Ultimate Survival Alaska Season 2 Starts December 15, 2013 at 9PM

Ultimate Survival Alaska is back for season 2. It starts this Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 9PM on the National Geographic Channel.

For those of you who didn’t see season 1, the show takes a group of outdoorsmen, and puts them in a location in Alaska. They then have a certain amount of time to reach a predetermined location. They have only the gear they can carry, and a limited supply of food.

This season it looks like they have made some changes, and will have pre-determined teams, such as woodsmen, mountaineers, ex-military, and endurance athletes. The above picture shows the ex-military team. I think it might add an interesting element, to see the different approaches takes. Here is the description from National Geographic: 

“They are some the toughest, most extreme survivalists from across the nation. In the second season of Ultimate Survival Alaska, four teams — woodsmen, mountaineers, military veterans, and endurance athletes — go head-to-head in an epic arctic competition that only National Geographic could inspire. Dropped in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness by bush plane, with only their raw, die-hard ingenuity and the gear on their backs, they’ll navigate through treacherous glaciated river valleys, barren ridgelines, and high mountain peaks, battling hunger, hostile predators, and perilous weather conditions along the way. Like the original National Geographic explorers, for those who succeed there is no grand prize, just the well-fought pride of having conquered the grueling challenges that Mother Nature can throw at them. It's an epic competition series where the only prize is survival.”

I enjoyed the last season, and look forward to this one.

Trip Report: Sundown Forest Deer Hunt 12/5/13 – 12/8/13

I’ve been trying to get out as often as I can this past few weeks, before the season runs out. I just did another four day trip in the same area as before, with equal lack of success. I am not going to bore you with another detailed trip report, as it will be too similar to the last one I did. In broad strikes, I spent the first day walking into the forest, approximately seven or eight miles.

The major difference between this trip and the one you saw on the last trip report was the temperature. This time around it was quite a bit lower, at around 18F(-8C). As you can see in the picture, on part of the hike in I was wearing my Patagonia Nano Puff in addition to my fleece.

When I reached the area I wanted, I set up camp. I used the same camp the whole time I was there, walking back and forth to the areas I was hunting.

The only difference in the equipment I carried on this trip as compared to the last one was a thicker jacket; my Eddy Bauer First Ascent Peak XV. Ordinarily I would not carry such a thick jacket in temperatures like these, but there was a lot of sitting around for hours at a time, which required the additional insulation.

After a few days with no results, I spent the fourth day making my way out of the forest.

That’s pretty much the end of an unsuccessful season. I saw a few does this time around, and I had hoped that they would be followed by a buck, but it didn’t happen, probably because it was too late in the season. There are antler restrictions in this area, so I couldn’t take a shot.

I was fairly happy with my backpack arrangement. At first I was looking for a more modular pack, so that I could go in with a smaller pack, containing just my gear, and then if I had to carry out a deer, to expand the pack to accommodate the extra volume. I decided to wait on the pack, and just use my Gregory Palisade 80. My worry of course was that even though the pack is large enough, and has a good enough frame to carry out a deboned deer, it would be empty on the way in. The solution was pretty simple. I just left my sleeping bag and jacket uncompressed, so they filled the pack on the way in. When compressed, the pack is left half empty. Obviously all this wasn’t an issue this season. The rest of my backpacking gear has been tested over many years, and worked fine. As far as the few hunting items I had with me, it is hard to say much about their performance considering that I was not successful.

Dude You’re Screwed! Premiers Dec 8, 2013 at 10PM

Dude You’re Screwed! is the newest survival show from the Discovery Channel. Stupid name, I know. We’ll see how the show actually turns out.

The show is based around five survival experts. Here are the credentials provided by the Discovery Channel:

• Terry Schappert, a Green Beret, A -Team leader, medic, sniper and close combat specialist
• John Hudson, an Extreme Survival Instructor for the UK Royal Air Force
• Matt Graham, a primitive skills expert and a desert survival instructor
• Jake Zweig, a former Navy SEAL, certified in Surface Warfare & as a dive safety officer and helicast master
• Tom Moore, a veteran Army Scout, bush craft master and wilderness guide

Each episode one of them will be dropped in a remote area of the wilderness without being told ahead of time where that will be. He then has 100 hours to make his way out. The other four experts will do some backseat driving, watching the progress on a television set, and commenting along the way. From the description, the show gives me a Bear Grylls vibe, which is not a good thing, but I’ll watch and see how it turns out.

The show airs this Sunday, December 8, 2013 at 10PM on the Discovery Channel right after the Naked and Afraid two hour premier.

Naked and Afraid Season 2 Starts Dec 8, 2013 at 8PM

That’s right, Naked and Afraid returns for season two. The new season is set to premier on December 8, 2013 at 8PM on the Discovery Channel.

For those of you not familiar with the show, the premise is that one man and one woman are dropped off in the wilderness. They are each allowed to bring only one tool, and nothing else. By nothing else, I mean, not even clothing. They then have to survive 21 days. The “no clothing” rule understandably seems to limit the show to areas where the temperatures will not cause immediate hypothermia, such as deserts and jungles. In season one, some of the people managed to make it, others did not.

Season two premiers with a two hour episode, where they will actually have four (4) people trying to survive together. I think the show is quite good at demonstrating the difficulties created by starvation, as well as the psychological impact of such a challenge.