Aklavik’s Moose Kerr School was set to host a special premiere on Wednesday of wilderness TV show Alone’s 13th season, which is set in the nearby Richardson Mountains.
The latest season is available from Wednesday evening in Canada via Stack TV. On cable, The History Channel was due to air three hours of new programming dedicated to the show from 7-10pm MT that night.
Alone is an extreme survival competition series. Ten participants are dropped in remote locations and must stay alive in the wilderness using a limited selection of gear. There’s a prize pool of $500,000 and the aim is to be the last person left in the contest. (As resources dwindle or mishaps occur, contestants tap out one by one.)
This season – which airs while soccer’s World Cup is in progress – has been dubbed a “world championship” and includes contestants from across the globe.
For Aklavik residents, however, the location is the most important part.
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“They love to see themselves represented, their community and their land. It lets people from other parts of the country and, I guess, the world know where they come from,” said Janine Johnson, principal of the Beaufort Delta community’s Moose Kerr School.
“It can be a very unforgiving place, but also a very beautiful place as well,” she said.
“I’m sure they [the students] are going to recognize some of these places that they see. I suppose it’s going to be interesting for them to see people try to adapt here.”
For the school, the screening also represented an opportunity to fundraise. Proceeds from the night are intended to send students to sporting events and purchase school supplies.
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The Richardson Mountains, west of Aklavik, span the border between the NWT and Yukon. The location allows producers to state that they dropped this season’s contestants “inside the Arctic Circle” with 10 survival tools and their own camera equipment.
“As winter tightens its grip, survivalists will battle against punishing weather, relentless isolation, and menacing predators local to the region such as grizzly bears, wolves, and moose,” a press release associated with the show stated.
The NWT has been a popular destination for Alone.
The 11th season was filmed on Gwich’in territory south of Inuvik, a couple of seasons were based along the East Arm of Great Slave Lake, and a show featuring British competitors took place near Fort Providence.
The 13th season’s competitors include a retired school principal from Alaska, three other Americans (including one who grew up in Nuuk, Greenland), a Canadian, an Australian, a Slovenian, and other contestants from New Zealand, Portugal and Wales.
