Nicole Apelian's Alone Season 5 Gear List: All 10 Items

Spoiler note: this covers how Nicole Apelian's run ended in Alone Season 5.

Nicole Apelian returned for Alone Season 5 already a known quantity to the show's audience. The PhD ethnobotanist, author, and multiple sclerosis advocate from Raymond, Washington had finished 4th on Season 2 with a 57-day run. Her second attempt, at 47 years old in Mongolia's Khonin Nuga valley, ended far earlier: 9 days, after a multiple sclerosis attack led to a medical evacuation, placing her 8th out of 10. Her contestant page has more on her background.

The full list

Item	What she brought	Brand/model
Knife	Reported elsewhere as a Ron Macy kukri	Unconfirmed in this site's sourced record
Saw	Cutting tool	Not recorded
Sleeping bag	Sleep system	Not recorded
Ferro rod	Fire starter	Not recorded
Multitool	Reported elsewhere as a Leatherman Charge TTi	Unconfirmed in this site's sourced record
Pot	Cooking	Not recorded
Fishing kit	Line and hooks	Not recorded
Gill net	Passive fishing	Not recorded
Trapping wire	Snares	Not recorded
Rations	Food ration	Not recorded

Two items on this list carry a caveat worth stating plainly rather than smoothing over: the knife and multitool are both noted in the sourced record only as "reported elsewhere," meaning this site's own research pass could not independently confirm the Ron Macy kukri or Leatherman Charge TTi attributions that appear in other reporting on her kit. Everything else on the list has no recorded brand at all.

A kit built for a longer game than she got to play

Apelian's Season 5 list leans toward sustained, low-intensity food gathering rather than active hunting. She carried no bow this season, relying instead on a gill net, a fishing kit, and trapping wire, three separate passive methods for putting protein in camp over time without expending much energy chasing it. That's a sensible strategy for someone managing a chronic condition through a long-form endurance format; it also never had the chance to prove itself, because a medical event unrelated to any specific gear choice ended her run before the passive methods could accumulate results.

Her return to the show at all, after already finishing 4th once, says something about how contestants treat this format: a strong first run (57 days, 4th place on Season 2) was apparently not a deterrent to trying again, even knowing the risks a second time around.

Three passive food sources, one medical exit

It's worth dwelling on just how much of Apelian's ten items were dedicated to feeding herself without constant active effort. A gill net works around the clock once it's set. Trapping wire does the same for small game. A fishing kit adds a third method on top of both. Combined with a pot for cooking whatever came in and a ferro rod for fire, it reads as a kit designed by someone who understood exactly how much of a long Alone run is about energy conservation, not dramatic hunts. None of that mattered against a multiple sclerosis attack, which is a health event the show's medical evacuation protocol exists specifically to catch early.

Where she ranked

Apelian's 9 days and 8th-place finish in Season 5 put her well behind runner-up Britt Ahart (56 days, 2nd) and ahead only of the two contestants who lasted a shorter time that season. Sam Larson won the season outright at 60 days. Full details on how the rest of the Season 5 field placed are in the Season 5 guide, and every season's winner is listed on the winners page.