Everything William Larkham Jr. Carried to Win Alone Season 11

Spoiler note: this covers who won season 11.

William Larkham Jr., a 49-year-old commercial fisherman, hunter, and trapper from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, won season 11 by outlasting nine other contestants for 84 days in the Mackenzie River Delta, roughly 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle near Inuvik, Northwest Territories. He never tapped out. He was declared the winner as the last remaining participant. Rather than leaning on a bow the way most winners do, he built his season around his commercial fishing background instead, and his gear list reflects that from the first item to the last.

The ten items

Item	What he brought	Verified
Axe	Helko Werk Felling Axe, 28in handle, 2.5lb head	Yes
Ferro rod	Bigfoot Bushcraft	Yes
Fishing kit	300 yds line, 25 hooks	Yes
Gill net	Homemade	Yes
Knife	Killingerblades Big Woody knife w/ leather sheath	Yes
Paracord	No brand specified in the record	Yes
Pot	Titanium 1900ml w/ bail handle	Yes
Saw	Silky Katanaboy 500 folding saw	Yes
Sleeping bag	Pajak Radical 16H, down, -100F rated	Yes
Snare wire	1lb 20 gauge, 1lb 21 gauge stainless	Yes

The list is flagged complete in our records. Our records also note this kit as one of the more expensive documented on the show, estimated at over $2,100 total. You can see it laid out the same way on Larkham's contestant page.

No bow, and it didn't matter

Nine of the ten contestants who typically appear on this site's winner lists carry a bow or a bow-and-arrow combination. Larkham didn't. In its place he carried a gill net, homemade rather than store-bought, paired with a 300-yard fishing kit. In a fish-rich delta environment, that combination gave him a steadier food source than active hunting likely would have, and it's a direct extension of his actual trade: a commercial fisherman betting on the tool he already knew best rather than a general-purpose one every contestant defaults to.

The rest of the kit backs up that same long-game approach. The Pajak down sleeping bag, rated to -100F, is among the warmest-rated bags on any winning list this site has recorded, appropriate for a delta season this far north of the Arctic Circle. The Helko Werk felling axe and Silky folding saw covered shelter and firewood, and the snare wire, split between two gauges, gave him a trapping option to round out the fishing-first strategy.

The finish

Runner-up Timber Cleghorn lasted 83 days, one behind Larkham, before voluntarily withdrawing, saying he'd achieved his own personal goals and made peace with not winning. Third-place Dub Paetz departed at day 80 due to the combined effects of prolonged starvation and isolation, and missing his family. Larkham claimed the season's $500,000 prize as the last person still in the field.

If you want to see how his life has changed since the win, our where-is-he-now piece covers that. For how gill nets compare across every winner who's carried one, this site's gill net breakdown is worth reading next, and the full rules on item limits are on alone-rules.