The Multi-Tool on Alone: What Contestants Actually Use

Of the eight items covered in this series, the multi-tool has the highest carry rate by a wide margin. Of the 101 contestants with a recorded gear list out of 187 documented across every US, Australian, and spinoff season, 58 carried one, more than half the tracked field. What sets it apart isn't just the volume, it's the spread: a multi-tool has been recorded in every single filming format the show has run, main US seasons, both documented Alone Australia winners, the Frozen spinoff, and even the non-elimination Skills Challenge.

Two seasons where it was a perfect pick

Show/season	Carries	Recorded	Notes
US season 9	10	10	Every contestant carried one
US season 10	10	10	Every contestant carried one
US season 13	8	10	Only 2 skipped it
US season 11	8	10	Only 2 skipped it
US season 5	4	9	Below half the field
Skills Challenge	5	7	Non-elimination episode picks

Season 9 and season 10 are the only two seasons where every contestant with a recorded gear list carried a multi-tool, a full sweep across ten separate ten-item lists. Juan Pablo Quiñonez won season 9 with a Leatherman Charge Plus fitted with G10 scales, and Alan Tenta won season 10 carrying an unspecified Leatherman alongside his Hults Bruk trekking hatchet.

The winners who skipped it

Thirteen of the 16 winners with a documented gear list carried some form of multi-tool. That includes Gina Chick, the first Alone Australia winner, and Woniya Thibeault, who won the Frozen spinoff with a heavily modified Leatherman Surge. It also includes the season 4 winning team: Jim Baird and Ted Baird won as father and son sharing one combined ten-item list, a Leatherman Surge among the tools on it, since season 4 was scored as a single team entry rather than two separate kits. The three winners who didn't carry one, Alan Kay in season 1, David McIntyre in season 2, and William Larkham Jr. in season 11, all built their kit around a dedicated knife instead, a tradeoff the show's knife-versus-multitool split covers in more depth.

Why it wins the slot so often

A multi-tool packs a pliers, a set of drivers, and often a small blade or saw file into one item slot, which matters enormously against a strict ten-item cap, especially once a contestant has already committed separate slots to an axe, a knife, and a fire-starting setup. For a contestant already carrying a dedicated knife and an axe, a multi-tool is the cheapest way to cover gear repair, fishing-hook adjustments, and fine mechanical work without spending a second full slot on it. That logic holds across climates and formats in a way few other items do: it's as useful in the Great Karoo's semi-arid scrub as it is on the Arctic tundra near Aklavik, which likely explains why it's the one item in this series that shows up on every documented winner's list except the three who made a different, knife-first bet.

The multi-tool gear page has the full recorded model list, and multitools on Alone: Leatherman's quiet dominance goes deeper on which specific models won which seasons. For the complete list of documented champions, see the winners hub.