Local teacher going strong on ‘Alone’

By Steve Hubrecht steve@columbiavalleypioneer.com

A Columbia Valley resident starring in the History Channel’s popular survival reality show ‘Alone’ is — from a viewers perspective — currently more a month into the latest season of the show and doing well.

David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) outdoor education teacher Alan Tenta participated in the filming for the tenth season of ‘Alone’ last fall and, of course, is now safely back home in the valley. But he’s bound to secrecy about what happened, leaving eager local viewers no choice but to tune into the hit show each week to watch Tenta and nine other contestants battle against the elements of northern Saskatchewan, each alone and trying to survive as long as possible.

Each season of ‘Alone’ features 10 people. They are dropped off, each by themselves, in a remote wilderness location and can bring just 10 items with them aside from the clothes they are wearing. The contestants then film themselves trying to survive, alone, for as long as possible. They have no contact with each other or with any other humans aside from occasional medical checkups. Participants can choose to ‘tap out’ (i.e. voluntarily leave) at any time, or they can be “pulled out”

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When the Pioneer spoke with Tenta early last week the tenth season of ‘Alone’ was already seven episodes in, and had showed contestants during the first 35 days of the challenge. Most, including Tenta, had spent the bulk of their time constructing shelters and then trying to catch and cache as much food as possible.

Tenta was at that point, by his own telling and in the opinions of several local residents who follow the show, doing quite well. Some other contestants were also doing well; but others were not, and five had already dropped out. That meant only five of the original 10 survivalists were left.

Of course Tenta was completely isolated and no idea he was among the top five, although he told the Pioneer he was certainly curious as to the fate of his fellow competitors.

“I had thoughts almost every day, wondering how everybody else was doing, and how I was doing comparatively,” said Tenta. “But for sure I was happy with my performance up to that point.”

His biggest physical challenge was simply procuring enough to eat. In the early episodes of the show, most contestants focused primarily on building their shelters. Continued on page 9