel alone.
- Lean.
- We need more fat.
?
- So I'm using the squirrel lungs for bait.
They're bright and red and bloody and meaty.
?
I'm hoping that that's a change of pace
from that musk ox meat, since they've spit it out.
?
I don't have a lot of charge in my batteries.
?
It's just been really slow the last few days
and I know it's 'cause we really need fat,
so I'm gonna get a fish today.
?
[grunts]
?
- The arctic is really a harsh place.
It's raw.
Everything struggles to survive here.
?
- [grunts]
?
Oh, that sucks.
My hands are frozen.
The weather down near the water is grueling.
So the wind's coming off that water.
?
Everything that's exposed is numb.
I have to grab the line, which is wet,
cover my hand in water,
and then re-throw every ten seconds.
?
- The cold, to me, is a little ominous.
[wind whooshing]
If you're too hot on a hot summer day,
you just get in the shade and drink some water,
but if you're too cold when it's cold out,
your life is threatened.
?
Whew. My hands are cold.
I feel drained.
This challenge doesn't need anything added to it.
I can feel the difference in my body,
but I just don't want to give up on something.
If I say I'm gonna try to do something,
I plan on trying pretty hard.
?
- Fish on, Ben.
?
Fish on!
?
Oh, my God.
- That's a big one. - Oh.
- Awesome.
- Oh, my God.
- [laughs] - Oh, my God.
- Yes!
Finally.
- Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. Feels great.
[both laughing]
I'm overwhelmed. We got a fish.
Oh, that's, like, ten pounds.
- Let's take it home and eat it right now.
?
- It's moving from surviving
into sustaining with what we had.
We know we can catch a fish.
To me, that's a step in the right direction
towards surviving.
- Oh, my...
- Yeah. - Word.
- Yeah! - Wow!
- You should've seen Ninja Ben with the club.
- [laughs] - That is a honker.
?
Taking out the internal organs of the fish is pretty easy.
Most times, you can just
pull on them and they just pop right out.
Way, way different than cutting red meat.
- Still beating. Fresh fish.
- How is it?
- That's not too bad.
Feels like warm beef.
- Mm. - Yeah.
?
Mmm.
Wow.
- Really tender meat after eating all that musk ox.
It's, like, just such a difference.
We're really grateful for it.
- God, my body needed that fat.
I could run on, like, four days on this fuel.
- You can actually feel your body
absorbing the oil that it needed so, so bad.
Come here, energy. We're ready to boogie.
?
- Final day.
- Yep. - Let's do it.
- Final day. We're out.
- That's it. That's the end.
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- This experience has been challenging.
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We came out here with nothing--
nothing to make fire,
no knives, no tools whatsoever.
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- Having to deal with wild animals
and consuming one,
I've gained a new appreciation for what we shouldn't waste.
I just never really knew the value in certain items
off of an animal.
- Coming out here with nothing,
I have even more respect for the intelligence
and ingenuity of our Stone Age ancestors.
It's amazing to think of what our ancestors went through
and what they overcame to get us where society is today.
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- That should do it.
- Yeah, that'll do it.
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- I'm positive I made my dad proud out here.
If he were here today, I think he'd be doing backflips
knowing that it went so well
and the lessons that he taught me
are being really taken to heart.
- My brother Jordan survived the arctic himself,
and so to come up here and experience it also,
and see the things he's talked about,
it'll be fun to go back and share that with him.
We're ready to keep going.
I feel like we're leaving on top.
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