Survival show contestant Woniya Thibeault has released a memoir about her experience living by herself on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake while filming Alone.
Thibeault first came to the NWT to be a contestant on season six of the History Channel’s survival series Alone, released in 2015. The series follows contestants as they try to survive for 100 days in the wild without any outside assistance.
Thibeault finished as a runner-up in season six. In a later all-star season of the show based in Labrador, however, she became the first woman to win the show.
During her time in the NWT, Thibeault spent 73 days living in the wilderness around the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.
She described the experience as “amazing and incredibly intense.”
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“It was a really challenging location. It was a rocky peninsula without a lot of game, very shallow water, so food was very scarce,” she said.
Still, she added, she fell in love with the area.
This past week, Thibeault returned to the territory on a tour for her new book, Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey. A reading and book signing event was held at Yellowknife’s visitor center on Thursday.
At the book reading, she reminisced about her previous time spent in Yellowknife, such as when she finished filming and had to go thrift store shopping since all of her pre-show clothes were too big for her after over three months living on the land.
Although the book focuses on Thibeault’s experience in the NWT during season six, she said it also recounts how she came to want to take on such a challenge, how she prepared for the show, and her experience reintegrating into normal life afterward.
Never Alone will be available for purchase at the Yellowknife Book Cellar – which is offering 15 percent off on preorders – and at major bookstores.
