Trapping Wire on Alone: Small Game, Big Seasons

Snare wire looks like a small-game afterthought next to an axe or a saw, but the numbers say it's one of the most season-dependent picks on the whole ten-item list. Across every US, Australian, and spinoff season with a recorded gear list, 43 of 101 contestants carried it, a 42.6 percent overall rate. That average hides the real story, which is that entire seasons swing between everyone bringing it and nobody bringing it at all.

The seasons where it's all or nothing

Three fully recorded US seasons sit at 10 of 10: season 10, season 11, and the still-airing season 13 ("Alone: World Championship," no winner declared yet as of this data pull). Every single contestant with a documented gear list in those three seasons packed snare wire. Season 3 sits at the opposite extreme: all 10 contestants recorded, and not one of them, including winner Zachary Fowler, carried any.

Two more fully recorded seasons land in between in an odd way. Season 1 and season 9 each have all 10 gear lists documented, and in both, exactly one contestant carried snare wire, the eventual winner. Alan Kay was the only snare-wire carrier in season 1's full cast, and Juan Pablo Quiñonez was the only one in season 9's. In those two seasons, trapping wire wasn't a common pick so much as a winning one.

Season	Recorded gear lists	Carried snare wire	Note
US 1	10 of 10	1	Winner Alan Kay was the only carrier
US 3	10 of 10	0	Winner Zachary Fowler skipped it too
US 9	10 of 10	1	Winner Juan Pablo Quiñonez was the only carrier
US 10	10 of 10	10	Every contestant, including the winner
US 11	10 of 10	10	Every contestant, including William Larkham Jr.
US 13	10 of 10	10	Every contestant so far; season still airing

Winners who won without it

Of the 16 winners across every show and spinoff with a documented gear list, 13 carried snare wire. The three exceptions are David McIntyre in season 2, Zachary Fowler in season 3, and Nathan Olsen in season 12. All three still won without it, which argues against treating snare wire as a mandatory strategy piece even in seasons where most of the field brings it. Fishing gear, a bow, or a gill net can cover the same small-protein need depending on what a location's terrain and prey base actually offer.

What the documented rules say

The gear catalog notes that trapping wire's weight allocation isn't fixed across the show's run: Season 1 sources document a 3.5-pound roll, while a later-season compilation cites 2 pounds instead, with the note that the exact allocation "appears to vary by season." That alone could explain some of the swing between seasons 10 and 11's universal carry and season 3's zero, if a lighter allocation in some years made the wire less worth a full item slot relative to what else a contestant could pack instead. It doesn't explain seasons 1 and 9, though, where the wire was available to everyone and only the winner chose it.

The trapping and snare wire gear page has more on how contestants have used it to target rabbits, squirrels, and other small game, and the official rules breakdown covers the rest of the ten-item list and what governs it.